Electricity at the Beach

It was a beautiful day and I zipped over to the saltwater beach five minutes away. I had reserved one of the shelters there for a family picnic on the weekend and wanted to check out the grill situation. There was a man sitting at one of the tables in the shelter. He was dusting sand off his feet and putting on his shoes and socks. He had a big dog on a leash. I was carrying our small dog, as she and I can both be a little nervous ever since she was attacked by three big dogs at a campground two years ago. It turns out large-dog-Ruby was very mellow so things were fine. The man started to tell me about the “grounding pad” he had positioned a ways down the beach. He had a long black cord next to him and I couldn’t see where it led but he said it connected to the pad. He told me he was a retired dentist and now he spent much of his time studying the effect of electrical current on his body. He talked at great length about amperes and current and how our bodies are being constantly affected as a result of that. I pretended to be interested although the subject matter quickly escalated to above my pay grade. He was experimenting to see if he registered as more grounded if he stood in the sand or on nearby concrete. He said he also did a lot of experimentation in his own home. I asked how he expected to get away from electrical current. Seemed pretty difficult to do in a city the size of Seattle unless he moved someplace off the grid. The first thing he did, he told me, was to turn off the breakers to his bedroom overnight. After that, I stopped listening, though I smiled and nodded politely before finding an excuse to head off on my dog walk. He didn’t proselytize, didn’t try and convert me in any way. He was slightly odd but wasn’t in the slightest bit dangerous. He just thought I would be interested. I wasn’t. What fascinated me was the fact that he was so into it. I love that our society fosters such a broad spectrum of people.

Photo courtesy qimono at Pixabay.com