We just returned from our annual family vacation in Duck, NC. The refreshing 17oC water felt wonderful in contrast to the air temps in the high 30s.
"The cool water appears to be due to the upwelling deep coastal water replacement of the warm surface water that is blown offshore with the southwest wind. Anyhow, I think the water feels refreshing in contrast to the hot air. The boy had such stoke that he stayed in the water despite shivering hard, until I ordered him to take a break.
Here he is riding on the nose of my 9'2" Becker longboard. This freaked Mommy a little.
My father-in-law and the boy boogie boarding. He had some sweet rides and some wipeouts, both surfing and boogie boarding.
I probably spent more time in the water walking next to him while he snorkeled than any other activity while at the beach.
This is my favorite underwater picture.
...my second favorite underwater picture
...a really goofy underwater picture
WARNING: VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED FOR THIS NEXT PART OF MY BLOG
On the second to the last day of our beach week when I was walking on the deck to go in and get my beach stuff, I encountered this. I never saw it coming. It snapped off and I felt a pain like a cactus and simultaneously heard a "SNAP!".
a reenactment
The bamboo skewer that someone dropped the night before went all the way through my flip-flop, the thong, 2 inches into my foot, and broke off in my flip flop. I looked and was like, "seriously???" Then I had a good time discussing and joking about the eventual removal of the stick in my foot.
My father-in-law said, "awww, just put a stick in his mouth and pull it out!" I laughed at this and asked my paramedic brother-in-law what he thought.
He said that "they" tell us never to remove an object in "the field".
So, off to the doc in the box, where we joked and carried on more. I had to hop on my good foot to the desk, to my chair, to the restroom during the hour that I had to wait behind all of the sunburns and sour stomachs. More fodder for our snarky comments.
the real deal - a bamboo skewer 2 inches in the flesh
the swelling...
Once I got to the actual office I still had to hop to room 4, to the x ray room on the other side of the facility, then back to room 4 - and no they didn't have a wheelchair. One of the nurses even said, "he's getting good at that!" as I hopped away from xray.
When the doctor arrived, he looked at me and said, "okay, you need to take your flip flop off."
I looked at him as if he had sprouted another head and I said, "I can't."
He started making all kinds of exclamations like, "oh!...Oh my!!...wow!..
He exited the room and then a nurse entered and said, "I'm sorry but I just had to see it." Then she started bringing the tools in to fix me... Yay!
The doc tried to cut the wrong part of my flipper. I had to show him where to cut it and then he almost cut my foot.
Finally, he numbed it with Novocaine and used some rusty pliers and he remove it! Praise God! He had to pull very hard, but I felt no pain at this point.
The doc said whatever you do, don't go to the beach. He said you DON'T want to get sand in it. I kept bandaids and tennis shoes on for the rest of my beach week.
I just can't imagine a grain of sand 2 inches inside my foot. Ouch.
God bless modern pharmaceuticals! Otherwise, I'd have just bit a stick and had somebody yank it out.
