Now I'm Hysterical and I'm WET!
Aug. 8th, 2011 10:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHey,
So when I was a kid, I did Lifeguard training -- mostly so I could lifeguard at the local pool.
The Red Cross lifeguard course is extensive. It's designed to train people who might be working in a lot of different places so it had to cover a lot of scenarios. Many of these scenarios were extremely unlikely to occur at the town pool and a large number of them couldn't actually happen in Nebraska. Nevertheless, we had to train on all of it.
So every year, we would jump into the pool fully-clothed and learn how to turn our jeans and long-sleeved shirts into improvised life jackets. Could I fall into a body of water fully clothed? I suppose. I could even imagine it being out on a lake where I couldn't actually touch the bottom of the river. But the scenario in which I had to immediately turn the clothing into a makeshift life preserver instead of being helped back into the boat I fell out of or being unable to swim to the nearest shore is vanishingly small. The most likely case would be falling through ice in the middle of the lake, but in that instance you want to keep all your clothes on.
But it was in the book so we did it.
I mention this because yesterday I helped some lovely friends of mine move -- in a torrential downpour. I was thoroughly and utterly soaked through by the end of the day. My wallet was soaked, I'm shocked my phone didn't fritz out and die.
And I was reminded of the last time I'd been so completely wet while not wearing appropriate aquatic clothing...
Still, I think it was better than if it was sunny and hot and heat-stroke and sunburn. And it wasn't freezing cold and snowing, or part of Moving Day in Boston. Just...man I got wet.
later
Tom
So when I was a kid, I did Lifeguard training -- mostly so I could lifeguard at the local pool.
The Red Cross lifeguard course is extensive. It's designed to train people who might be working in a lot of different places so it had to cover a lot of scenarios. Many of these scenarios were extremely unlikely to occur at the town pool and a large number of them couldn't actually happen in Nebraska. Nevertheless, we had to train on all of it.
So every year, we would jump into the pool fully-clothed and learn how to turn our jeans and long-sleeved shirts into improvised life jackets. Could I fall into a body of water fully clothed? I suppose. I could even imagine it being out on a lake where I couldn't actually touch the bottom of the river. But the scenario in which I had to immediately turn the clothing into a makeshift life preserver instead of being helped back into the boat I fell out of or being unable to swim to the nearest shore is vanishingly small. The most likely case would be falling through ice in the middle of the lake, but in that instance you want to keep all your clothes on.
But it was in the book so we did it.
I mention this because yesterday I helped some lovely friends of mine move -- in a torrential downpour. I was thoroughly and utterly soaked through by the end of the day. My wallet was soaked, I'm shocked my phone didn't fritz out and die.
And I was reminded of the last time I'd been so completely wet while not wearing appropriate aquatic clothing...
Still, I think it was better than if it was sunny and hot and heat-stroke and sunburn. And it wasn't freezing cold and snowing, or part of Moving Day in Boston. Just...man I got wet.
later
Tom
