Summer is the Season of Escape, Sneaking Past the Lifeguards and Messing Around in Boats

 

“Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.”
― Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

After a long, hard winter, I really looked forward to summer, now that summer's here I know winter will come before I know it.

If you've been reading and following this blog you know why I hate winter.  Now it's time for you to find out why I like summer. Many years ago Nat King Cole summed it up quite nicely in this song: (Check out the big guy in that beach chair and the skinny dippers!)


During the summer of 2012,  my husband and I visited friends and family in Seaside Heights, New Jersey for several days.

The ocean was so turbulent that the lifeguards wouldn't let anyone in the water past their knees, and all I heard the entire day was the blast of their whistles. The rip current risk was high that day, and they weren't taking any chances.

My husband, a friend, and I decided to hang out on the beach after hours, and jumped into the surf barely five minutes after the lifeguards went off duty. We found out first hand how powerful the ocean was.. Fortunately, we returned to shore safely, after a few scary moments with strong currents threatening to take us out to sea.

The next day I overheard a lifeguard say "I had to perform a rescue at 8:30 this morning."

Hurricane Sandy destroyed the Jersey Shore three months later, and the ocean claimed the roller coaster. The resort has been rebuilt, but the ocean can reclaim it again.

Usually the ocean off the coast of New England is much too cold for swimming until August, when this picture was taken last year.  Unfortunately, the beaches close in early September because the lifeguards go back to school. It's too bad they don't get a few local people to work the beaches until mid September because that is when the water is warmest.  After what happened at Seaside Heights, I'm not tempting fate again, now that I know how the ocean can lay waste to boardwalks and roller coasters.

  T

What I like best about summer are the long, hot days, the balmy breezes, and going outside without being encumbered by heavy clothing. As much as I like the beach, we don't get their often because it's a bit of a drive and gas is expensive. So we go kayaking on the Connecticut River instead.



My husband and I try to get on the river a few times a year.  Last year we didn't go at all because there were tropical rain storms nearly every day in July, and dangerous high water. He likes to watch the birds and the wildlife, I like the exercise, the scenery, and that  I can cool off if it gets too hot.

We both hate it when people leave trash like red (why red?) Solo cups, empty beer bottles and trash for others to clean up.  We like it when we find unopened beer bottles underwater that people have forgotten.  If they haven't been opened they are drinkable. Free beer is always good :)

Taking a small boat on a large river is a mystical experience.  Foggy mornings are the best.  Although there is a bit of a chill from the fog and the water before the sun burns it off, everything is shrouded in a cloud of mystery.   A couple of years ago we paddled on a foggy morning and watched an artist on his boat, deeply engrossed in painting.  I am, however, hesitant about taking electronics (like a tablet for writing) on a kayak, although the cell phones are protected in the dry bag.  There is enough buoyancy in the dry bag that it will float, and we can retrieve our stuff provided the current isn't too fast.

There is also the challenge of wind and current.  The worst is when you're paddling upstream when the wind is against you, but then it's good for muscles on those arms.  Besides, you get a free ride later in the day when you're tired.

The best thing of all is the warm sun and the cool water. Being out on the river is a sensual experience that can excite all five senses.  (even taste).

Summer is the season of escape.  It is the "get out of jail free" card.  It is, most of all, an excuse to get outside.

This month's poem is about playing tag with the Atlantic Ocean. By the way, the ocean always wins.

A Game of Tag

I stand at

the edge of the

Atlantic Ocean

cold, wet sand

between my toes

while crashing waves

of freezing water

rush to shore

approaching me

as the tide comes in.

Do I really want to play

a game of tag

with the Atlantic?

She's a formidable opponent

whose weapons are the

icy water and the undertow.

I am no match against

something so powerful

so beautiful and

so vast that it meets land

somewhere in Spain,

but yet I am tempted

to join her in her

watery playground.

I could get hypothermia,

you know, or a rip current

could drag me away,

never to return.

In the meantime, a rogue wave

hits me with a numbing blast

of salt water,

knocks me down, pulls me in

and it's time to play...

Tag, you're it!

You can also check out my companion blog The Alien Diaries, if you like dance music from the Balkans. It's good summer reading, with lots of music.

Copyright © 2014 Katley Demetria Brown. Site Designed by Katley Demetria Brown. All Rights Reserved. Photos and A Game of Tag © Katley Demetria Brown (with the exception of the video Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer, song by Nat King Cole, 1963)