Floundering - or is that Foundering?

I don't know if the fact that I am much older than I think I am (22) has anything to do with the amount of time it takes me to recuperate from a summer of helping out my brother - but I feel like I've been run over by a raft and bumped along the bottom of the river.

I've been home almost a week now and I'm still wallowing around like a beached whale. I raise a flipper only to have it flop back to the sand and I give a sad little 'oomph' from my blow hole and sink further into the fog.

During the summer I noted that if I came home for a few days when we didn't have trips that I usually didn't get out of bed much before 10am and even then I was hoarse and had heavy-lidded eyes. Yet when I am back at my brother's I am up at 6:30am and having my coffee (roasted by my brother) and getting ready to leap from my little trailer at 8am - bright and cheery (usually) and ready to greet the incoming rafters.

Even with the recession my brother was busier this year than last and we put it down perhaps to the idea that people have remained closer to home to have fun rather than traveling further distances and spending more money. People often overlook the simple fact that there are many things to do right around them - but then the grass is always greener on the other side, isn't it?

So - add more people coming through to be entertained with the thrill of whitewater rafting - to the simple fact that it was the most frustrating and stressful summer of them all. Some of my readers have had emails from me over the summer talking about what I was enduring. Suffice it to say - all it really takes is one person who can ruin it for everyone. Whoever made that statement first really hit it on the head didn't they?

I've often thought of writing a tv series about whitewater rafting. There is so much that goes on right on the river and also behind the scenes. Over the last 30 years we have experienced some of the most incredible and some of the most ridiculous events you can imagine. The sport in itself attracts a certain type of person to go out and try it and it also attracts a certain type of person who is going to be a guide.

We have discovered that in the end - all guides are basically the same. They aren't normal people. They have some kind of crack in them that makes them a great whitewater guide. All of them are a little different than what is considered 'the norm' for society. Not only do they thrive on excitement and thrills but they also have the ability to entertain people and be able to do so while holding those lives in their hands. Not showing the strain of what that entails is an incredible asset. Knowing what that entails is what is important to my brother and to myself.
We are proud of our clean track record. In fact we always say 'Safety first - fun next' to anyone who will listen.

So - all this blabbering about my summer is only to say I'm still tired and I'm still gathering my wits. When I find them and put them all into one container I will continue on a more sane basis. As promised I will do a recap of 'The Man Tales' and then continue on with the story. That is if anyone is still interested. There might also be a few ravings in there about mental health issues - it depends on the day. Stay tuned or change the dial.