As I emerged from the waters of Lake Holiday this weekend, my friend Mike (and host of the weekend festivities) looked at me and said "You're rockin' the red!" He was referring to my pronounced torso, which used to be a pasty, doughy color. It is now bright red due to the fact that my first foray into summer sun is, without fail, sans sunscreen, save for the obligatory wave at my neck and (maybe) my shoulders. While I snoozed on the fine white sand (trucked in from afar, as it is a "beach" on a lake) on Sunday, I was encouraged by various members of the entourage to apply some sunscreen. As I hate to be disturbed in the onerous task of ensuring that a maximum number of sandy particles maintain their position under my prone form, I lazily slathered on some sunscreen on my chest. The resultant "tan" is an amoeba-shaped island in an angry sea of crimson. If I had really been on my game I would have cut out some concentric circles out of construction paper and carefully placed them on my belly to see if I could generate some publicity for Target. Family beach vacation is only 10 weeks or so away. It's good to have goals.
This Memorial Day weekend was quite relaxing, though, as we hung out with Mike's family and another family at their house on Lake Holiday, which is north of Winchester VA. In years past I would take this opportunity to bring the Eddy with me to ride in some real hills while everyone was frolicking in the water, but this year I just didn't get it together. I've been riding pretty consistently for 5 years--I've taken quite a long break (almost 6 months) from a cycling routine, which is too long, really, but clearly necessary because I'm just now figuring out that I want to get back on the bike again. Last time I gave up riding competitively I pretty much gave up riding altogether...for 13 years. Won't happen this time.
What's cool about these friends, though, is that we've known them for years in the context of our kids: school, sports, scouts. Beyond that we've gotten to be close, and we begin to influence each other's lives in subtle ways. Growing up with friends from childhood and through our earlier (pre relationship/marriage/kid) years, the influences are much more overt. The reason I can strum a guitar almost competently is because I've spent enough time with Mike while hanging out at games and school events and parties to understand that it's never too late to start something new. Mike is a talented dude, and he makes the things he does seem rather easy, so I find it less daunting to try these things myself. To try to start something that you've always wanted to do takes you back to an earlier time in life, when things were more exciting because the future was less known. Even now the future is still always unknown, but we've established patterns that set our routines in ways that can be stultifying, so learning how to play a guitar (something I've always wanted to do but never did) is now a pleasant adventure.
Floating in a canoe on a fresh water lake with whichever of the nine kids is along, hanging on for dear life on the Super Mable as we're being dragged across the lake at upwards of 25 MPH, cooking and eating ginormous amounts of food and drink with friends who feel like family, cleaning up the aftermath of an overflowing toilet with these same good people, watching all the little people battle it out on the docks with super-soakers while we sit on the deck and soak it all in, creaming the house champion at Wii Super Mario race something or other, sitting on the beach with a cold one in hand...all of this makes for a memorable Memorial Day weekend. So much so that I don't think I thought about work once, other than to tell some stories.
I can almost play "Drunken Angel" by Lucinda Williams now after watching Mike play it last night. I may be feeling the effects of rockin' the red this weekend, but it was worth it.
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