Virginia Breeze

And there is a lot of sunshine this morning pouring through our living room window as I sit here and try to figure out what needs to go in this post. One of my dearest blogging pals is having trouble leaving comments here. WP Spamfree is leaving her messages that don’t make any sense. If anybody else has had a problem with that please let me know! Use the contact page under the header near the right edge.

I forgot the cord that connects the camera to the computer so I will have to wait until I get back to Richmond to share some photos of the beach. It has been an interesting weekend. Apparently there is a fire burning out of control in the Dismal Swamp down near or below the North Carolina border. If the wind shifts just right you can look out over the water and see. . . practically nothing.

But thankfully a front recently came in and blew all the smoke away so this morning the sun IS shining brightly. The sound of the waves crashing on the beach is very relaxing. And the temperature is very comfortable. Not too hot and not to cold as Goldilocks used to say before she ran away with the bear.

That’s what happened right? Or was that Little Red Riding Hood? What a name for a girl! Gad. No wonder she ran away.

The weekend entertainment theme down here is Elvis. So there are many Elvi running around. None of them are particularly talented from what we can see. Well, maybe the ones that jumped out of the airplane and floated down to the shore line were talented.

But the ones that tried to sing were dismal sounding and blowing smoke when it came to carrying a tune. Most did not even try to sing. They just flipped a switch and lip synched.

There is really so much pretending that goes on at a beach town like this one. Pretend entertainment. Pretend construction. People who are pretending to be one thing or another.

The only thing that is real is the ocean and nature. The birds that skim the water and the fish that nibble at your toes when you venture out there. And the weather of course can be overwhelmingly real when it wants to be.

But the beach is mostly sand that has been sucked through a tube from the bottom of Rudee’s Inlet and then spread around by a bulldozer. I was out there about six this morning taking photos. And every time I do this a strange guy comes up to me and starts asking me if I know this person or that person. I am supposed to know apparently because I’m taking photos. This morning he asked me if you are allowed to walk out on the rocks. He knows perfectly well that you are not supposed to do it. There’s a sign ten feet away that makes the point. So I told him “No you are not supposed to walk out there” and he walked out there anyway with his bag of goodies.

I worked with people like this guy for many years so it’s not big deal playing games with him. But I mention it just because it illustrates what I am trying to suggest about this place. And when we got here yesterday and it was filled up with smoke it just seemed so appropriate.

Smoke and a very large mirror are all around us. The only safe place to be is in the water. Plunge into the surf and suddenly feel like you have merged with nature. Dive deep and stay down as long as you dare.

Late last night I told Beth I wanted to go swimming. And she was not happy about it but she stood on the edge of the water while I waded out into the darkness. The water was warm and mysterious. The waves were fairly large and I was totally unprepared for them when they hit. Still it was a joy to be out there in the darkness feeling the embrace of the ocean. I imagined for a moment being one of those unfortunate souls who are shipwrecked for one reason or another and float away into an endless darkness.

As I looked down the beach at the towering buildings and lights I felt comforted. I would not want to be out in the middle of the ocean with little hope of survival. I want reality but not too much of it. So I swam back to the beach and kissed my wife. I thanked her for putting up with me once again and we went upstairs to sit on the balcony and watch fireworks.

Photos at ten.

Last night I was glued to the tube watching Frontline and their documentary about life in China. It is not reality tv. It is harsh reality television.

It is “Thank God I don’t live there” television. I was walking around today thinking about the young woman who had to fight off her parents and her community to avoid an arranged marriage. And finally managed to do it.

The alternative? She has a job working in the city in some sort of high tech factory. And she works eleven hours per day seven days per week. Her task is to put four wires into a receptacle six hundred times per hour. That is ten times per minute for eleven hours. Over and over again.

Maybe she gets a half hour for lunch.

But the good news is that she meets someone she genuinely likes and they fall in love. So she has some happiness in her life. And she is a cute little thing. I feel like sending her a wedding present.

She will probably insert millions of wires into receptacles before she is done.

AAggghhhhhhhh.

Anyway. Moving on. There are many interesting characters that we discover. There is a young guy with a winning smile and a very attractive shirt who plans to tailor shirts for individuals and sell them on the internet. And the next time we see him he has ten women working on sewing machines and boxes of shirts ready to go. Amazing!

He becomes a Christian and seems totally satisfied. There’s no girlfriend in the picture so he doesn’t have to worry about supporting a family. It’s just him and dear old mom.

Smart guy!

Most of them are not so lucky. Loneliness takes its toll. But everything revolves around money. Relationships suffer. It’s a hard life. I couldn’t handle it. I would have to take a slow boat to the United States. And that option is available to some of them. But the parents exert an amazing influence on them and they stay.

