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Another Lake Night
Man, I got hammered last night.
Emotionally, I feel great. That was awesome! Physically, I feel like someone ripped off the my entire back muscular shoulder-and-neck assembly, gave it a quick inspection, and jammed it back on roughly where they'd found it. I don't even WANT to inspect the lumbar region yet.
But it was an awesome night. :D
We took the boat out again. Joe was kind enough to agree to come, and he takes to water like a cat. Beautiful night. The water was so wonderful. I jumped in, went down, came up, and just sighed. It felt sooo good. Water is my home.
Went tubing. Awesome ride - one of our tubes, I think, is going to need to be retired soon. Joe got flipped twice, my little sister went out once. I technically stayed on for all of one insane ride with my sister riding next to me. "No, no, my father is a kind man, who would never delight in the torment of his offspring." :D He knows we love it - there's this awesome feeling when you're almost recovered from the last pounding or hard turn, and you see him turn towards something new to put you through. You're not sure if you can do it, you know it's going to hurt when you're done, but it's a new challenge, and you leap to embrace it.
Unfortunately, after he was done with us, he didn't come to the gradual stop we're used to. A rather abrupt one - my line snagged in the water oddly, my tube nosedived, and since I was no longer leaning back to compensate, I flipped while my momentum was still catching up with me. Sigh. I was doing so well, too!
We took a break for awhile. Dad jumped off the side of the boat, I slithered out of my life vest and left it on the tube, little happy spaz wriggled off the tube and did her funny little gopher-paddle towards the boat. Joe elected not to participate, and stayed in the boat. I splashed him. Felt so, so good to be free in the water. I'm not exactly a great swimmer, but I love being in the water. It's home.
Went skiing. We've got two pairs of skis - the older pair's more for beginners. Very easy to get up on, and I'd practice dropping a ski with those. I'm working to get more proficient with dropping a ski with the other pair - several clean drops last night, and no wipeouts 'til the last event.
I remembered why I loved waterskiing so much. It's been a few weeks since I've been out on the lake, because most nights when Dad's going boating, I'm working or something. But you're flying fast, the shoreline is pretty, the lake is gorgeous, the sun is setting. And you feel more alive, somehow. Spray being kicked up in your face, the power in your legs, arms, back to keep you there, you're skating back and forth across the wake, wind's whipping your hair, and you simply feel so alive. No matter how many times I try to describe it, something's still missing from my words. It's amazing.
The kid's highlight is kneeboarding. Used to be that each of the three of us had our own personal sport - waterskiing, tubing, kneeboarding. Somewhere in there, my wild sister decided that she didn't like getting pounded and flipped and soaked so much, and started spending more time in the boat. Not a development I took well or understood - like a good and proper older sister, I started mocking her about it every time. No change. Sigh. She doesn't really come with us as much anymore. So, I love the skiing, we all love the tubing, and the kid does the kneeboarding.
Not a sport I fully understand, but I'm working on it, as she's working on skiing.
Our church does something called Watersports Ministry - one or two Wednesdays a month, the high school and middle school groups come out to the lake at one person's lake home. A few drivers bring their boats (my Dad's usually one of them), and people play in the water, do wakeboarding, skiing, whatever. Some volleyball, trampoline fun out back (or really, front - the lake is out back), food, fire - good time, awesome friends. I seem to recall Matt Love kicking my butt on all of these excursions. I'm usually the one in the water when we're teaching someone new to ski.
Last time, there were three guys who were awesome with kneeboarding and wakeboarding. My younger sister, it seems, studied what they did, and is determined to learn it. Our kneeboard, sadly, is not particularly high-performance. Right now, she's working on a 180 - she's technically got a turnaround thing going (which is impressive, considering what she has to work with), but it lacks fluidity. She has a blast out there, though.
I took a turn or two, generally had fun. I had one wipeout, but nothing too bad. Interesting part about wipeouts - you're having a blast, using most of your body hard to stay up on the tube, or play where you want to with the kneeboard or skis, and it's awesome. And if you let go and let yourself fall, you're just a little tired. But you wipeout, and suddenly, you're exhausted.
All the more reason to go again.
The big one of the night was when the munchkin and I were going in tandem. Her idea. We've done two skiers before, me and Reed, but she wanted to do the kneeboard. Sure, no problem - we know both of us have good control over our particular sport. Jump in, I track down the skis, boat gets blown upstream a bit and I have to chase the towbar, two jetskiers shoot past us while we're organizing, all in a day's fun.
