Bonus Day!

The weather gods smiled on us and gave us a bonus ski day. We woke, grabbed coffee, put Lucy the cat on her leash, and headed out for her pre-dawn walk. To our happy surprise we found that the wind was still good for skiing. We were on the lake by sunrise for our bonus ski day. (Three cheers for the weather gods!!!) We were cruising home before the wind changed direction, increased in speed, and lake conditions deteriorated.

Our neighbor was already out fishing. This guy is one of our favorite people, always upbeat and interesting.

Al was good to slalom.

My legs were too tired from yesterday, so I had a "toy" in the boat, a disc.

The disc is a lot more fun than the usual pull toy. You can do all sorts of things on it while being easier than skiing.

Not Much of a Week for Water Skiing

We got out skiing this morning. It will be our only day skiing this week. Some weeks the weather gods are with you, some weeks they aren't. So we just went out this morning and totally skied ourselves silly. After all, it's why we live here.

August Ends, Hurricane Season Ramps Up

Statistically hurricane season ramps up in mid August heading towards the peak in mid September. Our weather this week has been active but not because of any tropical system. A front dropped into the Florida peninsula from the north, stalled in north Florida, and caused some real deluges here. Because we ski at dawn, we were able to salvage four days of skiing from an otherwise bad week for lake activities. That made us pretty happy as a tropical system (Isaac) will affect our weather next week. The center of the hurricane is predicted to be almost a hundred miles to the west of us, but the systems are huge. The effects here will still be significant. That means no skiing for most of next week, but maybe we'll be able to ski at the end of the week.

Summer's Midpoint

The third week of August. Two and a half months of summer lie behind us. Two and a half months of summer lie ahead of us.

Summer in rural Florida is hot and humid, languid and long. Sipping coffee under a blanket of stars in the early dark hours of the morning, listening to crickets and watching bats sweep around the palm trees. Dawn water skiing on the lake. Afternoons reading on the back porch listening to the breeze in the palms and the gentle whirring of the ceiling fans. The soft smell of the humid air as it blows across the waters of the creek and canals. Quiet evenings watching a few hours of TV. Summer in rural Florida is the stuff of daydreams and fantasies. There is a feeling of being suspended outside of time.

This week we skied five times. We have skied hard each day, coming home with muscles exhausted and trembling, but feeling exhilarated and content.

No Risk, No Gain

I watched videos of  my recent ski runs and saw something I didn't like. It was being too cautious. Caution can be a good thing. (One doesn't want to be stupid.) I'm skiing because I really enjoy skiing. Unless your skills and abilities grow, things get dull after a while. And to improve at skiing, you must take risks and push yourself just a little beyond your comfort level.

I took a fall last year in which I snagged my foot on a binding. It really, really hurt, and much seriously bad language ensued. Watching the videos I saw that I was unconsciously skiing to prevent another bad fall. This week I promised to push myself and take some risks out there.

It was a great week for skiing. At dawn in August the air and water temperatures are both in the low 80s which is just about perfect. Of the seven days, we skipped one day on account of wind and took a road trip to the Gulf coast instead of skiing another day. That gave us five days of skiing. I met my goal. I took a really fabulous fall and came close several other times. (Note to self: It was lots of fun!)

The clouds make for a pretty dawn.

Al getting ready to ski.

Al does water ski "wheelies" by skiing on the back tip of his ski.

This is the way to start the day.

A Tale of Two Cameras and Capricious Weather Forecasts

The old camera on the pylon camera mount.

Skiing videos are wonderful tools. You can see what you are doing right. You can see what you are doing wrong. But this summer I hadn't been able to get a watchable video. Despite lots of tries, muttered bad language, and hateful looks at the idiot camera. The problem was my new camera. The video was fabulous...until I clamped it on the ski boat's camera mount. Then the video was bumpy and blurry, totally useless. I tried a number of modifications to the mount, but nothing helped. I finally accepted that its image stabilization was not as good as the old camera. My old camera was a Canon PowerShot A540 and the new one a Nikon CoolPix S6100. This week I dug out the old camera and mounted it on the pylon mount. Voila! We were back in business. So now I take two cameras out each ski day: the PowerShot for video and the CoolPix for still photos.

The weather forecast this week was spot on for temperature and rain chances. Wind direction and speed? Not so much. We went out to the lake to ski four mornings, but we only skied two of those days. The days we go out to the lake only to find the wind a problem, well, it is frustrating. But we head back, put the boat away and head out on our bikes or whatever strikes our fancy. It is the good part of being retired. Tomorrow is another day.

Al uses a sophisticated method to check wind speed and direction.

The weatherman said no wind at dawn. But there was the beginnings of mild chop.

Wednesday was beautiful dawn with minimal wind.

The full moon was in the west this week before dawn.

The moon above our canal as we head out to the lake.

An Old Florida Morning

I have always enjoyed the phrase used to describe Florida of before development: Old Florida. It's a pretty little phrase, but also quite humorous since Florida is home to such a large population of retirees. The phrase simultaneously brings up images of Florida wilderness and grey-haired golfers and fishermen. I was playing with some pictures I took on the way back from skiing today. I decided to make one look like an Old Florida morning from those postcard photographs of the 50s and 60s. Pretty, huh? No wonder memories sometimes seem nicer than the present.