Our friend Amy has a very cool paddle board, and we store it under our deck for her. Isn’t it cool? I’ve seen some paddle boards around the lake but they’re usually just boring and one single color. No cool swirly things like this one.

On Thursday the 10th we took it out for an inaugural run. Kevin went first, and he said you should initially sit on it. So he did that, easy-peasy.

The next step was kneeling, also no problem…

And then, Ta Da! He was up and skimming over the water in no time. I think it might have taken him 10 minutes to progress to standing up.

And then it was my turn. Of course I took quite a bit longer, sitting then kneeling but then oh my god there’s a tiny little wave and back to sitting, but I finally managed to stand upright.

Kevin kept videotaping me but hasn’t shown me the footage, which is just fine with me. I don’t need to see photos of my struggling to kneel and then to stand. In that photo, the only one he has, I hadn’t fully straightened my legs and they were screaming in pain. When I did finally have the sense to straighten them, it was so much better. Of course, the water was perfectly calm and I can’t imaging what I’d do if there were waves…I think I’d be back to sitting on the board. It was cool how quickly the board skimmed over the water and it wasn’t so bad, trying to turn. Hopefully we’ll be going out again soon.

Right now it’s 90 degrees outside and feels like 110 and it’s going to be even hotter til at least Friday, so I’ll be pretty much staying in for the duration. I have all kinds of ambitious plans of cleaning up piles of stuff that are sitting around, cleaning out the fridge, cleaning out the pantry, but on the other hand I’ve been saying I was going to get at stuff at the height of the pandemic and the piles continue to stubbornly sit there, not budging an inch, the fridge is beyond bad, the pantry is overflowing with way too much stuff. I have high hopes, but you never know…I guess I’m feeling cautiously optimistic that I’ll be able to accomplish something, anyway.

It’s funny how time has a way of mysteriously slipping right on by.

Ok then,

Mrs. Nearing the End of August Hughes.