Got up together - slightly different speeds are required for kneeboarding and waterskiing, but Dad made it work. Skated through the waterski arena, flew up the lake. The kid and I were having a bit of communication about what we wanted to do, Joe's watching unconcernedly (standard for Joe) from the bow, Dad's having fun letting us have fun.
What happened was not entirely the kid's fault. However, there's a pretty clear rule of tandem waterplay that declares that you stay on your side of the wake. I was playing outside the wake on the far right, and the kid was playing inside the wake. I didn't want to drop a ski while I was in the wake, but I figured it'd be fine if I went out to do it (I was on the right, and I always drop the left ski). Success - first time I've dropped outside the wake, too. :) She could have the whole wake to herself as long as I was outside it, for all I cared, but she went back to her side, and I came back inside.
Playing a bit - the wake is wide when we're going kneeboard-speed - then she shot back over towards me. I don't know why - I'm going to guess she was just clowning and wanted to bump me like we do when we're tubing. But, in an effort to avoid hitting her, I hurriedly scooted back out of the wake without really planning it.
And I'm not entirely certain what happened then, so Joe described it for me later. I caught the nose of my ski somehow - that's not really supposed to happen, as they're raised, but I did, and it pulled me under. Joe said it was fortunate that I'd let go of the bar then, I blinked a moment at that. I don't even think about it now, but it's an instant reflex - something goes wrong, you let go so that you don't get dragged while you're down. You can get back up again later - you may not be able to repair damage later. But, single ski somehow pulled me under, and that's the second-and-a-half that I'd missed of the episode.
I got folded back by the conflicting momentums - the water and myself. I kind of jacknifed backwards as I shot underwater. Pain made the whole world flash white for an instant, and the water around me turned blue. That was probably the part that scared me most. Green waters are the waters of home, clear brown the creek and my grandparents, gray the ocean on the northeast coast. These are the waters I know. But blue was wrong, and this really felt wrong. And for once, I went down, and I couldn't figure out which way was up. I couldn't have been more than four feet down, I don't think, but it was more than somewhat frightening to realize that I wasn't moving. I felt like I was sinking into the colder part of the lake (rather ridiculous - I was still wearing my life vest), and I couldn't move. Just terrified - and in a lot of pain.
Clawed my way to the surface, burst free and I heard my cry echo off the hills. My pride normally doesn't permit that sort of thing. Pride could wait - I had greater bruises to nurse. I just lay in the water, somewhat glad that at least my Dad would know something was definitely wrong. Argh - ski. Where did the ski go? Oh.
Aching, limping swim over to it. Probably should have just let Dad pick it up, but it's ingrained in me that you find it and stay with it until you're picked up. And for some reason, gave a thumbs-up "I'm ok," to the boat. I was actually sobbing from the pain, just wrapped around the single ski. I think Dad and Joe picked up the other one on their way back...I'm not sure. I was trying to describe what happened to Dad before I got in the boat, still crying. I've seen my sister do this, too - it's a delay and a time-filler so that you can get yourself together. Joe's rather protective of me, and I didn't want to worry him.
Perversely, I do like to tease him by worrying him when nothing's wrong. When something does happen, I want him to know I'm okay.
Fell into my seat in the boat, just staring at the engine cowling, trying to figure out what happened. Watched the kid go through another run on the kneeboard, trying to dissipate the irrational flash of anger I'd had at her. It'd been my response to blame her as soon as I came up and could think about something besides pain again, but that wasn't fair.
Got to drive for a little while. The kid was tired out, Joe didn't care to go back in the water, and I wasn't going to be up for another wipeout for a long time. I like driving the boat - Dad's still teaching me, but it's such a great feeling. Not quite as great as waterskiing, but close.
Packed up, put everything away. Checked my phone to see if Tony was home yet. I think Joe and I fell asleep on the way home, listening to Tom Lehrer.
There's a conflict in me. I can't really get my mind around the idea that my friend is leaving. Nobody knows me the way he does, and I'm the only one who sees him this way. We're both wondering if the other's going to find a replacement, but I know there's no replacement for my brother-friend out there. It's going to be kind of rough going through life-changes that I can't talk with him about, but we'll make it work.
