Dozens of brave participants take to the water in the annual noontime New Year’s Day Pier Plunge at Narragansett Town Beach.The Providence Journal / Gretchen Ertl
i am
content and warm inside(10*F/-12*C outside) on this first day of 2009
i want
to write out a list of small goals for the year--mostly things I want to change in or buy for the house
i eat
R's scrambled eggs and pink grapefruit
i drink
coffee....and a Bloody Mary
i listen
Volcano Girls~~Veruca Salt (R has discovered this song and plays it over and over in her bedroom lately)
i feel
like it is still 2008, actually!
i watch
the sun shining through the frost patterns on the window
i play
with the toys from the Christmas Crackers we pulled last night(we completly forgot to do them on Christmas Day, so pulled them right after midnight)--one a very high pitched whistle which no doubt hurts the dog's ears
i read
just finished Ruth Rendells' "The Rottweiler" this morning first thing when I got up. An unsatisfying ending. I need to read something deeper and with the kind of ending where you have to sit and think about it for a while, next.... (any suggestions, anyone?)
i need
to get dressed(in layers) and get down to the beach to watch(not participate!) the daring (drunk? hung-over?) souls run into the ocean at noon.
8 comments:
Sounds like you have a plan! Those are crazy people who jump in the water! What are they thinking???!!!?? I'm gonna say "drunk"!
Oh, I used this on my blog, too! And I have a few suggestions for books: 'Boy in the Stripped Pajamas' and 'Three Cups of Tea' are two really good thinking books.
Here we have the New Year's Dive as well, loads of these activities really. Have not tried it sofar but I like the idea. Fortunately the weather was a bit milder today :-)
Some rather strange people do the Polar Bear Dip in Toronto on New Year's Day as well. (Today was - 10*C and they had to push ice away as they went into Lake Ontario. It is a charity event for Habitat for Humanity but you still won't catch me there. I'll write a check with a warm pen!
That's the beauty of traditions! We have something involving divng into the sea, but on the 6th of January, for a religious celebration, for John the Baptist. The priest throws a cross in the water and some professional divers (in their suits) jump to retrieve it, but there are also plenty of people jumping to get it in their swimming suits! In the sea, rivers, lakes, it depends...it just has to be a "big water". It's just a proof human beings can take it. I have recently read an article about swimmer Lewis Gordon Pugh, "the polar swimmer" who, together with two other swimmers proved that the human body can swim up to 1km in the freezing water...now THAT is crazy!
Must have been exciting to see those crazy people at the beach... LOL... I just cannot imagine doing this!! :D
I love these little blogs you do, just to get some insight on what's going on with your day. :)
~Manders,
Well, I know I would need something to alter my mind to dare to do this! But, there were teenagers(and some younger) who did this(and all for a good cause--it raises moneyfor a local food bank).
I will keep the book "Boy In The Striped Pajamas" in mind--thanks for the reading suggestions.
~Cessie,
Some New Years, too, it hasn't been too cld and I thought I might ttry this one year, but this year's cold made me re-thnk that!
~Sandra,
About the same temps on the beach as your's on New Year's Day, but no ice in the water that I could see! I see we are in complete agreement about ever deciding to try this, even if it IS for a worthy cause.
~Pati,
Well, it is Epiphany tomorrow, so there will be some diving into water for the cross, in your part of the world, won't there be? :-)
I guess I am a dull person because I cannot think of WHY anyone would want to find out how long they can swim in polar waters...bbbrrrr....
Duskie,
Yes, it is good fun, waiting for the count down for the "Plungers" to begin their race down the beach and into the water. I have to say, there were some really miserable looking people this year when they came back out. Just the fact that they were walking barefoot on an icy beach covered in sandy snow made me wince, never mind the rest of their body was only covered in a bathing suit.
Later in the week, there was a quote in the newspaper from one of the participants and she said this about her experience, " I'm never doing THAT again!".
~Duskie,
You wrote, "I love these little blogs you do, just to get some insight on what's going on with your day."
Thanks--in a way I worry that my little life is pretty boring and that I wish I could be writing about more exciting things(I am hoping for a little more excitement in my life in 2009), so it was really nice to read what you wrote.
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