Half Moon, Half Sun

Next Swims: Mon - Fri 6:30 am and 5pm

Saturday, Sunday 8 am and Noon

Last Swim: Friday 6:30AM
Water Temp: 49.something
Air Temp: 60
Clarity: forgot to ask Showgirl
Waves: 2 footers, some coming "around the corner" from the south
Kru: Showgirl, Dragonfly

Arriving on the deserted beach - still pretty dark with a neatly-sliced and waning Half Moon overhead.  Once again, Showgirl took the temperature most artfully:

She suited up and headed out.  Cleared by my elbow doc to swim again as long as I didn't do anything stupid, I went in for very quick dip.  Seemed much colder than actual swimming!  

At 6:56 a red-rubber-ball sun began nosing up the horizon.  On cue two people appeared to photograph it, then disappeared just as quickly.  Meanwhile the sun levered  his bulk half-way over the horizon.  The Half Moon shined steadily on.

A picture may be worth a 1,000 words, but cannot do justice to the majesty.

Returning from Garage, Showgirl rises from the Lake as the Sun completes its rising.

As we left the beach, two unaffiated swimmers were also taking the quick dip.

That is all.

Half-moon Swim

Next Swims: Mon - Fri 6:30 am and 5pm

Saturday, Sunday 8 am and Noon

Last Swim: Thursday 6:30AM
Water Temp: 47.1
Air Temp: high 40's
Clarity: crystal
Waves: flat
Kru: Mr. Anonymous, Showgirl

In order to make it more likely that I swam, I was putting on my wetsuit legs in the parking lot when Mr. A arrived.

There was no sunrise yet, but still plenty of light.

Mr. A optimistically hoped for at least 50 degree water.  But...... no.  Further cementing his rep as a badass, he headed in to the water in his lava pants while I was still dilly-dallying. 

We crossed paths as I was heading out.  

Encased in all my neoprene, I felt mostly fine and swam to the rock wall.  I made sure to savor every bit of this swim.  The sun was slow to come up, and for the longest time it had that look of light shining under a doorway.  At the same time, I saw the moon each time I breathed on my left side.

Back at the beach, Mr. A was long gone.  My feet quickly turned to blocks of ice, and I left the deserted beach in favor of coffee.

About badasses/badassery/etc

 First of all I would like to point out that those of you in the lake these last couple weeks earn that honorific in the best possible sense. Y'all are badasses! I have withdrawn to the chlorinated waters, submitting myself to the tyranny of the black stripe on the bottom of the pool!

On "Badass:"

I love this word because it doesn't behave like it should. Check it out- 

If badass is a good thing, and I think we all agree it is, then when someone calls you a badass, they're sending you props, for sure. So it's good. But "bad" and "ass" are both, typically, negative in their connotations (and denotations).  This word doesn't behave: two bads don't usually equal a good.

Further, if we are looking for an opposite of badass, goodass might be a candidate, but it's clearly not. Rather, weakass would be the thing. Not really what you'd expect if the word was behaving, linguistically speaking. By my own account, I would be a weakass. 

Look at how that construction plays out with different roots: toughass, weakass, smartass, dumbass. The first two are actually opposites, so they behave. They're also sort of boring, they mostly mean "tough" and "weak." But the second two aren't really opposites, so they don't behave. Also, confusingly, a smartass isn't always very smart, while a dumbass is usually pretty dumb. I think this might be because "smartass" is a variant of "smart aleck," and so it doesn't behave like the others. 

I like words that don't behave!

"This is a good decision" (about last night)

Next Swims: Mon - Fri 6:30 am and 5pm
Saturday, Sunday 8 am and Noon

Last Swim: Tuesday at 5
Water Temp: 47 per itch-o-meter 
Air Temp: 71 
Clarity: nice but not perfect, 8/10
Waves: flat
Kru: Mr. Bubble, Synchro, Itch, Brick, Rosie, Sandy, Sunny and Share Laguna, Super Hera, We'Taco, Diablo (second shift)

Shore Support:  Little Laguna

"This is a good decision" - these words uttered, with confidence, by Mr. Laguna, as he charged in to the 47 degree water with just his speedo and neoprene swim cap.  Sunny Laguna charged in shortly thereafter, also skin and with a Barbie.  I wished I had taken a picture as they were preparing - to capture the image of mom and dad, stripping down to their swim suits, with their daughter sitting nearby in her winter coat.  Quite iconic.  I asked them - "Which member of the family is showing the best judgement here?"  Shortly after that, dad uttered his good decision line.  

