Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Relaxing Moments ...



My favorite time to be on the beach is late afternoon ... I guess because, different from many native "cariocas", I'm not much into sunbathing: I can't seem to associate getting nuked by high-energy ultraviolet rays under a sweltering noon sun with the concept of "relaxing". But hey! that's just me. For me, the sun holds more painful connotations, like burned and peeling skin, blisters, and melanomas. As I bake in the sun, I can just feel the solar radiation penetrating my epidermal cells and ripping apart my DNA strands. Since I'm apparently too dumb (and/or stubborn) to adequately apply the proper sunsceen, whenever we go to the beach in the summertime this is what happens: I fry myself on the first day, and have to spend the remainder of the time we are there under a beach umbrella, in a t-shirt, and bathed in Aloe Vera. And I'm not even that fair skinned.

***

In the late afternoon, however, when the shadows on the sand stretch long and the setting sun nears the horizon, a miraculous transformation takes place; the shorter-wavelength, lethal rays-of-death are scattered by the thicker layer of atmosphere that must be traversed, and what's left is a sky-show of soothing orange, red, and pink friendly-rays.

That's my beach time. Cool ocean breeze ... waves lapping at the shore ... no need to chase down the kids every fifteen minutes for another layer of sunscreen (me either, for that matter!). It's especially nice when it's in the middle of winter, but warm enough to hang out on the beach until well after sundown.

That's how it was last weekend in Saquarema, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On Monday, an invasion of cold air, overcast skies, and drizzling rain moved in and cut short the party ... but for nearly three days we enjoyed nearly perfect beach weather (by my standards!). It was more than we could have hoped for.

Check out the pictures from Day 2, last Saturday (July 16) in Saquarema: in the gallery, Saquarema - Day 2.

3 Comments:

At July 27, 2005 12:47 PM, Anne Arkham said...

Hey Jim,

Thanks for linking me. You are sweet.

I've read your blog a couple of times, too, having clicked over from Simon of Space because I liked your picture.

Figures you're married. Ah well.

 
At July 27, 2005 4:50 PM, Lisa said...

What great pictures! and I would have to agree with anne, you sure aren't hard to look at are you? lol

good thing you can write too or I would have a hard time explaining to my husband =)

 
At July 27, 2005 7:46 PM, Jim said...

You guys are going to get me in trouble ...

 

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