Surfing Irene

Irene the hurricane skipped right past us and did most of her work to North Carolina and the New England area. We were fortunate in that she passed us just close enough by to send us some good waves. Friday was the day, and it was hyped-up well in advance by our local surf forecasters, but I always knew the big day was not for me. What I wanted was the leftovers. Friday came and we were greeted with photos of amazing surfers on waves that looked photoshopped, not like Florida waves at all.
Saturday, my friend and I headed out early in the morning to a spot that was protected and more likely to offer something we could ride on our longboards. There were plenty of surfers in the water by 8am, but the waves didn't look all that daunting, at least until I paddled out during the middle of a set. I knew this wasn't a normal day, when on the way out, I had a perfect opportunity and chickened out at the last minute. After a bit, I figured them out and had a great morning of riding some waves that really had some juice to them for a change.
The best part is that the conditions were the kind that usually spell SKUNKED for me. sizeable waves and a hard off-shore wind that makes them difficult to catch until the last minute. It seems that the board I have been riding for the last year has turned into that board that fits me just right...too bad it took 40+ years to find it!

I Must Have Cut Him Off In Traffic

Ah, perception versus reality. You think you are generous, and others think you are a miser. You think think you are big and others think you are small. I wonder what they call it when your self-image is too far off? Or, could it just possibly be that the perception is miscued?
We took personality tests the other day, and from less than 5 minutes of my time, I was told that I was highly agressive, which probably has a large number of people at working rolling on the floor laughing, and this does not include the friends and family that will be howling as well. Self-image not-withstanding, I have been told for ages that I am more like a golden retriever personality than anything else. I'm "too" nice. I couldn't supervise because I'm "too" nice. I don't have the roughness needed to survive what management has to deal with every day.
BUT...perhaps, like the tin man, the only difference between me and the tough individual that defeats all enemies in his path, is a piece of paper saying that he is agressive. OZ has given me that paper and it has changed my life.
I was always thinking of a post-retirement job of selling hotdogs on a stand at the beach, but I am now considering the post of leader of the Golden-Age Hells Angels....hey I got references!

As Long As You Have Bait, You Have Friends

We had a bird join us while my son was throwing the net for bait yesterday. The funny thing was, the bird flew on board right after my son made his best catch so far. You'd have to believe that the bird was watching to see if there was going to be enough food to risk hanging around people. He hopped around our boat, just barely out of reach, looking for an opportunity to get into our baitwell. My wife tossed him a fish and he flew off with that, but returned moments later. I wanted to see what he thought of a pinfish (another kind of bait that we had) and he poked at it, looked up at me and flew off for good. I guess beggers CAN be choosers!

The Runner's Lesson

What struck me right off was the cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth while he spoke, like something from an old movie. He had that grizzled, just-got-up-from-a-bender look, and was having this animated conversation on his rather large cellphone. I see him every day, a portly guy in his 40's, walking his two dogs, leaning back into it with the new one that is on a leash. The other dog is some kind of sheepherder dog and always comes up to me in a friendly way to see if my dogs have left him some kind of dog-DNA secret message.
The two of us cross paths every day, me doing my morning jog, and him, I think, walking to 7-11 for a pack of cigarettes, or exercising the dogs. I begin to wonder if there is really somebody on the other end of that cellphone call, I mean, it's 6:30 in the morning and the guy is quite a character from what I can see.
There is a lot of comfort in seeing the same things every day and running the same place, but yesterday something happened. There is another jogger I see every day going in the opposite direction and yesterday I saw him turn off on a side street. You see, I run down the main highway, because I measured the distance in my car, and knew how far I could go in an hour, but suddenly it ocurred to me that I don't have to run the same place every day, just go for 30 minutes and then turn around.
Today I went down that side street and a new world opened up to me. Instead of a busy road full of cars, there were beautiful homes and little lakes and new people with their dogs. It was always there, why did it take me so long to find it?

Slowly Going Nowhere at Great Expense: #3

Although I'm not 100% sure of ever going on another cruise, I would say that there were some things I don't know how you would ever get to see otherwise. One of these is pulling into port of a beautiful island. The landscape view from the ship far surpassed most of what you get to see as a tourist dropped off at port for a few hours. Here is where a cabin with a balcony was so great. Sure you could go somewhere on the ship and see the same view, but there is something about getting up in the morning and looking out from your bed and seeing an island coming into view. That image is burned into my mind. Even just looking at the photo above reminds me of how peaceful that feeling was.

Slowly Going Nowhere at Great Expense: #2

Being that this was my first cruise ever, and that I had been told so many stories about what to expect, I was still a little surprised at some very simple things, like watching the sunset for an hour, or watching storms off in the distance. It was kind of like having a beach condo, except that the water was moving. Our cabin was much nicer than what I expected and even the bathroom was larger than I had been led to believe. This may have been why our trip cost so much, to get these luxuries, and for the next 7 nights I slept like a rock, no headaches, no nausea or anything. Actually I did better than I usually do on a trip. Pam thought it was because of no plant allergies to get used to.
The only problem on the trip was overeating...I was prepared for this, but I was not prepared for how good the food was to be. I didn't understand that every single meal was going to feel like a client with a large expense account just took you to the nicest place in town and told you to order whatever you want. I'm still running 5 miles a day in 100% humidity to make up for that indulgence.

Slowly Going Nowhere at Great Expense: #1

It was hard to imagine me going on a cruise, especially a 7 day cruise, but it happened just a few days ago.
I go to the beach almost once a week to go surfing and have look at these giant ships in the port each time. I never could see why so many people would pay so much money to sit around doing nothing and eating way too much food, but I think I have a better handle on it now. I had many of my friends tell me horror stories about getting seasick, about getting bored...or about getting wasted and spending too much money gambling. I was plenty nervous driving up to the ship a week ago Saturday. The money was gone, but there was the fear of huge add-ons to my bill, and the fear of being trapped and bored to tears on a boat full of people that wanted to do nothing all day for a week.
The first big surprise was how nice and efficient boarding was. It was how I wished an airport experience would be. Then we went to our cabin and found it to be about twice as large as I expected and with a really cool balcony. I was already getting into it and I hadn't seen the food yet...