Monday, August 11, 2014

I Hope I Swim

I'm waiting for the floor guy to show up. There was some buckling between rooms and I'm hoping this guy will know how to fix it. So far, I'm not impressed. He's an hour late. I got up, got ready, and am sitting here, trying not to look out the window for him. I'm worried that he'll mess things up even more. I should relax. I should ignore the fact that he's late.

And there's the canoe. We're supposed to go canoeing this afternoon at Rattlesnake Lake. Actually, Nick and his friend Adrian are going to paddle while Adrian's mom, sister, and I sit on the shore and wait for them. It should be beautiful at the lake today and I'm hoping to get a turn at paddling too.

The problem with the canoe is that I'm not sure I can get it out of the garage and onto the truck without hurting myself. Mike keeps saying that I should let Nick bear most of the weight, that I should just guide him out with it. It's a sixty pound canoe. It's been dropped more than once. I guess it'll be okay as long as Nick knows that it can handle being dropped if it starts to go down.

Never try to catch a falling canoe.

I just need to remember how nice it'll be this afternoon once we get to the lake, how relaxed I'll be when I look out over the water, when I smell that smell. There really is a smell that you only get when you're very close to natural water. It's subtle. Maybe it's the smell of algae. Or maybe water really does have a smell. I don't know.

This is the first day in weeks that I've wanted it to be sunny and warm. There's a cloud cover now, but it's supposed to burn off and get to about 80 degrees, just warm enough for that cold water.  Oh, I'll probably swim anyway. These days, I get into cold water inch by inch the way I saw the women do when I was a kid. I used to laugh at them and tell them to just jump in, that the shock of it would be over in a minute. I was right. I was. Yet, I inch into the water now that I'm old like those women we used to camp with.

I hope I get my floor fixed. I hope I get the canoe onto the truck. I hope I paddle it around the lake. I hope I swim.

Thank you for listening, jb




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