Friday, May 18, 2012

The First Swim of the Year

I really enjoy being in and around water.  A labor of both health and love, Dad and his friends dug by hand a perfectly sized pool for the neighborhood kids to enjoy as we grew up.  I’ve always lived close to the Pacific Ocean and enjoy watching the movement of waves.  Snorkeling is probably my favorite sport.

It’s a good thing that I can handle pretty cool water temperatures since our current pool is not heated.  There’s no denying it is cold when you first get wet.  I’m of the school where you immerse yourself totally and quickly to get the shock over with.

I walk down the three steps onto the bottom of the shallow end of the pool and keep walking down the slope to the deep end.  When gravity has to fight buoyancy, that’s when I up-end and dive towards the bottom.  Once immersed, I shoot to the top, breath somewhat stopped short by the cold, and swim back over to the steps.  Involuntary vocalizations usually follow.

And then I realize it doesn’t feel quite as cold and I dunk myself again and start enjoying what it feels like to be in water and moving around in it.

But it is pretty cold so after a few more splashes I climb the steps out of the pool and go sit in the sun to dry off and warm up.  The worst is over, and it’s the unofficial start of summer.  The pool is open for the season!


5 comments:

  1. You are brave to get into the cold water. I have to say anything under 80 degrees of pool water is cold for me. When we had our pool years ago, the ideal temperature I liked was 88 degrees (it wasn't heated, we just kept the pool cover on it). One time it got up to 95 degrees, that was ideal for me :)

    Great though that summer has begun!!

    betty

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  2. How nice that you have your own pool. We found our recently that the best local pool is not going to open this summer, so it will be crazy busy at the other pool. It might be a sprinkler summer for us!

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  3. wow, you made that sound so refreshing!

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  4. Wish...I...was...there!!!! To this day, nothing says "summer" to me like the smell of chlorine and the sunlight bouncing off of rippling pool waves!!! You didn't mention the mandatory root beer float at the end of the swim session...!!! Great post!

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  5. There's no way. When I lived in San Diego, I would lay on the beach and tan, and every so often I'd venture to the water's edge to splash a little and cool down. Yeah right, more like frostbite in the middle of July. There was no way. Then just before I moved away, I decided I'd better brave it so I could say I swam in the Pacific. I took a running dive and never looked back. Less than a minute later, blue lips, goosebumps and all, I ran back out and wrapped in a towel to get warm. BUT, I DID IT!

    So that is why I say you are brave.

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