I really need to start bringing in my equipment bag for the night.
Normally I leave it in the trunk — who wants to drag fins, board, shower stuff, flipflops, cap and goggles in every evening?
Especially when I’m not rolling out of a car and into a house. No, there’s curb-side parking to be wrangled (often a block away) and many, many, many steps to reach my attic-nest in an old Victorian that dates from the 1890s.
If I could just wear my swim backpack and then have both hands free for my equipment bag, it wouldn’t be that bad. Reality? On most days I feel akin to a pack-mule: in addition to the swim backpack, I usually slog a cooler (I need breakfast, fruit, lunch and snack calories to get through the day!), a bag with work files, and some sort of “bonus” item such as grocery bags, a library book bag, or a box from the day’s mail.
So you can understand why it’s so appealing to leave my equipment bag in the trunk. And it’s not like I need any of that stuff until tomorrow, right?
Except that when you leave a wet equipment bag in the trunk, and a snow/ice storm rolls through, everything freezes.
Yep, it wasn’t what I’d call a big storm, but it was cold enough to wreak havoc on my loot. I had to run my flipflops under hot sink water to melt off the ice (in any case, there was no way I was going to put those on without a “pre-warm.”) My goggles actually shattered. Very vexing, but at least I had a spare in my backpack.
All of my shower stuff was frozen. Sitting on the warm deck for 90-ish minutes sort of started the thawing process, but it was like washing my skin and hair with a slushy.
At least my fins and cap seem to be made of tougher stuff — both survived unscathed. Or so it seems…
The new bottom line for winter? I like my stuff; I don’t want to replace it until I wear it out. I need to suck it up and bring in the equipment bag after every swim. I’m sure you’ll be pleased to know that it’s already in its new roost, leaning against the wall along side the top stair.
In the meantime, I will remind myself that extra weight load-bearing on all of those steps only makes me stronger. Yeah, that’s the ticket!
Until next time,
Rebecca, swim evangelist
February 11th, 2010 at 9:14 am
I share your distaste of the management of our main pool, however some of the best $ I have spent is renting a locker there for the swim gear, it sure beats hauling it around. And thanks to the lost & found, swimoutlet.com I have a second set of equipment that does live in my Element for those find a place to swim days.
February 13th, 2010 at 7:59 am
Nope , nope, nope the home pool is not getting more money, especially when my number of practices there seems to shrink each season due to canceled practices and shorter sessions. Heck — they are closing for months soon — this is not the time to throw money at a locker there!