sometimes, ya gotta say sumpin

and you don’t always have to like the format of it.

I posted a PSA on Fakebuuk today, about my experiance paddling this past wednesday. Wasn’t freezing temps, but then, as I found out in rolling class, even 70 degree water can make you hypothermic (even wearing a full wetsuit!!!) Nopes, seventy degree water, but the air temps dropped, the wind came up and it was raining off an on: more on than off so I couldn’t dry off. I had on a simple quick dry shirt, sprayskirt and PFD, nothing on my head and nothing to keep me dry (if you think a sprayskirt is waterproof,,,, They ain’t, they just keep MOST of the water out of the boat.)

Within half an hour, I was getting chilled to the point my teeth would chatter off and on. I headed to shore then. Considered getting my drytop on, and realized ALL of my dry gear was at home. Wetsuits, drytop, my not so dry-drysuit, head gear, pogies, you name it, NOT WiTH ME.

Heck, even a hooded rain jacket would have sufficed, to break that wind off my wet skin, and I was paddling enough to keep the core temps up for that sort of gear, but nope, I left it ALL at the house.

Not now. There is a plastic tote that I keep that stuff in, and its now in the back seat, again, ready for whatever fall throws at me, and

LESSON LEARNED, mama-nature don’t play games with doofuses,,, (“doesn’t” for those that insist on proper grammer,,,LOL) so the boyscout motto comes back, yet again, to bite my ass: “Always be prepared”. I didn’t, and she did kick me. At least it was a gentle kick this time,,, could have been much worse.

Anywhoos, I posted about it: hopefully someone else will take it to heart and I don’t have to read about another kayaker getting caught with thier pants down and paying a price for it. Really, that is the sort of things that FB needs to be used for,, not just posting about the latest and greatest, whatever,,,,, I remember when FB was more “work” related, not this social status thing it has become, and really not the all intrusive tracking thing that so many willingly feed with information. Granted, 99% of that information is garbage, and in any ‘logic’ system, Garbage in, garbage out, and it takes a lot of processor power to winnow out the chaff. Poor AI units must think this species is hopeless,,,,

By the by, I have heard of 4 drowning deaths this year alone,,, and three of them were wearing PFD’s,,, They say they are to save lives, but seriously, they are more to help recover the body. They do assist you if shit goes south, but they are not fool-proof. And if you DON’T have it on, and you need it, you just added one more complication to your suddenly fucked up world. Wear the Vest!!!! Please!!!! (side note, one drowning this year, the guy DID have it on, but the vest came up and he did not. Make sure your shit fits and can resist being pulled off you. Do the ‘jump in’ test to see if it needs refitted, and do it in water you can walk out of. Failing that, see if someone can lift you out of the water by the shoulder straps or recovery loop. And do it beforehand.)

Ok, nuff of Mama-Dio tellin’ y’all how to live your lives. Carry on.