The Swimming Hole

It is true from early habit, one must make love mechanically as one swims; I was once very fond of both, but now as I never swim unless I tumble into the water, I don't make love till almost obliged.
-- Lord Byron

Saturday, September 4, 1999
One year ago: Pep, Vim and Verve
Two years ago: Fire for Fire

We slept late after our harrowing journey of the night before, and feasted on waffles.

Jack's father and a friend of his had been working on my car during the past two weeks (but the friend was already gone). Jack's dad told me a lot about what they did -- brakes, boots, a repair to the radiator neck, and they even found a replacement for the tiny left-rear window that had been broken for so long. I think I remember now that I never bothered to get it fixed because the price for that window from the dealer is about a thousand dollars! But they got one from the junkyard, and figured out how to install it.

I also heard a lot about how to "self-adjust" the new brakes. Drive forward a few feet, brake, then drive a few feet in reverse. This sets the spring that sets the cam that adjusts the brake... This made such an impression that I was dreaming about the procedure during the night.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *    *

Jack's mother has a business: when fishers put their drift boats in the river upstream, she ferries their trucks and trailers down to where they'll be coming out. Jack and I drove with her this morning, and this was the view. To get to the upper section of the Klickitat, you drive up a narrow road, leave the valley, and drive over the upper plateau, then dive down again. Today, the guy she was supposed to ferry hadn't arrived yet! We waited for a while at the parking area, then drove to a slightly different location that folks get confused with the arranged spot, then drove back to our original spot. Jack brought out a folding chair and amused himself by dabbling his feet in the river while playing a tune and puffing on a cigar.

It finally seemed that the guy wasn't going to show, so we drove back up the hill (that's when we stopped at the viewpoint so I could take the panorama above). Of course, that's when the truck meeting our needed description drove by! So we went back down the hill and waited while the client got the boat in the water, then left Jack's mom there and came back home.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *    *

By the late afternoon, it had grown very hot and the wasps were buzzing around. Jack decided to take the girls and me up the road to his old swimming hole. (No pictures: I brought the camera but neglected to put in a floppy disk!) The swimming spot is the Little Klickitat river, just where the road crosses it. The water was so cold! But I was used to that, since our backyard pool had been tree-shaded when I was growing up.

According to Jack, the proper way to swim at this spot was to jump off the bridge, shouting "Look out scum, here I come!" And indeed, this phrase was still grafitti'd on the side of the bridge. Then, since the water was frigid, one should swim as fast as possible to the rock cliff on the side and climb out, sit in the sun until one is too hot, then start the process over again. That's what he did (bar the shouting, most of the time), and he encouraged the girls to do it too. His daughter never did jump from the top of the bridge; she did jump from the rocks, though. Her friend actually worked up the courage to do this!

I didn't want to jump in (especially with contact lenses), so I worked my way in gradually from the edge, watching the fish swim around my feet. They got bigger as the water got deeper, but the biggest was only two inches or so. The idea that the deep part of the river might have bigger fish was cause for renewed shrieking by the girls. Both of them teased and dared each other throughout the swim, trying to psych themselves up to jump.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *    *

After a good meal of spaghetti and meatballs, Jack was zonked out early. Country air, psychic fatigue, or the exercise of swimming and climbing? At any rate, I wasn't quite ready to sleep, so I took the flashlight from his van and read a book by his side.