4594 - Long joke Sunday

An engineer, who having worked for several years, decided that he and his family should have a weekend getaway place.

He searched the surrounding country and found a lovely spot with frontage on a small river. They built a cabin and began spending time there every chance they got. The kids loved it, and friends came for the quiet and fishing.

The engineer, however, wanted something unique for his cabin. He had been an award-winning pole vaulter in college. He built a set of poles with a crosspiece, and a mulched run. He bought a new carbon fiber vaulting pole, new shoes, and was set.

He would set off down the run, plant his pole, soar over the crosspiece, and land in the river with a satisfying splash. What a great way to spend a hot afternoon.

He enjoyed his cabin for years and went out early in the spring one year. It had been a very wet winter, lots of rain afterward. When the family arrived, the river was up and flowing at a good clip, with twice the usual current flowing.

The engineer was determined to enjoy a few vaults into the water, although his wife didn't think it was safe. But he was a good swimmer and proceeded to have a go at it.

His run and jump were flawless, he hit the water in good form, but upon surfacing, he was swept downstream and disappeared. His body was found later that day, tangled in streamside debris.

The drowned engineer was a civil engineer. Had he consulted one of his electrical engineer friends he would have been warned that, "It's not vaultage that kills you, it's the current!"