PBW: Shots of the Dock

Has any one out there ever felt really good, with no cause to blame? I don't know whether my new system of organization is working at my job, or if work is light right now, but even after taking Monday off and having a slightly frantic Tuesday morning, I'm on top of things. Two days in a row I've left around 5:30, fairly early for me, and engaged in a fantastic workout. My speed, gone for over a year, is finally coming back. I can't quite run three miles in a half hour yet but I've come close, and staying on the treadmill an extra five minutes is enough for me to break three. When I get home my head is clear and I have a lot of energy. Maybe getting back to a solid exercise routine was what I needed to get out of the funk I'd been in. Maybe taking my first vacation day of the year helped. Or maybe it's the beach.

Last week I referenced a beach that, as a small child, I called ”Narnia” There was an area that I could only get to at low tide, when passage under the dock to this magical extra section of beach was allowed. A classic PBW only showed glimpses of this dock, but I decided on Sunday to visit it once more, with the express intention of taking my readers on that journey through a Photo Blog Wednesday. A combination of bad luck and my own stupidity in not checking the tide tables meant that I couldn't get under the dock. Still, it was a gorgeous day, and I realized I could just walk around from the parking lot to get to the smaller section of the beach, though that wasn't as much fun.










I decided to relive a scene from one of my favorite science fiction movies, Dark City, and journey to the end of the dock, even though I can't swim and the structural integrity of the wood looked questionable. When I went last April, I was afraid of leaving the paved portion of the dock and didn't wander more than half way. But would this time find me any braver?




How surreal does that photo look upside down? I get a very cool sense of vertigo imagining the clouds beneath my feet and the ocean above my head. After a glimpse over the edge at a nearby peninsula, I proceeded forward.






I made it! I walked to the end of my “world” and peered out over the edge, even as the wind picked up and boards creaked beneath my feet. I looked right....



I looked left...



I turned and looked at the walk back to land.



What you can't see in the above photo is a man who, in defiance of all probability, decided at that moment to walk down the dock with a rottweiler the size of a small pony. My mortal enemies, dogs and deep water, had joined forces! The gentleman walked to the end of the paved portion, stopping just before the wooden section. Meanwhile, my mind raced. If the dog got loose and came at me, could I pull a football maneuver and evade him? Would I have to jump over the side? I couldn't see them, but I knew there were deadly rocks down there beneath the murky, agitated waters. And what of my camera? If I survived the fall, the camera wouldn't. My photo blog Wednesday would be ruined. And, though it was warm for February, it wasn't warm by any stretch of the imagination. A dip at this time of year would not be my idea of a good time. Fortunately, in the time it took my neurosis to sort itself out, the man and his dog turned and walked back to the parking field. Keeping my distance, I proceeded back as well.




Opposite the beach, the water flows under the parking lot and in to a lake beside a golf course. A fire hydrant marked the pathway to this section.







Finally, as I called it a day, a curious seagull wandered up to say “hi”.



* * *

But wait; there's more! As I mentioned, I took Monday off. Again, I didn't check the tides, but I vaguely remembered something about six hour cycles and I got started a little earlier. As luck would have it, the tide would be just low enough this time, and I could walk through “Narnia” and under the dock to the main beach.












Two days at the beach is a great treat this time of year. After it got too cold to take pictures, I just sat in my car reading a book, soaking in the sun, and celebrating how free I was in that moment. I'd gotten out of my gray cubicle, and into the closest thing to a Corona ad that I could.

Sometimes, life’s not all that bad.