Un-Wired

I have a little problem.

I have been spending way too much time on the computer.
Between e-mails, this stupid blog, finding a lot of my old friends on Facebook,
blah, blah, blah, etc, etc, etc,

the machine of doom has begun to rule my free time.

SO . . .

BS & I tried a little experiment yesterday. I put up a status message about it on Facebook:

"...will spend the whole day tomorrow without the internet. No blog, no daily jigsaw puzzle, no e-mail, no reading other people's stuff, no Facebook (ergo no Farmtown). It's an experiment. Will I live? Certainly. Will it be good for me? Probably. By the end of the day will I be in the corner sucking my thumb? Likely."

The verdict? It was a surprisingly quiet, peaceful & tranquil day. I didn't even have the television on very much as background noise. I read a book. I went out for lunch with BS & my mother. I read some more. I made muffins.

BS? He slept till 11:00 this morning, went to lunch with us, went straight to work and worked until 9:00 pm, then went out with friends. Wasn't so much of a hardship for him.

And no, I wasn't to be found in the corner sucking my thumb.
It was a nice, enjoyable day. I may just do this on a regular basis.

Although, at 12:01 am, I fired up this thing to post about it. What does that mean?

Attention Runners & Good-Hearted People

This post will be an overt & shameless plug.
Anyone who reads this knows I am staunchly loyal to my place of employment:
St. Mary's Home for Disabled Children.
But for anyone else, I will briefly explain.
(Really, you should just go back and read the whole blog. ;-)

My 8 1/2 loyal readers should just go to the kitchen for a snack right about now, 'cause you've heard it before.
But come back. I have a point here.

St. Mary's provides 24 hour nursing and residential care for children with disabilities at the severe to profound level.
It is one of only about 100 such facilities in the country,
and the care they receive is outstanding - not only the medical care & therapies,
but the love and attention the staff lavishes on them.
Yes, lavishes.
We adore our kids.



Photos by weyo

And we're not the only ones.

Loyal readers (what, I'm down to only 7 again? rats!),
come on back in the room now.
I need you.

We have very good friends in the community.
Friends who bend over backwards to help us in our fund raising efforts.
Friends who bend over backwards to give the kids experiences that we all take for granted.
Friends like Team Hoyt Virginia Beach (whose website is presently under construction),
a group of runners who, inspired by the story of Rick & Dick Hoyt,
have been taking our kids (and others) to the races.



Have you ever seen the face of a disabled child running a race
(with the assistance of someone pushing them)?



They feel the wind in their faces.



They are free of the wheelchairs.



Of course, some of them take the excitement in stride.



But they all love the experience.



And it can be life changing.
Not only for the kids, but for their helpers who get them through the course.



For a reminder of just who Team Hoyt is - the inspiration for this - watch this video or this one, and you will know why this group of runners was inspired. Then, if you really want to have a good weepy moment, watch this one. I still choke up when I see these.

Anyway, Team Hoyt Virginia Beach has participated in quite a few events since their humble beginnings,
and they have another one coming up September 6, 2009 at the
Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon at the Virginia Beach oceanfront.

You can go here to read about their efforts and decide if you want to help.
(Maybe you are a runner and would like to join them.)
Not only are they seeking funds,
but they are seeking children and young adults with disabilities who would like to participate.

Do you know any kids who would like to escape their disabilities that morning?
Team Hoyt is looking for kids to help them get through the race,
since they have decided that the only way they like running anymore is
if there is a deserving young person in a jogging stroller in front of them.

God bless them all.

There are runners just waiting to take your child for a ride.
Look at them in action:



Can you think of a more worthwhile endeavor than supporting these people and their efforts to help the children of St. Mary's?

Weekends Mean Breakfast!

And you know what that means. That means . . . . . .
you think I'm going to go on again ad nauseum about pancakes or muffins, don't you?

FOOLED YOU!

It was sweet potato hash with fried eggs & salsa.
You see, I have a bowl where I keep potatoes & onions & the like,
and this grew out of it overnight.
Overnight, I swear.



I think it needs to be used, eh?

(And looky RAD, I got some bokeh in that shot!)

So, it got sliced & put in the pan with some butter & olive oil.
Then I sprinkled some chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, salt & pepper over the mess & cooked it a bit,
not stirring too much since I wanted the bottom to get a little brown.