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http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/youngchina/

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And he has stress fractures too. But he tore his ACL last year after the British Open. So he has been playing on a torn ligament for almost a year! Here’s what his father, Earl, had to say this past weekend in a commercial for Nike about his son:

I’d say, ‘Tiger, I promise you,’” Earl says as we look upon his son’s unmistakably steely gaze, “‘that you’ll never meet another person as mentally tough as you in your entire life.’ And he hasn’t. And he never will.”

Earl, of course, died some time ago but his words are still around. And now we are starting to see exactly what he meant when he said those words.

Tiger did have surgery for cartilage damage.

“He did not play overseas late last year for the first time since 2003, hopeful that rest could allow him to play more this year. But the pain intensified through the Masters, where he finished second, and Woods said the cartilage damage developed from the ACL injury.”

–Yahoo Sports

So his damaged ACL brought about some cartilage damage and he had that fixed. But the damaged ACL was not repaired. Why? Maybe because it would have required him to stop playing golf this year. He would have missed the US OPEN.

This year’s US OPEN is special for Tiger. He grew up in the area. He has won a lot of tournaments at Torrey Pines.

“Although I will miss the rest of the 2008 season, I’m thrilled with the fact that last week was such a special tournament,” Woods said.

So he walked around on a torn ligament for almost a year so he could play in THIS tournament. It’s not going to get better by itself. He knew he would have to have surgery but he postponed it so he could play this past weekend. And then he found out he had stress fractures too! The doctors told him not to do it according to his coach Hank Haney.

“Tiger looked at the doctor and said, ‘I’m playing in the U.S. Open, and I’m going to win.’ And then he started putting on his shoes,” Haney said. “He looked at me and said, ‘Come on, Hank. We’ll just putt today.”

Tiger made his knee worse by postponing his ACL surgery. He dealt with the pain in order to play in the US OPEN.

The question is did he INCREASE the risk to his golfing career by doing things the way he did them. I guess it just depends on how much his knee can take before it becomes dysfunctional.

I doubt that anybody knows the answer to that question. But it’s clear that Tiger is not being too cautious about his situation.

Apparently life is a lot like the thirteen hole on the final round of the US OPEN to this great champion. He should have laid up but he went with the wood even after his adversary found the tall grass. He was hurt by that decision. He had to go to a playoff.

And then he won. He moved off the thirteen majors and all the unlucky inferences you can draw from that number.

He doesn’t believe in luck. He believes in Tiger Woods.

He believed that he was going to win the US OPEN.

And he did. Along with six or seven other tournaments. Now he can rest and do his rehab. So he can come back next year and win some more tournaments.

Don’t be surprised if you see some of the PGA pros on the tour with this guy taking up bowling next year. It must be incredibly demoralizing to wake up today and realize that you haven’t won any tournaments while Tiger has been winning a bunch with a torn ligament and other damage to his knee and leg.

I’d say, ‘Tiger, I promise you,’” Earl says as we look upon his son’s unmistakably steely gaze, “‘that you’ll never meet another person as mentally tough as you in your entire life.’

And he hasn’t. And he never will.”

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I have been pretty sick this week with a cold. And the heat and humidity have not helped. I don’t know why a summer cold is the worst kind of cold. But it’s true.

Why is that?

So I was supposed to drive down to Virginia Beach Friday but canceled those plans. And then the AC died because a wire came loose and was chopped in half by the blade. Fortunately I had installed an extra window unit so that it is still cool in here.

What to do? Order stuff from Amazon.com! Feel better using your credit card! Yehhhhhh! I ordered a couple of books and the newest Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0. And then I ordered the detachable flash unit for the Nikon D70.

So I feel better. Recently I went to my other favorite place LLBean and bought what has to be the absolutely best shirts for this kind of weather. The material in this shirt is very, very thin and there  is a vent all across the back. There are also vents in the front inside both the pockets.

So I bought seven of them. One in each color. And they have saved me from even more extreme suffering this past week. Take a look at a great shirt.

Of course the other great thing about these shirts is the money back guarantee. If you are ever unhappy with this shirt they want it back. And I am not shy about taking them at their word.

So I need to go get a passport SOON. We are going to the Bahamas this summer and you need one these days to go anywhere.

What else? I miss my rum and cokes. Evita talked me into giving up the nightly drink or two. Her blog is very helpful reading and I enjoy the way she writes. It is called Evolving Wellness and it is in the blog roll here. Apparently my wellness has not evolved very far since I feel like such a piece of shin bone this week.

I should go back there right now and read some more!

Hey! It doesn’t cost anything! My credit card company may not appreciate that but there is someone in the next room who would be very impressed.

Hey Honey! Guess what I am doing! Cough…..