It's Spring! Comma, dammit.

[eregyrn]

Yay, for nice days! (After the "second-gloomiest May on record", according to the Boston Globe.) I went out kayaking for a couple of hours, paddled up to the Wellesley dam (about 2.6 miles each way), and got some light sunburn on my arms, too.

Not much wildlife visible, except for scads of red-winged blackbirds, and grackles; and very loud frogs, which I could not see. There was one point where I almost got fucked up by a pair of swans who had about 7 little cygnets. So cute! Mom (or Dad) was sufficiently wary of me to get all the little babies to get up on her/his back. Eeeeee! I got out of that inlet before they fucked me up, then wound up going within about 6 feet of them all on the other side of the little island of grasses, which they'd decided to climb up on. Both Mom and Dad flapped their very big wings at me, as if to say, "you know one of these could break your arm, right?", and I replied, "yes, I know, but I have a paddle". They didn't charge me, though.

The river was at least a foot higher than usual, and in the upper reaches, the current was stronger than I'd experienced before. I got a hell of a workout on one half-mile stretch, right before getting to the dam, which was the closest I've gotten so far to being in anything like "white water". (And that was "not *very* much like white-water", really; just pretty choppy and interesting.) I was right that making it to the top was worth the effort for getting to turn around and virtually coast back along that half-mile.

I was also pleased that when I got to Trader Joe's and the guy said he hoped that I'd been out to enjoy this wonderful day, I could honestly answer that I *had*, virtuously, Been Out and Done Outdoorsy Things. (I think the fact that the jeans I was wearing were soaked to the knee should have tipped him off.)

My new super-lightweight paddle is pretty keen. And today, the muscles in my arms and shoulders don't hurt as much as I thought they would. (They did for a bit last night.) I think I'd better go and moisturize this sunburn some more, though.

Perhaps I shall go out again tomorrow, on Lake Cochituate. If the weather cooperates.

Comments

[tafkarfanfic.livejournal.com]

Arrrrrgh! I didn't know you liked kayaking! Oh, why am I not *there* instead of *here*?

Oh, yeah. Dream job. Right.

[jenlev.livejournal.com]

wow, the swans. and how amazing to see them all up on the the parent's back.

it's raining up here again. i love the rain, but this is getting to be a bit much.

have a fun day tomorrow, i hope the sun is finally out. i just saw the wettest squirrel in the parking lot of the condo building. absolutely soaked. looked a bit like a poodle for some reason. ;)

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

It is raining again here RIGHT NOW, even as I type. It rained last night, too. Rain at night, as I'm going to sleep, I don't mind; in fact I like to hear it. And I didn't have anything planned for today as the forecasts said it would be a washout, so that's okay too.

Tomorrow, though, had better be like earlier yesterday. That will make up for all the crappy weather.

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

:) We shall have to keep it in mind for whenever you come back here visiting (in the correct season, of course), or someday when I get out there. (I haven't done any sea-kayaking yet, but I want to.)

[jenlev.livejournal.com]

i was down in pepperell, and on the drive home it rained so hard we were temped to just pull over by the side of the road. my reward for the weather is to be able to watch all the firefly dvds between tonight and tomorrow. it's wonderful to see it without commercials....and as i missed most of it when it aired i'm *happy* to see it now. *g*

[nangi-akki.livejournal.com]

sounds like you had a great time in the great outdoors. i've done some canoeing but i've never done the kayaking thing.
i have outdoorsy leanings but am still a major wuss by oregon standards -where outdoorsiness is practically a religion.

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

I heartily recommend the kayaking thing. I had done canoeing before, too, but felt so-so about it. To my way of thinking, canoeing is kind of hard. Kayaking is ridiculously easy. I mean, you can take lessons in it, but all that I've done so far essentially came about from me walking up to the rental place with no prior experience, renting a boat, and figuring it out.

I recommend trying it on a calm river or a lake first, of course. Rather than a fast river or the sea.

The thing I especially like about it, in comparison with a canoe -- you sit lower in the water. The boat is low, and your butt is essentially on the bottom of it, on the water. Thus your center of gravity is lower, thus, on calm water, no real tippy fears. I also find that it gives me more of a sense of fast movement, and I really like that.

The other thing I like about it is that it's mostly a solo experience (one person in one boat), whereas all my canoeing experiences involve having another person in the canoe -- which makes it harder, I think, and makes it feel more unstable. You *can* get two-person kayaks, and I've tried that once -- it wasn't bad, and still isn't as tippy as a canoe.

So, there. :) That's my pro-kayak spiel.

(Also, thought you'd enjoy this orca-smooching-jailbait-RDA icon.)

jailbait

[nangi-akki.livejournal.com]

(Also, thought you'd enjoy this orca-smooching-jailbait-RDA icon.)

---holy crap! such utter jailbait. when was that photo taken?

Re: jailbait

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

I'm exaggerating -- I think he must have been in his 20s at the time. His stint at Marineland was in that period *after* he was out of school but while he was hacking around doing odd stuff -- you know, the Mime Period. That would put it in the early 70s, I guess. The icon is cropped from a newspaper pic, and there's another guy in the pic with him, standing on the dock, who looks uncannily like David Hasselhoff... don't know if it is, though... (got it from the www.rdanderson.com site). It just amuses the hell out of me. :)