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Fortress A280Home \ Fortresses \ Oct 2000 \ A280
Location: Bellows Beach |
Saturday, October 28, 2000
This weekend was prime for drainage systems. The tides were good and I was
looking forward to the beach all week long. I figured I
would build a drainage system both days. Low tide today was about 10:20 am,
which meant that I should get to the beach around 9:00 or 9:30. Well, I couldn't
get to sleep last night until sometime around 4:30 in the morning and slept
right through low tide today. I know, that's weak, but it wasn't my only
problem: on Thursday, I sliced my hand open on a glass so bad I thought I might
need stitches.
-Shut up and get to the pictures-
Fortunately, there is a hospital with an emergency room right across the street from where I live so I walked across the street to see if I should, or could, get a couple stitches. I didn't want to screw around with band-aids that would inevitably come off, especially given the location of the cut and the fact that building those drainage system sand fortresses this weekend would require that I get my hands wet--and sandy.
I was doing the dishes when I dropped a plate on a glass. The glass didn't break immediately, but the plate had cracked it and when I thrust my hand into the glass, a large piece gave way and the sharp edge of the glass slid deep into the fleshy part of the base of my thumb, right at the knuckle. If I was to reach out to shake hands with my right hand, the cut be on top and would run from the lowest knuckle of my thumb towards my palm and would be about 3/4 of an inch long. And bleeding like a leaky faucet... well, a faucet that's leaking blood, I guess.
Anyway, although it was not really an emergency, the only place to get stitches at that time of night is at an emergency room. Lisa was bored. She was also skeptical as to whether or not I would actually get stitches out of this so she went with me. We went to the Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children. Well, no, I'm not a woman or a child, but evidently, they also give medical attention to cool, studly men who get boo-boos while doing the dishes.
I saw Dr. Don Wilcox. A visual thinker like me, he was very talkative, like me, and in a matter of minutes, we covered the subjects of ocean tides, subcutaneous tissue, working with sand and water, the thickness and properties of skin, making web sites, blood coagulation and blood vessels and how they constrict when severed... looking back on it, it's tough to be as interesting as a medical doctor. But I tried.
After discussing the various options, we opted for the stitches because I wanted something more substantial than a couple of dumb band-aids that would come off anyway, and because I use my hands so much for important work, you know, like typing on my computer and stuff. Well, okay, the truth is, I knew I was going to be building sand fortresses this weekend and needed a solution that wouldn't fall off when it got wet. So Dr. Wilcox whipped out a syringe, pumped some lidocaine into the open wound, and expertly sewed my hand closed with several superb stitches.
Before he began the stitching, Dr. Wilcox left to answer a phone call. While away, me and Lisa wagered on how many stitches he would put in my hand. I guessed five, she said four. After he had four stitches in, he pondered adding one more, saying it was borderline. We were teetering with anticipation, waiting for his decision as he examined his work. Then he declared that five would be excessive and that four was definitely enough. It just wasn't my night.
The next day, Friday, I followed Dr. Wilcox's suggestion and picked up some waterproof band-aids to further protect my hand from the elements at the beach, although I was skeptical as to how well they would stand up against not only the water, but also the abrasive properties of the sand.
Which brings me to today. I applied a waterproof bandage and left for the beach very late, around 2:30 in the afternoon. Since I blew low tide by sleeping through it, I figured I might as well relax and have some lunch before I go. Hell, I wanted to get to the beach before low tide and I wouldn't end up getting there until right around high tide. On the way there, since the tides now prevented me from building a drainage system, I decided to abandon a typical fortress altogether and go for distance on a sand wall.
It was rainy on the way to the beach but when I got to Bellows, there was no rain, although it was fairly cloudy. It was also pretty late in the afternoon. These conditions are perfect for people who are at the beach to leave the beach, and the few people who were there when I got there left shortly thereafter. So I had the place to myself as I began laying down a long foundation for a wall.
I had watched the tide for a few minutes then started digging up the sand for the foundation just ahead of the last wave. I had it snaking about 25 feet across the beach and waited for a wave high enough to flood the pit, giving me the wet sand cement required for construction of the wall. But it wasn't coming. I decided to build a tower just in front of the pit, closer to the water, while I waited for a 100 year flood wave to run up and flood the pit for the wall.
