Who the BEEP turned on winter over here?

(insert groan of misery)

So all day yesterday I am running errands, spending huge chunks of the household budget on dentistry, getting stuff done. Yeah. But the whole time I am thinking "ah but tomorrow I go to yoga and then paddle in the afternoon. It will be lovely."

At some point I realized it was going to rain. Rain, for me as a paddler, is no big thing. I am already wet from getting in the boat, the dripping from the paddle. Kayaking is not a "dry" sport. If I needed to stay dry I would take up, say, golf. So rain, not a problem.

I scramble outside at lunch time, yeah it is already raining but still no big deal. The car parked in the drive is warm and my garage is warm. I "load de boat" as my husband says in his comical way, and all is well. Hey, life is good.

Before paddling, I still have an errand or two to run on the way to the Marina. It must have been somewhere around the Vet's office when I realized, "Hey, it is cold out here." Wait a second? Did not the weather guy say low 70s? It is bleepin 57 degrees out here! Wait, I just looked again and it says "high of 68." Dude, there was no 68 degrees here today. 58 maybe. But now, it is sub 57.

I do not want to come off as a wimp, even though I AM a wimp. My main problem is that I still have my summer kit. I have sun hats and sun block and fingerless paddling gloves, all neatly stowed in my "go bag." What I do not have is my dry suit, my fleecy layers, my wool caps. Ah, alas and woe upon the underprepared. So now I am back home. Errands run and I sadly returned, knowing the smart and safe thing to do is to get my winter kit packed.

I call this "fluffing my gear." Yeah, I know in human slang "fluffing" usually means something entirely different. But for me, "fluffing" is very much like an osprey cleaning, preening, and fluffing her feathers. This fluffing thing is a necessary part of every bird's life. It is what keeps them warm and dry even in bad weather. See? Fluffing is a good description of what I now must do with the rest of my afternoon.

Let the "fluffing" commence.

Tomorrow I paddle no matter the weather.