The Last Gasp of Summer

On Labor Day, the kids had the genius idea to go swimming after our Labor. Fine with me...it kept them motivated, and it would be nice to celebrate the last few days of summer before we descend into months of white despair. We piled into the car as the shadows lengthened, and hurried out to Skjermo to swim before dark.

Noni was unable to come because I had the extra seat out of the van, but all four of the kids were ready and eager to enjoy a little cooling swim. We pulled up to the lake and all the kids jumped out. I stopped to gather my things, and by the time I turned around Devon was already done with his swim.

He had run to the water and jumped off the dock, being of the philosophy that it's better to get it all over with at once. There were a couple fatal flaws with his belief system this time, however. One was that even though the days had still been warm, the chilly nights seemed to be having a...chilling...effect on the water.

The other was that Devon has about .00001 percent body fat. If he had gone down with the Titanic, he would have been one of the first ones to go. So he has NO protection against cold temperatures, which is why he was already out of the water by the time I saw him. No amount of cajoling could persuade him to try again, and he spent the rest of the time fishing with some guys down on the dock. Every now and again, we'd hear a shrill little voice calling,

"No way! I'm not getting in THAT cold water again!"

The rest of us were made of, er, sturdier stuff (nothing wrong with OUR body fat levels!), so we managed to stay in longer. I even got all the way wet, after letting my lower half lose all feeling so I would only suffer half as much.

The other kids kept saying through clenched jaw and shivering lips, "It's not that bad once you get all the way wet! Then you get used to it." More like your nerves simply give up in despair and decide to let you freeze if you're stupid enough to submerge yourself in liquid ice for the fun of it.

After my obligatory dip to prove that I wasn't a sissy, I sat on the dock and enjoyed myself while the kids had Fun With Hypothermia. I wouldn't let them go past where they could touch, because I had NO interest in having to jump in to try to save any of them!


In a few minutes, even those polar die-hards became tired of having their toes fall off one by one and came ashore. I took pictures of Tiggy while the other kids joined Devon in his fishing exploits, by which I mean the other kids stood around and complained that Devon wouldn't share the fishing pole.

As a final ode to summer, I took a picture of my tanned and happy legs before I put them away for the winter. Oh, wait, maybe not that tanned after all! Hey, not all of us were made to have pigment, OK?


All in all, it was a fun end to a fun summer, and just in the nick of time, too, 'cause I have 0 interest in swimming now that we've been having nights dipping down into the 20's. Unless of course I decide to try it once the ice has formed. Hmmmm. We'll see...