swarms
Published April 16, 2009 | 
Hey kids, shake it loose together
The spotlight’s hitting something
That’s been known to change the weather..
– elton john
Some days problems come up in swarms. Some people freak out. Some organize and address. Some simply go paddling. I’m and organize, go paddling, then come back and address, type. That means I take time to hear the problem but if I feel my blood pressure rising, I walk away until I have a clear head. Then I can return and do things correctly. Well, that’s the theory. The problem is the temptation not to return. Today I have work problems that only others can solve, and only I get to feel stressed about. Glad I left the kayaks on the jeep.
Mary in Romany – bugs on rock
Yesterday Mary and I went for a paddle on Devil’s Lake. She took the Romany and I took my Rockpool, broken combing and all. If you cling to the shore of the lake you can get about 3.5 miles in circumference. Nothing special on a good day, but with the sudden hatch of the buzzing swarms you dare not even get close to the shoreline. On the other hand there is more to the lake than 3 miles or shore and clouds of bugs. We watched as Osprey hunted just a few yards off the bow of our kayaks and were impressed by how loud a loon’s call actually is when you are only 20 feet away. Mary mentioned the wind was picking up slightly on the way back which caught my attention. I hadn’t really noticed.
Swarm
New paddlers or people who don’t paddle very often tend to notice slight breezes and subtle changes to the environment. They’ve got their “self-preservation radar” turned to full. Most of us can remember how the build up works; An increase in wind, increases the roar in our ears. We find ourselves pushing a bit harder, leaning a bit more forward and feeling a bit of a chill. We grow aware of each time the sun slips behind a cloud. We notice the cats paws cross the surface of the water, and see subtle changes in the waves. We become sensitive to the splash off the bow of our kayak. We may hear I rising hiss from the leaves on trees near by or hear the water slapping on the rocks along the shore. We can get caught up in a swarm of sensations that if not put in their place can cause a quiet but very real sense panic and foreboding. Of course with experience we learn to measure the actual risk and we allow simple summer breezes to slip into the background. Still, it’s a good thing to keep in mind who you are paddling with and how they can be effected by even the smallest of changes. We’ve been there ourselves. The last thing we want to do is put someone off paddling simply because we were oblivious to those first extraordinary sensations.
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