Questions
I left the house a little after 8:30. No sun to be seen today. It is 100% overcast.
One of my work team mates from India was asking me today if it was Summer where I am located. I had to explain our little micro climate conundrum. Any calendar will tell you it is indeed summer but step outside and questions soon arise. Well it’s monsoon season in India so pick your poison.
That all said, when I get to the beach it is super great. Yeah it’s cloudy and just barely what I would call warm…no not even that…but it’s just nice and peaceful and lovely.
I’m walking down the stairs in jr. lifeguard rush hour traffic. I’m guessing their day starts at 9. I hear a group of Jr. High aged girls behind me talking about the water and one is complaining about the waves being 5 gillion feet high and her friend disagrees and thinks they are super fun.
It’s medium tide right now. The water is smooth and glassy - quite a bit different from yesterday’s chop. The waves are small. I’d say they are well under 5 gillion feet today. They are breaking close to shore. They gently rise a very dark dark blue and then crumble like crystal.
I walk out into this gentle surf and let myself fall into the water and start to head west and then veer south and eventually swim parallel to the shore. The water starts chilly but feels good once I am in deeper.
I feel really good today even though all yesterday afternoon I could feel my fatigue from swimming through that wind swell. Based on my photo time stamps, yesterday’s swim took a good 10 to 15 minutes longer than today. Today I just feel myself gliding over the smooth water with no push or repel.
My thoughts drop away into the grey matter of the water and sky. Every now and then I feel this sort of thought vertigo as I get caught between now and then. I think of now and then I think of the now I just had and realize it is no longer now and then shift forward to a now that has not yet come and then realize that that now will never be a now because it was just an idea of what could be now but actually wasn’t.
As I get closer to jr. lifeguard central at the north end of the beach, I can hear all of these voices that sound like they are coming from further offshore but I see nothing. It’s like the sound of ghosts. I stop to look for something but see nothing.
The Green Monster buoy (which is blue by the way) comes into view and there is also a jet ski parked just inshore of me that seems to be waiting for something. When I arrive at the Green Monster, I finally barely make out a line of paddlers about a hundred feet out. This is the source of the voices. They are lying down on their boards which is why they are so difficult to see.
With that mystery solved, I make my way back to where I started.
And now it occurs to me it is NOT summer and any calendar that says otherwise should not be trusted. Summer starts on the 21st. It’s a week away. I can’t wait. Surely that will put an end to this gloom.
