Where not to store gum

Last night, I slept in a tent in the front yard. The cool midnight breeze sang an ancient lullabye. The sound water running thru a hose woke me at dawn. Drift back to sleep. The sound of a car's engine wakes me next. Glance at my watch, it is 6:47 AM. Unzip the tent and exit. Liz, Roberto, Caio and Jade are all awake. We exchange good mornings.

Roberto: "Want to go swimming?"

"Sure."

"2 minutes."

"No Problem."

Roberto and I exit thru the open gate which guards the entrance to this micro hood. He's on a black moutain bike - North Shore beater style and I am on a black cruiser type with baskets on the rear wheel - ultra classic beater. We hustle down the now infamous North Shore bike trail. Due to the early hour, the trail was mostly empty, just the occasional jogger. Several folks recognize Ro, offering greetings and smiles.

We reach Waimea Bay in around 8 minutes, park the bikes and walk to the edge. I put on scuba socks, flippers and a mask. Walk like a duck into the water and begin to swim. Roberto is on my left and we begin side by side. Soon enough he's swimming ahead of me and gradually pulls farther away. Despite my flippers, I get tired pretty quick. The water's over my head, I am just past the halfway point to the other side of the bay. Enough. I angle in and swim to shore. This takes longer than I expect and when I finally touch my feet to the sand I am relieved. I sit on sand, half submerged in water, soaking in the aesthetics. The water is pristine, the sky azure blue and white chunky clouds casually float over head. On my right, there's a fisherman sitting in a lawn chair with fishing poles sticking out of the sand with lines streaming horizontally into the clear blue ocean. There are 3 other swimmers making there respective ways across the bay. I walk along the shoreline carrying the flippers, still wearing my black rash guard, black board shorts and florescent orange scuba socks.

Roberto easily makes it to the other side. Rests for a minute and then swims all the way back. No problem. No flippers. This is a summer activity because the waves get to big as winter approaches.

Liz takes Caio and Jade to the pool and I go thru my yoga while Itunes radio cranks some chill ambient overdub. Afterwards, my minimal sleep sends me into nap mode. I awaken with enough time to fully wake up before taking Caio to his swimming lesson. I run an errand, come back with enough time to move thru my tai chi form in the waiting area. I sit down and then Caio comes down the steps, I already have his shirt and towel.

Caio: "Where's my shirt?"

"I have it."

"Where's my gum?"

"Huh?"

Caio grabs his shirt and I see that he has stored his blue Bubblelicious gum on his shirt. Next on the Caio agenda is soccer. We stop back at the house first so he can get a fresh shirt. Make it back to practice only 3 minutes late. I get to help coach a bit and the time goes quickly. The first half is drills th second half is scrimmaging. The team looks good already, 5 quality players and a great coach.