Took a complete pounding, had a blast. And I'm glad we got to go to the lake together again before he leaves. :)
Emotionally, I feel great. That was awesome! Physically, I feel like someone ripped off the my entire back muscular shoulder-and-neck assembly, gave it a quick inspection, and jammed it back on roughly where they'd found it. I don't even WANT to inspect the lumbar region yet.
But it was an awesome night. :D
We took the boat out again. Joe was kind enough to agree to come, and he takes to water like a cat. Beautiful night. The water was so wonderful. I jumped in, went down, came up, and just sighed. It felt sooo good. Water is my home.
Went tubing. Awesome ride - one of our tubes, I think, is going to need to be retired soon. Joe got flipped twice, my little sister went out once. I technically stayed on for all of one insane ride with my sister riding next to me. "No, no, my father is a kind man, who would never delight in the torment of his offspring." :D He knows we love it - there's this awesome feeling when you're almost recovered from the last pounding or hard turn, and you see him turn towards something new to put you through. You're not sure if you can do it, you know it's going to hurt when you're done, but it's a new challenge, and you leap to embrace it.
Unfortunately, after he was done with us, he didn't come to the gradual stop we're used to. A rather abrupt one - my line snagged in the water oddly, my tube nosedived, and since I was no longer leaning back to compensate, I flipped while my momentum was still catching up with me. Sigh. I was doing so well, too!
We took a break for awhile. Dad jumped off the side of the boat, I slithered out of my life vest and left it on the tube, little happy spaz wriggled off the tube and did her funny little gopher-paddle towards the boat. Joe elected not to participate, and stayed in the boat. I splashed him. Felt so, so good to be free in the water. I'm not exactly a great swimmer, but I love being in the water. It's home.
Went skiing. We've got two pairs of skis - the older pair's more for beginners. Very easy to get up on, and I'd practice dropping a ski with those. I'm working to get more proficient with dropping a ski with the other pair - several clean drops last night, and no wipeouts 'til the last event.
I remembered why I loved waterskiing so much. It's been a few weeks since I've been out on the lake, because most nights when Dad's going boating, I'm working or something. But you're flying fast, the shoreline is pretty, the lake is gorgeous, the sun is setting. And you feel more alive, somehow. Spray being kicked up in your face, the power in your legs, arms, back to keep you there, you're skating back and forth across the wake, wind's whipping your hair, and you simply feel so alive. No matter how many times I try to describe it, something's still missing from my words. It's amazing.
The kid's highlight is kneeboarding. Used to be that each of the three of us had our own personal sport - waterskiing, tubing, kneeboarding. Somewhere in there, my wild sister decided that she didn't like getting pounded and flipped and soaked so much, and started spending more time in the boat. Not a development I took well or understood - like a good and proper older sister, I started mocking her about it every time. No change. Sigh. She doesn't really come with us as much anymore. So, I love the skiing, we all love the tubing, and the kid does the kneeboarding.
Not a sport I fully understand, but I'm working on it, as she's working on skiing.
Our church does something called Watersports Ministry - one or two Wednesdays a month, the high school and middle school groups come out to the lake at one person's lake home. A few drivers bring their boats (my Dad's usually one of them), and people play in the water, do wakeboarding, skiing, whatever. Some volleyball, trampoline fun out back (or really, front - the lake is out back), food, fire - good time, awesome friends. I seem to recall Matt Love kicking my butt on all of these excursions. I'm usually the one in the water when we're teaching someone new to ski.
Last time, there were three guys who were awesome with kneeboarding and wakeboarding. My younger sister, it seems, studied what they did, and is determined to learn it. Our kneeboard, sadly, is not particularly high-performance. Right now, she's working on a 180 - she's technically got a turnaround thing going (which is impressive, considering what she has to work with), but it lacks fluidity. She has a blast out there, though.
I took a turn or two, generally had fun. I had one wipeout, but nothing too bad. Interesting part about wipeouts - you're having a blast, using most of your body hard to stay up on the tube, or play where you want to with the kneeboard or skis, and it's awesome. And if you let go and let yourself fall, you're just a little tired. But you wipeout, and suddenly, you're exhausted.
All the more reason to go again.
The big one of the night was when the munchkin and I were going in tandem. Her idea. We've done two skiers before, me and Reed, but she wanted to do the kneeboard. Sure, no problem - we know both of us have good control over our particular sport. Jump in, I track down the skis, boat gets blown upstream a bit and I have to chase the towbar, two jetskiers shoot past us while we're organizing, all in a day's fun.
