September Sweeps - Day 219

Since today is a holiday (Labor Day) and I can put off any work till later, I thought maybe I'd try to write as soon as I got up, rather than at the end of the day.  But now that I'm typing this, I see I didn't finish yesterday's post, and I'd rather do that.

But afterward, I did write a few words.  I know I say this every day, but if I applied myself, I could finish this story today, and be on to the next one.

Sit-ups Today: 150
Sit-ups In September: 932

Push-ups Today: 31
Push-ups Today That Were Easy: 6
Push-ups In September: 196

I rented ED WOOD and was watching it while working (yeah, I went ahead and got some work done anyway.  What was I gonna do, go outside?).  In it, he drops his first film, GLEN OR GLENDA?, off with a studio exec at Warners, who tells him, "It's the worst picture I've ever seen!"  And Ed Wood says, "Well, the next one will be better!"

It is beyond inspiring.

Yeah, yeah, I know, the movie is making fun of bad moviemaking, and is an exercise in schadenfreude, but I wish I were more like Edward Wood Junior.  He'll be remembered long after I'm forgotten.

Labor Day is counted among lots of folks as the last holiday of the summer.  Of course, I've always lived where school started at the end of August (maybe September 1st), and my nephews went back to school (part-time) a week or more ago.  Even so, my sister's family was going to the lake again today*, and she had borrowed some of those hard plastic kayaks for the kids to use.  I decided to go along, because I quite enjoy the lake, and really dig rowing (it feels like exercise, but you're out in the sun, so it also feels like playing around).  

There were enough rafts/kayaks so everyone could have access to one, but they're really expensive and impossible for a child to carry, so this probably won't become a usual activity.  At one point, I tried to see how fast I could get the kayak going, and ended up way far away from anybody else (since it was a holiday, there were a ton of people at the lake, more than I've seen this whole year).  I entertained myself by singing CeeLo Green's biggest song, from beginning to end**.  I got all but the first line of the second verse, and if I'd had my phone, I think I would've done a Storage Unit Serenade of it out on the water.

But I'd been afraid of getting my phone wet (which was a good idea, since the twelve year old was determined to capsize me and ended up chasing me around both in and out of his own kayak), so I hadn't taken it out there with me.

This is the only picture I managed to take.  Sorry.

My nephews got it into their heads to start grabbing seaweed (or lakeweed, technically) and tossing it at each other, and then at me, but the problem was, it was really bad-smelling and dirty, and when it hit you, it would make a brown splotch on your clothes or skin, and that got old fast, especially when I had it in my hair and running down my face.

I decided to go back to shore, taking my three year old nephew with me.  I sat down and decided to read my book, but the child is so destructive and eager to disappear that I didn't even get the book out of my bag.  And he still managed to grab my sister's phone out of her bag, play with it for a minute, then drop it on the ground on my watch.

Even so, I'll look back on these trips with fondness, and the boy at this age, despite the wanton mayhem he excels in causing.

Look at that weird light quality.

Words Today: 972
Words In September: 8335

*This is the lake here in town.  It's just up the road about two or three miles--I've ridden my bike there a couple of times--and one I've visited multiple times this year, including recording my You Are Enough video as close as they would let me get back in February.  I'll take you there sometime if you want.

**Actually, I don't know if it's his biggest, but it's certainly his best.