Did you learn something today?

Everyday we should learn something. Hopefully it includes improving oneself. We learn the most from our most intimate relationships. One needs to be open to this.

The good news: There are promises of surf for Christmas! The bad news: The water has dropped to 59 degrees.

Ways to get through it

Listening to El Ten Eleven's "My Only Swerving," was the perfect background for the reel that was playing through my mind this morning as I drove back home. I was on my way to feed the lion/poodle cat, after walking the dog at the B&B.

Colby arrived yesterday at Jacksonville airport, and I nearly didn't recognize him. I had looked up on the screen to see his flight was delayed, and was mesmerized in a gift store, watching CNN, transfixed by the wafts of breath floating out of the weather girl's mouth as she reported on airport closures, canceled flights, and so many people stranded. Colby's flight was only delayed 13 minutes. How lucky were we?

I decided to chill, instead of hanging around the entry zone. I was trying to curb my enthusiasm, so to speak, as if that could ever happen. My phone rang just then. He was here! I walked out of the gift store, and I looked in and among the hoards of travelers. He had already passed the point where I was, so it was easier to spot the guy walking against the flow of the crowd. I hardly recognized him, tall and gangly, wearing his new glasses because drying out contacts were abandoned for the flight.

There he was, a San Francisco hipster, so handsome in his Elvis Costello glasses, sideburns, and confident smile that was directed solely at me. Dizzy from flying all night, I could see we needed to get the boy back to the B&B. My number one Christmas wish had been granted. My boy was back home.

Let the fun begin!

More to come...

Let the holidays begin!

This shot made me think, are you TRYING or are you FLYING? Just a study of two very different styles...

Okay, let the injustices begin! I am off for HALF A MONTH!

Injustice #1: I woke up throughout the night to the sounds of howling winds like I heard at night in NEW ZEALAND. Last night the seas were ten feet, with promises of morning offshores... but gale force offshoress???

JUSTICE! I am being paid to house sit/dog sit until New Year's Eve at a grand old Victorian mansion downtown. There are so many rooms, I have a choice of sleeping in many different ones, but last night I chose poorly. Injustice #2: At midnight, the smoke detector went off right over my head. What is the capacity of the human heart rate? I was wondering that at that moment. Also, I was wondering how I could get up to it in a house with fourteen foot high ceilings. I had no idea where a ladder was. There were no chairs high enough that I could stand on. So, I lay there thinking; What to do? Surely it will go off the minute I fall asleep again. Bingo! Two heart attacks in one night can not be healthy for someone of my advanced years. Next thought: Get out of that room and into another. I closed the door behind me, and picked another room.

Did I mention that Beau, the red-nosed coon hound that I am baby sitting (who I love love love), woke me up about every hour to come check on me and make sure I heard him whining for his missing family? Why am I so dizzy this morning? That was injustice #3.

So, the wind was howling. Of course! It is the eve of my long winter break! The wind was so strong last night that objects were being tossed around outside on the porches, big things from the sounds of it. God only knows what I will find when I go outside.

So, when Bob called about 7am (Injustice #4), and proceeded to rake me over the coals for not having checked the surf yet... well, I wanted to SCREAM! Here is what he had to say. "I can't believe that YOU AND ANDY haven't checked it yet! Brian is at HOME DEPOT! The only window was EARLY, you guys. What is going on???"

As I picked up Beau's steaming poop in a plastic bag (I have to walk him, first thing, you see), I calmly told Bob why I was not on the beach at 5am this morning. I walked along the alley in the bitter cold wind that arrived last night and thought; Bob sure was lucky he was not within steaming poop bag tossing distance at this moment.

That was when Andy called and said the surf had been blown down to nothing (injustice #5).

More to come...

Surf Lessons in one easy step...

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Surprises...

Today was dentist day. Crown at 11am. This enabled me to swing some surf time. I left work at 9am. Andy waited until I could go, and also to let the tide drop. I got one group of kids done, and hit the door running. I raced out to Andy's ramp, and there we scored a fun, fun session. I wore my spring suit and was quite comfortable.

Of course, as soon as I got to the beach the wind stopped blowing offshore, and I nearly had a meltdown. Andy said, no, it's okay, it looks fun! So I booked it to his ramp, and there, to my surprise, it was oil glass, shoulder high peelers. Everywhere else hadn't looked nearly as good. Some of the bigger sets had us yelling our heads off. They were rolling and pitching in the sun.

It was such sweet torture only having one hour in which to savor it.

We each caught some fun ones, with only a couple other guys out. Andy filled me in on what I had missed yesterday while I worked. Seems like he was the only one that really had fun. Mark couldn't even get out his second go around. Bob hadn't sounded especially stoked, but he is always kind when he knows I have missed good waves. Now I will have time, once Friday is here. Christmas holiday begins then, and I am not working that bakery, no way! You know what that means, don't you? Flat spell on the way. Either that, or relentless onshore winds - or bitter cold. You watch...

Recipe for Slowing Time

Today I discovered a way to slow time. Here's all you do. Take something you really, really love, like surfing. Go for about fourteen days without really doing it. Throw in a couple days that resemble surfing, where you paddle out for about a half hour and only catch about two waves that resemble real waves. Watch movies of translucent aquamarine waves in tropical locations, waves that actually break the way waves are supposed to. Then, when your old boss calls, and asks you to cover someone's shift for the weekend, agree to do it, but only after you check the wave forecast to make sure you won't miss a good day. Then, when that day comes, arrange it so you can come in as close to noon as possible - to insure that you won't miss good surf.

The night before the day you have promised to work, the buoys read eleven feet at eight seconds. Drool with anticipation, and smile at your clever planning. Wake up the next morning, and find the beach is fogged in. You still have time, it's early. You wait. The beach stays fogged in. Two hours before you have to work, the fog lifts to reveal a disorganized mess. You think it's crap, so go into work early. The moment you step foot in the door at work, the wind goes dead offshore and the sun comes out. Spend the next six hours in misery, watching the flag point directly east. Those six hours magically become sixty! Just like that! That's all there is to slowing time.

Defying nature was never so easy.

Now comes the final touch. This is where time plays its own clever trick on you.

Leave work with one hour of daylight left. Drive to the beach as the sun is fading, and watch everyone leaving, exhausted from scoring surf the whole time you worked. Try, in vain, to find a sandbar that will work with the tide filling in. Realize it just isn't going to happen. Paddle out anyway. Catch two half-ass waves, and come in to find you have drifted half a mile down the beach. This is the part where time speeds up. Game over.