Swimming in below 50 degree water is getting to be a thing for me.  I always tell people who are hesitating as I'm wading in - "Don't think about it, just do it" - of course, I'm saying that mainly to convince myself, just like Laguna confirming his good decision.  However, saying you're not going to think about it doesn't mean your brain stops thinking.  When I dive in and get going, I'm amused to hear the voices speaking up in my cerebral cortext.  Last night, they were saying "Are you out of your (expletive) mind?".  Other times, they're more restrained, saying things like, "For real?  You're really going to swim in this?" or just "This is cold!".  But once I'm past the  rocks, my body is used to it and I proceed to enjoy myself, until it's time to get out.  

Unlike my last high 40's swim, the outside air was pretty warm and getting out of the wetsuit wasn't that bad, at first.  Also unlike the smart swimmers last night, I rode by bike to the beach and I only brought a long sleeve shirt to change in to.  Was feeling pretty cold down on the beach as I de-layered.  Brick brought some spicy pickles, which warmed me up a little.  But I was still shivering so much that I spilled some of the Killepitsch.  Talk about a waste of precious natural resources!  

Still shivering, I headed uphill ahead of the rest of the Kru, and was totally gratified to feel more and more warm breezes as I ascended.  First word popping in to my cerebral cortex was "Sirocco"!  Feeling much better when I got to the top, I met a nice couple, who had just locked up their bikes and I noticed that his bike was a fatty.  Of course, that lead to a conversation about the joys of fat biking, best places to go fat biking, fat bike races.  Sergio and his lady are originally from Germany, so that lead to a conversation about the Hugh Jass fat bike races, and how everyone is required to "hammerschlagen" after each lap.  

In the unlikely event that anyone is still reading and is interested in hearing more about fat bikes - I want to share that Wheel & Sprocket in Franklin is currently renting fat bikes.  None of the bike shops in town have been renting fat bikes during the past couple of years, so this is great news for anyone looking to become addicted to something else besides swimming at Klode 🏊🏊🏊🚴🚴🚴

Blue skies and bad asses; A toast to Neptune

Next Swims: Mon - Fri 6:30 am and 5pm

Saturday, Sunday 8 am and Noon

Last Swim: Sunday at Noon
Water Temp: 47
Air Temp: 56

Clarity: All churned up near shore, no one could recall further out
Waves: 3-4 feet
Kru: Mermaid Princess, Sunny Luna Laguna, Itch, Brick, Moondaug, Other Dave, Blake, Captain, Diablo (I feel like there might have been someone else, even someone I had an extended conversation with, sorry if I missed you!)

Shore Support: Ziggy, Dragonfly

A day for blue skies and bad asses.  And superbadasses.

Mermaid Princess and Sunny Luna in their pre-swim down coats:

 

The very cold water was very wavy - churned up brown near shore, but turquoise further out, or "sea green" as Ziggy said or "magenta" as Diablo said - referencing perhaps Homer's "wine-dark sea") and bright royal blue toward the horizon.  The air was brisk and sparkling clear, and while the sun shone, it kept dipping in and out of clouds that paraded across the sky from SW to NW.

There was no hurry to get going whatsoever. The men inched into various stages of body and head coverage.  Some opted to keep arms, legs, hands or feet uncovered-- "for better biofeedback" was Moondaug's reasoning.  

Mermaid Princess sported a mere rashguard over neopreme sleeves, along with her signature jean swimskins, with gloves and booties, while super badass Sunny Luna went total skin (that's her in the green cap below):

Either Blake or the other Dave said they had overdone yesterday because the 51-degree water was so flat and lovely, swimming for an hour and then standing around in their wetsuit, "it was a hard walk up the hill and then in the shower I didn't know if I was scalding my toes."

Captain was almost last to get in the water, but was followed by Diablo, who sheltered next to the northern barrier to avoid the building northerly wind while changing.  "You have to be smart about it," he said. That sounded like a challenge!

I was on shore support. I found out this morning that I had a slight fracture in my elbow after my fall during a run two weeks ago. I promised my doc  not to do any open water swimming until it healed up some more.  But there was plenty to occupy me  watching the rest of the Kru set out so intrepidly (photo courtesy of Ziggy):

And they returned with such grins!

