By All the Signs
Sep. 8th, 2009 12:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisnewdayAt several points along the line of floats and buoys, steel augers resembling corkscrews are turned deep into the sandy bottom of the inland lake. The line is anchored at the shore by a steel post that stands about four feet above the sand and water. A red flag is hung on the side opposite the swimming area enclosed by the floats and buoys and the line of cable that connects them. A green flag hangs from the side within the enclosed swimming area.
The cable stretches about 300 feet out from shore, makes a 90-degree angle at one of the buoys and then parallels the shore for a distance before making another 90 and returning to it. The area it encloses is about the size of a football field. About halfway out, a lifeguard chair stands above the surface on its tubular steel legs and out at the corner there's another.
Around noon on the last day of the summer season, the standby crew of lifeguards begins detaching the cable from the buoys and pulling the cable, with floats attached, into shore. Then the tethers between the bottom of the buoys and the augers are detached and the buoys, with their summer's-worth of accumulated algae and rust are floated into shore. Lastly, the augers are backed out of the sandy lake bottom with a long tee-handle that grips the eye where the buoys are tethered.
Near the building that houses the concession stand, showers and changing rooms, one of the lifeguards is using a pressure washer to clean the cable, buoys, etc. as they're dragged out of the water. There's not much business at the concession stand and the list of available treats has been allowed to dwindle during the countdown to this day. Even so, the prices are the same as they've been all summer.
Some years, we'd stayed until the last swimmers were called out of the water and watched as the lifeguard chairs were tipped over on their sides and the guards themselves retired from the beach. Stayed until the red orb of the sun finally dipped below the horizon and the last stragglers could be seen dragging their children and belongings towards the parking lot in the red dusk.
In those years most of our outings were to the "big lake." Ontario is some 40 miles to the northeast of us and has the best beaches. But that had seemed a bit far this year, for the daughter who expects to deliver her second child within the next couple of weeks.
Besides which, on this day, little Jay and I are the only ones in the family who've actually braved the rapidly cooling waters of the smaller lake. And by early afternoon, as we're coming out of the water from our second swim of the day, the others are packing up to leave.
So, as we're slogging through the shallows toward the beach, I tell little Jay to remember this, our last time here. Because, by all the signs, our summer is indeed over...
LPK
LiveJournal
9.8.2009
The cable stretches about 300 feet out from shore, makes a 90-degree angle at one of the buoys and then parallels the shore for a distance before making another 90 and returning to it. The area it encloses is about the size of a football field. About halfway out, a lifeguard chair stands above the surface on its tubular steel legs and out at the corner there's another.
Around noon on the last day of the summer season, the standby crew of lifeguards begins detaching the cable from the buoys and pulling the cable, with floats attached, into shore. Then the tethers between the bottom of the buoys and the augers are detached and the buoys, with their summer's-worth of accumulated algae and rust are floated into shore. Lastly, the augers are backed out of the sandy lake bottom with a long tee-handle that grips the eye where the buoys are tethered.
Near the building that houses the concession stand, showers and changing rooms, one of the lifeguards is using a pressure washer to clean the cable, buoys, etc. as they're dragged out of the water. There's not much business at the concession stand and the list of available treats has been allowed to dwindle during the countdown to this day. Even so, the prices are the same as they've been all summer.
Some years, we'd stayed until the last swimmers were called out of the water and watched as the lifeguard chairs were tipped over on their sides and the guards themselves retired from the beach. Stayed until the red orb of the sun finally dipped below the horizon and the last stragglers could be seen dragging their children and belongings towards the parking lot in the red dusk.
In those years most of our outings were to the "big lake." Ontario is some 40 miles to the northeast of us and has the best beaches. But that had seemed a bit far this year, for the daughter who expects to deliver her second child within the next couple of weeks.
Besides which, on this day, little Jay and I are the only ones in the family who've actually braved the rapidly cooling waters of the smaller lake. And by early afternoon, as we're coming out of the water from our second swim of the day, the others are packing up to leave.
So, as we're slogging through the shallows toward the beach, I tell little Jay to remember this, our last time here. Because, by all the signs, our summer is indeed over...
LPK
LiveJournal
9.8.2009
