Polar Plunge -the shock I needed?

Winter is not my season. I don't like how dark it is, how snowy and icy it gets, and I HATE the cold. Why you may ask would I live in Wisconsin? The short story is that my husbands business snowbeltfireplace.com keeps us here. So I endure and hope that spring comes quickly.

Sometimes we need to jolt our systems. I know that I was feeling the winter "blahs" and with many weeks left of winter a change in attitude was necessary. I am normally not a risk taker. I am afraid of falling from high up places. I don't like driving in less than ideal conditions. I think that taking unnecessary risk in life is foolish when life is so precious. I don't think anyone would say that I enjoy living life on the edge. More likely my kids would tell you that I am too worried about them. I have admiration for people that have physical coordination because I lack it. Like many people in my younger and more selfish years I had done things that were unsafe and crazy. Probably the most dangerous was hitchhiking to Florida and California with friends.

So yesterday, in a moment of delirium, I asked my daughter if she wanted to join me in doing something crazy and silly. I asked if she or any of her friends that were joining us for New Year's Eve wanted to take the polar plunge? She was excited to do it. So at noon on January 1st, 2009 at Rusty's Backwater Saloon near Stevens Point, Katy, 2 of her friends and I, all of us holding hands, jumped into the 38 degree Wisconsin river with an air temperature of close to 20 degrees.
It was an invigorating and shocking experience. The coldest part was my feet afterward walking through the slush. The cold air when you get out actually feels good on your skin. Sharing the experience with my daughter was great. The plunge itself is a wonderful shock to the system- a high almost that lasts for a bit while you retell the story. I will be back to do it again next year.