The tide goes out....the tide comes in

Dumb blond moment number 2398.  Those people that know me know that I do not do sun exposure of any kind if I can help it. I look old enough as it is. Don't need any help from the sun.  So, since I used a tanning bed 8 or 9 years ago and evidently was on a medication that didn't marry well with the tanning bed  (of course, who reads those warning labels?) and ended up looking like part of my neck had been baked in the oven (the fat part under my chin hasn't seen the light of day since, well, since it got fat).  Therefore, I am normally very careful.  Yesterday we went to the beach here in the park.  The waves were awesome; just the kind I love to play in.  We had purchased some inflatable, floating chairs a few years back and Jack insisted on taking them.  I protested as it seemed like more work than was necessary since we had just purchased some foam noodles to use in the water and we were already taking them.  He said to me, "You can thank me later!"  Whatever!!  Later I did run out of ways to say thank you.  OMG!!  We had so much fun.  I felt like a kid again.  I absolutely loved it as did Jack. We rode those waves in those silly inflatable chairs for several hours.  Although I put suntan lotion on my face and arms, when Jack asked if he could put some on my back I declined thinking my back would be in the chair shielded from the sun.  That's where dumb blond moment number 2398 comes in to play.  WHAT THE HELL was I thinking?  This back hasn't seen the sun in years (without a bucket of 45 SPF lotion, so trust me, buddy, it was just ripe for the burning.  And burn it did.  The kind of burn that makes you cold later in the day and zaps all of your energy that night.  I don't care what anyone says Noxzema is the answer for soothing a sunburn.

While Jack's trying to get the satellite dish to work the dogs and I are sitting outside enjoying the sounds of the birds.  Well, not so much Sydney.  She's too busy chasing bugs.

We did go to WalMart earlier today for groceries.  I had to use the bathroom.  Have any of you ever, ever asked a woman when her baby was due only to find out she wasn't pregnant?  Well, I've done that 3 different times in my life.  You'd think after the second time I would have learned but noooooooo, it took me 3 humiliating, wishing the ground would open up and swallow me whole, times. Never again. I could see a woman going in to labor and I would walk on by.  My luck she would just have an upset stomach.  Nope.  Never again.  But today was a whole new horror story on a totally different level of humiliation.

To me all WalMart restrooms everywhere smell alike.  Disgusting!  So trust me I don't dilly, dally around.  Get going, wash my hands and I'm out of there.   Today was no different.  I always, always check the sign on the bathroom doors.  Always. There have been times, I must admit, that the "female" bathroom has been busy in many of the places we've stopped at through our travels.  I go in with Jack if it is a one staler if the women's bathroom is busy.  But that has nothing to do with this tale of horror.  So getting back to this story.  I rounded the bathroom corner to wash my hands.  There stood a man, 6 foot if not taller.  His back was to me and I thought he was peeing in the urinal. Time seemed to slow down to a crawl.  I was mortified.  Did I walk in to the wrong bathroom?  I didn't know what to do.  Should I run out without washing my hands or should I go back in to the stall?  I felt as if I was in a nightmare. Slow motion....my thought process felt as if it had been turned off.  I was in a total morph stage.  And again I buckle under pressure.  "Oh my God," I said, "did I walk in to the wrong bathroom?"  The man turns to face me.  My eyes immediately go to "HER" breast.  I felt like a total pervert.  "Please let the ground swallow me up right this second," I pray .  I hear laughter from another stall.  The woman who looks like a man stares at me.

It makes me wonder did I judge too quickly?  Or am I really getting senile?  I walked out of that bathroom, my mind still in a blur.  I tried to recall why my mind went where it did.  She was tall, her hair shorter than Jack's.  She had keys hanging from her belt; she even had the "dunlap" fat that many guys have. In short, she was totally built like a man.  Her shoes, pants and shirt were all men's clothes.  I found Jack.  I told him what happened.  When I pointed her out he agreed.  "She" looked more like a man than many men do.

Later at the McDonalds in WalMart she stood behind me.  I wanted to disappear.  Instead, my mouth got diarrhea again and I said to her, "I'm so embarrassed I'm seeing you again."  At least she was nice and said, "Ah, don't worry about it.  It happens all of the time."

Here are the pictures.  The first two are inside the park while the rest were taken at the beach.