I'm Back, and Fourth!

Hello out there.  I've been hibernating quite a bit this winter.  Winter in my part of the world this year was long, extremely cold and relentless.  But since it is now officially spring, and I have recently actually witnessed some melting snow out there, I have decided to come out of hiding.

At least I was allowed a brief respite on a trip to Arizona for March Break last week.  I stayed in sunny, warm Phoenix and shocked everyone except my 13 year old nephew by diving into their unheated pool!  To me it was like my first swim of the season in our local lake, only that would be in late June or early July (weather dependent). The water temperature was gasp-worthy, but necessary to my raison d'etre.  I simply cannot sit beside water if I can be in it instead.

A sure-fire way to make me cranky is to lead me around, getting me overheated and even sweaty and then show me a lovely pool of water or pristine lake and not let me go into the water.  This has happened to me on at least two occasions and it was not pretty.

The most memorable of these was when I was a leader of our Pathfinder unit (the next level up from Girl Guides) back when my daughter was a tween. The older girls in the group were in grade 9 (the High School) and our annual camping trip coincided with the High School Prom.  The girls wanted to go to the dance but I talked them into going to the camp instead as the hosts had promised us the girls would earn their canoeing badges as they had some canoeing instructors booked for the day.  As it turned out, the canoe trip fell through as the instructors backed out at the last minute and a compass activity was the replacement.  Since our group had already done a fair bit of compass work this did not go over very well.  It was a very hot day for late May and as it had been a dry spring, the woods were dusty and the trails hard packed.  The only thing that kept us going was the promise of a swim in the river at the end of our ordeal. 

So there we were finally in our swimming gear, lined up at the beach at 7:00 pm after a long, tiring and frustrating day, waiting for the life guards to arrive.  Adults who swim are not enough any more, trained life guards must be utilized according to the latest policies.  After standing around for 10 minutes, I finally decided to wade ankle deep into the water to cool my hot, tired feet.  This was not allowed, I was told by one of the supervisors.  Even though I explained that I was only going in as far as my ankles, this person suggested that I was being a bad example to the girls! 

That was when I said it. It was only two words and I've never said it to anyone before or since or with more feeling.  What two words?  Very calmly, and in a low voice, I fixed her a determined stare and said, "Bite me!"

She looked at me for a minute, then walked away, leaving me blissfully soaking my feet until the life guards finally showed up several minutes later. Meow? Or, since cats don't seem to like water, maybe I should say Woof! instead. :)

Perhaps I am so partial to water because my birthday is World Water Day on March 22nd.





Photo modified from the Clickonline interview

My actual Blogiversary was March 19th.  Here are my previous posts:

 My third year - 2013, my second year - 2012, my first year, 2011.