July 17, 2004
Nothing Much, Really
I had planned to write this long entry about my experience floating the Logan Canal the other day, but I never got around to it. Now it seems like such a long time ago. I mean, it has been 5 days. Maybe instead of writing a long entry about it, I'll write something short and vignette-y. Now remember, this is all on the fly, so don't expect anything real poetic. But please feel free to read more if you like hearing about inner tubes, sandals, bugs, and bridges. I might also throw something in about the rest of the week at the end.
So - floating the Logan Canal. I am not much a water person. When I was younger, I almost drowned. I don't remember the exact age or even what really happened. That's just always been my excuse for not learning how to swim till I was 9 and pretty much staying out of any water that I can't reach the bottom of. Luckily, I could reach the bottom of the Logan Canal. In fact, I scraped it quite frequently. I was actually excited to float the canal. It sounded so cool. and outdoorsy. I picked out my costume for the event early in the evening - some old basketball shorts and an old t-shirt. I had these lame rubber flip-flops from Target that I thought I would wear too. I even put my hair in pigtails. I wished I had some straw or something. Maybe a straw hat. I felt quite prepared and on the way to the church (it was a family home evening activity), I excitedly chatted with my roommate, feeling all neat that I was doing something outdoorsy with her, for once.
We drove up to the canal and waited for everyone. Finally, when all were accounted for, people started entering the canal water. I was the fourth person to go, after my roommate. The complicated part at first was just sitting on the inner tube. It was all lop-sided from previous uses (I borrowed it) and I couldn't get settled very easily. Plus, the water was really rushing. I mean, it was swift and there was a current. I finally jumped onto my tube and tried to settle and just then, the current ran off with my left sandal. Luckily, Telese grabbed it, but I never did catch up to her to retrieve it for the floating, so I spent the rest of the evening with only one sandal and one foot and some very jagged rocks.
What it's like to float the canal: We started off in the canyon, so it was cold and beautiful. There were rocky outcroppings that I kept crashing into and the other side of the bank was full of roots hanging. I kept turning backwards, which was fine except for then I wasn't aware of turns in the canal and would bump into things. Eventually, someone gave me a stick to use as a type of oar, but I wasn't adept at it. Still kept running into things.
We had to go under some bridges during the course of the canal. That was the scariest part because there was really only about a foot of space between the water and the bridge and so we had to cram in that little space. There was only a half-inch between my nose and the cement. And there were spiders under the bridges.
After about an hour or so, it starts getting kind of old to float the canal. I mean, yeah, it's nice and the weather's great. You pass by this golf course and beautiful houses with hanging flowers on their porches. We also passed a kitten. But there was something missing in the whole experience. I think it was a banjo. We definitely needed some music in the background, and crickets don't count. Or at least you need someone to talk to, which I didn't really have at the time. I was feeling moody. I also wanted there to be lightning bugs, but there wasn't any of those, either.
So floating the canal wasn't really as romantic as it might seem to be. Is that how everything in life is? I mean, I also sat on a roof to watch the sunset at one point this week. It wasn't terribly thrilling either. The idea of it was. You know, as I think about it. It really was pretty great. Perched on the roof like some kind of bird and just feeling the breeze. It should've been great at least. It could've been better though. Here's what would've made it better: 1. some Cocteau Twins playing in the background 2. some other people for company. 3. my camera. All those things were really lacking.
Anyway, now I'm totally just rambling and this didn't turn out anything like I thought it would.
Posted by kea at July 17, 2004 05:09 PM