Better With a Buddy

Weather Data 12/17/2023 07:02 PM PST | Wind: from NW 2.8 m/sec (6 mph) | Air Temperature: 7.8 °C (46 °F) | Water Temperature: 9.25 °C (49 °F)

(Lake Washington Buoy Data)

Today at the lake it was sunny, and I felt hopeful. I was late meeting my swim buddy, K5, because I thought I forgot my gloves and had to go back home when I was halfway there. I hate being late for swims.

I haven’t been swimming with K5 since April. Injuries and other things have kept her out of the water. She is a complete trooper, in all her perfectly dialed in winter gear. K5 is the only person I have ever swum with who actually took my advice before starting to swim last winter. She bought all thermal gear, and has always been comfy in the water because of it.

Now, she even uses a snorkel! We are the only swimmers I ever see with snorkels. Not that I’m all hung up on people doing things the way I do, but it’s really important to have the right gear when the water is this cold.

Acclimating

I left K5 in the swim area, and headed toward the boat launch, happy that the sun was still shining. The water was really cold and stung my face. I kept my head in the water, though, trying to ignore it. I had to pull up a couple of times and start over. Within a few minutes my face felt fine.

I was exhausted from not sleeping enough last night, but I didn’t let it get in my way. I alternated crawl and breast stroke until I got past the first willow tree. Then I floated for a bit before heading back to the swim area.

It’s so fun to look back and see K5 floating and splashing about. I swam up to her, then did a quick loop around the cement dock before we headed to the beach.

Company

The old guy from the other day was there so we chatted with him. A man and woman had approached the showers and started to rig up some curtains by attaching blankets to the shower stalls with clamps and jumper cables. They let us shower first, which was nice.

There’s a lot of garbage around the area, and it drives me nuts. Walk the ten feet to a garbage can!!

I wish there was a warm, enclosed place to hang out and chat after winter swims. Instead we stood in the parking lot getting cold.

This is gonna be a hard week to swim as we get closer to the holiday weekend. Barf. I don’t care so much about the holidays. My perfect Christmas would be 6 or 7 of my fav girlfriends, papasan chairs, a stack of mags (Vogue, W, etc), bowls of popcorn, and YouTube vids of SNL. Come on over.

The Christmas ship will be at my beach Friday night. Maybe we will have a few peeps to greet them in the water.

Bye bye.