Then a chopped sweet onion & 2 cloves of minced garlic went in.




After it all cooked some more & I did a lousy job of trying to turn it over so it could get toasty,
I put it on a plate, sprinkled on some 2% sharp cheddar, sprinkled some more, maybe a little more,
and put in the oven to get melty while I made the eggs.



Now, speaking of minced garlic, I have minced garlic the old-fashioned way,
wielding my big ol' knife with expert skill.
Highly overrated, I tell ya, especially since my co-worker gave me a chopper.
Now my garlic goes from this . . .



. . . to this with just a few whacks.



What's not to love, right? And they stay in a pretty circle.
Simple pleasures.

The eggs went in a clean pan to cook - 2 for the boy & 1 for me.



Here's a nice tip I learned from my mama.
Sunny-side-up eggs can be a bit wiggly on the top, and slimy egg whites squick me out.
If you don't want the monkey business of trying to flip them (to cook the white part)
without busting the yolks, put a little water in the pan & cover it, still on the heat.



The steam will cook the top side and you will still have pretty, recognizable yolks in the middle.
The eggs went on top of the hash with a salsa garnish.



Ewww, you're thinking. What's that on the eggs?
Well, I placed a dab of salsa on each egg too, but they ended up looking too much like boobs,
so I scraped it off.
I'm trying to repress my inner 12 year old.
My mother is glad of that.

There were no leftovers.
BS was very pleased.
I liked it a lot too, but I think I would have preferred a slightly sweeter salsa,
like mango or peach, to offset the spicy potatoes.

United Airlines Baggage Handling - FAIL!

BS returned home to the bosom of his family this morning ago after spending 1 1/2 weeks in sunny, NOT-humid California. His young 'cousin' is a rising high school senior, and he escorted her around Southern California visiting colleges. Her dad is unable to do that kind of traveling, so he made BS a deal he couldn't refuse.

Those poor, poor young'uns. They had a grueling schedule that week. I'm surprised they lived through it. *Snort* Here is just a sampling of the hardships they suffered:

Tuesday: am - visit USC; pm - SIX FLAGS MAGIC MOUNTAIN!
Wednesday: am - visit UCLA; pm - DISNEYLAND!
Thursday: am - Cal State; pm - BEVERLY HILLS!
Friday: am - UCSD; pm - BEACH!

I think you get the picture here. Not to mention the nice hotel accommodations and eating at fine dining establishments like In-N-Out Burger, Chipotle & Yogurtland (which is, apparently, the best place in the universe - "Yogurtland is amazing").

So, after having more fun than he could stand, he boards his plane in Sacramento - with all trust & faith in the marvels of modern electronic baggage tracking - for his connection in Chicago.

Okay, I am going to use as many of BS's words here as possible.

The plane was not late to Chicago's O'Hare Airport. This is an important point. It was about 15 minutes early. But they spent 20 minutes driving around the runways, then 20 minutes sitting out on the tarmac, and then 20 more minutes waiting for the shuttle to take him to his next gate. So, guess what? He runs to the gate (which is at ground level) only to see the doors being closed. He's left standing there staring at his plane through the big giant windows.
"Can't I just get on? It's right there."
"No sir, we're soooo sorry. It's too late."

(oops, I have been corrected. "They didn't say any of that 'sorry' shit")

They directed him to customer no-service for assistance, and he spent 10 minutes walking to where they said it was. No customer service desk. Huh? So someone else told him where it was and he walked there only to find it was next to his terminal where he had just been.

BS: "As I'm standing in line for customer service, I can still see my plane at the gate. I just want to point this out."

Waited in line, watching his plane pull out & leave him behind (really, they couldn't have just opened the door & let me in?), for an hour & a half to be told the next plane was at 6 in the morning (he got to his gate at around 9 at night).

United, after punching a lot of keys on their computer: "Don't worry sir, your suitcase made it on the plane, so it will be waiting there for you when you arrive."

Yeah, right.

Now he has tons of time to kill until the next plane out at 6 am. What to do, what to do? Ooh, there's a bar, so he goes in and makes friends with the nice female bartender who gaves him some free beers. There he met some random people who had the same problem he had. Out comes the laptop, and they sat around on the "shitty-ass benches in the airport" watching movies with a big ol' bottle of Captain Morgan Spiced Rum. All. Night. Long.

Sleep? I don't think so.