Sunny Luna just ahead of a giant wave after a swim to Sewer Pipe (photo courtesy of Ziggy):

Below:  Mermaid Princess and Moondaug emerge from the surf.

Mermaid Princess sporting her "prison suit" and jean swimskins:

The most notable finish was the Captain:

For some reason, he decided to bodysurf (face plant?) all the way into the beach:

(Captain photos courtesy of Ziggy)

The Killepitsch toast began with a discussion of "Cold Water Nicknames" but midway through was coopted by the notion that "Itch should be Neptune."  Moved and seconded.  The group drank:  "To Neptune!"

Thermal Inversion, plus 2 girls for every boy

Next Swims: Mon - Fri 6:30 am and 5pm

Saturday, Sunday 8 am and Noon

Last Swim: Sunday at 8
Water Temp: 48 per mitch-o-meter
Air Temp: 42 per van-o-meter
Clarity: murky, seaweed on mitch-o-meter
Waves: 1-2 feet with occasional 3-4 feet
Kru: Lt MJ, Thorpedo, Mr. Bubble

Two Girls for Every Boy

Picture's worth a thousand words.

Love it when the water is warmer than the air 😍😍😍

Until it's time to get out of the water 😱😱😱

BGDSOTS

Next Swims:  Mon - Fri 6:30 am and 5pm
Saturday, Sunday 8 am and Noon

Last Swim: Saturday at Noon
Water Temp: 51 per mitch-o-meter 
Air Temp: 54
Clarity: very nice, could see bottom most of the time.
Waves: pretty much flat
Kru: Mr. Bubble, the Other Dave, Sunny Laguna, Rosie, Sandy, Itch, Brick, Sandy, Blake, Diablo and Bad Ass Dragonfly

Arrived a little bit before Noon, to an almost full parking lot, only 3 spots left.  Looked around for familiar vehicles and spotted the  ←Clowns                                Jokers → pickup truck and a masked man all bundled up, wearing a beret standing next to it.  Sky was cloudy and air was windy - didn't seem very inviting.  Light drizzle started, and parked cars started clearing out.  Brick and I walked down, thinking it may just be the two of us today.  

Water was calm and clear - that much at least was inviting.  Waded in with the mitch-o-meter and tried to use my foot-o-meters to predict the empirical reading.  Feet were out of practice, since I hadn't been to Klode for a week - they felt cold, but couldn't remember the difference between feeling high 50s cold and low 50s cold.  Watched the numbers on the mitch-o-meter drop quickly into low 50s, equilibrating at 51.3

In the meantime, additional humans with backpacks started to arrive.  Sandy all bundled up from head to toe, Itch, Dragonfly (also well bundled).  Blake showed up on his mid 30 year old Marin mountain bike.  Sunny Laguna came along holding a light green umbrella over her head (she reports that Mr. Laguna came at 8 am and was by himself)

B.A. Dragonfly, apparently still nursing her healing elbow, was first and dived in skin.  She made it out to sewer pipe and was just coming back as the rest of us were finishing suiting up.  Blake and I dove in next, the three of us heading north.  Not sure who went which way after that, although we did see Itch swim past the rocks heading south as some of us were getting out.  

Doing the breast stroke during a light drizzle is one of my favorite things to do at Klode.  Skimming along, eye level right at the the water level, seeing the little drops and splashes in front of my face.  Sky wasn't too dark so managed to convince myself that I wouldn't have to worry about lightning.  Had to repeat that self assurance a few times when the light drizzle got a little heavier, but then it drifted back to light drizzle.  

I got back to an empty beach, but seeing backpacks in strategic locations.  The light green umbrella was gone and there was someone wearing jeans and a denim jacket pacing by the north barrier, who I later realized was Sandy.  Watched the amphibians return one by one - another joyful experience.  

BGDSOTS = Best G/D Swim on the Season - today's toast, Killepitsch courtesy of The Other Dave.  

Also treated by Brick to some pickles and pickled carrot slices.  

"What's the green stuff floating around in the carrot and pickle jars?" 

"That's a bunch of the green stuff that's washed up on the beach.  Thought it would spice things up"

Indeed, very tasty! 😋😋😋

Do you know what this is?
Would you eat pickles from a jar with this floating in it?