I got up at 6:30 this morning and headed out to Wrightsville Beach, since Barry Frazelle was calling for good waves. On the way there, heading down Lumina, I noticed a flashing behind me. There was an SUV and it looked like maybe when it was going over bumps the lights bounced up, but what I thought was odd was that on each bump the lights seemed to change, instead of just flash up into my field of view.

I actually missed turning into Anna and Barry’s driveway because I was glancing in my rearview, so I turned in at the next road and was going to pulled a U-ie when the SUV pulled up and stopped. It turned out to be Barry. He said he’d tried calling but the number he had for my mobile was actually the house number, so he’d gotten Amanda instead. Not sure why he didn’t ask her for my number or to have her call me, but he’d been trying to get in touch to tell me that the waves needed another twenty or thirty minutes and wanted to see if I wanted to meet him for breakfast.

So I pulled into the driveway and he drove us to Starbucks where he was kind enough to buy me an orange mango smoothie and a piece of lemon pound cake, which was all it was advertised to be and more. Then we came back and went out on the beach. We were the only two people there, which was nice because we got our pick of spots. There were a number of pretty nice waves and I caught several. I wiped out pretty good a few times and learned once and for all that if a wave that’s taller than you are standing up is about to break directly on top of you, it’s best to bail.

I stayed out until ten ’til nine then went on in. As I was finishing getting redressed a few of Hannah’s friends showed up. Barry came in a few minutes later saying the waves had gone away when I came in. Guess I took them with me. We went upstairs and ate cereal then I worked for a little while in their living room before finally taking off to go pick up my paycheck.

After that I went by Dave Narron’s shop to get my oil changed. It had actually been over a year since my last oil change, but I only just hit 3,000 miles. I’d asked Dave before if I needed to take it in because it had been so many months, but he said no. Anyway, when I got there Bonnie Narron, his wife, was out getting lunch for her and Dave so Dave called her and got her to pick me up something too.

I didn’t know this, apparently Bonnie lost her job three weeks ago and was helping out at the shop. She’d forgotten to tell me or Amanda about this.

Anyhoo, while Dave was working on my car Bonnie’s sister and her husband arrived from Tennessee. Dave finished up on my car then I headed on back home. Scott called while I was on my way there just because he hadn’t seen me online in a while. I had sent him an e-mail a little while before telling him I was getting the car stuff done, but he hadn’t gotten that. I also let him know that I’d been keeping an eye on e-mails and answering phone calls.

After work I headed back to Wrightsville Beach to go surfing again. Mike “Lars” Boscaljon had been out there earlier with his parents and around 3:00 he’d texted me that it was really good out. He’d left just a little while before I got there, but Michael was there waiting on me.

I used to mainly surf with the Surf City board, but that one got broken and has yet to be replaced. Lately Big Blue has been my board of preference. Barry wasn’t sure until today whose it was- turns out it belongs to a friend of his- Chad maybe? Anyway, he was using that one today. So while Michael grabbed the Banana, I took out Surf Betty today. She’s a long pink board with flowers, but you know, I had a great time with her. Amanda and I later joked about how I liked to ride Betty and rode her hard and all the various and asundry other lowbrow innuendos we could make.

But I really had a good time with Betty. She was easier to turn than Big Blue, and that’s one of the next things I’ve been wanting to work on. I caught a number of pretty sizable waves too, and rode most of them all the way in. Poor Michael didn’t really stand up much on any waves, which I know was frustrating, especially with the fun I was having. I think part of the problem is that he’s a bit timid (I won’t say afraid) to take the larger waves. He kept going mostly for the smaller, rolling ones that were more like the ones we’ve had to choose from earlier in the week, but today most of those didn’t really break much, so there was no power to push him forward.

Amanda had appeared at the Frazelle’s as I was walking out to surf and walked with Anna to the water tower then back around to the Coast Guard station. She motioned to me and I paddled on in, not quite catching a wave on the way (so the only attempt she saw me on today was one where I fell down). Michael came out a minute later- he was pretty tired anyway so we headed on in then decided to go out to eat at On the Border. I conferenced the three of us in together while we were driving to make that decision. Michael also called Chris Burfield, so Burf joined us for dinner tonight as well.

Oh yeah, there were these two girls who had been going to Michael’s Port City Java who were visiting from Ohio. Today was their last time there until either Christmas break or until they move down here next year, but Michael went ahead and got the number of one of them. They were texting a bit throughout the night. Michael’s a pimp this week. Michael the Pimp.

Anyway, we all ate, had a good time hanging out and talking and whatnot, then we all went our separate ways. Well, Amanda and I went to the same place (that being home). We took showers then watched a bit of the Olympics opening ceremony, wherein I learned that there is a small island country between Africa and Madagascar, which pretty much shocked me. Reminder: look it up.

The internet’s not working for some reason, so I’m writing this in Notepad. The computer nor my iPhone seems to want to pick up any kind of signal for it. That’s not cool.

There’s a little trouble brewing in the east.  Georgia, the formerly Soviet country, not the southern state, attacked South Ossetia, a breakaway region that, to my understanding, wants to join up with North Ossetia, which is part of Russia?  Then Russia poured over the border and there’s been some fighting.

I’m pretty sore now. I’ve been surfing all week, sometimes twice a day, and it’s finally catching up with me, particularly in my arms where I’ve been using muscles I never really much used before, as surfboard paddling is not a particularly common movement in the walking world. I’m off to bed.

Zach Dotsey
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