Dunk

These days it is hard to know what to write here, and then hard to remember what I have written to take off from.  The days are a bit of a blur.

Peter is very sick and very weak, but he pushes himself almost every day to do something meaningful.  One of those things is swimming.

Every time Peter has been injured (his back) or sick (especially 2012) he has brought himself back to well-being with exercise, particularly with swimming.  When two surgeons told him he'd need major back surgery he went to the pool, religiously, and never went under the knife.  As you can see by scrolling back a few posts, he was still splitting wood early this year.

Not being able to swim due to his bad shoulder (which is possibly getting radiation this week) has been hard for Peter.  But lately he's started going to the pool at the Sportsplex, and that is a healing event for him.  So we go.  I've taken him twice now, and our good friend Joe took him once.  Peter walks the laps, mostly, or kicks some on his back.  The walking that is required between the house and the pool seems harder on him than his time in the water.  That time is healing.

When Peter heard the forecast of a 70+ degree day today, an idea took root in his had.  He wanted to repeat his winter ritual of dunking himself in our pond.  I've watched him do this many times.  The water is so cold that it almost forces the air out of him as he descends the ladder.  The rule (his) says, "All the way to the top of your head."

"Just in and out," he kept saying when he presented this idea to me over the weekend.  "Two minutes total!" I checked with his doctor, sure I'd be told of potential dire consequences.  "I am not going to prohibit it," the good doctor said, "though I am sure that's not what you wanted to hear."

So the idea took hold.  I called the previously-mentioned good friend Joe Coates.  As a mechanical engineer I imagined he'd come up with a hoist to pull Peter out if needed.  Instead, he lay in bed the night before and thought of how to use his climbing rope as a safety measure.  Daughter Jessie signed on to photograph the event, and Peter's sister Karen was here from NY.  We all wore clothes suitable for swimming, though we all hoped we wouldn't have to.

I pulled out extra towels and even a wool blanket, but when he came up the ladder, the warm sun was all he needed as he sat on the deck seat and the chilly brown pond water pooled around his feet and evaporated into the bright blue sky.  Joe's rope remained a "just-in-case" measure, and no one else had to get wet.  I had the brief thought that I should go in, too.  But that thought evaporated like the pond water from Peter's skin.

Here are four of Jessie's beautiful photos, in sequence:

We drove him to and from the pond to conserve energy, and he spent the rest of the day on the sofa, much of it sleeping.

Tomorrow the trip to Duke will be tiring, but hopefully will bring him some pain relief.  We'll try to visit our friend Geoff Hathaway who is also getting treatment there.

Thanks to Joe, Karen, and Jessie for their help.  But mostly thanks to Peter for being such an inspiration.