Water

 Originally Published Dec. 2012

When Lyle declared Water as his topic for today’s writing assignment, I immediately thought that he would want us to talk about how the world is losing its water supply and maybe talk about the droughts in Texas and other southern states and in Africa.   And, maybe, how we should be more cognizant of our conservation efforts.  

That got me to asking myself, “What have I done lately (or ever) to help the people affected by the drought or to conserve water?”  Well, we did send a check to a charitable organization for the children who live in drought-stricken Africa.  And, I don’t take long showers.  I don’t let the water run for a long time as I’m rinsing the dishes before I place them in the dishwasher.  We sprinkle our lawns on the correct odd-numbered days and only in the evening.  

Hmmmm.  That’s it?  I guess on a scale of 1-10 of being water conscious, I’m embarrassed to say that I’d be about a 1… if that.  Pathetic, right?  I guess living in the land of 10,000 lakes and not being a farmer, I did not grow up thinking about water…. and I still don’t!  

Living by the lake certainly gave me the opportunity to enjoy the water, however.  I can’t tell you how many hours I spent swimming, diving, water skiing, and playing in the water during the summer.  I remember that as a teenager, I had a job at one of the local drug stores where they had me work the split shift:  Open at 8:00 until noon and then work again from 5:00 to close at 9:00.  I loved that shift!  That meant that immediately at noon, I’d run the three blocks from the drug store to my grandpa’s house on the lake.  My girlfriends would join me as I changed clothes and we’d then hop on the pontoon and head out to the middle of the lake to catch some rays.  Of course, the local boys would soon be out in their speedboats – circling the pontoon – and we’d all have a wonderful afternoon.  Ah….. the lazy, crazy days of summer as a teenager.  Great memories!

In order to take advantage of living by a lake, however, we had to obey my parent’s #1 rule, which was – we had to know how to swim.  Back in the old days when I was growing up, Forest Lake did not have a community or even a school swimming pool.  The only place to learn how to swim was IN the lake.  And, for some reason, our swimming lessons were always at 8:00 in the morning.  The first two weeks in June!  Talk about COLD water.  As you all know, sometimes a Minnesota summer doesn’t really start until the 4^th of July.  I still shiver when I think about those lessons.  But, we learned to swim.

I still like to swim.  Not in the lake so much any more.  You see, I’ve graduated to the OCEAN.  Oh, how I love to swim in the ocean.  Well, not SWIM so much – more like playing in the waves or snorkeling.  Norm and I love to go on cruises and so we’ve become addicted to the Caribbean – with its beautiful aqua water and warm white sandy beaches.  Ahhhh, that’s the life.  One time, we signed up for a snorkeling adventure on a catamaran.  We traveled about 20 minutes out to sea and then the guides told us to put on our fins and masks and slide down a little “shoot” to get into the water.  Well, I took one look at that “little shoot” and decided that I was not going to do that.  I honestly didn’t think I would fit.  So, I let everyone go ahead of me while I tried to drum up enough courage to slide into the water.  Pretty soon, I’m the only one left on the catamaran and the guide realizes that I’m really scared.  So, he said to me:  “Why don’t you just walk down the steps and jump in the water?”  WHAT?  THERE ARE STEPS?  YOU DIDN’T TELL US THAT THERE WAS ANOTHER OPTION?  Sure enough – one could just go to the back of the catamaran, go down about 10 steps and get in the water.  We later found out that using the steps was the only way to get back ONTO the catamaran === DUH!  We never thought beforehand how that was going to be accomplished.  

Poor Norm, when I finally found him in the water, he was hysterical.  You see, he was one of the first people that slid into the water and he said he circled the boat about 50 times trying to find me.  He thought that I had drowned!

To sum it up – I like water.  I like to drink it.  I like to bathe in it.  I like to look at it.  I like to swim in it.  I’ve always said that one of my favorite things to do is to “just sit by the pool or ocean, read a good book, and drink a great Margarita.”  That’s a wonderful life.