Last Minute Beach Trips

As the hot summer inches it's way towards it's own vacation thereby dooming us to months of unbearable temperatures in the high 50's, I took stock of my summer beach trips and realized I had not yet gone for a sandy slump this year. That's shameful really. Sure I went for a few breezy walks in the early Spring when the Hon's were here but there have been no trips to the beach that required sunblock and a bottle of water. I mulled this over in my mind and that very evening Brett says. "Let's go eat out at Folly for supper. I wanna look at something."

Brett tells me all about the different projects he's working on at the office but somewhere in the chats about trusses and lintels, all those building projects mush together in a never-ending labyrinth of mathematics and bearing loads. So when he stopped the car at the end of the beach and hustled along the sand at a pace my shorter legs couldn't match, I got winded and grumpy and just as the hungriness was creeping upon me, we arrived at one of his projects.
"Here we are!" he beamed.

Brett designed that! It's the new community center at the Folly Beach County Park. Brett was so excited to see it in person. I remember him talking about the project at least a year and a half ago and even remember him running off during an evening out at Folly to knock on some pilings at a nearby structure of a similar height. I remember the worries of wind loads and hurricane requirements and a strange basin on the roof that made no sense and then suddenly I was also very excited to see it in person. "This is that one?" I exclaimed. "It looks great!" 

We scrambled up underneath the new building and Brett did mental measurements and tested the give on some tension rods and pointed out angles and connections and areas where updrafts are a concern. 

"See the way that plywood is cut?" he asked. "I drew in it just like that. And they did it!"

We realized it had already withstood a Category 3 hurricane. That's important and great.

I thought his excitement was quite endearing and anytime I tried to take a picture of his happy face, he'd point me back to the building - as if that was more exciting to look at.

Then he took my camera away. 

Last weekend, after much busyness that kept Brett out of his beloved garage, he finally made his way back to his tools. He tinkered for but a few moments when I said, "Brett, it's perfect weather. Let's go to the beach." That sweet Fella thought for a minute, his fists full of parts and gadgets, and he took a deep breath and said ok. He laid all his potential back down on the workbench and we loaded up the Jeep with towels and sandwiches and a couple of books.
It was perfect beach day weather and the water was chilly and refreshing. We lazed and swam and people-watched and then I put Brett's flowing mane into a tiny ponytail and it made him rethink his polite endorsement of a beach day.