I went to fetch him at around 9 am at our airport. He was just a wee bit bleary-eyed, doncha know.

Hug, hug, welcome home, good to see you, yada yada yada, let's go get your bag. Trot off to the United baggage claim office to get his bag that the nice United people assured him would be waiting for him.

Not there. Huh? So the teenager in the office punched a lot of keys on his computer which told him it was on the plane he just came in on after all. It is being offloaded as we speak & will pop up on the carousel any minute, really.

There are few things in life more enthralling than watching the luggage carousel go round & round & round & round & round as you wait for your suitcase that never shows up. Have you ever really noticed some of the bags on that thing? Like this one - I totally want one of these (taken with my cell phone camera):

But the best thing about this cool-as-all tie-dye footlocker was this bit of a shirt hanging out the bottom:

Back to the United office . . . wait in line . . . wait, wait, wait. They punch a lot of keys - again - on their computer - the same computer, I might add, that just told us it came with him on his plane.

"No sir, your bag wasn't on that plane. Uh, it's still in Chicago. We'll put it on the next flight out. Should be here by 5:00 this evening. Really"

I am left wondering, why were all those keys that all those people kept punching (on all those computer that are supposedly all connected to the same network) all telling them different things?

Anyone? Anyone? *crickets*

Sheesh. He finally got it that evening. Coincidentally, I had gotten a link to this video on You Tube a few days earlier. Kismet, I tell you. This gentleman also had a problem with United (also at O'Hare), and the video has spread like wildfire all over the internet (full story here) . . .



. . . even causing Fox News to take notice . . .



. . . which prompted the musician to post a response & follow-up updating United's response as they scrambled to mend their tarnished image . . .

The Good & The Ugly

I was thinking that the best way to start the morning would be to whip us up some frooty shakes. In goes the frozen fruit, in goes the yogurt, in goes some juice, and in goes . . . . what is this? There are 3 soft, over-ripened, no-longer-yellow, squishy things on my counter. Really, I would have been totally grossed out with one of those in my frooty frosty.

You know what that means, don't you? Even though mooshing them in the blender had the 'ick' factor, baking with soft squishy bananas is a good thing. BS asked for banana pancakes, but he ain't getting them. I am a cruel & inconsiderate mother, with no consideration whatsoever for his wants & needs. So I am making banana muffins instead. Maybe banana chocolate chip muffins? Oh my.

BS: Banana muffins!? Ooh, that's even better.
Me: Don't ever second-guess the wisdom of my superior intellect!
BS *rolls eyes*: WhatEVER!

I wanted to cut down on the gluten so the muffins would be more tender, so I used a combination of 100% white whole wheat flour (higher in gluten) and some brown rice & buckwheat flours (zero gluten). I've never used that combination before, so we'll see how they taste.

The Players:
3 squishy bananas
2 eggs
the last of the vanilla yogurt in the carton (~1/3 cup)
scant 1/3 cup white sugar (evil stuff, I know)
1/3 cup brown sugar
big ol' splash of vanilla
1/2 stick melted butter, cooled
couple Tbsp safflower oil
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup each brown rice flour & buckwheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder (there is a total of 1 1/2 cups flour)
1/2 tsp baking soda (because of the yogurt)
scant 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Mush the bananas & beat in eggs, yogurt, sugars, melted butter & oil. Whisk well.
Combine the dry stuff & add to the wet.
Whisk (gently) until combined.
Stir in chocolate chips . . .

Wait, where the he!! are my chocolate chips? I coulda sworn I had some, right there on the top shelf of the cupboard next to the stove where they belong. Whaaaa? Where did they go?

Hmmm.
Drums fingers.
Really wanted the chocolate chips.
What else is up there?
Heath Bar bits?
Hmmm, that has possibilities.

. . . so, instead of chocolate chips, half the bag of toffee bits went in.

I really liked the results. The brown sugar added to the 'toffeeness' of the flavor. The combination of flours was fine - the buckwheat flour didn't overpower the flavor. The Heath Bar crumbles lent some crunchy bits, which is always good.

Very, very nice. Out of a perfect 10, BS gave them "at least an 8, maybe a 9".

Sorry, no money shot of a nice warm muffin, split open, with steam gently wafting over a pat of melting butter. They were so good, we were snarfing & gulping like piggies & I . . . sigh . . . forgot.

