Sunday, January 11, 2009

Follow me, everything is all right


This story is about the great adventure Pete and I took on Sunday morning.

It snowed a bunch overnight Saturday, and one of my favorite things to do on a snowy morning (despite my hatred of cold) is bundle up and go for a walk. Ideally with my camera in one hand and a hot beverage in the other. Sometimes I'm up early and I go out without him, but Sunday we headed out together along the bike path, which runs along the Neposet River to Dorchester Bay, for those not familiar with it. That will be important in a minute. We're plodding along the bike path with our coffee (him) and tea (me) in travel mugs, me stopping to take photos every once in a while, and as we pass under the trolley tracks and come up on the marshes and I point out how high the water is. Pete points out that it looks like they started plowing the path but stopped halfway to where we were at. We keep walking, I keep taking pictures.

We get closer to where they stopped plowing, and realize that they didn't plow...the path was flooded. But it doesn't look that deep and we've both got boots on so we plod on through the few inches of water. That turn into 4 inches. And it's cold water. That turns into 6 inches of freezing water. And at that point, you're about 40 feet through it and you realize it's the same distance forward or backward, so you might as well keep going forward. In the freezing water. That is not up to the top of your boots. And is seeping in through the zipper anyway.

I got out of that water and had to take my boots off and dump the water out. I also smelled like a swamp. And thought that if we didn't get home (via the streets, NOT back through the water) STAT one of us would lose a toe to frostbite or die of hypothermia. Lucky for us, once we started moving our feet warmed up again very quickly. We squished our way home, quickly stripped off the boots, socks, and pants, and both felt fine within minutes.

Our boots, however? Still soaked, and we're currently working on drying them out by stuffing them with newspapers and switching them out every few hours. My boots still reek of swamp, so hopefully some of the "odorz out" that we bought to help combat the litter box will help.

Anyone else have a great adventure this weekend?!

4 comments:

Karen said...

this post reminds me oh how i was just trying to explain to my husband about how you & me & dave used to go sledding on the golf course and how it seemed like such an adventure/trek to lug the sleds out to the big hill by Hemlock... he was totally unimpressed considering the actual distance. but in my memories, it was like a serious arctic adventure that lasted forever (plus you guys has those sleds that weighed like 90lbs). and of course, that hill seemed way cooler/faster/scarier than it actually is now. anyway, a good wintery trip down memory lane...

Sarah G said...

That WAS an arctic trek! It's a lot further when you're walking through tons of snow wearing tons of snow clothes. But that his was way may fun than the dinky one on our end of the golf course!

Anonymous said...

Just wondering was that picture taken on Gallivan Blvd and Frederika st?

Sarah G said...

This was taken on Adams - the wall is the stone wall at Dot Park.