El Cerrito Pool Shower Secret

Shhhhhh……

It’s a secret. Or at least it was to PP. Till she got in the know.

She’s new (again--she did swim here quite a bit when Dashingly Handsome BF lived in the Richmond Annex) to the El Cerrito Pool. A lovely pool, but alas FREEZING! (At least the two times she’s swum there recently.)

This is too bad since she can walk to it from the Cottage. But then again, walking isn’t everything. As all of you swimmers know.






So, she swims. She freezes. It’s late afternoon, early evening. The shadows of the big pine trees spread across her end of the pool to protect her from the evil sun. (Well, almost. There is a smite of sunshine at the lifeguard end that she tries to swim around by going really close to the wall. But hell, this is a bit much. Even for a sun scarred PP!)

In any event, she’s got Goosebumps up and down her arms & legs, and can barely finish her workout cuz she’s so cold. Disgustedly, a young fit Young Fast Young Asian Girl gets in the lane with her to share. Passes her every 4 laps or so. Waits at the end while her coach/father? gives her the next set. She’s not cold at all (PP can tell she's not cold. She's just so relaxed and bored. Can you be bored if you're freezing? PP thinks not, but has to analyze the reasons for it another time as it's really beside the point now and not a part of the story. Of course, she coulda written her analysis here instead of this aside, but she didn't cuz she doesn't really know or hell, doesn't really care.) In any case, PP seethes in warmth coveting envy as YFYAG just hangs out at the end for like 5 minutes at a time.

How the hell can that be?

Oh to be young and fast.

Actually PP was never that fast. Well not in the pool at least.

So, when PP does emerge from the pool and scurry into the showers to warm up, she’s a frozen fishsicle.





Turns on the shower. And...shit.
Lukewarm? No, it can’t be!
She stands there shivering, holding her hand under the stream hoping that it will get warmer. But it doesn’t.

Goddammit goddammit goddammit!

She’s never going back to the El Cerrito Pool again!

Yet then, voila! A Shower Angel in the form of a middle aged suburban woman magically appears from the other side of the shower (It's a large metal pole in the center of the tiles with four nozzles coming out of it instead of being on the walls—this only adds to the magic of it all for some reason.)




SA smiles beatifically at PP. “If you don’t turn the spray to its full pressure, it gets warmer,” she beams as she reaches around and adjusts the handle for PP, the water pressure gentler as it sprays.

And it works! Ahhhh! Warm water to thaw her out!

“Wow!” PP exclaims. “I never woulda figured that one out!”
“Yes, well, it is unusual, I will concede,” SA smiles mysteriously as she asks around if anyone has some shampoo she can borrow. Which by the way PP has never understood. How can you borrow the shampoo? You take it. You use it. You leave. Do these women remember that they were given a precious smite of shampoo and return the favor next time?

Maybe.

PP is at least going to practice this good karma with the shower if she ever ventures forth again to the El Cerrito Pool.

Or at least divulge the ‘secret’ of getting a warm shower at the El Cerrito Pool for any of her brave-the-cold swimmer readers that may find themselves in the same frigid predicament that PP was.

Before the Shower Angel, that is!