tubing the truckee with umbrella sails

my sister autumn and i are - to say the least - a bit spunky. seldom when we get together, are we doing anything the normal, or obvious, way it should be done. yesterday was no exception.

it has been extremely hot in reno the last couple weeks, and our group of friends have gone tubing a couple times to ease the heat. despite sunscorched flesh and heat exhaustion from being outdoors, it makes the heat a little more bearable if you're in the water and going on an adventure.

yesterday autumn and i wanted to go on the tubing trip down the truckee river, so i checked all three sports authority stores in reno, and of course walmart... not a single store had river tubes.

it was a tragedy.

i called autumn and notified her we would not be able to go down the river. i went home and moped on my couch for a couple minutes, and then got a brilliant idea. i ran to my garage and hauled my huge double inflation, queen sized ozark mattress into my living room. five minutes later, thanks to my electric hand pump, it was filling my livingroom floor.

it was a go!! i called autumn and informed her i was going downt he river on my mattress with or without her. she loved the idea too, so she headed over. i didnt want to be sunburned very bad, so i put on sunscreen and got out my umbrella around the same time autumn showed up with the exact same thing.

a while later and we were headed to the river with our friends, trying to figure out the best way to haul our huge mattress through my neighborhood and to the river's edge. we succeeded, and were soon on our way down the truckee.

it was soon evident that our floating party of seven was not going to stay together. autumn and i were whizzing by them all, as we realized our umbrellas doubled as not only sun shade, but wind sails as well. when people stood up to walk their tubes over the shallow riverbed with rocks and all, our durable ozark mattress just skimmed over the top of em.

many women stared in envy at our floating mattress of relaxation, and our shaded faces as we just floated along when there was no wind... and we could tell many of the men we passed wished there was a way to copy us and not lose their man cards by taking an umbrella out on the river with them.

our friends soon became envious of our speed or travel, and after they caught up to us, they had a blast hooking their legs over our mattress to be carried along with us. tragically, my sister faith ended up kicking open the air hole on the mattress when she threw her legs over, and i couldnt get to it quickly enough to stop a large amount of air from exiting our party float.

it was humbling to stand in the middle of the river trying to inflate our mattress manually, while all the people we passed floated by. it became quite the spectator sport as i yelled sassy comments at my sister faith who had stolen my umbrella by this time, and the other tubers on the river laughed out loud at the fiest happening in the middle of the river.

eventually we got a bit more air in it, and caught up with faith to retrieve my umbrella/wind sail. away we went, on half the air we started with, but still a much comfier ride than most on the river.

thank you ozark, for creating a mattress so durable and awesome as the one we took down the river... and thank you mary poppins for inventing the umbrella wind sail, and giving our imaginative minds an idea.

blasting me with your horn? really?!?

who would've thought you could have adventures in america, too.

yesterday i ran some errands in town, and then i wanted to go to the buck of the star (i.e. starbucks) to write for awhile and relax for the afternoon.

i'd felt pretty lazy the last few days since i'd been too busy to get out in the fresh air and get some exercise. it'd been a few days of coffee dates, family time, and errands around town whenever i had a couple free hours in the evening. i'd caught up on life finally, but had no time to work out.

i decided that if i wanted to spend the afternoon at starbucks sitting on my butt, that i'd make myself earn it... so i walked to starbucks.

that's right... i have a vehicle, i live in america, and i walked somewhere.

try it... you'll feel so accomplished. and yes... our legs will support us for longer than five minutes at a time.

i parked my car up at the office max/home depot area at north mccarran, and i put on my hat, coat and scarf. i slung my laptop bag over my shoulder and put my ipod in my ears, and i was off.

it was a mile and a half to the pyramid starbucks, and it was frigid outside... but it felt so good to be walking that i didn't even mind.

this brings me to the subject of my blog...

as i was walking along the road... on the made-for-walking sidewalk... the sidewalk where i should be safe and secure because i was using it for it's intended purpose... i nearly jumped out of my skin as a utility truck passed me and the driver SLAMMED on his horn.

GOOD LORD!

i gasped and jumped to the far side of the sidewalk as the two men in the cab stared back at me as they drove past. my wide-eyed shock turned into a disturbed glare at those men as i turned up my ipod and kept walking.

i get that the latino culture believes it is flattering for a man to look a woman up and down like she's a piece of meat... but could ya just not scare me half to death by blaring on your horn and making me think i'm going to be run over at any moment?

after a few more times of the horns blaring on my walk, i was thankful for the warmth and quiet jazz music in the buck of the star.

it was another three hours of hot tea, writing, and relaxation, before i braved the horns again on my walk back to my car.