A Day at the Spa

Today I decided it was time to take some time to pamper myself and take some time to do something nice about me. Okay, so the decision was prompted by being pretty good all weekend and getting a lot done at home.

Friday I went out to get parts to replace the belts on my vacuum cleaner and then, while I had it apart, I also went to clean-out the tubes that had become more-or-less packed with Saga's hair. (Saga projectile sheds. She can walk through a room and it will be covered with hair. I go through a large number of vacuum bags just getting her hair off the floor!) With the vacuum tuned-up I gave the first floor a thorough cleaning, moving all the furniture and even breaking out the shampooer and deep cleaning the carpets.

Saturday was more of the same. I finished the carpets on the stairs and upstairs and then made sure the vacuum was free of hair again and went-on to doing my bookkeeping. Suffice it to say, by Sunday with a spanky-clean home and a beautiful day unfolding ahead of me, I decided to head-up to the Indian Springs Spa up in Idaho Springs. I brought a book and decided to get a pool and cave pass to treat myself to a day of relaxation.

It would have been a bit more relaxing had there not been quite so many children there, screaming, crying, and splashing each other, but the day was still relaxing. The cave baths are geothermal springs that are fed into caves that have been bored out of the side of the mountain. There are a number of tubs in the caves filled with the hot mineral water. The entire tunnel is steamy because of all the hot water so it is like a spa inside a sauna. It is dark, quite, warm and relaxing in the caves. I started there.

After luxuriating a bit in the hot water, I headed with my book up to the pool to cool off a bit and to do some reading. It was okay, but being a weekend the pool was filled with families. To be fair, most of the children there were well behaved. But the little girl who took a proprietary view of the stairs; throwing her body across the steps so that nobody could leave or exit the pool and moving as you tried to circumnavigate her, I could have done without. When I finally decided to just step over her, her mother, who had been watching this entire exchange grabbed her brat, pulled her away from me with a scornful look at me and told the kid in Spanish to "come away from that man." I later saw her (the mother) talking to some guy (her husband?) and pointing at me. Oh well. Some people cannot deal with the fact that their children are brats.

After an afternoon of reading (with an occasional dip into the pool) I headed down for one more steam/soak in the caves and then dressed and headed out to dinner at a local salad bar restaurant. It was a thoroughly relaxing day. When I returned home, Saga was glad to see me and curled-up in my lap on the hanging chair on the deck as enjoyed the cool evening.

I wonder what I will do to top this tomorrow.

I hope that your day was as relaxing!

Don Bergquist - 04-September-2005 - Lakewood, Colorado