Thursday, August 16, 2012

Thursday Night Farmers' Market Oceanside, CA













It was 81 degrees outside when I arrived at the beach at 6:30 PM tonight.  Unusually warm for us; the water temperature was 70 degrees.  We are quite fortunate.  Parking was free.  What a deal!
The pier area was crowded with walkers and shoppers from the Farmers' Market up the street. 
The water was mild, with nicely-shaped, two-foot waves with quite a few surfers enjoying the evening.  I swam north to south, no current, no chop, and finished in just under 30 minutes. 
While I was swimming I reviewed a poem in my mind that I thought I had just finished memorizing two days ago:  The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost.
I got stuck on the first line of the third stanza, and throughout the swim I recited the poem in my head, each time coming up with nothing in the same spot.
That line is:  "And both that morning equally lay..."
Everybody remembers the two well-known lines of this poem:
I took the road less traveled by;
And that has made all the difference.
I believe that many of us want to have taken this 'road less traveled,' but have we?  I think that Robert Frost truly did; he was quite an individual, staying close to the land and making the mundane parts of nature remarkable and beautiful in his poetry. 
I'll sign off now and review my Frost.

By the way, my favorite Frost is "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening."
"The first time you quit is the last time you try."

1 comment:

  1. An interesting follow-up to the Farmers Market.
    I read in the paper that two gangs fought it out that night. The Samoans beat up an African American guy and smashed his head on a dumpster. Then the African American crew found the Samoan crew and shot two Samoans. They lived. Just another day in Oceanside, CA.

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