Today's weather fluctuated from rainy, cloudy, sunny, and then back to rainy. The period of sunshine coincided with medium-high tide and so it was decided everyone would go out on jet skis, venturing into the trails just beyond the channels in which my brother-in-law and sister-in-law have their home on the sound.
I was told we were going. It was assumed I would be joining everyone. My nephew would be riding on his self graduation present—a small jet ski he hoped would afford him the ability to do more tricks. My niece would be on her new jet ski. Neither of the new jet skis was actually new, one being over twenty-five years old, they were new here, and trying them out was in order. My daughter would be riding with Nicole while my son would be with his father. Uncle Eric would be on his stand up, that being the most difficult for him, the most accomplished of the group. I would be riding with Aunt Kelly.
Only I wasn't sure I wanted to go. I'd had some bad experiences in the past. Of highest order, my concern was for the greenhead files, who are of the vicious variety, hunting to bite into you with their razor teeth, injecting anticoagulant into your skin, causing a ferocious itch that for me, recurred regularly over the next ten days. No bug protectant known will stop them as they are visual hunters and aren't deterred by smell or taste. I hate them.
My other reservation had to do with my neck and spine. When I was young, riding over the waves, bouncing up and down in a small watercraft topping out at sixty miles per hour would have sounded like a summer dream come true. Only I'm fifty with a crummy back and one bad bounce might potentially cause me days of pain. So while fun it might be to ride around on the trails in a fast-moving jet ski, I wasn't sure it would be worth it. I was skeptical—and I was afraid.
Then something happened and I ended up going without even thinking about it. My husband got on an unexpected phone call he needed to take with a client when I text came from Aunt Kelly on the dock at the back of their house: were we coming? Everyone was already leaving.
My son was ready to go so he and I went downstairs and out to the dock. My son absolutely, positively didn't want to go without his father but since we didn't know when my husband would be off the phone we convinced my son to go with Aunt Kelly and me. He wasn't happy. He wanted to go with his father. We convinced him though and headed off to meet up with the other three jet skis groups.
It was about ten minutes later that I changed my mind. I yelled at Kelly over the whipping wind in that she was my favorite person to ride with on a jet ski. Her experience was so far advanced from my meager time driving a jet ski. She deftly avoided the jarring wakes of the other riders and never slowed down to a speed that would have made us a target to the greenhead flies. I was safe—in more ways than one.
My son wanted to keep going back to look for his father but soon enough, off in the distance, we saw him coming. It was then that the phrase, "I'm an excellent driver" from the movie Rain Man came to mind as I watched Kelly perfectly circle my husband's jet ski to let my son hop off ours to get behind his father.
My daughter was with her cousin, Nicole, who we saw off in the distance several times. Nicole, unaccustomed to the new jet ski, got mired in the mud on one of the smaller trails. My daughter was not pleased, upset even. Nicole was so kind, carrying her to Uncle Eric, waist-high herself in the muck while keeping my daughter safe with crabs all around her legs just so she could then free her own jet ski. Fortunately, that was the only mishap of the day.
I watched my daughter as they rode around and noticed something specific to her: she looked straight forward the entire time, directly into Nicole's back. She didn't look left or right to see us or the landscape—because there was nothing to see for her. She was loving the ride, only to her, it was all a feeling and sound thing. Later, she asked to come onto the jet ski with Aunt Kelly and me because she was worried about more mud and muck. The three of us as well as the remainder of our crew. We were all lined up in a group at one point. Aunt Kelly commented that we looked like a "boatercycle gang."
It was getting overcast in the distance and the tide was getting lower all the time so we headed back in before the rain got us. I didn't want to go out today, but I'm glad I did. I'd ride with Kelly any time. She truly is an excellent driver.
The Big Boy Update: My son was itchy all over before we went out on the jet skis today. I scratched him in as many places as I could and then promised to get him Benadryl when we got in. I don't know what caused him to be so itchy: the saltwater, the sunscreen, or something else unknown. After the jet ski rides and a round in the hot tub, he seems fine. Sometimes you never know the cause. I'm just glad he's no longer itchy.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My brother- and sister-in-law put on the Disney Music station on Alexa and my daughter came into the room and started singing all the songs. They both said she was really good at singing. She's certainly had lots of practice. Some days it seems she won't ever stop singing. She loves to sing. It is nice to hear her little voice singing the Disney songs. She's on key and sounds very sweet singing.
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