Re: [Paddlewise] Embarassing exits

Great story....and amazing luck.

Last year we were doing a pool session, and I asked my husband to hang on
to my glasses while I practiced rolling, using a dive mask.  He hung them
around his neck, with the "keepers" that I always have on my glasses. 
Then after I finished practicing, he practiced a few - both of us
forgetting that he had my glasses around his neck.  When we got out of
the pool, I took my glasses back, and realized that I couldn't see out of
one eye.  Turned out there was no lens on that side - the frame had
creacked, and the lens ad fallen out, and was somewhere on the bottom of
the pool.  Bob got into the water, and found the lens first try.

About a week later, at another pool session, one of the women lost an
earring in the pool - just a tiny stud.  Bob walked around the outside of
the pool, looked in, and then went right to it.  Good eyes.

He also lost his glasses one time, when we were practicing in a nearby
creek.  The kayak company that we travel with uses that creek as its home
base, but that evening it was just the two of us.  Anyhow, it's pretty
murky, and when I reached into the water to try to grab his glasses as
they went down, I couldn't even see my hand, much less the glasses.  He
also lost his hat on that trip.  The following week we were out with the
kayak company, and happened to tell that story.  Turns out that the next
day there had been a trip from that spot, and they had found both the hat
and the glasses, so he got both of them back.

But your finding your glasses a day later when you weren't even sure you
were in the right place, beats all.

Joan

On Tue, 3 Apr 2001 07:38:18 -0400 "Blaauw, Niels" <nblaauw_at_foxboro.com>
writes:
> No wet exit, but embarassment enough in this little tale. Unlike some 
> of my
> tales, this one actually happened.
> 
> I was paddling with my friend Rob through the canals of Utrecht, my 
> home
> town in the Netherlands. The sun was already down, and in the 
> twilight we
> paddled a small, shallow canal, just outside the city, between a 
> highway and
> a graveyard. I had overlooked a branch of a tree hanging over the 
> water. I
> felt it touching my face. I heard a "thok" on the rear deck, maybe a 
> little
> splash, and noticed my eyesight had become blurry. My glasses were 
> gone!
> 
> The water was shallow enough to wade in, so I took off my pants, got 
> out of
> the boat (In an OldTown Loon this is possible!) and tried with my 
> toes to
> find my glasses in 30 centimeters of mud and garbage on the bottom. 
> No luck,
> of course not, but I just had to try. When I gave up I was cold to 
> the bone
> and it was completely dark. Rob brought me home, where I started 
> looking for
> my spare glasses. First thing I found was a pair of 
> prescription-sunglasses,
> that lead me to my diving mask, that in turn gave enough eyesight to 
> find
> something decent. In my mind, I had written off my titanium frame, 
> with
> double-anti-reflection, scratch-resistant, extra-light glasses. I 
> was
> already thinking of what kind of glasses to buy next, where to go, 
> what
> insurance to bill...
> 
> But no. I knew it was hopeless, but I felt I had done not enough to 
> retrieve
> my beloved glasses. I went back the next day, in full daylight. I 
> did not
> own a wetsuit then, so I dressed in fleece. I felt awkward, in full 
> view of
> a highway, swimming fully dressed 10 meters from a graveyard. I 
> promised
> myself not to take any skulls or bones that I might encounter and 
> prayed
> nobody would stop to ask what I was doing. I found a tree that could 
> have
> been the one: It was hard to say, since the night before things had 
> been too
> dark and blurry to actually see any details. While smoking a last 
> sigarette
> I decided to start looking in the most shallow spot, downstream of 
> the tree.
> I went in, found the glasses in about 10 seconds, saved my 
> victory-dance for
> later at home and left the site of this embarressment as fast as 
> possible.
> 
> These days, I tether my glasses.
> 
> Niels.
>
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