Got up together - slightly different speeds are required for kneeboarding and waterskiing, but Dad made it work. Skated through the waterski arena, flew up the lake. The kid and I were having a bit of communication about what we wanted to do, Joe's watching unconcernedly (standard for Joe) from the bow, Dad's having fun letting us have fun.
What happened was not entirely the kid's fault. However, there's a pretty clear rule of tandem waterplay that declares that you stay on your side of the wake. I was playing outside the wake on the far right, and the kid was playing inside the wake. I didn't want to drop a ski while I was in the wake, but I figured it'd be fine if I went out to do it (I was on the right, and I always drop the left ski). Success - first time I've dropped outside the wake, too. :) She could have the whole wake to herself as long as I was outside it, for all I cared, but she went back to her side, and I came back inside.
Playing a bit - the wake is wide when we're going kneeboard-speed - then she shot back over towards me. I don't know why - I'm going to guess she was just clowning and wanted to bump me like we do when we're tubing. But, in an effort to avoid hitting her, I hurriedly scooted back out of the wake without really planning it.
And I'm not entirely certain what happened then, so Joe described it for me later. I caught the nose of my ski somehow - that's not really supposed to happen, as they're raised, but I did, and it pulled me under. Joe said it was fortunate that I'd let go of the bar then, I blinked a moment at that. I don't even think about it now, but it's an instant reflex - something goes wrong, you let go so that you don't get dragged while you're down. You can get back up again later - you may not be able to repair damage later. But, single ski somehow pulled me under, and that's the second-and-a-half that I'd missed of the episode.
I got folded back by the conflicting momentums - the water and myself. I kind of jacknifed backwards as I shot underwater. Pain made the whole world flash white for an instant, and the water around me turned blue. That was probably the part that scared me most. Green waters are the waters of home, clear brown the creek and my grandparents, gray the ocean on the northeast coast. These are the waters I know. But blue was wrong, and this really felt wrong. And for once, I went down, and I couldn't figure out which way was up. I couldn't have been more than four feet down, I don't think, but it was more than somewhat frightening to realize that I wasn't moving. I felt like I was sinking into the colder part of the lake (rather ridiculous - I was still wearing my life vest), and I couldn't move. Just terrified - and in a lot of pain.
Clawed my way to the surface, burst free and I heard my cry echo off the hills. My pride normally doesn't permit that sort of thing. Pride could wait - I had greater bruises to nurse. I just lay in the water, somewhat glad that at least my Dad would know something was definitely wrong. Argh - ski. Where did the ski go? Oh.
Aching, limping swim over to it. Probably should have just let Dad pick it up, but it's ingrained in me that you find it and stay with it until you're picked up. And for some reason, gave a thumbs-up "I'm ok," to the boat. I was actually sobbing from the pain, just wrapped around the single ski. I think Dad and Joe picked up the other one on their way back...I'm not sure. I was trying to describe what happened to Dad before I got in the boat, still crying. I've seen my sister do this, too - it's a delay and a time-filler so that you can get yourself together. Joe's rather protective of me, and I didn't want to worry him.
Perversely, I do like to tease him by worrying him when nothing's wrong. When something does happen, I want him to know I'm okay.
Fell into my seat in the boat, just staring at the engine cowling, trying to figure out what happened. Watched the kid go through another run on the kneeboard, trying to dissipate the irrational flash of anger I'd had at her. It'd been my response to blame her as soon as I came up and could think about something besides pain again, but that wasn't fair.
Got to drive for a little while. The kid was tired out, Joe didn't care to go back in the water, and I wasn't going to be up for another wipeout for a long time. I like driving the boat - Dad's still teaching me, but it's such a great feeling. Not quite as great as waterskiing, but close.
Packed up, put everything away. Checked my phone to see if Tony was home yet. I think Joe and I fell asleep on the way home, listening to Tom Lehrer.
There's a conflict in me. I can't really get my mind around the idea that my friend is leaving. Nobody knows me the way he does, and I'm the only one who sees him this way. We're both wondering if the other's going to find a replacement, but I know there's no replacement for my brother-friend out there. It's going to be kind of rough going through life-changes that I can't talk with him about, but we'll make it work.
Took a complete pounding, had a blast. And I'm glad we got to go to the lake together again before he leaves. :)
First Lake Night
Let the world know:
Tony is an awesome waterskier.
