Fun With Kayaks

From almost the first moment we moved into our place here in Salamander Bay, Eric and I said "we should buy some kayaks". These kind of statements are so often more likely to be wishful thinking than to ever be put into any sort of motion that might actually turn those wishes into reality. And so it was for months and months.

Upon Eric's return from his last sojourn back to Seattle, all this changed. With our incredible sense of timing, we decided it was time to finally act on our wishful thinking. Our finely honed sense of timing might be just a hair off as we're heading into winter and that probably isn't exactly high season for kayaking.

Unfazed by this realization, I began stalking my prey on eBay. I found out it takes a lot of time and effort to catch a kayak. Eventually I bagged one, but they didn't deliver, so we had to drive to Sydney to get it. Once we got it home, we tried the kayak out briefly sticking very close to the beach as we hadn't procured a life jacket yet.

At work the next day I was discussing life jackets with a coworker and the Aussie on the other side of the cube popped up (also called prairie dogging in cubicle land) and gave me a very important tip. He said, "don't get yummy yellow - it's a favorite of sharks". I very briefly stared him down to ascertain the veracity of his claim and decided he was pulling my leg. Unfortunately, having seen the movie Jaws as a kid, there is a small part of me that believes him no matter the ludicrousness of the statement; it's the same small part that had a hard time even getting into a swimming pool after seeing the movie. It was really scary - no wait, really, really scary.

Anyway, what should I discover when I got home? Eric had gone out and purchased a nice yellow life jacket. Great! Now the thing will be forever a yummy yellow life jacket.

Since the kayak was a single, I had a job to do - bid and buy another one. I slaved away at eBay once again and was finally successful and got the second one at an even better price. We had to drive to a different place near Sydney to pick it up and discovered we got a bargain - he had never sold one for so low a price. We also found out that had we bought it during the summer it would have cost us twice as much. Wow, maybe our timing wasn't as bad as we thought.

Now we needed a second life jacket. I was determined to get a life jacket in any color other than yummy yellow this time. Of course, what did we find? The store only had yummy yellow life jackets! It's a shark conspiracy I'm tellin' ya!

It might be heading into winter, but it was in the 70s last weekend and beauteous out there. We took the kayaks out for a nice long trip. We went around the head to the next bay and then came back and headed in the other direction to the pier. We concluded our happy little trip with the unfortunate realization that kayaking can also make you feel a bit seasick when it's a bit wavy out there. Guess we'll be investing in some patches before our next foray.

Kayaking off our beach - cross that off the list and add it back in because that's one we'll definitely be doing again!

Everybody Rug Up

It has been a little hard to come up with stuff to talk about because most of life here is starting to seem pretty darn normal. Well, as normal as being in a constantly confused state could possibly be. I can't for the life of me get spring/fall and winter/summer straightened out. Without fail when I'm trying to refer to the July-August time-frame I'll say "this summer". I am at least now following that statement directly with "I mean winter", but I just cannot seem to make the mental switch.

The news this morning told everyone to "rug up" because it's unseasonably cold. That means put on your jumper (sweater) and coat. I have the worst time when people (especially men) talk about putting on their jumpers. Unbidden comes this image of them putting on the dresses I had to wear to school as a kid. Not a pretty sight even if it is just in my head!

Another thing that's a little strange is this cold snap being referred to as an "Antarctic Blast". It does make sense since Antarctica is the continent directly south of here, but it's still an "Arctic Blast" to me.

It was cold and ridiculously windy for my soccer game yesterday. We tied a team 0-0 that was much, much better than us so we were claiming it a moral victory if nothing else. I had the most dubious distinction of laying one of their best players out flat. I don't have the great kicking ability of many people and I have absolutely no experience in this area, but I have it on good authority from my better half that this situation requires only hitting the "right spot". At any rate, I was mortified as my team was having quite the time making sure I couldn't forget what happened both at the field and later again at work. There's a definite downside to playing soccer with your coworkers, that's for sure.

We're making plans now to come back to Seattle for a few weeks starting in mid-July (please don't ask me if that's winter or summer - I don't know!) with a stop in Indiana somewhere in the middle of it. I sure hope it'll be warmer than here (no guarantee for Seattle, but I'm thinking our chances are pretty good for Indiana). We will have lived here for a whole year by then - where in the world has the time gone? I sure hope we get to see all our dear friends and family because we sure do miss you all.