Ardith Hinton wrote to James Bradley, "Look Out...  2." on 10-06-05 20:52

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

 AH>           I'm okay in salt water.  As for fresh water, I'm not sure yet.
 AH> :-))

You need a sweat lodge, and quick dump into the Athabasca
River. That'll 'freshen' you up in a hurry!


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


 AH>           Well, that's a two-way street.  We had to be
 AH> willing to try it & the opportunity never arose earlier.
 AH> But Nora is certainly a force to be reckoned with.  I've
 AH> often been known to say "Look out, World... here comes
 AH> Nora!"  ;-)

Well, see? You were open enough to jump on the chance, and perhaps
 Nora's enthusiasm swayed your decision, where you met others just
 like yourself. Funny how your type tend to congregate in herds. 

{-|[

 AH>           Another factor is the people we've met through such activities.

Didn't I just finish saying so? 

 AH> The warmth & acceptance we found in the community of disabled
kayakers &
 AH> suchlike, and among the able-bodied volunteers, struck me
 AH> as a great antidote to some of the problems we've
 AH> encountered elsewhere.  Nora has had a chance to meet other
 AH> young adults with hemiplegia... i.e. something relatively
 AH> rare & unknown among the population at large... and Dallas
 AH> & I have found people who appreciate the insights we can
 AH> bring to situations regarding a variety of disabilities.
 AH> They don't compete with one another & everybody does what
 AH> they can to help.  It's a far cry from what Dallas & I
 AH> experienced during our school days, when we would be the
 AH> last picked for the team in PE class & certain sports were
 AH> reserved for the rich.  We may be late bloomers, PE-wise,
 AH> but nobody seems to mind....  :-)

I spent a HUGE amount of every summer (Quite a bit of winter
recreation too, come to think about it.) either tooling around in the
hills, or competing with the cousin for frog torture/craw-fish
imprisonment/hormone abundance/...

A day being the fool for the Whisky Jacks, always seemed to be more
fun than any gym teacher I ever had. All I needed, was another fool to
join me, and we could usually tear someone up with laughter, or
make them soil their shorts with chortles.

I *REALLY* learnt then, that I would prefer the company of fools to
sharks. I ran into a an alumni, and learned he was pushing bobsled for
most of the past ten years. He was a little shy, that he didn't gather
as much money by then as he would like, but we both agreed the travel
plan, and elite exercise club he belonged to would be worth MANY
millions. How on earth do you buy what he experienced?


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


 AH>           Uh-huh.  One of the things I like about their music is that
 AH> they did stuff nobody else had thought of... and/or was willing
 AH> to risk... at the time. The idea of "leaving home after
 AH> living alone" is one which a lot of people can relate to,
 AH> for example, but it was very different from what other
 AH> writers were doing.  I enjoy what they did with "Penny
 AH> Lane" & "Eleanor Rigby" too....  :-)

Me, always a Walrus guy. That should indicate the bent?

Even when Paul first went Pop, I still loved his compositions. Medicine
 Jar, Live And Let Die, and Venus and Mars come readily to mind. Only
 now, am I truly appreciating George's composition, and
 skill. Ringo... Well, he was so off the wall, the record company
 didn't trust him to carry the early recordings. Once he started to
 out play the "pro" in the imagination department, did they push to
 record Ringo. Viva la trouble-makers!

Oddly, Lennon was my least favorite post break-up, but with Harry
Neilson, I think they made GREAT music.


 AH>           While you're busy with other stuff??  ;-)

You *had* to mention the "S" word, didn't you? I need to clean up the
disassembled couch from the front yard before the kiddies start
running around on their annual sugar rush.


 AH>           Something else happened which wasn't a textbook drill but
 AH> relates to what you said above.  To make a long story short the wind came
 AH> up last time we went out on Alice Lake.  I managed to avoid the reeds on
 AH> one side & the wooden float on the other side of the area set aside for
 AH> swimming, but try as I might I was unable to avoid drifting toward the
 AH> beach... so I decided to go with the flow.  The beach was only about 200
 AH> yards from the place we'd started out from & nobody was out swimming
 AH> anyway.  I was safe & sound, as was the kayak... and although it wasn't
 AH> quite what I'd had in mind it was okay.  Another lesson.  I think Nora
 AH> learned a good lesson on this trip too.  She got stuck in the reeds at
 AH> one point.  Dallas & I both refused to tow her out.  And as we'd
 AH> suspected, she could solve the problem herself with a bit of verbal
 AH> instruction....  :-))


Comes readily to mind, the day I was to play in the new snowbank out
in the front yard. After mom turns blue with, "But it's cold. You'll
get stuck."

"Jacket!" and a stern look got the point across, I was going out if
she put my jacket on or not.

Sure enough, I found the deepest drift I could waddle up to, and sink
myself in to my hips. "MOM!?!"

She pulled me out once, but the second time, I was on my own.

There *are* benefits to growing up with a pro in the house! 


... James
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