First time we've been out on the lake this year. Got a couple of good wipeouts in, got some fun tubing in, made some cool fun-ness on the skis.
Went tubing with Tony - definitely fun. Tony went skiing, and completely owned me. I am partly jealous - I wish I was that good - but mostly it's just so fun to be watching him. This is often the case with Tony - he's good at so many things, and you start to envy him, but then you realize how much he's enjoying what he does, he's not doing it to rub it in your face, and you genuinely enjoy watching him.
And that's probably the best that the boat's performed in years. It's twenty-one this year. I should see if I could find its exact date of manufacture and how close it is to Tony's, just for amusement. The lake was quiet tonight - for some reason, people clear off after six-thirty or so. I have no idea why - that's when the wind dies down and the waters begin to still, but I'm not complaining. It's nice only having about six boats on the lake.
The kid seems to have outgrown her very nervous stage of tubing - and I seem to have begun to acquire it. In years past, I'm always the one who wanted to go faster. "Push the envelope" as my dad puts it. My little sister's favorite move is thumbs down - slower. You can only get so slow before the tube starts to bog down a bit - you really want it planing.
Apparently I got double the ride anyway - my first ride, before we met up with Tony, ended in a side-frontal wipeout. And, I'm not sure how I did this (we're guessing I caught the rope - it's hard to tell exactly what happens in a wipeout), but I ripped off a chunk of skin next to my left index nail. Didn't stop me from further lake activities, which was all that concerned me.
And even when he's just climbed out of the lake, Tony STILL smells good. What is this?? :D
Tony is an awesome waterskier.
First time we've been out on the lake this year. Got a couple of good wipeouts in, got some fun tubing in, made some cool fun-ness on the skis.
Went tubing with Tony - definitely fun. Tony went skiing, and completely owned me. I am partly jealous - I wish I was that good - but mostly it's just so fun to be watching him. This is often the case with Tony - he's good at so many things, and you start to envy him, but then you realize how much he's enjoying what he does, he's not doing it to rub it in your face, and you genuinely enjoy watching him.
And that's probably the best that the boat's performed in years. It's twenty-one this year. I should see if I could find its exact date of manufacture and how close it is to Tony's, just for amusement. The lake was quiet tonight - for some reason, people clear off after six-thirty or so. I have no idea why - that's when the wind dies down and the waters begin to still, but I'm not complaining. It's nice only having about six boats on the lake.
The kid seems to have outgrown her very nervous stage of tubing - and I seem to have begun to acquire it. In years past, I'm always the one who wanted to go faster. "Push the envelope" as my dad puts it. My little sister's favorite move is thumbs down - slower. You can only get so slow before the tube starts to bog down a bit - you really want it planing.
Apparently I got double the ride anyway - my first ride, before we met up with Tony, ended in a side-frontal wipeout. And, I'm not sure how I did this (we're guessing I caught the rope - it's hard to tell exactly what happens in a wipeout), but I ripped off a chunk of skin next to my left index nail. Didn't stop me from further lake activities, which was all that concerned me.
And even when he's just climbed out of the lake, Tony STILL smells good. What is this?? :D
Its Too Hot
It was 105 degrees here yesterday so I was forced to spend the afternoon tubing on the river. It was wonderful to slip down into the cool water and get a break from the blistering sun.
(no subject)
Last night was pretty cool.. met a few people at the complex.. i haven't been there in years!! So yeah, just chilled a bit there then had a hot tub, then went out for coffee. I'm really appreciating the warm weather.. after having been in the hot tub we got dressed and all and went outside, and the weather was perfect. So refreshing :) I didn't discuss this, but it made me so happy. Anyway.......
I feel so bad, i guess it's because i got home so late and took my pills even later, but i definitely slept in until about 2:30! eek i don't blame my mom for being frustrated. I actually admire her for all she can take from me. It stresses her out so much, yet she keeps control of her temper (which i couldn't even really call a temper, because it's perfectly rational for her to be angry) but ya, i love my mommy :P
So, tomorrow i'm going to tubing with the youth group that i haven't seen in weeks. People have been asking if i'm still alive. lol yeah, i've just been out of town alot and busy on the weekends. But ya, pumped for tomorrow.
Anyway, i should be going, helping my mom out with whatever she's doing in order to say "sorry"
Ohhh yeah i totally forgot about those poems... well they're yet to come ;)
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