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So, there’s this…

Posted in Ranting and Raving, Swimming in Penn Cove on November 8, 2013| 4 Comments »

And you thought I swam in Penn Cove cause I enjoyed the taste of the water…

I have depression.

Have had it, and have fought it, for awhile now.

Not clinical depression, perhaps, since I can’t afford someone with a lot of diplomas on their walls to officially certify my moods, but it’s not that hard to figure out.

It’s also not that hard to figure out where it started.

The deaths of my parents spiraled into a bad business deal where I crashed my physical health, compromised my ideals and threw away inheritance money on hundreds of DVD’s that now sit buried in a storage locker owned by someone else.

Since that time, it has gotten better, than consumed me again when I introduced alcohol to the mix, then ebbed again.

I have more good days than bad, but I know my silences trouble some.

It is nowhere near as bad as it once was, not that long ago.

I have made changes, I have made (and am making) amends, I have accepted (or am trying to) that some things will simply not work out the way I would like.

There is a photo that was posted recently, of a person who matters a lot to me, a person who has lost much and yet remains as upbeat and full of life as anyone I know.

It was a beautiful photo, one of the rare ones that capture love and hope in one truly transcendent image of a person and their dog, seen from behind as they stare out at the sun-caressed water.

I would like to see things always in the light that shines through that photo.

It may take me some time, but I will get there.

I know the depression is always there, lingering at the edges, waiting for a chance to get back in, but I fight it.

Some days better than others.

It is a big part of why I go into the less-than-warm waters of Penn Cove each day (207 and counting in 2013, and not a wet suit in sight, cause I’m not a tourist).

Yes, it is cold. Yes, it is salty. Yes, sometimes, it is stinky.

But I go, day in and day out, in sunshine and rain, and, sometimes, in howling wind that slaps the crap out of me with the swells it creates.

I go in, because, by doing so, I prove I’m stronger than this foe. That I can, by focusing with a laser-like intensity (well, at least until the first icicle shoots up my crotch each day…), win a small battle with myself.

The moment when I come out of the water and stand on the rocky, barnacle and mussel-encrusted hunk of beach, alone, having beaten the water for another day, is why I do it.

Because, if I can beat Penn Cove, I can beat the depression.

At least that’s the plan.

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In his later years, Aquaman got really, really weird…

Posted in Swimming in Penn Cove on October 31, 2013| Leave a Comment »

“To the water, Jellyfish Boy!!”

“Yeah, I’m fine right where I am, Captain Brain Freeze…”

200 days.

200 days of water that has never, ever been warm, not even in August.

200 days of just a swimsuit and no wet suit, cause wet suits are for tourists and fancy lads.

200 days of weird looks from people driving by in cars, even weirder looks from the seals and the occasional dive-bomb from a bird that assumes you must be a fish, cause nothing else would be in the water.

200 days of trippin’ down the Hill O’ Death and plunging into Penn Cove, cause virtually no one else wants to do it, so I might as well.

And now what?

Well, free ice cream at Kapaw’s, that’s what. And after that?

Day 201.

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It’s not the water, it’s the wind chill, baby!!

Posted in Swimming in Penn Cove on October 27, 2013| Leave a Comment »

“How you doin’?”

Let’s go ride the roller coaster.

“I licked a mussel … ooh, gross!!”

Why do you go swimming in Penn Cove (in just a swimsuit) four days before Halloween?

For the weird looks from people in passing cars when you emerge at the top of the Hill O’ Death on your way back home, that’s why.

“Hit the gas, George!! And lock the doors!!! He … he’s … DRIPPING!!!!!!”

Good times.

Day 196 in the (slightly) frigid waters of my home away from home was your normal experience.

Choppy water, a breeze that had the back of my neck clenching every two seconds, a few random seals walking by, clad in fur coats (“I’m not gettin’ in that water, no sir!!”) and a random pair of old, brown swim trunks washed ashore, speared on a low-hanging tree branch.

Having checked to make sure my more Hawaiian-looking trunks were still attached to my body (they were, right beneath the multiple rows of goosebumps on my bare chest — wet suits are for tourists), I had no clue what to make of the lost suit.

In three years, I have never seen a single other person in the water that wasn’t high and dry in a kayak.

So, I’d like to think there’s a guy in Japan right now trying to get out of the water, minus his suit, cursing that last wave that ripped away his lower body covering.

Yep, that’s probably it.

Or, there’s a dead body out there somewhere in Penn Cove, floating ever closer to me each day, destined to one day wash up just like the hapless suit.

Comforting.

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The novelty has worn off a bit…

Posted in Swimming in Penn Cove on October 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »

“Yes, of course it’s toasty in here. Why do you ask?”

“You, sir, are an idiot!”

Penn Cove, that ice-cold vixen, has made her decision.

She’s not warming up again. At least not until next July, and even then it’s doubtful.

Thursday (Day 179 if you’re counting, and I am) was one of those days when I almost waited too long to go to the water. Vainly hoping that the sun would come out at some point and provide at least an illusion of warmth, I occupied myself with other projects.

A little writing. A little exercise. A trip through the paving construction Hell that is downtown Coupeville to take prawns and carrots to Sitka, a fluffy, so fluffy, dog whose owner is on vacation.

What? You gave up prawns from staff meal?!?!? Fancy dogs need fancy treats…

Anyway, when it hits 3:30 in the afternoon and you still haven’t breached the water, and the sun still hasn’t come out, you have two options.

Wimp out and call it a day.

Or fire up the AC/DC, then get your butt down the Hill O’ Death, followed by a whole lot of muffled screaming and whimpering (I think I embarrassed the seagulls), only partially tempered by the possibly iceberg-infused water rushing into my open mouth and down my swim trunks.

Man, it might be nice to have a wet suit right about now.

But I’m not a tourist, so no.

Local and stupid. A potent combo.

And then I emerge from the murky depths, one giant goose-bump. The seals bow as I pass.

One more day down. Three weeks until Day 200. The battle continues.

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Now it gets interesting!!

Posted in Swimming in Penn Cove on October 1, 2013| Leave a Comment »

It’s like a choose your own adventure … with beards.

To beard or not to beard. That is the question.

Today was Day 170 in Penn Cove, a venture that started in mid-April and has now hit Oct. 1. Halloween would be Day 200 and I am actually thinking of trying to go through the start of the year.

Without a wet suit.

Wet suits are for fancy lads and tourists. End of story. If you can’t stand the water, you probably shouldn’t be in Penn Cove in the first place.

Which could explain why no one else is ever down there swimming with me…

Anyway. Now, as I sit two days away from a haircut, the more pressing matter is this — where do I go with the beard?

Do I keep it a semi-trim goatee, fully shave it, or as I head into three months of (slightly) icy hell, do I go full on mountain man beard, let the sides grow in and emerge Jan. 1 ready not for a Polar Bear Dip, but for a Grizzly Bear Dip?

So I turn to you, the readers. Tell me. Grizzly or no grizzly?

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