Manford learns about wetsuits (a little)

Emily and many of her classmates are going on a camping trip this week, and Manford is going along as one of several parents who are going to be supervising groups of five of these children. As part of this trip there will be beach time, and if the weather is good and the seas calm, children will be allowed to enter the water, and parents will form a curved line to keep the children from straying. Given that the water is still pretty cool, the school recommended that parents bring a wetsuit. So off I goes, looking for one. I settle on a short-sleeve, short leg model. Says I to the clerk, I guess I will need a Large - says he - no, a medium should be fine. So I try one on, and this, folks, is not an easy task. First you put your own legs, one at a time, in the correct whole for legs, after several futile attmepts with at least one foot tending to go into the arm holes. When finally you get the leg thing straightened out you then have to PULL, PULL, PULL the suit up the legs until it is well up the thighs, and make sure it is tight in the crotch, for if you do not pull it up really, really good you will not be able to get the suit over your shoulders. So I worked at it, uhhgh, uhhgh, uhhgh, and then the helpful store person asks how I am doing, and I stand there with it half on, and try and try to get it over my shoulders, with my arms sticking out, but I need help, for it is not going on so good, so he helps, and finally the arms and legs and shoulder portions are actually pretty good - I can't breathe and it is choking me but he says it needs to be tight to work, so I guess that is the way it will feel. Getting out of the suit is a hell of a lot easier than in - you just peel it down, kind of like a banana skin, pulling on a cord attached to the zipper to start things off, then undo the velcro tabs that hold the neck closed, keep peeling, and finally it is off. Ooops, what to wear under the wetsuit. Most web ites related to this question recommend some Speedo like thing - so tomorrow Manford goes out to buy a bikini bottom sort of thing - but I do not think I will pose for pictures in it, as I do not want to cause people of faint, pass out, run screaming away from me, etc. Carrie laughs about this - I do to. I am definitely thinner now - can wear a 36 inch waist pant (that is what the stores call them here - I guess two pant would make one pants?) and weight somewhere around 180. I was pleased today (this is a topic change) to be told by my doctor that I looked great, much better than a year ago - maybe there really is something to the notion of me having mercury poisioning and not having it now since all the amalgam in my mouth has been removed and I am on a detox with some homeopathic drops. Well, I will stop for now - I managed to disappear some stuff I had typed in, so will quit while I am ahead. Thanks for all your thoughts and time. Manford