A touch of hydrophobia

lymeloungeIn the sense of Fear of Water, that is. An alternate definition lists it as a symptom of the rabies disease. I am not rabid. A couple years ago a bunch of skunks in the area were found to be rabid. We’ve been noticing a lot fewer skunks since then. We suspect the city has subsequently engaged in a quiet culling operation. I know they are still out there.

My touch of hydrophobia is actual fear of water. It doesn’t cramp my lifestyle all that much. I take a shower at least once a day. I know how to swim and, as a child, I loved to play in the water. I can go on boats (if it’s not too rough) and I can handle bridges and I can kayak! I have been known to dive or jump into the deep end of a pool or off a raft although I was always a bit nervous about that. When I was a teenager on the moominbeach and there was a raft, I wasn’t crazy about swimming out to it, even though it was not very far off the Second Sandbar. Sometimes you could even walk to it, depending on which way the wind was blowing. Seven/eight feet deep and a short swim at the worst (for me). I had an irrational fear of being thrown off it. Other girls people squealed in delight at being thrown off. I panicked enough that people learned not to throw me off. Other people would jump off with the intention of touching the bottom. I did not do that. I will happily walk out past the Second Sandbar until the water is up to my neck. That is about it for me. I do not like to swim in water over my head. In my life, it’s not that there’s anything down there. No sharks or jellyfish or Green Slime or whatever. Just creeps me out somehow.

I wrote all of that because I cannot believe that, this weekend, I listened AGAIN (TWICE!!!) to the NPR Snap Judgment story about some deep-diving folks who enter a puddle (not) in a South African *desert* and proceed to dive something like 900 feet down through water. Dead divers (long dead and not-so-long dead) are involved in the story and the person who tells the story had a very scary experience ascending after an equipment failure left him struggling with direction (up or down). In the end, he made it back to the top after 12 hours in the water. I think I heard this story for about the fourth time (in my life) today. As many times as I have heard it, I don’t seem to be able to turn it off… Can you imagine being immersed in water for 12 hours? I can’t but I do take a shower at least once a day…

Let’s end on an upbeat note! Here is the Lyme Lounge backing into the Landfill Driveway today. Don’tcha love our ugly cracked up driveway?

One Response to “A touch of hydrophobia”

  1. Margaret Says:

    Your driveway looks like tiles–very cool! I don’t like the water much and get claustrophobic when I am under the water. It was very tough for me to go on the subway in NYC that goes under the water; the thought of that weight of water on top of me was nearly unbearable.