Hi all,
I thought I'd share my experience of spending a day at the beach. I hope you all get a couple of laughs out of it! I had promised my younger daughter we would go to the beach before the end of the summer and things have been going pretty well so off we went yesterday. I had not really considered until just before we left how challenging walking on the sand would be and much to everyone's amusement, I brought my cane with me as I would for any outing -- I can only say that it's a good thing I did. Walking on the sand was even more of a challenge than I thought it would be and I almost fell on many an unsuspecting sunbather, without my trusty cane I'm sure I would have. I thought I was doing pretty well but my kids told me I was staggering like I was totally drunk -- and that was with the support of the cane about 1/3 of which went into the sand. I'm sure I probably dusted afew prople with sand at lleast a little bit.
We (my husband, daughters and their friends) went down to the water, this time without myt cane, in case I decided I wanted to get wet. I'll just say this -- if my husband and kids hadn't been right next to me and caught hold of me and I them, I would have squished a few people. Walking in the sand without my cane or holding onto someone for support was impossible, but we all had a good laugh since I didn't fall and no one got hurt! At first, I wasn't going to really go in just watch the kids and make sure the undertow didn't pull them out too far. Of course, I couldn't resist just putting my feet in the water. Even at the shoreline I could feel how strong the undercurrent was and that dashed my hopes of actually going very far but I did go in about calf deep, thinking this would be safe enough. There were lots of little kids playing just at the water's edge and close to where I was standing which was only a few feet into the water. A little boy and his sister were playing and kind of riding the very end of the waves just a couple of feet from where I was standing. I was very aware of them and their distance from me because even where I was standing the water was pretty rough, pushiing me around a little and making me feel off balance in general. A fairly large and strong wave hit me, causing me to lose my balance and literally knocked me off my feet and, there was no possibility of regaining my balance. When I fell, I just barely missed falling on the little boy but luckily, between the water and the softness of the sand I didnt get hurt either -- just embarrassed. Several people asked if I was okay and helped me up, I can't imagine what they thought of me since the wave was not strong enough to knock anyone else over. Oh well, hopefully some people got a laugh out of it anyway. The kids said it was pretty comical to see. The little boy I almost fell on and his sister gave me wide berth for the rest of the day. Every time they saw me they moved as far away from me as they oould, while apparently staying where they'd been told to, ha ha! I stayed out the of water after that because I'm supposed to be keeping my incision dry and got it soaked when I fell. It doesn't seem any the worse for it though. All in all, it was a really good day and it felt good to be doing something I really enjoy -- I mean going to the beach, not falling down, haha!!
Wendy
