The first time you throw a rock in the water as a small child, it must blow your mind. Even teenagers still get a thrill if the rocks are big enough. You don’t see a whole lot of old men down at the beach chucking stones into the sea and grinning. Further proof that the enemy of joy might actually be predictability. So much for Christmas.
In the category of truly unpredictable, who knew that throwing out compostable scraps could be anything other than a chore? The bioluminescent soup in Don Juan, with a new moon, was off the charts. We needed something to throw overboard, cuz we knew it would be good, so we hurried excitedly with our compost bucket to the starboard deck. It’s impossible to adequately describe the crazy, LSD-like effect of the the splash which burst outward like blooming flowers of neon fireworks and burning green fire-lit ripples that spread out across the dark harbor. We immediately followed with one of Diana’s stones that she’d gathered for her mosaic work, which she was willing to sacrifice. It was the only other thing we could think of that we could throw overboard. Insane! Even better! We both howled. I’m sure the coyotes looked up a little worried about the competition. Then Diana couldn’t help it and she jumped in to make the wild green fireworks herself (despite the fact that the water is in the low 60’s this time of year and the desert evening temps are pretty cool). Swimming back to the boat was even better with her whole body fluorescent under the surface and the kick of her feet and pull of her hands swirling off in plumes of green sparkles. Gathering a bucket of skipping rocks moved up to the very top of our shore list. We can’t wait for it to get dark!