I just don't get it

 I know I have been whining about the water quality since well before Sandy. But I believe this is symptomatic of a much larger problem.

Saturday I bragged that I was able to windsurf in nothing more than a bathing suit. Something I have not done in over 15 years. Sunday, I was treated to chest high to overhead surf. Again; no wetsuit needed; just a rash guard.

Saturday night we had down pours and thunderstorms on the North Shore. The updrafts on the T-Storms were apparently vertical. A phenomenon I have never witnessed before.

It meant that the storms did not travel from north to south as usual. Instead the rain was isolated to the North Shore. The storms essentially extinguished themselves.

I figured I could surf Sunday because the South Shore didn’t have any run off from the storms. But there was another problem…Brown Tide. As my fiend Dima pointed out to me, “is that Heckscher  at 156,000?” In fact while “Stony Brook University has revealed that during the week of July 15th, cell densities had declined from millions to tens of thousands of cells per milliliter compared to the start of the month”; the spot I windsurfed, was still the most polluted spot on the Great South Bay.  

People just don’t seem to care. As I was walking from my truck to the beach on Sunday I witnessed two guys in their 20’s halfheartedly toss trash at a waste bin. They missed; so I said “ your gonna’ pick that up right?”. One of them replied “Why the fuck should I?; and what are you gonna’ do about it old man?”  So yes I almost had to get into a fight with two kids in order to have them walk 10 steps, and put their trash in the garbage. Why? I just don’t get it.

Fast forward to today. The temperature has dropped 35 degrees, it’s blowing 20 out of the North East, but instead of windsurfing in these glorious conditions…I’m nursing some gastrointestinal mess that I probably picked up from being in the water this weekend.

I just don't get it.