Many years ago, I had a summer rental on Fire Island. A friend and I stayed an extra day after everyone else left. We decided to go swimming and both of us got caught in a riptide. I thought I was going to drown and when I finally came up, I couldn't see my friend and thought he had drowned. We had both been "deposited" far from our house. I haven't been in the ocean since.
This post was edited by Spunky at July 5, 2022 6:29 PM MDT
Yep....water moccasins, cottonmouths, and alligators in some cases. I imagine lakes up there where you are have much fewer of these sweet gifts from nature.
Sure, and every other house around here has one. Alligators frequent swimming pools too. Most people have a cage around their pools but alligators walk right though them...they go through sliding glass doors sometimes too. Our pool is not caged and we're on a canal that serves home to gators but, to my knowledge, we've never had a gator in the pool. Perhaps the wrought iron fence around a pool (like ours) is a better idea than a flimsy cage.
They are but some people seem surprised when an alligator strolls on in. I know one person in my town who is a true Floridian...we all came from somewhere else. :) You get a big sell if you get cornered by one of the guys who sell and build the cages and close-in lanais.
This post was edited by Thriftymaid at July 5, 2022 9:26 PM MDT
On a beach patrolled by lifesavers, stay between the flags and riptides aren't a problem. If you get caught in one on an unpatrolled beach (I have been while surfing), swim ACROSS it rather than AGAINST it - they're not infinite. Eventually you'll reach calmer water. If you're not a strong swimmer, you shouldn't get into any body of water larger than a bathtub anyway. As for shark attacks, more people are killed annually by hippopotamuses. And having Coke machines fall on them. And slipping and falling in the bath. And LOTS more people are killed by muggers (and cops) in New York - so why does anyone live there?
Or just go swimming in a lake. And BTW, I don't swim in the ocean and I wasn't in the market for advice on doing so, so you wasted your breath with all that gobbledygook. And I have lived in NYC for all but 8 of my 62 years, and it's quite safe. The reputation outpaces the reality because of sensationalist news coverage.
As does the reputation of the dangerous ocean swimming. I would venture to say more people swam safely in the ocean this weekend than were safely in NYC this weekend. (52 people shot in NYC just July 4th weekend and only 19 total shark attack for the year worldwide in 2022)
Few lakes here are safe to swim in, and those aren't easily accessible. Even the "safe" ones are havens for leeches and snakes. I've swum in mountain pools, but given that they're an hour's hike each way (at least), it's not really an option in hot weather. Swimming pools are out, unless they're salt. My eyes hate chlorine.
Spunky 