A DAY AT THE BEACH

Today being the last day of August and a hot, muggy one at that, my sister Melissa and I decided to head to the beach for the afternoon.



(Disclaimer: All pictures shown in this post have been snagged from various sites on the Internet, as I neglected to bring my camera with me. Except the one of the car really is my sister and her car - she emailed it to me. But I am sure you will get the gist of the day anyway.)

We drove up to Patricia Beach in Melissa's brand new Mini Cooper S Clubman that she picked up just days ago. Neat little car, that! Lots of ponies under the hood and spaceous to boot.



When we headed up, the weather was quite overcast, although the temperature was about 30 degrees C at that time (just after noon). It looked quite like this:



We picked Patricia Beach because it is a lot less crowded than the more popular Grand Beach:



Patricia Beach tends to be more of a family oriented beach, whereas Grand is the meat market kind of place.

Because it was quite overcast, and the breeze off the lake made it cooler than the 30C that the city was experiencing, we dabbled our feet in the water but found it too cool to tempt us to swim about. (Would have been quite refreshing had the sun been blazing and the day smokin' hot.) So we lay around on our towels on the beach and people watched, chatted and generally just relaxed the afternoon away.



Not two seconds on the beach and this appeared!



And she bit me.



Like this:



Nasty little bitch.... so I squished her dead... why, oh why, do I have to be at the top of mosquitodom's favourite flavour list????? ((sigh))

We enjoyed some cold soft drinks I had packed along; having stopped at Quizno's for a bite of lunch before leaving the city, we didn't pack any food.

During the afternoon, the clouds broke up and the sun came out, warming the beach considerably. We wandered over to the local snack shack for an ice cream cone. Melissa had Maple Walnut and I had Chocolate. Mmmmmmm



On the way back to the beach, the ice cream on my cone took a nose dive into the sand. I was horrified!



But I managed to rescue most of it, paring off the contaminated bits with paper napkins until clean ice cream was left. Which I then ate! (Yeah... whatever... five second rule and all that.) It was delicious and no, there were not sand bits in it.

We watched people playing frisbee.



We watched kids playing in the sand, building castles and whatever else their imaginations could come up with.



There were kids on boogie boards. (Lake Winnipeg actually has waves and tidal action, as it is large enough and shallow enough to be influenced by the moon, just like the oceans.)



We watched families interacting and enjoying each other's company.



We watched gulls and pelicans flying over and around the beach.





All in all, a lovely, relaxing Sunday afternoon. I hope everyone else out there had a great last day of August as well.

HEARD AT THE BEIJING OLYMPICS...

Here are the top nine comments made by NBC sports commentators so far during the Summer Olympics that they would like to take back:

1. Weightlifting commentator: 'This is Gregoriava from Bulgaria. I saw her snatch this morning during her warm up and it was amazing.'

2. Dressage commentator: 'This is really a lovely horse and I speak from personal experience since I once mounted her mother.'

3. Paul Hamm, Gymnast: 'I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and father.'

4. Boxing Analyst: 'Sure there have been injuries, and even some deaths in boxing, but none of them really that serious.'

5. Softball announcer: 'If history repeats itself, I should think we can expect the same thing again.'

6. Basketball analyst: 'He dribbles a lot and the opposition doesn't like it. In fact you can see it all over their faces.'

7. At the rowing medal ceremony: 'Ah, isn't that nice, the wife of the IOC president is hugging the cox of the British crew.'

8. Soccer commentator: 'Julian Dicks is everywhere. It's like they've got eleven Dicks on the field.'

9. Tennis commentator: 'One of the reasons Andy is playing so well is that, before the final round, his wife takes out his balls and kisses them... Oh my God, what have I just said?'


All I can say is HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!

SILENCE ON SUNDAY -- FAMILY FLASHBACK

LULLING ABOUT......

My life is in a lull..... there is no one special in it at the moment. Beginnings have come and gone, nothing right enough to become a continuation.... the discontinuations leave me feeling a bit sad, and bad, for the possible discomfort I may have caused, but one must be true to one's self, which entails being honest with others.

No point in continuations if it is not the right sort of thing. Has to be two-sided as one-sided just doesn't work, as the past has shown me. Continue too long, past the point of discovering the one-sidedness, and the discontinuation becomes a painful thing.... a pain that I dislike causing.

So I am quietly lulling about my life right now.... trying to get into a space where I am comfortable with that position... the alone-ness, the one-ness... although not with loneliness.... that has not appeared as I have friends and family that I adore.

There is potential in one direction.... someone from the past... hesitant but interested.... the interest is mutual but never acted upon.... time will tell what is brewing beneath the surface, if indeed there is anything. So for now, I continue... to lull quietly...

Excuse me now, while I go and lull off to sleep.... I am tired.... zzzzzzzzz

WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY BASEMENT???