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Another Saturday at the beach, yesterday. Not much to report except that I'm getting used to the whole "do nothing and listen to the waves" aspect of what the beach experience is supposed to be. I've been reading Lonesome Dove this summer and even though I picked the book up is spurts yesterday, I managed to get through 50 some pages and still retain what I read. The beach up in Carpinteria was CROWDED. I can't recall the last time I've seen that many families hanging out and enjoying the coolness of the water breeze.

On the way home we blew a tire on the van. Just like last year's experience with Mom and Dad, the spare had to be put on with traffic speeding by in intervals. It was nerve racking, but there was also this rush of adrenalin that made me feel useful for a change. Luckily I had the experience from last summer to get me through last night's excitement rather quickly. Believe it or not, I didn't slip out any obscenities except for once, and it had nothing to do with the tire. I tweaked my foot and had to stand up suddenly. The whole tire changing incident only took about a half hour. Not bad considering I was only wearing a T-shirt, swimming suit and flip-flops. The only drag is having to buy a new tire.

Aloha

Comments

Ted said…
Dude! I ran over some metal on the freeway and blew a tire, too. Bummer.

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