About a week ago I finally got Maggie to the beach for the first time this summer. There's a county park nearby (only four miles!) that used to be a quarry until they got too deep and hit water. At least, I think that's the story. Anyway, now it's a very nice lake for fishing and swimming.
Problem is, there are rules. I am really missing Lake Geneva. This beach requires you to swim in a roped off area right smack in front of a life guard. And there aren't enough life guards to man all the sections. The beach is open from 11:00 to 7:00, which are very inconvenient hours for me now that dinner is at 6:00. And even more inconvenient now that I'm short a vehicle. I want to get up and go to the beach from 10 to noon. Or after supper is cleaned up. Not only that, but at this beach they call for rest-breaks when everybody has to be out of the water for 20 minutes. Rachel recalled this rest period every hour from the times she's been to this beach with Matt, but I sure hope it's only on the odd-hours, and that it just seemed to her to be so frequent as to be hourly rest-times. Can you imagine swimming for only 40 minutes before they kick you out of the water for 20 minutes?
I keep trying to finagle a way to get Maggie out in the sunshine for some swimming exercise, and the hours that swimming is allowed are just not jiving with our schedule. I may have to take a drive over to Pewaukee and see what kind of rules and hours they have at their beach -- and whether they've recuperated from the flooding yet. This little scoliosis-girl needs some hefty doses of vitamin D while it's still available. And I'm not doing a good job taking care of that for her.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
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Aren't those rest breaks nuts? And at a beach, no less. I've never heard of such a thing! Even in the neighborhood pools where I've experienced them, I think they are usually 10 minutes out of every hour, not 20! Sometimes instead of an all-out rest break it's just an "adult swim" to get the kids out of the water for a bit.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with finding a better beach!
Next year Pewaukee lake will be fun. Not this year. It is still technically closed due to bacteria, but everyone is still there, many are swimming at their own risk. All the fun and activities have been canceled like the free water ski shows on Thursdays.
ReplyDeleteAh, shoot. Pewaukee's closed due to bacteria? See, on the whole, I think the govt tends to be overly cautious about such things, but I gotta take it more seriously with an immune-depressed kid than I would normally. On the other hand, she's been doing a lot better in recent years...
ReplyDeleteIf that's the quarry I'm thinking of, wasn't there a few drownings there way back? That could be why the lifeguards are there, and why there are extra "rest breaks."
ReplyDeleteYou know we can't POSSIBLY let people fend for themselves! They might get hurt and sue the county!
Funny... I keep throwing Rachel out into the sunshine whenever possible, too. She has such a lousy immune system. She had a fever last night - gone today, but she's only been over a bad cold for about a week after a 2-week cold. She has been taking vitamin D supplements for awhile... I haven't noticed any particular change though yet. Have you tried any supplements for D with Maggie? I'd like to know if anyone knows a particularly good brand to try.
ReplyDeleteKathy, I think fresh air and sunshine helps with immunity-building, but I don't know that I would expect to see loads of change from that. The reason I need Mag out in the sun and fresh air --exercising!-- is because of the scoliosis. She's too prone to want to sit ... and sit with rotten posture, t'boot. I don't give Mag any supplemental D, and she's not even getting it in her milk either. From the reading I've done, sunshine will do far more for creating D than any supplement. I know you're big on sunscreen, but could she handle 20 minutes per day of being outdoors in the sun without the lotion?
ReplyDelete(Kathy, the reason I brought up immune-depression was because of what LuthWoman said about the bacteria counts at the other lake I want to check out.)
Paul got off work early today, and thus the car came home in the mid-afternoon. So I dropped Maggie off at the beach (with Philip to watch her) and did errands this afternoon. When I picked them up, they reported that there were no swim breaks, although we did time it such that I thought we'd be getting there right at the end of one break, and leaving right at the start of the next. But as far as the kids could tell, no break was called.
Hey, Kathy, have you been garlicking that girl who gets sick so easily? I have been blown away by how great garlic can be as an anti-microbial!
ReplyDeleteSince someone else brought up sunshine (and screen)...
ReplyDeleteMy Dd's fair and blue eyed like her daddy, but I've found that c.a.r.e.f.u.l.l.y watching her sun exposure early in the summer seems to help prevent bad sunburn as much as using the sunscreen.
In other words, I let her out w/out the sunscreen, and keep an eagle-eye on her skin. I save the slathering of sunscreen for when I know we *have to* be out in the sun all day - church picnics, family parties, etc. Then she builds up a little bit of color, and later in the summer is much less prone to burning, even w/out sunscreen.
After all, it's the *frequency of severe sunburns* that predisposes you to cancer risk - not the sunshine itself.
But of course, everyone's got to decide for themselves. Your mileage may vary. :)