#248 Digging out your own little wading pool in the sand when you’re at the beach

Neil Pasricha

Life begins with climate control.

Since we first hung woolly mammoth furs from forest branches we’ve gotten used to getting comfy when we settle in somewhere. Just look at babies in those curly fetal poses in their flannel onesies, napping in sunhats, shades, and shorts in strollers, or cuddling up to mom in cozy carry-ons.

Folks, it’s like I always say: We can learn much from The Baby.

Digging out your own little wading pool in the sand when you’re at the beach is another beautiful moment of climate control. You strip down because you’re hot, take a dip to cool off, chill out in the sand… and are suddenly hot again. Now it’s time to get digging and fill your in-ground Sand Chair with water to cool off those nether regions so you can relax and have it both ways.

AWESOME!

— Email message —

“A co-worker and I have been going back and forth for months over who is more awesome.  I’ve bought her both Books of Awesome  and thought there was no way she could one-up me there! Well I come into my classroom one Monday morning to find a gift bag on my desk. There was a note that said “Now you can be awesome every day of the week!”  In the bag were several shirts all using the word AWESOME in some way.  I put all of my awesome shirts into one picture. Being awesome every day of the week and having a shirt that says so?  AWESOME!” – Jenni



39 thoughts to “#248 Digging out your own little wading pool in the sand when you’re at the beach”

  1. I always used to do this whenever I went to the beach! My sister and I would compete with each other to see who could dig the best hole. Then we would make endless amounts of trips back and forth from the water with our little pails so we could fill up the holes. It pretty much took forever, but it was so worth it!

    One time, we got really wild and did this at the park in our complex. We spent hours digging the hugest hole imaginable out of the sand, and then lined garbage bags along the inside of the hole. Then we spent another hour going back and forth, from our house to the park, with buckets of water from the tap in our garden. We of course ended up getting in a ton of trouble from the landlord, but we were too pleased with ourselves to care. How could we? We made a ‘pool’ big enough to fit three people in it in the middle of a park! Awesome!

  3. “Without ME , it’s just AWESO” is definitely my favorite shirt in the bag! My co-worker said she has been looking on eBay and has found tons of hilarious shirts. With a little eBay or Google action, you can find your own Awesome shirts! Just search for “Awesome shirts!” (Tough, I know!)

    1. Jenni – What do the rest of the shirts say? I tried to zoom in but couldn’t read them… Nice work with the photos!!!

      1. Yeah! Definitely tell us what all the rest of the shirts say.. I could only read the one above, and the one that said: “I’m sorry – I couldn’t hear what you said over the sound of how AWESOME I am”. We’d love to hear the rest..

        btw: What a super cool picture you took! How did you find so many Jenni-look-alikes??

        2. It’s called cloning. You use a tri-pod so the camera is in the exact same position. You set the timer and place yourself so you don’t overlap your (other) selves. Then I use Photoshop to merge them all into one image. I showed my first graders today and they were blown away. It was… AWESOME!

      2. Thanks! This is what the shirts say…
        (from L to R)
        1. You’re Awesome (printed backwards, so you can read it in a mirror.)
        2. Sorry, I can’t hear you over the sound of how AWESOME I am.
        3. If you were me, you would be AWESOME!
        4. Without ME, it’s just AWESO.
        5. I love being Awesome!
        6. YOU ARE AWESOME (Uncle Sam shirt)
        7. You can’t spell AWESOME without ME (Scrabble letters)

        1. Those are ALL awesome! What great shirts.. (and pretty awesome photoshop technique as well.. way faster than cloning!)

  4. At the start of this year we were in Denmark (the town in Australia, not the country) and a whole group of us went to Lights Beach and we reverted to our slightly younger selves, making a huge pool against a rock, the sporty boys running back and forth with boogie boards piled with dry sand to keep the wet sand at a perfect consistency. We made a small channel so water could get in every time there was a big wave that just reached us, and we built walls around it. And after everything was finished, the rest just went off and I got to enjoy it all to myself :D AWESOME!

  5. I bet this is fun…hopefully I will find out soon. It is in my list of things to do-go to the beach. Probably when the little one is just a bit older.

