I try to get to the pool at our health club at least three times a week. I was an okay swimmer in my youth and swam at Division 1 level in college as well as playing water polo. On Monday I walked into the club and was greeted by a sign saying the pool temperature was down to 70 degrees and that it would be a couple of days before it was back up to its normal 84. I went down and tested it and decided I would wimp out and wait for the heat to come back up. I told my wife this last night (a couple of days later by my reckoning) and she said I should call before I drove over. In my typical male ego mode where I disregard good advice I boldly stated that I would swim even if it was still cold. Of course the water was still bone chilling cold but I had now painted myself into a corner where I could not slink back to the house admitting she had been right. When I jumped into the pool it actually took my breath away. By the end of the third lap my temples were throbbing with the cold. Eventually I got through the workout and made a bee line for the locker room and a hot shower, hoping my male parts would emerge again. For those of you who have been really, bone deep, cold before, you know it takes hours before you feel warm again. I had just about reached that point when it was time to get up this morning. I woke up to three inches of snow on the ground and more falling. We were supposed to get a little bit of snow this morning followed by a lot of rain. The weather dude had confidently said the snow line would be fifty miles north of us. Not to worry, this was the first time this winter I would get to use one of favorite toys, my tractor mounted snow blower. Since I had installed this back in November I forgot that I had promised myself that I should tighten the chains on the tires before I ventured out. I was happily throwing the white stuff around when the tractor ground to a halt with both chains thrown off the tires. Of course this happened on the hill in the middle of the driveway, meaning there was no way I could move the tractor without re-installing the chains. Anyone who has ever had to put chains on in the dark will appreciate how much fun this was, oh yeah, the forecast rain chose that moment to start up as well. I jury rigged the chains to get the tractor back into the garage where I properly mounted the chains and then finished the driveway. I was by this point even colder than I was last night, soaked to the skin, and bleeding from several cuts on my hands from wrestling with the ice coated chains. My left arm also wasn’t working correctly – either tendonitis or arthritis when I over use the arm – such as the chain wrestling. As I walked up stairs my wife came down and said that I was going to be late if I didn’t stop screwing around. When she got a flat stare back from me, she backed up and asked me what was going on and to please stop bleeding on the kitchen counter. I told her to look out the window, she then realized it had snowed and asked me if I had gotten the snow blower out yet – another flat stare. After explaining my early morning travails she said that if she had known she would have had hot chocolate waiting for me. “Could of, Would of, Should of” as we used to say in the Army. Buddy, at least was properly supportive, if somewhat unhappy I did not allow him to supervise the chain mounting. The ride into work was a true adventure dodging “flat landers” who should not be allowed to drive in the snow. A normal 25-30 minute drive took nearly two hours. At least the office is extremely warm and the day can only get better and I know there are people that have had it much worse than me today which is kind of scary.
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