Aaaahhhhh….
This felt soooooo good I was just about pinching myself the rest of the day!
I call myself kayak woman and there were many years when I just itched to get out there whenever I could. For a while back in the day, I would even sometimes heft the purple kayak up onto The Indefatigable, tie it down and head down to the river BY MYSELF! I am not all that confident a person but the GG was out of town and I *forced* myself to do it. Then I got a job and there’s that whole thing about having either money or time but never both at the same time. Follow that with all of the hullabaloo of the last couple years and I had almost *no* time to launch a kayak, even on the days that all I had to do was walk down to the beach and fling one into the water.
This summer rolled around and, although I still have a [loverly] full time job, I no longer have to spend every moment of spare time either helping The Commander (I hope she is resting in peace…) or cleaning out her house. I knew that I could actually fit a bit of kayaking into my life again. But somehow, I was scared shitless! I dunno why. I mean I wasn’t afraid of kayaking itself. It’s a pretty intuitive activity and although I am *strictly* an amateur, I am a decently strong paddler, at least in the calm waters I usually encounter. I know my limits and I have enough respect for water to stay within them. Still… Existential crisis? I think so although I cannot put it into words.
I took some tentative little rides down to the crib and back at the moominbeach this summer and I felt pretty good, like maybe it wasn’t all over for me. This morning, I dragged the GG outta bed and down to the Huron River earl-eye in the mornin’. We have a new ‘yak and I was itching to try it out. I was also very apprehensive but I tried not to let that show. We did one of our regular runs from the launching spot at the end of North Maple upriver to the bridge just past Wagner and back. It’s not the longest ride on earth but it’s a good, quick workout and longer than what I was doing at the beach.
Guess what? I had such a good time! I *loved* the trip and the new ‘yak and I have probably said, “That was a reaaaallly good thing to do this morning,” about a gazillion times today. (Fer kee-reist sake, somebody please hit me and make me shaddup! And hit me for calling it a ‘yak too ifya want to [grin]) I had a similar existential crisis with x-c skiing last winter. You’d think I’d learn…
The rest of the day? Morning was spent hanging around with Lizard Breath (who had spent the night), breakfast and laundry and walking to the Plum Market. Then we saddled up the Frog Hopper and schlepped over to megalopolis to greet the newest member of the C Fam, our nephew and niece’s second baby. Alas, we don’t make much of an effort to see *all* of the new C Fam babies but this child is the third grandchild of the GG’s identical twin. The GG loves babies in general but he has a special interest in seeing his brother’s grandchildren when they are new (although we certainly didn’t travel to Virginia to meet the second grandchild — if we could apparate there, we’d’ve been there but there’s no app for that, the last I looked).
Congratulations to C and K and big brother B on the beautiful new sister / daughter / grandchild they have added to the family.