  6. I was at the beach last weekend and there was this little girl who dug a hole and was dutifully going back and forth between her pool and the water to fill it up. She was adding water at pretty much the same rate as it was sinking back into the ground. She then recruited her dad to help her, but since she was already using the pail, the only other water-carrying device available was a little sand mold that probably held only about 5 oz. of water, but he got to work anyway. It was hilarious watching those two work so hard on such a lost cause, but that that little girl was having a blast.

  7. Btw: Someone might have commented on this already and I missed it, but I just realized that a few days ago we passed the three-quarters mark of the blog!

    What a sobering thought.. only 247 more awesome things to go. Let’s make ’em count, everybody!

    1. No, I’m pretty sure that somebody’s boyfriend’s mother’s cousin’s aunt told me that Neil is gonna extend it to 10,000 awesome things. So no worries, we have years of awesome left! At least that’s what I heard.

      1. Oh! Great – glad that we had that person talk to Neil and report back to us.. In that case, we’re all good to go. Because I’m sure it will extend to a 1,000,000 awesome things, and Neil’s descendents will be writing awesome things to our great-great-grandkids.

        Awesome thing #857,389: The fact that our new alien overlords have not yet eaten us or shot us with their alien laser guns.

        1. Awesome thing #857,388: The fact that our new alien overlords have not yet eaten ALL of us.

                1. Will they dip us in melted butter or does human go better with tartar sauce? I just hope they don’t use magnifying lenses to burn me!

                  1. I’d like to be dipped in butter. Hopefully, not after being dumped in a pot of boiling water, though. I think I’d make excellent sashimi.

    2. Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
      I guess he’ll have to start thinking about how he’s gonna start up his next blog: 1000 awesome things to do with Nutella and ducks (not necessarily at the same time). Catchy title, eh?

        1. Oh come on! Nutella-roasted duck doesn’t sound appealing to you? How about feeding ducks Nutella? Or eating Nutella while watching ducks in a pond? Or putting ducks in a pond-full of Nutella? The possibilities are endless!

          1. Nutella-roasted duck? Waste of Nutella (besides, that’s what Hoisin Sauce is for in Peking Duck recipes)

            Feeding ducks Nutella? Waste of Nutella!

            Eating Nutella while watching ducks in a pond? Distracts from the enjoyment of savoring my Nutella. I want to be focused and in-the-moment, without the distraction of incessant quacking.

            Putting ducks in a pond-full of Nutella? *speechless* If I ever have enough nutella to make an entire POND FULL of it, do you think I’m going to waste it on ducks? It’s going to be me, swimming in it, every day.. just me.. swimming.. and eating.. with a sign on the edge of the pond that says: “NO DUCKS. EVER.”

            1. Well I did specify that ducks and Nutella don’t have to be in the same post. How about these: eating Nutella, eating nutellows while camping, eating Peking duck, flying like a duck, swimming in a pond of Nutella without ducks, eating Nutella without hearing incessant quacking, eating Nutella (yeah that post is gonna repeat), ducking just in time to miss a dodgeball flying at your head, watching the Mighty Ducks, inventing more ways to use Nutella.

    3. 247 days left . . . that falls pretty close to February 5th, World Nutella day ;)

      1. I have no idea what he’s saying, but he seems to be pro-Nutella, so I’m a big fan.. :)

        Now I’m going to have that song stuck in my head all day.. awesome! :)

        1. It’s a catchy song, for sure. I think it’s “ich ess so gern nutella” which is “i eat so much nutella” in German.

  9. Anyone else find the timing of this AWESOME when an Olympic Swimmer managed to accidentally bury himeself today in his freshly dug hole on the beach….lol. Another reason this site is awesome!!

  10. THIS is AWESOME!!! I’ve done this and now my son does it too! Some of the BEST memories of my life! If I could invent a new word for how AWESOME this post is, I would! Thanks!

  11. Awesome thing: catching up! I started reading this during a tough spot mid-semester and it always could cheer me up. Today, the very last day of my freshman year, I finally read all the awesome things and now I can look forward to a new one each day! :D

  12. *Outstanding sharing and creativity Jenni!*

    Neil… is the nether region where Peter Pan and the lost boys are from?

  13. Pingback: 1000 Awesome Things.......... | infoplanetarium.com

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