BUT, here's my gripe. Whoever designs muffin tins has got to be someone who hates muffins and wants the makers of muffins to either burn themselves getting them out of the oven or smash them grabbing the pan? Look at this and tell me how either of these mishaps won't happen:

Why don't they put handles on these suckers? Or a bigger edge that you can grab on to?

Then, there was that half bag of toffee bits looking at me. It would be wasteful and irresponsible of me not to use them, right? And its little toffee voice was whispering "I love chocolate" every time I passed by.

Oh, okay, toffee bits. Don't get your knickers in twist. You can get it on with the chocolate in the form of chocolate toffee mini-muffins.

The Players:
1 egg
1/4 - 1/3 cup vanilla yogurt
about 1/3 stick butter melted with 1 oz unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup sugar
not quite 2/3 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
about 1/4 tsp salt
1/2 bag toffee bits

These were outstandingly delicious. Moist, chocolate-y, toffee-y, buttery. What's not to love, right?

Now, just go on ahead and ignore that entire thing. Here's why:
1) That was too much baking powder for the amount of flour I used. I didn't follow my own rules. BAD KATHY!
2) The proportions were way off.
3) The planets were not aligned and my moon was in someone else's house.
4) I dunno.

When they came out of the oven - smelling heavenly I might add - they immediately imploded, most likely because of the excess of baking powder:

And what do you think of the money shot of a couple warm ones on my plate?

Hmmm, something seems a little . . . off.

They are ugly.

They stubbornly refused to leave their warm wells in one piece, so I got a pile o' moist, blissful chocolate pieces & crumbs. I know taste is important, but a muffin, by its very nature, should be, oh, I don't know, muffin shaped? So, don't make these if appearance is a critical factor for you.
Or ease of eating.
Or neatness.
Or anything else.

Muffin - FAIL!
But a mighty tasty fail.

Early Morning Roust

You know what the best kind of friends are? The ones that defy the passage of time.

No, I don't mean we stay eternally youthful.
Huh, don't I wish.

I mean that no matter how many years have passed, you can get together and it's as if time has frozen.
You easily slip back into the old camaraderie.
The years melt away.
There are no awkward silences.
No "Uh oh, what do we talk about now?"
No "Sheesh, I don't know this person anymore."

Everyone should have friends like that, and I have several.
I am very lucky.

Roger (or RAD in my comments section) was my best friend during college.
Then we each got married and went our separate ways, with only a handful of contacts in between.

Enter FACEBOOK!
Say what you want about the computer, but over the last few months,
I have been able to reconnect with a lot of old friends through the magic of the evil internets.
It has been great fun talking to all my old friends and classmates again.

So, a few days ago, Roger calls to say he is going to be in town for a meeting.
Now, I'm not sure how it happened or who was the one to come up with such a moronic idea,
but I found myself driving to the beach at 5:00 in the morning to shoot pictures of the sunrise.
(he is a professional photographer, and his website & blog are linked on the right)

Okay, there are a couple things that were whacky about this plan:
1) I voluntarily got up at 4 in the f**king morning? What was I smoking?
2) There was no stinkin' sunrise. It was overcast & cloudy, although a few patches of sky did peek through after awhile.

There was also the laughable contrast in the equipment each of us brought.
Here was the extent of my arsenal - my beloved point-and-shoot which is usually set to "Auto":

Yeah, so here is what Roger brought along:

http://brain-dead-in-tokuyama.blogspot.com/

Hahahaha. Just kidding.
And Rog, I can see your expression through the screen, doncha know.

But his arsenal did consist of a backpack full of stuff and a tripod.
My tripod was the legs-splayed-and-elbows-locked-to-sides model.
I've had it for years.

But really, what is better than sunrise (or at least a poor imitation of one) over the Atlantic
with a cool breeze in your face and good company.

Okay, there are 2 things that control how much light gets into the camera,
aperture & shutter speed, and by playing with these settings,
you can create gorgeous effects . . . uh, if you know what you're doing.
And I don't.

I broke out the "A" setting on my camera for the first time in the 3 years I have owned it.
Boys & girls, lets learn the photographer's alphabet:
"A" is for aperture
"B" is for bokeh
"C" is for camera
"D" is for depth of field

I adjusted the "A" on my "C" to change the "D" so I could get some interesting "B".
Understand?

