My back hurt this morning.  I had a stretch a bit to the right of my spine that just plain ached.  It’s pretty much gone but now it’s in the back of my neck.  I didn’t stress anything surfing that I can think of, but I can’t think of anywhere else it could have come from.  The waves are supposed to be good tomorrow, but since I’ve gone out to surf ten times since last Sunday, I might take a day or two off after that.

I just went to go grab some grpaes from a bunch we bought about a week ago and the first thing I noticed was that some of them were already brown, but that’s okay, right?  Because there were plenty that were still green. But then I saw a big bunch of fuzz, which I could only assume was mold, growing on some, so I was afraid to eat any of them.  That’s disappointing.

So anyway, Amanda and I went to Port City Community Church at 8:30 this morning as we do pretty much every Sunday.  We sat next to Mike and Kaitlyn Boscaljon and Mike’s parents as a new series about delving deeper into your personal walk with God was discussed.  Afterwards we met up with Nick and Amy Warkentien and had breakfast with them at Boodles.  Our waitress was very nice but talked a bit kiddy.

We went on out to Wrightsville Beach after that but it started raining after we all got changed into our bathing suits.  It subsided after a bit and as we were walking out the Boscaljons arrived, followed by Michael Mercer.  We all (well, all of us guys) grabbed surf boards and went out.  Amanda convinced me to take out Terry, a shorter board than I usually surf on that Barry has let me use before.

We were out there for a little bit but then it started raining pretty hard.  Since we were already wet it wasn’t a big deal to us guys since we were already in the water, but we decided to go on in after just a little bit when Amanda and Amy, the only ladies left on the shore, went in too.  There was thunder and lightning too, which may have helped our decision.

It rained for a good little while so we all hung out on the Frazelles’ front porch until it went away then we headed back out, although Nick decided not to try his hand any more at surfing this time.  The water was pretty glassy and Mike, Michael and I all caught some nice waves.  Amanda even got some pictures of all of us.

Mike got out after a bit because Kaitlyn and his mom were ready to head out.  More surfers were coming out so Michael and I went down to where it wasn’t so crowded.  His cousin, Hannah Frazelle, showed up with a bunch of her friends.  Michael got tired after a little bit and got out, so I was left surrounded by a bunch of really good surfers.  I still got some good waves though.  I’m trying to learn how to turn better, and I’m making some progress but I’m still not where I want to be.

I got out after a bit when I realized I’d drifted back down to where my crew was sitting.  They were all pretty much ready to go on in, so we packed it up.  Amanda offered to drop Nick and Amy off at their car (they parked at the Wrightsville Beach park to conserve parking space) but the waves had died off a bit and it was so crowded anyway that I decided to go ahead and go back too.  Plus I thought I could use the rest.

Right as we got back to the house it started raining again.  Amy and Amanda looked at the purses I mentioned the other day and bought some.  We sort of milled about for a few and then left then decided to eat some pasta at the Warkentiens’.  We stopped by the house to let Bruce and Harvey out for a bit then picked up some salad and garlic bread to take over to Nick and Amy’s, where we ate pizza and then baked brownies.  Nick and I ran out to grab some complimentary ice cream.

I took my laptop over there to test the wireless connection.  Even though everything points to the internet problem I’m having having something to do with the wireless router I wanted to check another wireless network to make sure.  And sure enough, it worked fine at Nick and Amy’s.  I’m going to try to reset the router one more time tomorrow, but if that doesn’t work I guess I’m due a new router.  The one I have has held up for five or six years so far.  It acts like it’s working fine, what with powering up and lights blinking and such, but I’m not picking up my wireless network on my laptop or my iPhone.

After we got home I worked on all the pictures that were taken this weekend- particularly the ones for Amanda’s ten year high school reunion, while we watched the Olympics, gymnastics and swimming.  I wanted to watch basketball but it was on earlier today.  Team USA beat China but thirty or thirty-one points.  Barry had told me and Michael that LeBron James had broken his leg, but he was just yanking our chain.  Then again, Michael didn’t much care- he’s not a huge fan of LeBron.  I think it’s mainly just that he gets more acclaim than Kobe Bryant, who he feels is a much better player.

One thing that bugs me about the Olympics is how many records are being broken- seems to happen in every event almost.  It seems unfair almost, given the supplements and conditioning available to athletes today.  It would be silly to have separate records, I know, but still.

Wow!  Speaking of breaking records in the Olympics, I was just watching the men’s swimming relay and I think three teams beat the world record, but what was really amazing was that the French were favored to win and had a pretty good lead, but the Jason Lezak, the American, closed the space in the last little distance and won by eight one-hundredths of a second.  It was so close that I was on the edge of my the couch and jumped up and let out a “Yeah!” that startled Bruce.  This keeps alive the hope that Michael Phelps can beat the number of gold medals won by an individual in the Olympics.

Zach Dotsey