Come my baby, dressed in red
Hey baby, won’t you come to bed
Cocaine, all around my brain.
Hey baby, won’t you please come quick
This old cocaine’s makin’ me sick
Cocaine, all around my brain. – drake

There is nothing more wonderful to a Wisconsin kayaker this time of year than to check the weather forecast and seeing the temperature going up, up, up, each day of the week. Especially when it’s going up above freezing! No more pools!! But on the other hand that means rolling in ice water again. . well, maybe the love affair with the pool will go on a bit longer.Each morning when I crawl out of bed I work my way back to my office and turn on the computer. I check email, news, stats and then work on my blog before trying to earn a living. My office is filled with sailing ship models, charts, old gear, model kayaks and more. Behind my custom hand made model blue Explorer is my one unopened copy of “This is the Sea Two” that holds within memories late night html coding, a bad hat, and a Michigan weekend. So sad!! So within about 10 minutes of getting out of bed I’m immersed in kayaking. In fact since today is Tuesday, Mary and I have to work out the who, whats & wheres about going to the pool tonight. Will Gryphon come along? Should we take the WW or the long boat?, etc. Since we go to the pool Tuesday and Wednesday each week we try to have a “play day” and a serious practice day. Tonight we’ll play tomorrow I’m taking the Acuta. So for the next two days we will not be able to avoid talking about kayaking.

With Canoecopia opening on Friday, the only day we could possibly not talk about kayaking this week is Thursday. But, that won’t happen. We’ll have been to the pool the night before. We’ll spend most of the day on and off talking about our most recent practice sessions. I’ll be complaining about not hitting this or that roll. “It’s not me, it’s the boat. . .”, that sort of thing. Mary will be asking how her sweep was going and talking about learning a Euro roll. We’ll also be planning for getting to Madison before 8am the next day for the start of the big event. Ok, So not one day this week can possibly go by without discussing kayaking. Then the weekend is a given. 3 days of nothing but kayaks!! Monday we’ll be sitting around reviewing the weekend and then Tuesday it’s off to the pool. . We are a sad lot.

Which reminds me. I have to answer some emails too. Sorry. Often emails get second place to my work email. No, that’s not true. Not often as much as “occasionally”. Usually when I see email come in to my kayakwisconsin.com address I stop what I’m doing to read and respond. I’d much rather talk about kayaking after all.

Obviously we’re addicts. Or at the minimum possessed. Kayaking has taken over. It has grown beyond a hobby and become a life style, or as Brent Reitz says, “a personal identifier”. So now I’m wondering. Is this unique? How many of you can’t get through a day without saying the word “kayak” or having at least one conversation that involves kayaking? Do you work out new rolls in your dreams? Are you staring at charts planning summer trips? Are you driving down the road thinking about replacing your worn tow rope?

I’ve read a lot of jokes about kayak addiction but being me, I somehow end up thinking about it more seriously. Not a day goes by that we are not either paddling, playing with gear, wish booking, reading or talking about kayaking. There’s a fiberglass monkey on my back!

I keep having hallucinations. In them Mary’s little silver kayak pendant suddenly morphs into a little silver spoon!- d

Related Posts:

1. A Community First. . .
2. Swimming
3. Howling of the Wolves
4. screwing off for fun and profit
5. Canoecopia – Sunday