Riding the Waves + PSA

Next Swims:  Mon - Fri 6 am and afternoons at 5pm
Sat/Sun 8am and noon

Last Swim: Monday 6 am
Water Temp: 66
Air Temp: low to mid 60s
Clarity: very murky
Waves: OMG!  mostly 4 feet or more
Kru: Diablo, Magic Mike (early shift), Mr. Anonymous, Mr. Bubble, Lt MJ, Sunny Laguna, Nanook

WE INTERRUPT THIS BLOG FOR AN IMPORTANT  PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

Athena (Thea) Aster Kegel was born Friday morning

The story of how this Athena came to Earth is a little different than the events leading up to the first Athena's arrival. For those of you who remember your Greek Mythology:

Athena's mother was Metis. Metis warned Zeus that if she bore him a boy child, the child would be greater than him. Zeus swallowed her and started having a terrible headache. Then his head split open by an axe from help from Hephestus. Suddenly, Athena came out of his head. Athena came out fully grown, with her symbols the aegis and the famous helmet of Athena.

The 21st Century Athena's mother is  Klode Kru goddess and Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge, the Right Honorable Super Hera.  Her Facebook post about the blessed event does not mention anything about the father swallowing the mother or having a terrible headache, just that it was a medication free birth filled that was completed ahead of schedule.  

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog post

Just like old times...Diablo departing on his bike just as the next shift was arriving.  "How was it Diablo?" "Not too bad.  A little rough but no whitecaps".  Of course, "Not too bad" is Klode Kru Kode for "Not too good either".  But he was right, insofar as the water temp was concerned, and that's what most of us are wondering about when we ask for a status update.  

Get down to the beach and there's a backpack and a pile of clothes, which is quickly identified as Magic Mike's - the red Point to LaPointe t-shirt gave it away.  Within a minute or two, we spot Mr. Mike heading in to shore.  "How was it"?".  By now, we've inferred that Diablo must not have seen those whitecaps in the dawn's early light.  Magic Mike's response - "Pretty rough!  I only made it to the second garage before turning back, and then made it back in just 7 strokes"  (slight exaggeration but not much).  We asked if Mike was able to ride the rhythm of the waves - "Not really.  You could tell that a wave was coming because the water would get darker".  Hadn't experienced that before and was assuming it was because the flotsam and jetsam was being stirred up.  Once I got out there, I discovered the real reason the water was getting darker is because the waves for so fricking huge that they were blocking out the rising sunlight.  

So, the four of us set off, and we're all heading back from spots much closer than we usually would.  Lt MJ even got out on the beach and walked back part of the way.  I was sighting the rock wall and was determined to get there, until I got whacked alongside the head.  Everyone else was on their way back, so it was an easy decision.  

Getting reacquainted with Nanook made me think of the lead songs Frank Zappa's album Apostrophe - Don't Eat The Yellow Snow and Nanook Rubs It.  Sad to say, our Nanook was not familiar with these masterpieces, so I promised to post it here so she could learn more about her ancestry.