“Make sure everybody in your boat is rowing and not drilling holes when you’re not looking.”

On the mirror in my hallway, there is a note. When I see it and stop to read it, it makes me smile, and often laugh outright. Today I want to think about things that we have around us that can help our humor meter go up a degree or two.

The note reads, “When I’m sad, I’ll think of kayaking.” Yes, of course, there’s a story. An embarrassing one. But you’ll have to wait a moment for it. 

Having some momentos around us can be uplifting. I bet you have some photos or quotes on your refrigerator right now that give you some joy, and some sustenance for the day ahead. That’s a good step.

As I said last time, laughter is also about surprise. Have you ever opened a book you haven’t read in a while, or a drawer that needs to be organized, and found some treasure in it? Every so often I open a book and find an old comic (cut out of the newspaper in the olden days) by one of my favorite cartoonists, such as Gary Larson (The Far Side) or Bill Watterson (Calvin & Hobbes). The cartoon called, “A Lucky Night for Goldie” usually makes me laugh out loud, especially when I come upon it unexpectedly. Look it up.

Here’s another thought: Recently I’ve been rewatching old Saturday Night Live shows from the seventies, when I first watched them. Chevy Chase’s falls to open the show are funny, but nothing can top Carol Burnett or Tim Conway cracking up Harvey Corman on the Carol Burnett Show. If you don’t believe me, go to YouTube and look up the Went With the Wind clip.

But is it enough of a surprise if you put it there yourself? Perhaps you could get a family member to hide something in a book for you, or stick it up on the fridge when you’re not looking. This is how the kayak note got onto my mirror.

“What about the kayak?” you ask. I guess I’ll have to tell you. 

I was kayaking with my friend Leanne and her daughter Tirta near Bremerton. The water was calm and it was an easy ride; me in the single kayak and the two of them in a double. I had been feeling pretty proud of myself as I paddled around solo, waiting for them to get ready. I hadn’t been in a kayak for quite a while, and having overcome the first of the two scary parts for me (getting in) and with the second (getting out) far off, I was enjoying myself. I was pleased to note that I could paddle in a pretty straight line and didn’t splash myself in the face much at all.

When my friends came on the water, we ambled along together. Tirta was scooping up some of the many crab molts that were floating in the water (crabs shed their shells as they grow like a snake sheds its skin). I caught one on the end of my paddle and called out to her, “Hey, Tirta, here’s one.” With a bit of wave action, the molt ended up a little too close to her face. So, naturally, she shrieked, and perhaps less naturally, she swung her own paddle to bat it away. Surprised (get it?) at seeing it come straight at my head, I leaned back out of the way and tipped myself and the boat right over. I think it’s called turtling.

Upside down under the kayak, my first thought was, “Brrr! It’s cold!” Then I kicked my feet a bit and came up gasping. My paddle and hat went floating, so I tried to grab them first, and catch the bowline to the boat second. My companions, or perhaps you would call them perpetrators, were frantically calling and bringing their boat around to get me. No laughing yet. We tried to right the kayak and tip the water out of it (I learned about that for canoes as a kid) but it was too heavy to pull over the bow. 

So, they attached the line for my boat to theirs and began towing it and me back to the dock. We were quite a ways off. Luckily, the water wasn’t very cold; not what you’d expect for Puget Sound, but we were in a sheltered bay. At first, I tried to help by kicking, but it was tiring side stroking and hanging onto the rope at the same time.

Gradually I let my friends do most of the work.

At last, we made it back, and the others tied up both boats and I wobbled my way to the steps along shore. By this time, being tired, washed around by the waves, and okay, old, getting out was still a chore even if I didn’t have to lift myself to the dock. With a little help, I made it out and collapsed onto the dock in the sun. After this point, there was plenty of laughing.

Now, I know that a couple of my readers may want to write a rebuttal, and I encourage them to do so, as I may want to write this incident up later!

For the rest of you, feel free to email me what makes you laugh.

Smiling,

Gail