Monday 12 October 2015

First Annual Cold Turkey Plunge

I hope all you Canadians out there survived your over-indulgence of turkey this long Thanksgiving weekend. We did!

Just for fun, and mostly for our friends who have heard enough about passive house and long for something more fun to read about here on the blog, this one is for you.

Ras has decided that the Thanksgiving tradition here at Turtle Falls should be as invigorating as it is crazy. So she initiated the Cold Turkey Plunge. And believe it or not she was able to recruit four other keeners to join her. Here they are...

The brave ones...2 nephews, a sister, a sister-in-law, and Ras

Now let me explain why I am not in the picture. Someone had to take pictures. And since I actually have a degree in photographic arts, who better to take the photos? It matters not that my sister takes way better photographs than I do even though she doesn't have the 4 years of training under her camera belt as I do. It matters not that the water temperature was a seriously shivering 15°C (59°F). Someone had to document the First Annual Cold Turkey Plunge. Right?

Ok, the truth is...I'm a big wimp! Cold is not my cup of tea. 'Nuf said.

So here it is, as best I could do with only an iPhone for a camera in a 14' boat on a blustery day in front of the Turtle Falls dock...

Note how the instigator of the event is the first one to hit the water.
Note the passel of paparazzi shooting from behind.
Oh...that has got to be cold.
I'd say by the look on Ras's face that...yup...it's cold.

I've never seen so much clambering to be the first to get to the ladder. Note the nephew with the casted arm up in the air. Everyone blew past the poor dude trying to get out as fast as humanly possible. From the boat I kept wondering when someone was going to assist the one-armed lad out of the water. His mother finally offered a somewhat numbed helping hand.

The yelping was pretty impressive too. Our apologies to the neighbors if the commotion interrupted your peaceful Thanksgiving dinners.

I do have a little something-something for the readers that visit my blog strictly for passive house stuff. A product endorsement. In the cropped photo below, look at the cast protector on the arm of tall nephew. I said "the cast protector" people...eyes right. Eyes right!

No you have not been redirected to www.hot_1-armed_guys(dot)com

First I wrapped his cast with pallet wrap then taped that with Tuck tape, a clear plastic trash bag next, taped at the top with Siga Rissan tape for a water tight seal. It worked great...until it was time to unwrap him. Oh dear! Lordy, that stuff is sticky. I have to admit I started to sweat just a little when I was trying to get the tape to release from his skin. He smiled through the whole ordeal. He didn't spill any blood. I think he'll come back again to visit us.

These passive house sealing tapes really are sticky, seal tightly in some pretty wet conditions (a frigid lake dip then a hot shower to warm up) and will hold like crazy. I think we can rest assured our miles and miles of tapes will do their job for decades to come. I'm just thankful I didn't go that one step further and use the Dockskin primer on his arm before taping him up. ;)

I'll end my foolishness here.

Cheers,
Mimi


4 comments:

Sandy said...

Brilliant!! I'd be in...especially with a synchronized jumping team like that, AND a captain! How refffffffreshing!

Doris Belland said...

God, I need a hot shower just looking at those photos. Tell Ras I love her and she's nuts. Or rather, I love her because she's nuts. Either way, love her and you. Keep the stories coming!

Mimi said...

We all love Ras for that reason.

Kat said...

Oh wow.. I was clicking from my blog on what's the next blog, and this is what i found. You have a great blog. I like the way you write your story. By reading on it, I can feel the coldness of the water... lol. Great photos, and it's summer time here in my country (Philippines), and our temperature everyday is from 34 D to 39 D. So, jumping on the cold river would be a great idea. Too bad, that place is from me. lol

Kat