BARRACUDA AND DOLPHINS

AH, it's Monday. One of those dreaded Mondays. Well, not here! It is blue sky and gentle breezes and the place I call my backyard beckons.

It was quiet down at the pier this morning.  Just Ken. Ken is a local Veteran who swims quite often. He is in a motorized wheelchair and can not walk.He makes it down to the pier, gets himself into the water, floats awhile and crawls back up the stairs back to his wheelchair. If the ladies are pretty he will let them "help him", otherwise he would rather do it himself. Talk about challenges. We sure have none.

Ken always a has a joke tucked away in his shirt pocket. The jokes are cut out of magazines and taped carefully to a piece of card stock. A collection I'm sure.He always asks everybody who happens to be there or walk by if they "want to read a joke"?  Most the locals who know Ken just go up to him and say, "Ok, give it here". He points to his pocket, we read them and laugh whether they are funny or not, thank him and put them back in his pocket. OK, honesty, sometimes we give him a hard time because the joke was pretty stupid.

I would guess Ken had a severe stroke because he can not speak clearly. People that do not know him have no idea what he is saying when he says" want to read my joke". They politely smile and keep walking. I often interpret for him. He is an icon and I thank God for him. We worry when we do not see him for a time.

After out customary laugh with Ken, we geared up and just kept swimming,  swimming swimming... to get out of the cold spot. Today it was about a quarter mile out before we hit warmer water. The water was clear and it's never boring.  We did or normal Coast Guard Buoy swim hoping we would be visited by our friends the Dolphins. No where to be seen though. Oh well, can't have them everyday we joked.

On the way back, I could hear them. I could not see them anywhere but I could tell they were out there taunting us. We kept swimming. At about the half mile buoy, they graced us with a swim by. They were not in a very social mood. They kept just outside our distance (you do not swim with the dolphins, they swim with you). I see people chasing them all the time. People actually think they can catch a dolphin?  Quite the contrary, they swim with you if they feel like it PERIOD! As a matter of fact, the quieter and stiller you remain, the much high chance you will have of seeing them for a long period of time because they will stay with you. Start kicking after them, and they are gone GUARANTEED!!

A clicked a few photos. Then a  3-4' barracuda came by as well. I tried to grab a picture of him, but he did not stick around either.

I guess they all had the Monday morning blahs!

A Hui Hou