Compromising with the Sun Worshippers
The price of gas is astronomical and has effectively curtailed the planning of summer road trips with my family. We were considering a road trip to Florida to visit my parents, but they're coming up here instead. So, the summer will consist of working, training, and hanging out with my kids at the local private swim park, where for the first time, I've decided to buy a pass. Lots of the neighborhood girl fiends have a pass here, and it's been easy to leech on as a guest. I figured, I'd just pay the astronomical guest rate, and just go once a week. I fear the sun...have never been one of those people that likes to bake in the sun. If I'm going to to sweaty and nasty, then I better be running or biking, but to just lay in the sun and slowly cure like a ham just gives me the creeps. Maybe this is a pre-prgrogrammed redheaded predisposition to keep me alive; redheads should not "lay out" unless they want premature death by melanoma. Of course, there are vanity concerns as well, since I want to maintain my creamy white skin and my freckles at at certain light hued brown color and small pleasing diameter.
I like to swim, however, and my kids love to play in the water like most kids. Swimming is the perfect outlet and social venue for my son, who shuns other competitive sports; all his friends are here and they can socialize in a non-competitive fun environment. The counselor at the school thought getting a swim membership would be the perfect thing for him. So, I caved in and bought a season pass for us to go whenever we want. But how to avoid melanoma, wrinkling, and fading the Sensationally Red dye job?
Hmmm....I went on a mission yesterday to secure all the weapons for summer in the sun. First...an umbrella. My Incredibles orange umbrella just isn't going to do it. You could not imagine my frustration, since I loathe shopping anyway, to go to 4 different stores and realize that the beach umbrellas are all gone! Hell...they are working on the fall displays of merchandise. This makes me crazy since I hate shopping to the point that I am incapable of having shopper forethought to buy my summer accoutrements in February; I'm still shopping winter in February. I came home in a huff and went online. I found the granddaddy ultimate beach umbrella at a website called UVblocker.com. I ordered a monstrous SPF 129 beach umbrella made with Solartec Fabric. It's guaranteed to keep you 15 degrees cooler than the temperature under the sun's broiler. I payed a lot of money for this and I'm probably going to be the butt of much heckling from my girlfriends for being such a geek, but I don't care. It will make my summer worry-free, so I can sit and enjoy watching my kids play in the sun. Of course, my shade will be shunned and they won't want to sit anywhere near me, lest my shade from my 6 foot spanned umbrella cast a shadow over them, so I better bring lots of reading material.
Compromising with the Sun Worshippers
The price of gas is astronomical and has effectively curtailed the planning of summer road trips with my family. We were considering a road trip to Florida to visit my parents, but they're coming up here instead. So, the summer will consist of working, training, and hanging out with my kids at the local private swim park, where for the first time, I've decided to buy a pass. Lots of the neighborhood girl fiends have a pass here, and it's been easy to leech on as a guest. I figured, I'd just pay the astronomical guest rate, and just go once a week. I fear the sun...have never been one of those people that likes to bake in the sun. If I'm going to to sweaty and nasty, then I better be running or biking, but to just lay in the sun and slowly cure like a ham just gives me the creeps. Maybe this is a pre-prgrogrammed redheaded predisposition to keep me alive; redheads should not "lay out" unless they want premature death by melanoma. Of course, there are vanity concerns as well, since I want to maintain my creamy white skin and my freckles at at certain light hued brown color and small pleasing diameter.
I like to swim, however, and my kids love to play in the water like most kids. Swimming is the perfect outlet and social venue for my son, who shuns other competitive sports; all his friends are here and they can socialize in a non-competitive fun environment. The counselor at the school thought getting a swim membership would be the perfect thing for him. So, I caved in and bought a season pass for us to go whenever we want. But how to avoid melanoma, wrinkling, and fading the Sensationally Red dye job?
Hmmm....I went on a mission yesterday to secure all the weapons for summer in the sun. First...an umbrella. My Incredibles orange umbrella just isn't going to do it. You could not imagine my frustration, since I loathe shopping anyway, to go to 4 different stores and realize that the beach umbrellas are all gone! Hell...they are working on the fall displays of merchandise. This makes me crazy since I hate shopping to the point that I am incapable of having shopper forethought to buy my summer accoutrements in February; I'm still shopping winter in February. I came home in a huff and went online. I found the granddaddy ultimate beach umbrella at a website called UVblocker.com. I ordered a monstrous SPF 129 beach umbrella made with Solartec Fabric. It's guaranteed to keep you 15 degrees cooler than the temperature under the sun's broiler. I payed a lot of money for this and I'm probably going to be the butt of much heckling from my girlfriends for being such a geek, but I don't care. It will make my summer worry-free, so I can sit and enjoy watching my kids play in the sun. Of course, my shade will be shunned and they won't want to sit anywhere near me, lest my shade from my 6 foot spanned umbrella cast a shadow over them, so I better bring lots of reading material.