pyjamas in the daytime

You wonder where you pick things up sometimes. I can pick up a southern drawl in about 3 days of constant exposure. I pick up on moods really quickly. If someone around me is in a pissy mood, depressed or whatever, my day is shot right there. It’s not their fault, I just can stop “feeling it”. I end up spending the whole day being paranoid. I pick up colds and other various illnesses it seems by just going to a public place. Never happens at kayak events though. . weird. This time around Mary, Gryphon and I all woke up Sunday morning very, very sick. High fevers and the whole bit. As Gryphon slept and I moved from the bedroom to the living room floor, Mary sat spaced out on the couch and tried to guess all the places we may have picked up what ever it was we picked up. “Maybe it was when we went to that store yesterday”, she mused. “Mary”, I said, “It normally takes a few days for . . “, I was too muddled to finish my point, but she had picked up on it already. “Maybe when we went to buy you’re H2 glue?” She said. “Sure” I thought, “It can be Rutabaga’s fault!”

The trouble with being sick, is you feel worse just trying to pass the day on the couch. If everyone is sick, you end up laying around the living room like wolves in a heat wave. Tongues hanging out and everything. So the only way I’ve found to feel any better is to get outside. Anywhere under the sun. As long as you’re moving you don’t feel so bad. Until you stop of course, then it’s worse. After another 2 hours of slow-motion loading we packed up a little picnic, kids toys, chairs, blankets and the Acuta for a day on a secluded beach. Loading the boat was a slow and exhausting maneuver, but I had a goal of testing my padding work which was now all dragon skinned and glued into place.

While Gryphon reclined under blankets on a big beach chair and Mary fiddled with fire & tinfoil, I slid out into the lake and paddled for about a half hour before I could feel my equilibrium starting to fail. Soon we were all sitting in a short row watching an occasional gust of wind send cats paws across the water. Almost un-noticed, time passed. By mid-afternoon the sun began to slide below the trees on the southern bluff and we knew we should probably be heading home. The problem was, no one felt good enough to stand up. . .