Ardith Hinton wrote to James Bradley, "Lookout Needs Glasses!" on 08-14-05
17:20

 JB>  I almost fell off my chair.

 AH>          Because you saw my message just after your
 AH> adventures with sailing...?

Because I'm imbalanced. 


 AH>          Yeah... I had my own at a kayaking camp earlier this year.  One
 AH> of the life guards tipped over a kayak with me in it, then
 AH> helped me figure out how to get back in.  Nora had her

Sounds like a page out of the lesson book to me.

 AH> christening at a school camp before her stroke.  She was in
 AH> a canoe which overturned when her classroom teacher...
 AH> reportedly a good swimmer, but not an experienced
 AH> canoeist... tried to rescue some other kids who suddenly
 AH> found themselves in the water.  Although she still
 AH> complains about how she bruised her shoulder on a rock,
 AH> Nora was not the slightest bit reluctant to try canoeing
 AH> again.  She did that a few days after the sailing
 AH> episode....  :-)

Ah... Nora's my kind!

The teacher, I'd have to scold, though. Did she figure out quickly an
upturned canoe makes a better flotation device than a dead hero?


 JB>  anointed.

 AH>          Well, I could say much the same... [chuckle].  I'd
 AH> been on a converted fishing boat in a gale.  I'd been on a
 AH> CPR ferry in a hurricane.  I'd been on a BC ferry when it
 AH> was rolling alarmingly from side to side.  But until
 AH> recently, I'd had no experience with water craft on which
 AH> an inboard or outboard motor...
 AH> ... the noise from which I found quite irritating... wasn't used
 AH> routinely. We all got interested in kayaking when Nora tried it.  For
 AH> her it was a revelation

Independence?

 AH> ... hey, there's another way to get around!  Nora was having so much fun

Tricycle, training wheels, bicycle, skateboard... Cadillac, puddle
 jumper, cane, walker, 'Turbo' walker (Age issues.), scooter...

When a person finds it is unnatural to sink in water, options open
 *way* up.

 AH> Dallas & I decided we'd like to try it too.  And we met a
 AH> guy who had devised a way of paddling a kayak with one
 AH> hand.  When she borrowed his kayak she was in seventh
 AH> heaven.  With canoeing & sailing, apparently, an able-
 AH> bodied person must do the actual work.  With the pivot he
 AH> created Nora can do it herself... so she's less dependent
 AH> on others.  I still haven't been in a sailboat or a canoe,
 AH> and I keep thinking I must be nuts to take up kayaking at
 AH> my age.  However, we enjoy doing it together & Nora finds
 AH> it more fun than the alternatives she's tried....  :-)

Nora's my kind.  Any kid that can drag her parents out on a
 lake, has all my respect in the world. 

 JB>  I needed to drink the waters when I was with a tourist,
 JB>  and a dog of all things, and it took the both of them

 AH>          The universe works in strange ways.  It took two
 AH> hemiplegics to get me into a kayak.  I've learned quite a
 AH> lot from tourists & dogs as well... [grin].

 Dad's cat spent the most of the afternoon here. He found two
new hiding places, can halt a Unix process, tab around the OLMR a few
times... For an old pain in the butt, he sure can be a lot of
laughs. Dad and his driving buddy lost him during a city festival. RCMP
golf carts, and communications via radio - everybody was looking for
Chuck. He was hiding and, likely thoroughly bemused inside the
vehicle that brought him.


 JB>  Submarine to convince me to take a dip.
 AH>          One of Nora's favourite songs, BTW....  :-))

Good on her. I once saw a dissertation about "She's Leaving" by a
scholar, and he concluded by, "Who would have logically tried that?
Not me." Very crafty boys, the lot of them.


 AH>          A legitimate learning experience, IMHO....  :-)

"Life is what happens..." Lennon, J. 


 JB>  He now knows that he can survive what was otherwise
 JB>  considered a disaster.

 AH>          Yes, yes, yes!!  That's very important....  :-)

It's all right there in the instructor's' manual. <-;


 JB>  He also found out he wasn't about to shrink nor melt.
 AH>          Or, as I'm fond of saying, kids are washable....  ;-)

Now, I'm fond of saying...



 AH>          Uh-huh.  I was quite bruised after climbing back into the
 AH> kayak... but I survived, and so did you!  Now the life guard tells
 AH> me I have to blow through my nose... i.e. when I've been
 AH> suddenly dumped into cold water... while keeping my mouth
 AH> shut.  It's not easy, after umpteen years of playing
 AH> clarinet....  :-/


I'm not saying a THING! I know a trap, when I see a yawn. 


... "Doing anything can get you killed. Including doing nothing. Hence rule
#8."
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