HNT - take me to the water again!

Back in September, I had the opportunity to swim in the Sacramento River at Brannan Island and I didn't do it. I later realized that I die a little each time I pass a chance to live a little. I made a promise to loosen up some. During the recent flooding here in Northern California, I got the chance to test that promise.


After we got through the flooding in Fairfield, I became a bit concerned about our friends in Citrus Heights. Did their creek overtop its banks? Not on the side near the house, as it turns out. But their ankle-deep stream became a raging creek! The water was at least 8 feet deep by the time we got there and I jumped in. In the picture above, I'm standing on a submerged bridge that is usually a few feet above the stream, helping Caitlan out of the water. That floating mass behind me is a big blackberry bramble, just waiting to snag someone who overshoots the bridge.

One idiot jumping in the creek and dodging the deadwood, blackberry brambles and barbwire can entice those with more sense into the water. Which is exactly what happened. I don't know as they've ever really been swimming in their creek before. Everyone whooped and hollered as they came up from the cold swift water. DO BIG FUN!

And yes, we were cold for a couple hours afterward. It was a winter storm, after all!

Here's a link to a short movie that might or might not work (12 Mb). I recall being able to compress this sort of thing, back on my Macintosh IIci, but the new codecs and mpeg muxed files are something I am not familiar with-- which is a long way of apologizing for the file size. Happy HNT!