The tower had a cool top to it, with a hint of a scowling face. On the front, I decided to carve a path winding up the tower for its citizens to get to the top, where they could sacrifice virgins to the gods, the sea, or whatever the hell they want to sacrifice to. I had never made anything like that before, and I didn't really like it when it was done. The tower didn't look as strong and as menacing with a cute little path zigzagging up the front of it. It created a fairy talesque quality that contradicted my standing goal of making my structures look ominous. So I blew it up with firecrackers. But that would come later.
At the point that I was almost finished with the tower, Mark and Cindy showed up. They said they might stop by and they did. They went for a swim, then Mark joined me and started a new wall closer to the water. I had a few waves give me enough water to build a portion of the original wall, about 8 feet and two small towers, but the rest had to be abandoned. After I finished the taller tower in front of the original wall, I helped Mark with the new one.
Mark is new to carving sand fortresses and already the sand is teaching him lessons: he had a nice arch going that collapsed on him. But that's part of the game you play with the mischievous sand and he just built it up again. I continued the wall, going for distance, instead of height or detail, but it was already starting to get dark and we were running out of time, so we stopped the wall at a length of about 15 feet and started carving. I quickly hacked away, trying to get it carved in time to take pictures before it got too dark.
To recap the day: I blew the drainage system by sleeping in, then my plan for a record length wall went down the tubes when the tide betrayed me. On the good side, it was nice having Mark and Cindy there, and as always, it was nice to be at the beach. And I must give credit to the 3M company: although I was skeptical, the Nexcare waterproof bandage I put on my hand before I left the house stayed on and protected my stitches the entire afternoon, even though I was running my hands through sand and ocean water for hours, which has to be some sort of acid test. I highly recommend them. I must also thank Dr. Don Wilcox for the fine job of stitching, without which I probably wouldn't have gone to the beach at all this weekend.
As the sun was setting, I took pictures. Actually, the best part of the sunset was over and just a little bit of it was still lingering so I didn't even get a chance to capture good sunset photos. I'm pretty sure it was still light enough though. We rinsed off the carving tools and packed everything up. Then came the firecrackers.
I had been thinking about blowing up a fortress with firecrackers for a while, but I keep forgetting to do it. Tonight I remembered.
The sun was almost gone and it was getting dark when I got out a pack of cheap firecrackers I bought last July. I selected a small tower at the end of the original wall, shoved in a firecracker, and lit it. It blew a nice little hole in the side of the tower, the explosion muffled by the sand, but it barley affected it structurally. Mark and Cindy were digging it though and being a life-long pyromaniac, so was I.
It quickly escalated as twisted the fuses of two together and shoved them both into the other side of the tower. The twin explosions did a good job of blowing another hole in the tower, but still, it stood strong. Then I attacked the main tower: one firecracker, then two, then four, blowing a bigger and bigger hole its lower side, but not bringing it down. I then targeted a higher area where the fortress tapered in, but when I shoved in a cluster of four demolition charges, it caused the top to fall. Damn. Next, we moved on to the front wall and Mark's arch. We blew a good hole into the lower section of the arch, but it didn't topple. What the hell? They collapse when I don't want then to, but exploding them repeatedly with firecrackers wasn't doing much damage. I guess it's testament to good construction.
It may have been a little bit of frustration, or perhaps just being infected with the highly contagious urge for destruction, but whatever it was, Cindy said she wanted to give one of the towers a karate kick. We agreed and she gave Mark's tallest tower a double kick, jumping into the air, with both feet landing dead center.
It was now so dark it was almost night time so I dug underneath the first tower that I tried to blow up, which now had two holes in it, and buried the rest of the string of firecrackers under it. I lit the fuse that I left sticking out of the sand and it hissed, the orange sparks disappearing into the sand. A second later about 40 small explosions went off under the tower. Our own mini Nevada Test Site. The tower was still standing. So I left it.
The crabs were poking up through the sand all over the place as we left. I'm sure they had a nice party in the ruins of our day's worth of sand structures.
Photos pending - coming soon...
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