Thursday, August 8, 2013

"I am not going back in there."

Must See TV this week is all about the Discovery Channel and Shark Week.  Not really "all about" since I can't stay on topic, but Shark Week is featured.  I watched about 20 minutes of #Great White Serial Killer.  The idea of posting tweets that say, “This show is awesome, everyone needs to watch it” is killer – I found myself almost believing that I was missing something.

I'm afraid I couldn't watch it all the way through though.  Not because I'm at the beach and went for a dramatic swim through open water yesterday, but because of the high school play over-acting, the need to splash blood into every shot, and the way that everything was choreographed.  There was the dark scene of the expert being consulted, "Would you pass me that jaw bone?  I'll show you the bite pattern."  There was the befuddled policeman whom we could only watch through a reflection in a mirror.  I was reminded, in a bad way, of the old Fox specials "When Animals Attack", "When Animals Attack, part 2", "When Animals Attack, part 3", "When An-" you get it.  “When Trains go Bad” – sorry, had to do one more.  It wasn't a documentary, it was a gameshow.

Not all TV from that golden age of Fox was bad - NBC was playing the last few seasons of Seinfeld.  (On Must See TV night...)  I watched two episodes of that last Saturday and I must say that while I probably couldn't sit through a marathon, it's just like I remember and still made me lol out loud.

My children have been glued to shark week, talking about it, worrying about it, trying to get up enough courage to actually watch it - after all, we are on open ocean and aren't allowed to swim in the twilight because of sharks.  Last night they dove in and consumed two of the specials.  I haven't watched any of Shark Week in years so I really was disappointed that the emphasis is now on scaring people out of the water rather than educating but I shouldn't have been expecting anything else.  And it did work a bit - some of what I saw was a little spooky, in a “hiding beneath the surface to jump up and eat your flesh” kind of way.

There was a sand shark spotted along our beach two days ago - allegedly - and that caused a wee bit of concern but it was a tiny little thing, an anomaly, presuming it really was a shark.  There are lots of dolphins and I secretly suspect “they” saw a dolphin dorsal and proceeded to tell stories.  Yesterday we swam out to the sandbar.  I was only concerned as we got close because I didn't want #4 to cross it and be swept out to see (no need to worry, it was at the surface, an island of its own) but my wife was a bit more concerned about things with teeth.  Distances are deceptive and we were quite far out swimming for a long time against wind, current, and tide.

No need to worry about the carnivorous sea life though, the only things that got our party had stingers.  It was quite an adventure, really, paddling out to sea, walking on water, digging up shells and sand dollars where only a few brave (or foolhardy) souls dared to tread.  My daughter thought we were nuts when she heard about it.  I don't think after last night's TV viewing she'll be in water deeper than her ankle for the rest
of the trip.

Not me.  There is something very special about the shore and exhilarating about riding the waves in – I’ll not give it up for a wee spot of fear.  We got up early so went off to see the sunrise.  It was spectacular.  On the way back we saw two very excited dogs digging and barking.  They'd found a crab.  I'm thinking he (the crab) would enjoy this bog - despite the barking and growling, he didn't quit.  As a schnauzer's schnoze would get close, he'd snap at it with his claws and the canine would leap back and dart around to another side.  He was far more Sebastian than Mr. Krabs.

PS.  Today's post and photo aren't from the movies or TV - they are from my children and blackberry.

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