Monday, July 9, 2012

My Seven Kindoms for a Pool

It wasn't even a week ago that Trout Creek was having 60 degree days with clouds and rain.  Even worse, at night we were dropping below freezing making me very glad that Mace and I didn't end up planting much of a garden this year.  Yet as of right now the temperature is a whopping 104 degrees and does not show any sign of teetering off any time soon. 

I know I've bitched about the seemingly endless cold rainy spring but going from one extreme to the other is just as nuts. Even with the air conditioner going full blast it is sweltering in the house.  The weird thing is that growing up I know that Cheyenne had about a month where we'd have this kind of heat but at least we worked our way up to it, and not only that it was severely dry heat which is sooooooo much better than this hot muggy stuff.  I love living in Montana but I will never get used to the lower elevations and the higher humidity.  It always makes me think that I'm chewing the air rather than breathing it in.

Its on the days like this, where I've been working outside for an hour at a time trying to at least feel like I'm getting stuff accomplished  that I would trade just about anything for a pool to splash in at the end of the day.  I'm not even saying I need a private pool.  I'm saying ANY pool would do.  Trout Creek is the only place I've ever lived that doesn't have a public pool and I think it is a terrible shame.  I'd love one not only to cool off in at the end of the day but to have a bit of a change up in my workout routine.  I'm still doing my circuit training every day and had been running a couple miles every other day, but now that the heat has settled in I just can't seem to run.  Its just too bloody hot out and frankly I'm not to keen on passing out on a dirt road that no one really travels down.  I seriously don't know how those Olympic athletes compete in temperatures like this.  There is a reason I played Spring, Fall and Winter sports ... not Summer.  But I did swim every summer at the public pool.  Lap swimming was a wonderful deal.  Get up early, hit the pool, and feel your muscles and body just eat it all up.  I'd love that opportunity again. 

Now there is a pool 30 miles away in Thompson Falls but I really can't convince myself that the hour long drive both ways plus the gas it takes to get there is worth the effort.    I have folks here that say I should just hop in the river and swim but frankly I've seen some of the contaminant test results for the river here down by the boat docks and I'm just not game for putting any other part of my body in it other than dangling my feet in it.    My next best option is going up some of the other side creeks that are all mountain fed and try to find a hole big enough to dunk myself in.  Which is great and I've done that more than a time or two but its not really swimming its more like shifting from gravely bank to gravely bank without slipping on a major rock. So since I can't seem to find an appropriate solution to my swimming pool dilemma I'll settle for griping about it on here. Here's to hoping the hot spell breaks soon!

No comments: