Friday Firsts

I love the march of seasons, one of the reasons we ended up back in New England after all those Army years. That affection was severely tested this morning when I went outside to retrieve the paper only to be confronted with minus 20 degree temperatures. Oh, and the paper had blown down the street a couple houses. I’m here to tell you that even LL Bean flannel was not up to the protection challenge. Instead of lucking into a pandemically isolated day at home this morning was a swim day so I donned some extra layers while making my way to the Y. I pull on sweat pants over the wet bathing suit after the workout since I don’t want to hang around unmasked any longer than needed. That made my exit form the building into the cold air very memorable. For the first time since the pandemic started, I was actually glad to be wearing a facemask. On Friday are firsts most notable.

I say memorable because it reminded me of so many winter walks home from the YMCA during my youth. My Cantankerous Friend will back me up on this because we were both on swim team in our early years. It was a simpler time and a small town (although we were a city in NH!), so from the age of eight or nine we would walk the half mile home from the YMCA after practice with wet hair (I had a lot more of that item back then) and dangling our wet suits, usually rolled up in towels. Because I was something of an idiot, I thought it was cool when I got home and my hair would be frozen and the rolled-up towel needed to be thawed to unroll (Cantankerous is interjecting a “was?” comment right now). On one especially cold night I broke off a piece of my frozen hair for my horrified mother. I then received a rather thorough lecture of the proper drying of hair.

Mine wasn't This Frozen
But Almost

The weirdest thing was even though I did this from that age all the way through high school I never got sick because of it. I think there is a benefit to letting kids do dumb stuff like that to build up their immune systems. As a friend recently said, “I ate a lot of dirt as a kid which is probably why I don’t get sick very often now”. I know this runs counter to the current thinking among nowadays parents who are horrified I was allowed to walk the night streets alone much less with frozen hair. Of course, I’m nowhere near that tough anymore as you can tell by my complaining about the short walk to my car from the Y this morning. Have a great weekend and I fervently hope you’re in a warmer place than I am.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RECURRING CHARACTERS                                           

BR3 – granddaughter #3, BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel - second granddaughter; FBR - First Blog Reader - first granddaughter, ABFA – Amazing Best Family Athlete = my daughter in law; Wingman – my son in law; Keene Friends 1 & 2 – friends since high school from my home town of Keene, NH; Soxfather - my brother in law; Great Aunt - my elder sister; Cantankerous Friend – friend since grade school who likes to argue about everything, poses as radical leftist to attract women; Kindergarten Friend – friend since kindergarten whom I reunited with after many years; Pittsburgh College Roommate – high school friend, also a “Minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; Deckzilla – our backyard deck which grew to monstrous dimensions once my wife got involved in planning; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife – her US sisters, my wife is the 3^rd musquetera (musketeer); Riggins - also known as the Grandpuppy, son's dog; PanaGals – female relatives /friends of my wife from Panama; Panamanian/Latin Mafia – inevitable group of Latino friends my wife accumulates wherever we have lived & their spouses; Neighborhood Mafioso - wife's close friend and Panamanian mafia member, Favorite Panamanian - the wife (of course); First Friday – celebrations to mark the First Friday of the Week; Curbside Girls – close friends of my daughter acquired during her single days in Brooklyn