Beautiful Day

It was not as hot today as yesterday, so I hurried through my daily chores.  Even so, I did not finish til just after noon.  There are a lot of daily chores here, as you might imagine.

Then I loaded the raft, that I never put away again, into the car and sped off to the lake.

It seemed to blow up faster today, or maybe I was not as impatient.

However, this time, instead of going out onto the lake, I headed up the river from the boat dock.  I twinged my wrist too, in helping with that move.  I realize now I way over estimated what I could actually do without injury.  I still have my back issue, from the last day of moving, and also did something strange to my wrist.  It only hurts when I turn it a certain way, but then it hurts likes it's being torn in two, like I need to scream, that kind of hurting.

Well, I didn't think rowing would hurt it so badly.  I managed the last time, although I was careful.  But that only made it worse apparently because this time, if I turned it a certain way, while pulling, I couldn't tolerate the pain it was so severe and I would drop the oar handle.

But it was only if I twisted it a certain way.  I think something must be out of place, because otherwise it is fine. I thought 'Where is a chiropractor when you need one'. But I realized I could not row far and only drifted mostly, but it was so relaxing and so beautiful I could barely stand it or understand how I could be so lucky as to live so close to such beauty.

I drifted under a large maple overhanging the river and laid back in the raft and let my mind wander.  The heat made me sleepy and so did the gentle rocking of the raft on the water.  The water was so clear I could see fish and newts as they swam up for air, then dove back down, sometimes hanging a foot under the water, in suspended motion.

Salmon berries along the bank

Salmon Berries in Hand

You can't see very well, but in the middle there, half up the bank, covered in branches, looks to me like a car.  How would it get there?  Well, the highway is just up the bank and just above that car or truck or van, is a big huge rock cliff.  Did someone deliberately shove a junked or stolen car off there, or did it fly off in a wreck I wonder.  It's hard to see.

A duck swam by, followed by 8 babies, who swam as one, in a snakelike line behind their mother.

Two Kingfishers battled it out in the air, chasing one another, screeching their annoyance.

Finally I rowed back up to the to the bridge and under it and on to the boat ramp and there I got out of the raft and swam, lazily, with no effort, as children from some of the many locals lined up fishing along the beach, raced down the boat dock and jumped into the water.  Some plugged their noses before they hit the water.  They would yell loudly as the jumped "Kowabunga!"   One little girl would say "I'm going to do the pencil jump" and she would jump in with her arms straight at her sides.  A young couple arrived with their dog, a black lab, and threw toys, then sticks into the water for him to retrieve until he grabbed a log twice his length and proudly returned it, banging into his owners legs when he turned with the lengthy log.

A woman fished from a small fiberglass boat without a motor.  Her boyfriend said they got it free on craigslist.

I finally deflated the raft and drove home with the car windows rolled down and my hair blowing in the wind from the open windows.

What a beautiful day it was.