A Mermaid Minute

Weather permitting, Desiree and I soak in our outdoor hot tub early in the morning – long before sunrise for much of the year.  Only temperatures below 5 degrees and high winds will dissuade us.

Typically, we jump in the water and allow the all-pervading warmth to embrace us for a minute or two before I punch on the circulating jets.  The jets run on a ten-minute timer.  Desiree is usually pretty disappointed when the jets time out because it means we need to get out.  She has become dizzy and disorientated on two occasions when we remained in the tub for much longer.

Really, neither us want to climb from the tub right away.  To accommodate ourselves, I give us a “mermaid minute.”  I start the jets so we can float around for a minute or two more before manually shutting them down so we can climb out and begin the rest of our day.

A mermaid minute makes all the difference.

—Mitchell Hegman