#286 Go for a Winter Night Swim
I don’t get along with the cold. Probably because I’ve always had the metabolism of a humming bird. Growing up New Jersey didn’t help matters. On winter mornings, I’d position myself over the heater vent on the floor and tuck my shirt over it so the hot air would engulf my body. I’d take hot showers for so long my Dad would yell at me for using up all the hot water.
I’m the guy that’s always cold. The weird thing about that is I like cold weather but hate hot weather. I guess I’m a masochist. Or just very confused.
Moving to California was a good thing. I’ve been here for 18 years and there’s no way in Hell that I’d ever go back to the East coast for an extended period of time. Whenever I go home, I drag out extra comforters from the closet to sleep under since I’m so acclimatized to the weather on the west coast. My mother just shakes her head at me.
I’ve always been interested in the whole Polar Bear Plunge thing where people plunge into ice cold water for God knows what reason. It definitely seems like a scary thing to do in general, doubly so because I’m such a wuss abou the cold.
Since I live in LA, there’s no real options for such a thing. But I live in the Valley and it’s been a cold winter. I know, LA cold right? Well, the low has dipped into the mid and even low 30’s. I had the frost warning go off in my car in the morning. It’s been pretty cold.
There’s a pool in my apartment building. It’s not heated. You can see where this is going. Tonight, I was pretty busy at work and then I had to make cookies for the annual white elephant gift exchange at work. It was around 11pm and I hadn’t done anything scary so I decided I should take a dip in the pool.
I felt kind of embarrassed going outside in my bathing suit and towel. What was I going to say I was doing if a neighbor saw me? But then again it was 11pm on Thursday night. Everyone was probably in for the night.
The moment I stepped outside, I wanted to go back in. It was cold enough to see my breath. But the pool looked so peaceful and innocuous, even inviting.
I made my way downstairs and quietly opened the gate. I didn’t want to make a big commotion and wake up my neighbors.
I took a deep breath and lowered myself into the water. Initially, when my feet went in, I thought it wasn’t that bad. I was worried the pool had retained too much heat from the summer. But then when the rest of my body went in, I had to bite my lip from having a National Lampoon’s Vacation moment.
It was fucking cold.
Colder than anything I had experienced before. I wanted to swim across the pool but when I got to the deep end, my legs started cramping. Everything hurt. My teeth were chattering. I had only been in there for probably literally 60 seconds. I turned around and headed back but I was moving so slowly. Thoughts raced through my head. This was such a bad idea. I’m going to die here aren’t I? This is fucking embarrassing. But of course, I made it to the steps just fine and hightailed it back into my apartment.
I don’t know how any could survive for long in ice water. All I know, is for that minute I was colder than I’d ever been in my life. Even afterwards.
I could not get warm. Even though I jumped straight into a hot shower, I just felt so cold. My leg and shoulder muscles felt like they were burning. But I also felt an intense rush. I have to admit, It felt pretty good.
