Jolly Green Giant

After two days on the elliptical torture machine, I am quite ready for a swim. To be clear, I have not been on the elliptical for two days straight. Now that would be something. Not something at all desirable. Have you ever seen the science fiction movie Dune or, even better, read the book? Well they have these things called “pain amplifiers.” They never show them but they are briefly mentioned (maybe just in the book) as some sort of long term punishment cell. As in, “if you don’t do what we ask, we will put your family in a pain amplifier.” As the label infers, they do not sound at all pleasant. I bet that if they were to show them, they would closely resemble an elliptical machine.

As I am looking out my window this morning, any pain that I have is more suppressed than amplified. It’s mostly sunny with some wispy clouds painted randomly across the sky here and there. I have some meetings and this work related chore that I need to get done, or at least wrap up to a good stopping point. I do that by just a few minutes after 10:00 and then I am out the door.

When I get to the parking lot and have a view of the ocean’s surface, it appears dark and lightly textured. Then as I am walking down the stairs, I notice the lines of waves coming closer and closer to the shore. These are interesting because they are not big waves, but they look steep - as if they could start to curl and break way outside but they don’t.

I reach the shore and it’s a negative low tide - lots and lots of beach. There is a guy getting ready to head out on a surfboard. He has a helmet on and I wonder if this is because of the low tide. He also has a smile. Then I notice he is not headed in the direction of the main surf break. Finally I see he is a standup paddle boarder. Interesting. I don’t usually see SUPers here. Now that is something I would like to do more of. I actually own one, but just don’t have time for another past time right now. I am terrible at it, but, like most things, you don’t have to be good to have fun. I have done all of my paddling in the harbor where the water is still. I totally admire someone who can paddle through waves. That takes some serious balance.

I walk to my usual spot. I head into the water. I am expecting it to be colder today. Water temperature has been averaging 65 for the last couple weeks, but we had some west winds the last couple days and it was at 64 this morning when I woke before dawn. 64 still isn’t bad, but I check again before I leave and it is down to 62. 62???! Still not terrible but very noticeably colder then 65.

I walk through some waves. They are not big but bigger than my last swim on Monday. Another is coming and I dive under it. I swim out past the surf and then see that paddle boarder. He is still on his knees and it looks like he is aiming to go north. I am heading south and swim about 20 feet inshore of him.

The water feels warmer than I expected it to. There are definitely some cool spots but I feel like the mean is not much different than Monday - maybe just a degree but not three. Perhaps, the buoy measuring water temperature was in one of these cold patches on its last hourly reading - very possible. I can also very much feel those steep angled waves out here. It is very bouncy - fun actually. It feels like they are going to push me over the side but they just pass right beneath me.

Things get even more bouncy just as I am approaching the headlands. It’s like a pool after the Jolly Green Giant has performed a cannon ball dive. I do wonder what the Jolly Green Giant is up to these days. I think he would like it here. When I get to my usual southern turnaround point, there are large, but unthreatening waves passing by. They break right on top of that big rock closest to the shore about 100 feet out. It is super cool to watch because something about their angle is causing huge explosions of white water on impact. I watch and enjoy a couple of these.

I am bouncing wildly on the surface here and it’s really fun and just gives me this simple child like joy to experience this. Also, I must be closer to the kingdom of heaven, being more childlike and all. I actually fully believe that. I feel like we spend our early to mid adulthood unlearning our true nature and then spend the rest of our lives trying to get it back. Well I have just a little more of it now thanks to this water.

I turn around and head back north. I remember my fuzzy, dream-like state on Monday. I just could not clear my mind and live in the here and now. It is so easy to be lulled into a semi-dream state out here. You are just floating on the water and sometimes you can only see shapes and shadows below. There is no center and it is easy to get lost in your head. Today, I decide that maybe that is just fine as it is. Why force a clear mind? I don’t even think that is possible and seems to run contrary to the spirit of here and now. The fact is that, here and now, I have images and dreams running through my thoughts and maybe I should be paying attention to those. So I just try to exist amongst these strange and disjointed images. None of it makes any sense and they lack any kind of a clear narrative. It’s ok. I feel like they are meant to be seen but not necessarily understood.

When I reach the edge of Salt Creek beach, there is that SUPer again! He is hanging out in the surf in front of the point below the Ritz. He looks like he is about 10 years older than I am and if I can be doing that 10 years from now, I will consider it a success.