Paddle Out

So, why doesn’t a movie studio make a Groundhog Day 2? But instead of actually making a new movie: just release the original Groundhog Day and don’t tell anyone. Put out commercials with clips from the old movie, get Bill Murray and the rest of the cast in on it (i.e., have them go on Letterman promoting the movie, but being very vague about the plot). And then just drop Groundhog Day, again. That would be the hardest part of the plan, of course, keeping the whole thing under wraps in such a media intense environment, but it might be possible. Don’t screen it for critics, make a quick release date, and go for it.

Then, when the movie finally hits screens and theater’s packed of people start getting a taste of the original 1993 version they all would think to themselves: “This is just Groundhog’s Day all over again”. There’d be a nation wide irony attack. And if anyone complained; just tell them that all you promised them was a 2nd Groundhog Day, and damned if they didn’t get it.

By the way, in the course of writing this, I discovered that it’s Groundhog Day, and not Groundhog’s Day (at least in the movie title). Didn’t know that, and it doesn’t really make sense to me (shouldn’t it be the Groundhog’s Day?). Anyway, these are my thoughts on these long days and nights along the choppy Atlantic shore.

Which brings me to what I was really writing about (see, a little shtick, and then a point); the paddle out for Mike and Pat planned for Saturday October 9th. It’ll be at Ocean Avenue and of course the entire community is welcomed and wanted. It’s taken a little while for a good weekend date to align itself, and unfortunately, because of that reason, we’ve kind of transitioned into a time of year where the ocean has a fair chance of being rowdy.

I’m not exactly sure what we’re going to do if we have large surf. We can postpone until Sunday if that looks to help, but that’s about as good as we could do. It needs to go off on a weekend. And we have many people coming from out of town for this, so, in a way it needs to go off. But on the other hand (the more reasonable hand) a paddle out is kind of like a shuttle launch: everyone may be on the coast, but if there’s a thunderstorm or that fuel tank is leaking a little coolant (or if a button is the wrong color) the dumb thing just isn’t launching.

Paddle out’s (obviously) work best when it’s about as small as it gets, or flat. Looking at some of the long range models I monitor feverishly for surf there’s a major Northeast wind event that’s going to be kicking up huge swells starting around next Tuesday. I suppose we can only just hope that the wind, and the waves, will mellow enough by the weekend to go for it.

I’ve never been so close to putting one of these together (and hope, but doubt, to not have to ever do it again), and so I’m not really sure what to do if the waves are big. There’s been some thought to just paddling out no matter the swell. Because if we have to get out; we’ll get out. But I’m just not sure how that’ll work, or if it would work (I get the feeling that barring VAC conditions, we’re going to launch this shuttle even if there’s some ice crystal’s on the pipes that morning).

Anyway, those are the details as I know of them now. I’ll keep you updated as I know of anything else. And thank you for the continuing love; know that it is still felt and real.





Paddle out is at 9 AM at Ocean Ave and all systems are go.