If they can do it then so can I

I left about 7:30 this morning and the sky is fully overcast. My first challenge of the morning is getting out of my garage. My new apartment includes a one car garage and with my Toyota Tundra, the garage can fit absolutely not one thing in addition to my one car. This succeeds in elevating my heart rate and I have to wonder just how many calories this expends. Good thing I'm not one to care about cosmetic damage to my car.

My primary concern today is surf. I think it's totally fine but my mind seems to like to find things to stress about and surf is an easily accessible fear right now. We had a solid south swell over the weekend. Friday was pretty impressive as my son and I watched from shore. I took a run on the beach yesterday and it really didn't look like much at all but the lifeguards still had the red flags up.

It's down another notch today and I feel pretty confident it's not at the E ticket level. Oh now I feel old talking about E tickets. I'm not even going to clarify it. Google it. And if you are reading this in the year 2031 and have no idea what Google is, my apologies.

I see the Sunday swim crew when I get down to the beach and this puts my nerves at ease. This is not to say they can't handle themselves in large surf. They certainly can, but I am a big believer in “if they can do it then so can I.” I know…I know…not always the smartest mindset.

We discuss surf and water temperature. Always hot topics of conversation for ocean swimmers.

I head out into the water and a set of waves comes in. I decide to swim right through them and dive beneath the whitewater. This is fun.

Once I am past the surf, I swim north because that just feels right today. I see two small portholes of light in the sky above me producing two spotlights of silver light on the surface of the water. I wonder if this means a burn off is imminent.

I swim past the surfers in front of the Ritz and keep moving towards the Monarch Bay Beach club. I turn around just past the stairs that lead to the northern salt Creek rest rooms. I can't go too far because I need to be home by 9:30.

The water feels good today. The temperature doesn't fluctuate like it did earlier in the week but just seems to hover somewhere in the mid 60s - not bad at all.

As I swim back south, I watch the individual trees perched up on the bluff. I'm not certain where these trees are or what kind they are. The thought to pinpoint those things doesn't even cross my mind. I just note how they look like blossoming tooth picks and are pleasant and easy to stare at.

These trees graduate to larger and fuller pine trees and soon I'm looking at the large hotel buildings that make up the Ritz Carlton.

Now I see surf breaking just about 20 feet in shore of me and surfers and lifeguard tower 0. Is the zero new? I just noticed that this week. Probably because you can't see it from here in the water. My new apartment has a 7 mile run that includes a portion along Salt Creek where I can see the tower numbers.

I'm soon just about 10 minutes away from finishing and I see a little more blue sky but the ice has not yet fully broken. Still it is not short of wonderful. I swim to shore without incident. All that worry for nothing - like most worry in my life.