I'm learning, but I don't know if I can explain it and sound intelligent.
And I always want to sound intelligent.
But since Roger's blog is still new and he hasn't done that particular tutorial yet,
I'll give it my best shot at the end of the post.

Anyway, not only does he have enough equipment to fill a small house,
but his editing software gives new meaning to the term 'photoshop'.

Many of the pictures I took were crap, and others I looked at & wondered "What the heck was I thinking?"
Probably 2/3 of them got deleted, so I don't have a lot to show you.
His were much better. The whole pesky 'talent' thing, you know.
That and good equipment.
Although, I do believe I got the best shot of the dragonfly.
Wait, let me rephrase that.
My dragonfly was in better focus than his.
Whoo hoo!



But, oooh, I have an idea.
I'll send him a couple of my bad pictures and let him do some of his mad editing skillz
to show you the crappy 'before' and the cool-as-all 'after'.
Rog, you can do this, right?

Helloo? Helloooo? Helloooooo? (echo)

Crickets

Well, we'll see. Anyway, most of these pictures were taken at the
Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge
at the southern end of Virginia Beach, one of our fair city's hidden jewels.
It spans Virginia's barrier islands (geologically they are the northern edge of the Outer Banks)
from ocean to sound.
A beautiful, peaceful place.
Peaceful - especially at 5 am. Yeah.
Can you see anything in this dark, what-am-I-doing-up-so-early pre-dawn shot?



But then the sun came up behind a lot of clouds.



Never did see much of a nice blue sky.

Now for what little I know about that particular setting on my camera.
"A" is for aperture, otherwise known as the f-stop.
Why is it called the f-stop? I dunno.
This setting determines your depth of field, or how much of your picture will be in focus,
by controlling how wide the lens opens up to let in light.
Kind of like the pupil of your eye.

And it's all backasswards.
A small number means a wide open lens.
A big number means a small lens opening.
It confuses me.

Since my brain doesn't work that way, I have to use mind games to remember which does what.
As far as the f-stop, the bigger the number, the more is in focus.
A small number will result in only the subject being in focus - everything else will be blurry.
(kind of like when you get your eyes checked & they dilate your pupils - everything is blurry)

Blurry? Why do you want blurry?
"B" is for bokeh & bokeh means blurry.
You can get some very pretty effects when the central subject is sharp and the background is fuzzy.

Here are some bad examples.




See how the pretty pink flowers are in focus, but the background is blurry.
It lets you highlight the subject of your picture without a lot of background clutter.
I had a small f-stop.
(Which is wide aperture. It's that whole backwards thing.)
Smaller f-stop, less of the picture will be in focus.
ps - I think last flower needs some Viagra.

The viagra-needing flower picture was taken at The Lotus Pond, a couple miles inland:





Look at the difference here. 1st pic is a larger aperture (blurrier background),
2nd is a smaller aperture (sharper background).



I know, it's a pretty pitiful example.
I'm a novice at this. I know the theory, but the practice part is lacking.

Large f-stops are used for landscapes when you want the whole thing sharp & clear.
Big f-stop, big scenery, everything in focus.




No doubt there's a lot more about apertures that I don't now and may never get.
Like this:
In this next set of 2 pictures, I thought I was doing the whole bokeh thing with the sea oats.
Hey, I'm getting good at this, but noooooo.
Something happened in the 2nd shot. The anti-bokeh?



I have no idea what I did. Rog, help?

Anyway, I had a terrific morning, and please give my best to your beautiful wife.
If she puts up with your house o' cameras, how awesome is that?

Next time, fun with shutter speeds. I don't know what to do with those yet. See?

Reinvention - FAIL!

In the last week, I have had 2 beloved old friends from high school & college days let me know "I'm going to be in town this weekend. Can we get together?"

And, seriously, the first thought that crosses my mind, even before the inevitable
"YAY!",
is
"Is it possible to lose 20 pounds in 2 days?"

Okay, maybe I don't look THAT bad,
but it makes me realize that that part of my reinvention has not gone well at all.
If only they could have seen me a year or 2 ago.

I really don't like myself very much at this moment.
I'll do better.
Really.

And I'm going to have fun with my friends.
They still love me anyway.

Pushing & Pulling & Pushing

On the same day that Brandon had his beach party, St. Mary's kids, past & present, joined in the Allen Stone Memorial Run*Swim*Run at the oceanfront with Team Hoyt Virginia Beach.

