Monday, July 07, 2008

Beach Bum



At the beach, it's hot! Doggie & I took wrong path - long, sandy road instead of short sandy road, uh oh, underbrush is wet, look, a swamp, where to step, soggy foot, don't want to get stuck, large boulders placed along the lake edge, climbing up and down, this way, no that, c'mon doggie! careful! not there, up here - whimper - oh, ok, over this way, found our way to the nearby beach without her getting trapped. It's beautiful here.

A not-very-visited spot, alone in our corner of the bay, light breeze, billowing blue sky, gentle lake of water, a swan and many ducks, being nipped by a blackfly though.

Getting redder from slapping the damn blackfly on my thighs than from the sun.

Parks & Rec guys come and start raking the beach right in front of me, then their all-terrain vehicle gets stuck, sand whipping out behind the back wheels everywhere.

Only here 2 hours, no sunscreen. Sun's a vitamin, c'mon! Sigh, move on.

Into people-land, purer sand, lifeguard, a dozen beach bums, seriously, a few families and some loners, and no blackflies... yes, perfect!

4 comments:

  1. oohhhhh, brenda. sunscreen might help save you from deadly melanoma, a cancer which killed my college roomie in 1999 after she spent sun worshipping time doing just what you did! no, no, no.

    we spent last week on the oregon coast with that pacific ocean we love, drinking margaritas, and eating delicious seafood in quaint restaurants along the central coast. yummmmmm.

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  2. sky, they are saying for those of us in northerly climes that Vitamin D deficiency is a far worse concern than skin cancer. I guess it's which experts one chooses to believe - the dermatologists or the nutritionists.

    If I don't get enough sun in our short Summer I find it affects me badly in February of the following year! Go figure!

    So I discovered this amazing beach that is most underpopulated in a city of 5 million and it's a dream and I can get enough lake, sand, breeze and sun in an hour or two... without overdoing it. It's been pure blessing.

    Your week on the Oregon coast... O! blissfully wonderful!

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  3. yes, we deal with the D deficiency here, too. i take 2500 IUs of Vitamin D each day on recommendation of my internist to avoid deficiency. it works perfectly. it is checked each time blood work is done (once or twice a year depending on my health). they have determined D helps in so many important ways beyond bone health that it is something we can't afford to ignore. i was accustomed to the sunny south so supplementing D here is necessary. having watched someone die from melanoma i can only suggest that a tiny bit of daily filtered sun (15 mins) when it is available and Vitamin supplements is a much better option. (and you are the exact body type for risk - blond with light eyes.)

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  4. Sky, there was an article on melanoma rate in BC in the news today, doesn't look good. Still, I don't find the pill form of Vit D does what the actual sun can, and so approx 2 hours a week is all I allow myself at the beach, and that's for maybe 8 weeks of the year. It's not excessive. (Though I did have a lot of sun as a child in Zimbabwe/Zambia & that counts too.)

    I take a Vit D supplement of 1000 IUs, but based on your amount, perhaps I should raise it. Calcium in pill form seems to make my joints hurt so I don't take that but have lots of calcium sources in my diet. So far, pill form of Vit D has only made me feel fantastic in comparison to the normal Winter blahs.

    I'd think on the West coast, and gardening that beautiful garden of yours, that you'd get enough sun to meet your Vit D needs?

    Though obviously you are very careful with sunlight, and it must have been awful to witness the death of someone close from melanoma.

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A Pulsing Imagination - Ray Clews' Paintings

A video of some of my late brother Ray's paintings and poems I wrote for them. Direct link: https://youtu.be/V8iZyORoU9E ___