The ol' coffee klatch

I've often wondered at how important this group of people is to me even when I don't know some of their names, their last names, what they do when they're not in the water, etc. When I visited the Wall almost every day, even if there was nothing to surf, I'd hang around and listen and chat and I found out little things about their lives while clutching a cup of coffee. I knew who was in the water by what cars were in the parking lot and I'd be happy to see the red truck and Honda hatchback or the Trooper and Toyota two-door or the blue truck (now Element) and VW van.

This weekend, the ol' coffee klatch was back on the wall. Some were missing, but most were there, waiting for the tide to come up. The waves were less than spectacular, but because of the long drought, once one person made the reluctant move to the wetsuit, everybody else followed. We didn't charge in all at once in one coordinated water-show, but in singles and pairs. But it seemed that in one moment, the ocean went from being empty to being full. It was nice to be with this family of familiar strangers again.

PS. Whistling tune Saturday: "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat" from Guys and Dolls.

No whistling tune on Sunday; we found out one of the girls used to be a wedding singer, so she entertained us with tunes from various nuptials as we waited through the lulls.

Rx: Surf before Work

Surfed *l **r*o (*s in homage to Whiff) this morning at the early morning harranguing of Mr. I'm Moving Back Maybe who took a long-cut from NorCal to Mammoth through L.A. I have to say, for all my grumbling, I really enjoyed my session. Nothing particularly stellar wave-wise, but it was nice to have surfed before work. I kinda forgot how good it feels to loll about in the ocean with some dolphins before trudging off to the factory.

I was referred to a great doctor recently and after five days on his regimen of anti-biotics, Prilosec, and nasal saline washes, I have been feeling much better. I don't have as many old man coughing jags in the middle of the day. I sleep through the entire night, and the congestion that came on when I was surfing disappeared onshore without the help of Sudafed. I actually have new hope that I might get back to my old "cavalier about my health" self.

PS. Whistling tune today: Second theme of Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer"

Note to self...

Take wetsuit and booties *out* of the car if it looks like no surf for two weeks. Whew! What a smell! No point in keeping them in there "just in case" tomorrow looks better.

PS. Use detergent next time you rinse out the suit and booties.

The Confluence of Lees

A near spontaneous gathering of family members happened on Saturday. My middle brother had planned on flying in this weekend from Houston this weekend for a wedding. My youngest brother informed me two weeks ago he'd be flying in from Boston for an interview at USC. Then this week my mother called from Phoenix to tell me my father had gone crazy. He'd missed out on purchasing a Buddha's Hand Citron Tree for his garden and he'd spent the week searching the web for a nursery that had one. He found one in San Diego, so they'd be driving down there and then spending the night with me before driving back to Phoenix this weekend. It was a Confluence of Lees.

After I drove my doctor brother to USC for his interview at 8am, I was able to get to the home break as a second shifter on Saturday. Saw Sister Surf and barely recognized her, it's been so long! My day started out slow in the water, because it seems I'm still chasing unicorns, but it was sunny and people were happy and chatty so I was fine for the first half hour. Then I started getting a little antsy with my inability to catch a higher percentage of the waves I was a paddling for, so I moved off a little from the pack and stewed in my own frustration... which was stewing in a sea of what looked like unstirred miso soup, by the way. The lull let me look around and I saw brown flurries of something floating in the water. (Mental note: bathe in peroxide when you get home.)

Eventually, the tide started dropping and I started getting a higher wave to paddle ratio. Wave after wave was totally fun, but I was too out of shape for the ocean to decide to get good during the second hour of my session. My best wave of the day was one where I went left for a while, was disappointed when I saw it start to close out ahead of me, but glanced back to see a a nice right shoulder behind me so I cranked Doc around and turned the left into a right!

PS. Whistling tune: "Promenade" theme from Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition"

Chasing unicorns...

...Mythical beasts. Lots of paddling for waves that weren't there. It was mostly me, though, cuz Grizzly Adams (aka Sensei J) and Handlebars had some fine waves with Guitar John. I had a couple snappy lefts, but mostly I was chasing unicorns.

PS. Whistling tune: "Kyrie Eleison" (Mr. Mister, not the Gregorian chant)