Letters from Bermuda - another quick hello

Just jotting down another note of the day. Am trying to send some stuff for Marie's mom - Kirk's computer technical support is available 24 hours a day (or something like that). SO figured I can write & do stuff for her at the same time (hopefully).

Anyhow, got a later start to the day than planned & an earlier one, too. I've been sleeping in the living room on the sort of comfy (if you use your imagination) hide a bed & then when Marie comes out to leave at 5AM ish, she wakes me, I wander into her now vacant room & sleep there until whenever allowing her family to go about their morning routine.

This morning Marie decided to go to work late, so came in at 7 & chatted it up with me & then she left & her mom sat & chatted with me for a long time (all while I'm still sitting in shorts & T-shirt - I'm decently clothed, but technically still jammies).

It was good, but didn't get away until noon - though Marie's mom made me lunch so that was a good deal. Likely just as well though - being on the beach for a long time is, well, sort of odd for me. Not sure how to handle it. Mostly trying not to burn - lots of sunscreen & trying to break things up - it wasn't that hot of a day - cloudy & with a solid breeze - not cold by any stretch of the imagination, but a nice day & a relief from the heat/humidity. I don't think I got burned - or perhaps even tanned - using a sunscreen with SPF 45 which is about as high as you can get. Think I'm OK, but will have to check tonight.

The time at the beach was mostly laying there reading or journalling or (almost) sleeping (again, worried about the burning thing) & then heading into the ocean to wander around in the shallow end. The water isn't "bath water" warm, but it is pretty nice - it's cold at first, but once you're in it's OK - quite nice, actually. It's a lot easier to get into than the water at Pigeon Lake. At Pigeon Lake I had to psych myself up to dunk myself in ('cause once you're all wet, it's not as cold somehow). With the ocean, you don't have much choice - you stand there & every so often a big wave decides to come rolling up & you get wet whether you're ready or not. The waves aren't that tall - about 1-2 feet above the surface of the water - it's like being at the wave pool in West Edmonton mall except with less control & the waves aren't predictable.

The waves are cool. It's the ocean's sighing - breathing in & out. You can tell when a new wave is coming 'cause there's a tug on your feet towards sea & then you look & the wave is nearly on you (or maybe the tug is the outflow from the last wave that came in. It's neat how it moves the sand around in little clouds & billows of currents washing in & out & in & out... It's pretty amazing & nice when the sand is so fine.

Journalling was good. It was a bit on the lonelier-ish side out there. It'd be nice to have some good company to share the time with, but I guess you can't have everything (& I'd be picky about who would be "sharing" the time vs. who would be just be making noise & distracting from the beauty & peacefulness). & yeah, would've been nice to have a 2nd pair of eyes to watch the gear. I'm getting paranoid, not that I have anything to worry about - people seem to leave their stuff lying around all the time without incident. But I decided to minimize the valueables in my pack today in case someone decided to walk off with it.

The hat is working great by the way & my head is not melting...

Oh & one of the things that's different about Bermuda (people were trying to tell me this, but I didn't believe them) - Businessmen actually do wear suit jackets, shirts & ties over plain coloured bermuda shorts with socks pulled up to their knees - it's weird... some of it because some of these guys should not be wearing shorts & partly 'cause you have distinguished looking guys looking like school kids with their knees exposed (oh, all the kids wear uniforms, too - which I guess sort of looks like the business attire).

Anyhow, guess that's all I have to say for sure & I'm getting close to finishing sending files for Marie's mom, so I should go.