Mid-February here and I have that spring feeling going on. Wild birds start screaming outside my window in the big cedar tree about 5 am. This leads to a last hour of uneasy sleep punctuated by odd wild life dreams. When I wake up my first thought is either "I need to get new rims" on my 'cross bike or "is it too cold to kayak?"
There are a few hardy souls paddling right now. Some claim to go out daily, or nearly. Hardy fellows. The husband and myself, we feel like it might be necessary to paddle this time of year if we had to leave our island of warmth for supplies or maybe if we were running from suburban zombies. But aside from those two instances, we really don't venture on to the water much this time of year.
We have wet suits, booties, hats, gloves... Not really a lack of equipment, more a lack of desire. Plus, the pros recommend you "swim" your equipment before each paddle. Now, if I bought a dry suit, and I might, then I wouldn't mind venturing into the water before paddling. But I have to say, NAY, I am not interested in soaking my wet suit etc, and then paddling on the windy river for a few hours. Utter lack of interest here.
Oh, and then the self rescue. Essentially, for my equipment to be valid I need to practice rescues in it, under the conditions I would be using it for. Mmmm, hypothermia here I come. Oh so sexy all that shivering. But that's the point. You want to figure out if your kit will prevent hypothermia or not. And whether you can get back into your boat with all that movement-stifling-gear on. I suspect the answer for me would be "NAY."
I'd hate to put the husband on the spot. You know, that place where he's doing the "Hand of God" rescue on me and then towing my unhappy self back to land because I am too shivery (or whatever) to take care of myself. So I will likely not see the water until April or so. Once the water hits 50 I have much more confidence in my wet suit etc. Also, I need less gear overall.
Don't get me wrong, I admire the guys that ARE paddling in the weather. I just know better than to place myself, and potentially others, in a place were I am less than confident.
So this is the place I find myself: I had the second hip surgery. I potentially pushed hip replacement back 10, 20, forever, years. BEST DECISION I HAVE EVER MADE. One of the worst decisions, tearing the hip sockets in January 2012 and putting off seeing a surgeon until August because I didn't want to lose the whole season recovering. Stupid stupid stupid. I caused lingering damage waiting, now have arthritis in the right hip I didn't have before and created all this inflammatory tissue. Dumb.
I figured out as I rehabbed from the left hip, working the still-torn right hip in rehab, that I could be in a better place for the second surgery. And it worked. Now, the second surgery is 9 days post and I am walking normally, no limp no sh*t!!! Yeah, I still have some post-surgical pain and am banned from real biking for the next month at least. But I got my walk back. I am so stunningly happy with the outcome. This surgeon, his whole career is dedicated to hips, he must have amazing job satisfaction. Labral tears and their treatment is a fairly new in medicine. The smart guys think the tears were always there in patients who had hip pain and couldn't walk. But before, they couldn't see them and didn't even know they were there. If cortisone injections didn't help next potential step was hip replacement. Now the specialist goes in laproscopically and cleans up the place. Wow.
So cheers! Spring is around the corner. Rise and stretch, the time for movement and big things is almost here. And I'll be ready.
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