I woke up at 6:00 this morning and was at Wrightsville Beach by 6:30.  In my morning conversation with God I mentioned that it would be really cool if I’d  have left early enoughto watch the sun rise over the ocean and thought that it wouldn’t be so cool as to stop the earth from turning and therefore messing up our gravity, but it would be nice nonetheless.  To my happy surprise I was out there in time to see the hot orange ball of fire rise out of the distant watery horizon, and it was a beautiful thing.  Plus, nobody had to go flying off the planet due to temporarily suspended gravity.

Barry Frazelle was out there and was giving me tips on taking the waves on a turn, but I had a hard time catching them.  I also had the problem of them breaking hard on a sandbar again, so after wiping out numerous times I tried to be a bit more selective in the waves I went for.

There’s a sadness to that.  Before I really knew what I was doing I’d go for any wave and not care about it.  Now that I’ve got a little knowledge and I know more what it’s like to get a little banged up I’m more cautious which takes a little of the fun away from surfing.  Ah well.

Barry went in after a bit, having to go to work.  He said it should get really good in a little while, and I stuck around some but I don’t have as much fun surfing all by myself.  It’s not that I mind looking bad out there- there are plenty of people who surf on their own, and there were a few other people out so I wasn’t fearful for my safety (plus there was this fish that kept jumping out of the water near me- Barry said he wanted to be my friend)- I just get a bit more impatient if the waves aren’t breaking right for me.  So I stuck around a bit, caught a couple in and left.

I went to The Connection and was going to work there for a bit of the day, but they had a sign saying Time Warner Cable was having an issue and their internet was down, so I just grabbed a blueberry muffin and some water, did a little typing and headed on home.

Amanda had called right before I got in my car at the Frazelles’ house.  As I opened my door to get my shirt I heard my voice message tone.  I called her and she wanted me to pick up some water and some bread in case Hurricane Hanna turned out to be bad afterall.  Hurricane Hanna’s not expected to be bad, but another one, Hurricane Ike, is lining up behind her, and another one, Hurricane Josephine, is behind that one.  There’s a chance we may get pounded by all three, and that could be some trouble.  All that rain would loosen up and saturate the ground making the area more prone to flooding and uprooted trees.  I’m not too worried about flooding as we’re on a slight incline, but we do have a number of trees in the yard that might do some damage if they fall in the wrong direction.

I’ve been invited out to Dockside for a few pre-hurricane drinks tomorrow night.  There’s a guy on the message board who will be in Wilmington and had invited anyone who wants to come out to have a few drinks on his dollar.  Seth Holloman will be meeting up with him too, so I thought it might be fun.  Hurricane Hanna’s not projected to hit here until about 2:00 in the morning, so as long as the rain isn’t too bad beforehand all should be fine.

Aunt Robbie called tonight to check on us in light of the storms, which was nice of her.  Schools are canceled tomorrow as a precaution, and I guess to give people a chance to get out of town if they want to.

Amanda and I spent most of the night just relaxing and watching TV.

Zach Dotsey
.