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One of the highlights of my day is my morning coffee and today was no different.  I am the first one up as usual and I’m trying to grind coffee, fill the coffee maker and make my bowl of oatmeal in complete darkness as to not wake anyone in the rooms close by.  Starbucks Sumatra, one of my favorites.  I glance around the kitchen for the Ziploc bag of sugar that I used yesterday and it was nowhere to be found.  Worry not, I found it in one of the cabinets.

“This coffee must be a little strong” I think to myself because I can’t really taste the sugar; perhaps another scoop and a scoop on top of my oatmeal as I normally do.  Okay, no doubt this sugar sure tastes strange.  Maybe a little more.  Okay something is terribly wrong.  It’s definitely not salt because I think I would know that.  Don’t think it’s Splenda, either.  Maybe the coffee or the oatmeal burned my tongue and my sweet receptors are reacting a little slow this morning.  Four or five scoops later and I just decide to ignore the strange taste of the so-called “sweet” sugar and move on to the rest of the morning routine..An hour later, Heather is wondering where half of her Miralax has run off to.  That’s stool softener or laxative for those of you that are regular and have never heard of it, nor had to take it.  Oh, “happy day” and what a start to Dooley Beach Day Three.  All day long I’m thinking I need to stay within a 100 yard radius of the beach house…

Yesterday, we ran into some nice gentlemen that showed us how to catch blue crab by using some nets, a string and a strange looking hook with raw chicken.  Looks simple enough, drop the hook with chicken, stand and wait for a shadow to cover up the chicken and then scoop up the shadow with the net.  Of course Nick and I being the adventurers that we are, bought the gear and proceeded to make the idea of catching crabs to the kids like going to the circus or making a pit stop at the ice cream store.  So off to the beach to catch our lunch…Or maybe just an appetizer.  One crab, two crab, three crabs, this is too easy.  We caught a few of them without even using the hook or chicken…

All of the sudden we look up and see some girls that couldn’t have been more than 7 or 8 years old float by about 20 ft. out being pulled by the current.  They seemed pretty relaxed and completely oblivious to the imminent danger that they were being pulled out to sea.  Before I could even think about what they were doing and how fast they were moving, out of the corner of my eye, I see Nick ripping his shirt off and running full speed into the channel (I think I even heard the Baywatch theme in the background or the look of a superman cape around his neck).  I swear it looked like he was moving in slow motion, his muscles rippling, his legs and arms pumping as he swam toward the raft.  Remember this is the same water that someone fished a baby hammerhead out of yesterday…Hero’s don’t care about themselves (or man eating sharks) in times of dire need.  I think he elbow-dropped a few of them as swam to the raft.  What a stud.  I on other hand am thinking that I’m outside of my 100 yard radius of the beach house and that I’m pretty much screwed at this point.  Dang the Miralax!

The current is pulling them out faster at this point and would have certainly pulled them out to sea.  Somehow, as hero’s do, he found a way to stay calm in the heat of danger and with every ounce of might, he paddled horizontally outside of the current to safety while fighting off the Somali pirates.  Bringing the raft up on the sand, he simply and calmly says “so, how many crabs are we up to?”  Some people have Batman posters or Superman figurines…I have a picture of Nick Dooley as the background of my laptop screen.  You’re my hero bro!  And a special happy b’day to my favorite nephew, Jake.  Love you little man!

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