Lessons Learned This Weekend

[cjsmith]

• People at ashrams are friendlier than people in my daily life.
• Walking around without shoes on for a couple of hours is a bad idea.
• I need to learn the difference between what I can do and what I won't regret doing. This is harder than it looks, because the immediate pain isn't always proportional to the cost that'll come due later on.
• I need to let go of something I'm clinging to. I don't know what yet.
• If I dip my toe in the pool and it feels "not so bad", it's bad.
• If I'm standing outside the pool and I'm not wet yet and I'm chilly, it's bad.
• Water takes a long time to drain out of my ear.
• I can ride some exercise bikes because I can get my foot far enough forward on the pedal. Rob's exercise bike is like this. However, the seat is so abysmal that I still won't touch that thing. It's possible, maybe, that I think I might actually... rather... (shh! don't say it)... swim.
• I tape my feet better than the PT intern does.

Comments

[dizzdvl.livejournal.com]

SwimEar is your friend. It'll dry your ear out quickly and keep you from getting swimmer's ear. I loathe getting swimmer's ear.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I've never heard of SwimEar. (DEFINITELY heard of, and have had, swimmer's ear. That sux.) When I was growing up we always used to use hydrogen peroxide to help the ear drain. Is SwimEar a big improvement over that?

(PS: I used the swim cap! It fits all my hair, and of course the hair's all chlorine-wet afterwards but at least it's in one place.)

[dizzdvl.livejournal.com]

Yay on the swim cap!

SwimEar is alcohol based so it dries it out pretty quick. You might have to do the "oooh I just dribbled alcohol in my ear" dance when you put it in but it works. Over the last few years I have managed to get swimmer's ear 4 times and it stinks! And I usually got it when I didn't use SwimEar or alcohol to dry my ears out.

Oh yeah, and my hairstylist suggested getting my hair wet and coating it with a little conditioner prior to swimming so the hair shaft has absorbed non-clorinated water and it will resist the chlorine a little better. They also have treatments now to de-clorinate your hair.

Remember just dunk yourself under to get it over with! Hee!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I remember that dance - I did it with the hydrogen peroxide all the time. It oozes in and it FIZZES! :-)

I'm probably going to just cut the hair, because it'll be so much easier that way.

This time I took your advice - after standing on the step up to my knees in water I said "screw it" and jumped off the diving board! I regretted it ;-) but that's the way the cookie crumbles. Another month or so and my pool might be enjoyable to use... I hope!

[dizzdvl.livejournal.com]

Now I will just have to send you some sammiches! I probably have more insulation than you do!

*sends you bacon sammichs on white bread with mayo*

*GRIN*

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

AIEEEEEEEE NOT THE MAYO! Help! Help! :-)

[tenacious-snail.livejournal.com]

one of the things that my friends with more hair than I have do is put conditioner on their hair before putting it in the swim cap. As I understand it, this is supposed to counteract the ickiness that otherwise results from chlorine exposure (coating the hair shafts and keeping them safe).

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

dizzdvl just suggested that very thing! Me, I think I'll just hack it off, but it's good to know that there are alternatives.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Non sequitur, after playing it this weekend: You need SPANC. :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Sounds like I do. I utterly failed to find a game store a little while back, so I'll probably pay the exorbitant shipping cost to order it online.

[datagoddess.livejournal.com]

You just want to get SPANCed!

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

I could oblige that, too. ;-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Frighteningly, I'm even willing to pay a premium for it. This is getting scary. :)

[therobbergirl.livejournal.com]

I stumbled by accident onto a good way of getting into the pool when the water's chilly.

Take a shower in your swimsuit first. Then go straight outside and into the pool. It was very easy.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Am I allowed to make it a warm shower?

[therobbergirl.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, definitely. A cold shower defeats the purpose.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh good! :)

I know most if not all public pools require showering first. Maybe that's why my vague childhood memories of getting into the pool at the Y aren't quite so goosebumpy.

[therobbergirl.livejournal.com]

Though come to think of it, you probably won't get anywhere with a hot shower. Just make it warm enough to be comfortable, don't dry off, and walk directly to the pool. The showers at my gym are about a 30-second walk from the pool.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I'll give it a shot. Sounds like it's a good way to get the skin chilled down before plunging in.

[ohhjuliet.livejournal.com]

could you replace the seat? or get one of those gel cushion things?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Sadly, the big problem with the seat is that it's tilted. (I don't know what supergenius came up with this design. Do they WANT my lower back chiropractor bills?) I probably can't change that angle because the seat is bolted to the height-adjustment column. I might be able to fake up some kind of cushion that would improve it... not sure yet. Tried a dish towel folded into a triangle.

Rob says he is fine with it. It irritated him in the beginning (and at that point, sez I incredulously, you bought this product?) but he says he got used to it. I think he's weird. :-)

[genderfur.livejournal.com]

You can't change the seat, like with a real bicycle? Geez!

For the hair: if you really are going to cut it off, look into hair donations, like for kids with cancer who need wigs, that kinda thing. If Bean were ever going to cut her hair (which I hope she doesn't but I wouldn't die or anything) I wouldn't know where to start looking, but I'd call the Oakland Children's Hospital and ask around.

[rampling.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear about your food-taping prowess! :)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

It sure is convenient to know I can keep all my food stuck together! ;-)

Seriously, I *am* glad I know how to do the taping now. That will be handy.

[rampling.livejournal.com]

It's a lovely thing to be able to take care of such things yourself. You'll prolly get even better as you get even more experience with the taping and feel the feedback of which details helped or not. Good stuff.

[abenn.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry that your feet hurt as a result of all the time without shoes, but I'm glad that you otherwise enjoyed the ashram and the people. It was a pleasure to meet you and have you come along. I hope that we get to hang out in some other venue sometime.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I take full responsibility for that achiness, as it was me who decided to look at the items for sale for so long. I need to get better at knowing when I'm crossing the line. It's surprisingly difficult for me to figure that out. I think that perhaps, as mactavish said in a post of hers recently, the line keeps moving. :)

Thank you so much for inviting me and for "shepherding" me! I enjoyed meeting you as well. I'll remember that visit for a long time.

[jupiter29.livejournal.com]

People at ashrams are friendlier than people in my daily life.

Shouldn't that be kind of obvious?? It's like starting off a post with "That Santa Claus... turns out he's a pretty generous guy..." ;)

I hate having water in my ear. I don't even particular like the few minutes after I get out of the shower! Luckily, my ears seem to drain pretty well when I go swimming. It's just not very comfortable in the minutes until it happens!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I hate having water in my ear too. Fortunately a shower just seems to get the outside of my ear wet, instead of letting any *in*.