Happy Sunday!
Shoes off. Socks off. Into the pond.
The water’s warmer than I expected. My feet sink softly into the mud with each step. Somewhere down here is an orange disc.
We’re 15 holes into a nine-hole disc-golf course in Coquitlam.
I almost didn’t book the flight. Now I’m knee-deep, wading around a water hazard. Jason is making dinner plans on my phone because his died.
The pond is probably 12 feet across and double that long. I wade over and back in a grid like a lawn mower.
One disc. Three discs. Seven discs.
I toss them one by one to the grass. Jason is waving his free hand like a question mark while commentating the scene into the phone.
Fourteen discs, but somehow, none of them are orange.
I climb out and up to the scattered pile of discs. Dripping and bewildered.
By now, another player has wandered over. He commends my bravery and asks, “Do you want a towel? I think I have a golf towel in my car.”
I don’t want to be a bother. “Nah, I’ll be okay.”
“You sure?” He lingers.
“I’m good. It’s a beautiful day. I can drip dry.”
He gives me a look I can’t read. I don’t try too hard. We’re on a time crunch. We have a second round to finish out.
A quick detour to drop discs into a return bin, and we circle back to bang out the final five baskets.
Fast forward twenty-two hours.
I’m sitting under a tree beside a splash park, thinking about that towel.
ChatGPT just told me what the towel guy already knew:
Stagnant water + bare skin + no towel = swimmer’s itch.
Scratching my legs, shaking my head, I smile. Last time I saw Jason, he was getting ready to be a dad. This time, his child was filling a bucket in the splash park.
A week later, I stopped itching, but kept thinking about everything else.
The McDonald’s breakfast after drop off at daycare. Patio beers in the late-morning sun. Playing Warframe in the same room. Wandering a grocery store because it was air-conditioned. Stretching one last conversation before my flight home.
I could’ve kept my shoes on. I keep my shoes on most months. Stay dry. Wave the disc goodbye. Never book the flight. Never meet the kid. Never know what the bottom of that pond felt.
The pond itch faded (relatively) fast.
The story, and everything that came with it, stuck around.
June in 3 snapshots
😂 Laugh Shop strikes again – Danko drives up from the deep south. I head over from the central-south. We meet near the middle, spend an hour catching up, then watch someone funnier than us for ninety minutes. This month, Joe List was the excuse.
🏀 Knicks fan for a night – I watched exactly zero NBA games this season. Then Game 5 was on the TV at a family barbecue in Burnaby. By halftime, I had strong opinions. We missed most of the fourth quarter fighting with a login screen. Caught the finish and felt the excitement. We won! Sports are fun.
🛠️ DIY closet – We gambled a perfectly good closet on a vision. Sarah did the hard parts. I did whatever required long arms. Somehow, it all came together. But we’ll definitely measure three times next time. Two was not enough…
3 lessons learned in June
I. It takes time to accept what you already know. Knowing and believing are different jobs. One happens in a moment. The other takes weeks, months, sometimes years. Until then, the answer keeps showing up wearing different clothes. You can’t rush acceptance unless you’re willing to pay attention.
II. The road to competence is littered with cringe. Being a beginner is painfully obvious. Getting better almost isn’t. One day you realize the thing that once made your skin crawl has become ordinary. Frustrating system. You collect competence and remember cringe.
III. A rich life is filled with firsts. The older you get, the easier it is to pre-decide everything. Probably fine. Probably annoying. Probably not worth the drive. Then you go anyway and come home with a story. Firsts have a funny way of proving you wrong. Chase them with enthusiasm.
3 interesting things
- Someone redesigned the lighter – YouTube (3mins)
I didn’t know a lighter needed improving. After this, I want one. Tiny details. Thoughtful engineering. Weirdly satisfying. - Tracked down the thief who stole $200,000 of LEGO – YouTube (85mins)
Quintessential YouTube. A great story, interesting characters, chaos, corruption, and legal battles. Over lego. - Exploring 100 Miles of Abandoned Railroad – YouTube (31mins)
Watching curious people explore weird corners of the world is one of my favourite genres on YouTube. This one’s a beauty.
I’ll leave you with a quote 🤔
“Live in the present and make it so beautiful that it’s worth remembering.”
— Arnold H. Glasow
Until next time,
remember to live and let go,
Scotty
PS guess God don’t make mistakes
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