Walden

Looks like summer is finally here. We've had out first 90+ degree days (they came and went quickly in typical New Engalnd fashion). And so has the time of year when the swimsuit doesn't ever get to fully dry out. Pulling on a wet swimsuit is SO much fun...

I've been to Walden twice this week. Once for kayaking (where we found a kayaker named *J* who demanded to know whether *K2* knew how to save his own ass if he happened to flip - as if it were any of his business.... If I want to die from stupidity, please let me...) - and I have found that, in general, the kayakers at Walden seem to fit in well with the Concord scene... "Look at my expensive boat, and lets see how much info you can spew out- whether the other person wants to hear it or not" or "lets sit around in our kayaks and talk but not really DO anything, as we are on a small pond that i have paddled a hundred times, and really once was enough". I WISH like hell I didn't want to move to Concord in a few years, and buy a nice little house. BUT they have coffee shops, and art galleries, lots of open space for trail running, easy access to the commuter train, they're dog friendly AND they have Walden. Everything I want, but I know I'll just complain about my neihgbors, the people, constantly. Everything that I love Concord for is also what draws the people I want nothing to do with. Like a moth to a flame... but I digress...

The second time to Walden this week: yesterday, on the solstice. What better way to spend that magical longest day of the year. In the warm light of the waning solstice...golden, perfect. The sun warming my shoulders. Thanks to Las Vegas, I think this is the tannest I've ever been this early in the year. Lets hear it for skin cancer.

Yesterday was sacred. Theres no denying it. A perfect celebration, far better than any birthday or Christmas. Just the quiet simplicity- I didn't even hear any young kids screeching across the pond. There were some really loud teenage boys who, undoubtedly, were celebrating being out of school, gearing up for a summer of heavy drinking and womanizer training.

But the quiet, the stillness. the golden late day sun. the light patterns dancing off the water and lighting the showdy parts of the trees that are growing close to shore. I kept thinking "this is new england summer at its best" - but how can the best day of summer be the first day of summer? what does that say about the rest of the season?

The good news is that I have a new 'happy place' to mentally teleport to in times of stress, or when I need to mentally check out of my body.

The fish were incredible. I wasn't swimming for exercise so much as diving to look at fish. beautiful fish: yellow; striped; baby fish, silver schools darting around, parting as I dove through their cloud; big fish too. More fish than I saw all of last year put together.

As usual, I pulled the '5 more minutes' routine... and with about 4.5 minutes left I was visciously attacted by a turtle. Well, no, not really. It swam into my back, near my shoulder. I was just standed there, treading water. Not so surprisingly really, but ironic since I had spent the entire evening joking about the pond monster that lived in the deep dark part of the pond. But it caught me by surprise, and I yelped. The Pond Monster got me. And apaprently, it was as surprised as I was, and took off in the other direction, most likely thinking 'that was not a big white rock at ALL'. I heard it was brown.

So there is a lesson for you: the Pond Monster can sneak up on you when you least expect it, and with no advance warning.

In other Walden news: there is something in the water at Walden... The car key that *K* (the other K) had in his pocket became all discolored. Not muddy, not dirty, but actually physically altered. The metal has oxidized or something. WHAT is in that water? Is that why there are no weeds growing?

Also, all my little crawfish friends that lived along the rock wall part of the pond are dead. They were lying upside down on their backs beneath the water. I think they dorwned in their little rock wall crevice homes because the water is so high this year. If I had to guess, the water is 3 FEET higher than it usually is. All the benches are underwater. It might be safe to declare the drought over. But I'm not really a hydrogeologist anymore, so don't take my word for it.