Special beach wheelchairs, similar to the one we used with Brandon, were pushed.

Rubber boats were pulled.

Jogging strollers were pushed.

It takes a lot of muscle to get the kids through the course.

BUT, muscles are a plentiful, yet underused commodity for a lot of us that we sooooo take for granted. Find a group in your town and join in on the fun. You will find it incredibly rewarding.

Going the Extra Mile

Medicaid is the major provider of funding for facilities like St. Mary's, and they have implemented a 'new' approach to the provision of services to persons requiring long-term services. "Person-Centered Planning" is a means of coordinating services that places the wants, hopes and choices of individuals with disabilities front and center.

What, you say? Isn't this a big "duuuuh!"? Isn't this what has always been done? Well, yes and no. While all health care providers certainly want to give their patients the best care possible (or at least we hope they do), much of it has historically been geared toward what we (as the providers) feel is important FOR the patients vs what they feel is important TO them.

At St. Mary's, we've always been concerned with our kids' happiness, and I give great big kudos to the staff and administration there for being so willing (gladly willing) to go the extra mile to ensure that not only are their physical bodies cared for, but that their hearts are nurtured as well. It's tough enough to have to live with permanent disabilities. We want happy kids. I am constantly amazed at the lengths we will go to see that smile, to bring that bit of joy.

Enter Mr. Brandon. He has definite ideas and strong opinions about his wants, hopes & needs. We have already taken him to Blacksburg for Virginia Tech football games (go Hokies!) twice in the last 2 years (scroll to Nov 13th). And in the last few months, we have put together "Team Brandon" to determine what his thoughts are about what goes on with his care and what he wants for his future.

No, we're not talking college at this point. Baby steps, folks.

Among discussions of boring medical issues, we discovered that he wanted to go to the beach. He has been to the boardwalk in his wheelchair a couple times, but he has never felt the sand between his toes or the sea wash over his body. Such simple things, things that we take for granted, can mean the world to someone who is totally dependent on others for his care. So he wanted a beach party for his team, including his family. And a beach party is what he got.

There's a lot of planning that goes into something like this. We have to think about things like transportation, shelter, getting him from the boardwalk to the sand, etc etc etc etc. It took a couple weeks to work out all the logistics of what we would need. One of the main things we needed was a beach wheelchair - the kind with the big balloon tires that are easy to push over the sand. We were loaned one that belongs to a friend of his. It was perfect, and many many thanks to Brandon's friend and her family for their generous offer.

The weather was also perfect - sunny and in the 80's.

First things first though - we needed a nice stroll to the Dairy Queen because the ice cream was calling.

The next thing that we had to do after we all got there was to set up the canopy and get him out of his wheelchair. He had been in it for quite awhile, and he has near-constant back spasms. He wanted to go on his belly, and he quickly discovered the pleasures of digging in the sand. Normally, his right arm doesn't cooperate with him at all, but this gave his crazy arm something useful & fun to do.

Unfortunately, we saw this coming, but luckily had plenty of water on hand to wash the sand out of his eyes & mouth.

It didn't deter him from his mission of digging straight through to China though. We ended up doing quite a bit of rinsing, but he figured it was worth it. He loved this best of all.

But hey, the waves are waiting.

Us: Brandon, do you want to go down to the water now?
Brandon: Uh uh.

5 minutes later:
Us: Brandon, don't you want to go in the water yet?
Brandon: Uh uh.

Couldn't figure out why he wasn't keen on getting in the water.

Us: Brandon, don't you think it's time to get in the beach chair and go in the waves?
Brandon: Uh uh.

Okay, this is getting silly.
Us: Brandon, it's time to go to the water.

So, because we're all meanies, we put him in the beach buggy and wheeled him down to the waves.

He was NOT impressed.

But it was only some anxiety of the unknown.

Didn't take him long to appreciate the enthusiasm of everyone around him, the crashing of the waves, the coldness of the water, and the doggone FUN of it all!

He loved this best of all. Oh, what the heck. He loved it ALL!

These are some clips of him getting progressively deeper in the water. I swear, he had a blast.

This last clip has a random little boy that was totally without pretense or curiosity about the boy in the chair. He just kept running back & forth between Brandon and the waves, talking & high-5'ing Brandon like he was any other kid. I wanted to hug him.

And, on the way home, exhausted but happy. We are totally going to do this again.