It's a Wash

Tropical Storm Debby did not ruin our beach vacation. Sure, there was a little rain and some overcast skies, but there was also quality beach time and pool time. And, to be honest? We went for the company, and that did not disappoint. Neither did the food, thanks to local produce, fresh seafood, and my brother's great cooking.

Tropical Storm Debby did, however, make our trip home rather hellish. Torrential rain, blinding road spray, a 40-minute delay due to a horrific accident, and Treat's phone blaring tornado warnings all added up to a long and grueling drive. Although the company was, once again, delightful. 

Tropical Storm Debby might have ruined our day today with drenching downpours and flood and tornado warnings, making ducking out for anything the equivalent of a cold shower. But we needed the rain so badly that it was impossible to be upset.

Walking Lucy just an hour after the sheets tapered to a drizzle, we ran into a neighbor with his own dog. "I can't believe how dry the ground is after all that rain!" he marveled, standing in the middle of a grassy common in flip flops. "My feet aren't wet at all."

But at least the grass wasn't brown and crunchy anymore.

Over Confidence

I recently read that professional table tennis players are often challenged by amateurs who are confident they can offer a competitive game. Of course, it's rare for such players to even score a point on the pros, but there's something about how commonplace ping pong tables are in basements and rec centers that makes the sport seem unrealistically accessible to the casual paddler. 

I thought of that today as I watched Lucy chase seagulls on the beach. She was confident that she could catch one, and they seemed to indulge her—swooping low before flying away so that she raced in large loops around and down the shoreline. She really believed she had a chance, but in the end, she didn't even get a feather.

Hindsight Bias

Some things never change, like sibling quibbling, for example. Take this conversation between a 62-year-old and her little 60-year-old brother.

"Harris picked Walz as her running mate," the brother told his sister yesterday morning.

"I knew it!" she said.

"No, you didn't," he replied.

"You heard me say it last night," she argued.

"But you didn't know it," he pointed out, "you only predicted it. Thinking you knew it is a logical fallacy."

"Like confirmation bias?" she asked.

"Yeah, but not that one," he said. "It's one where people think things were much more predictable in retrospect once they know the outcome."

"Hmm," she grumbled. "Maybe."

"We should go to the beach," he said. "It's not raining, even though they predicted it would be."

"I knew it!" she said.

"No, you didn't," he laughed.

"But I knew you were going to say that," she told him. "I really did."

Debby Does, or Does She?

We knew she was coming, but we decided to take our chances. Tropical Storm Debby has been pumping clouds and moisture our way since yesterday. There have been dry moments and even some sunshine, though, and that's when being 600 feet from the beach comes in handy. We spent an hour there with the dogs this morning; Bill, Emily, and Riley went back for some beach time a little later, and Heidi and I took advantage of the house pool before the rains came. And the weather cleared again at six, just in time for another dog walk on the beach. A misty marine layer obscured the beach, but we were far from the only ones there.

Sure, the prediction is rain all day tomorrow as Debby regroups off shore and then hammers South Carolina, but so what? Maybe it won't, and if it doesn't? 

We'll be ready.

As Always

 "When was the last time you were at the beach in summer?" I asked Heidi as we stepped into the warm sand.

"Last year, when I went to Rehoboth," she reminded me. "What about you?"

"I was just trying to figure that out," I told her. "I think it's been over ten years!" 

In fact, it has been 11. The last time I visited a beach in the summer was in August 2013, when Heidi and I took Isabel down to Point Lookout for the day. The last time I was at an ocean beach in the summer was three years earlier than that, when most of the family met for a week in August in Edisto, SC.

Since then, I've visited the beach at Thanksgiving, in February or March for the Oscars, in October when Heidi had a conference there, and in November for Heidi's birthday. I've been to the beach at least 20 times, just never in summer.

There was a cool ocean breeze blowing this afternoon when I made my return to summer at the beach, and overcast skies kept the temperatures below blazing. Still, there was a crowd of folks on blankets and chairs under umbrellas and the inescapable smell of sunscreen as kids ran back and forth to the surf. Super tan people clad only in bathing suits and sunglasses walked the waterline, expertly avoiding the boogie boarders that came crashing in on the waves.

It was as if nothing had changed in the last decade, and there was honestly something kind of nice about that.

DIng Dong, Tibby Calling

Over the last few months, Heidi taught our cat Tibby to ring a bell when she wants to out on the deck for a little fresh air and cat grass nibbling. Now that she's got it, Tibby rings the bell an aggravating number of times. Recently we've noticed that she doesn't even go outside every time we open the door, and so it has occurred to us that ringing the bell is a much broader form of communication. 

Perhaps when she dashes downstairs first thing after the alarm goes off, she is ringing it to say "Good Morning." And when she jingles the bell right when we're about to leave the house, she could be saying, "Don't go!" or "Come back soon!" When she rings it at mealtime, the message is definitely, "Yay! Hurry up with that!"

We laughed about her insistent ringing with our friend when she stayed with us this weekend. "Maybe you should have bells all over the house," she suggested. "It might clarify her intentions!"

Common Casting

"It says here that the actor who played Doc was in Glee," I reported to Delaney as I reread the Playbill for Back to the Future at breakfast the morning after seeing the musical.

"What??" she shook her head in a moment of cognitive dissonance. She loved Back to the Future, she is a huge fan of Glee, and she was also excited to hear Heidi and I have been re-watching that show since May. She whipped out her phone and rapidly tapped the screen. "It says here he played a hotel clerk in 2012."

"Oh my God," I laughed. "I know just who he was." I stood up and went over to the TV. In short order, I had the final episode of season 2 on the screen. "Remember when they have the pillow fight at the hotel in New York City at nationals?" I scanned quickly through the episode, and there he was. Despite being over a decade younger and minus the mad scientist wig, we recognized him immediately.

"That's hilarious," Delaney laughed as we sat back down.

I picked up the Playbill. "Oh my gosh!" I said a minute later. "It says here that the actor who played Lorraine played Anne Boleyn in the national tour of Six!" It was a show we had seen together two summers ago at the National Theater.

"What??" Delaney said and shook her head again.