Observations on the Dawn Patrol

The Dawn Patrol. Admittedly, in my pre-child and even pre-married days, I was not exactly a fixture at the beach until the sun was well in the sky. That all changed with the arrival of Thing 1 when chances were good that I was awake at that hour anyways, dealing with a feeding or a changing. Not to mention that if I wanted to be fair to my better half, it was always better to arrive home with a good portion of the day intact. This becomes doubly true now that Thing 2 is in the picture. For the record, he turned one in April and is now staggering around the house with a drunken Frankenstein gait and climbing stairs.

On some levels, having two kids should put early morning sessions in jeopardy, strictly from the standpoint that with the general lack of sleep I get, I do my best to eke out even a few precious minutes of sack-time in the morning. It was my observation this morning, however, that the opportunity to go play in the ocean ensures that even if the alarm going off at 4 in the AM should inspire me to repeatedly hit the snooze button, it’s the opposite that is true. I have no problems getting up and getting myself out the door by 4:45 to race up to the local before work. In any case…the wind was standing them up for so long this morning that there were more close-outs than clean faces. Regardless, I appreciated the fact that the sun made an appearance after way too many days of rain. Pre-surf amplitude provided by The Mummies, “Death by Unga Bunga”. Post surf drive to work chill out courtesy of Johnny Cash “Live at San Quentin”. I need some tea.