Rougher Swim Today Than Yesterday at Oceanside Pier

OK. I was significantly colder today than yesterday.  I checked my watch a few times to see how long I had been in the water and was still freezing.  Instead of 4 minutes to get used to it, I was at about 12 minutes when my skin got sorta' used to the cold.
At about 15 minutes I was off the end of the pier-same as yesterday-but just getting comfortable with the cold.  I got in at 30 minutes.  The water was rough with a one-foot chop.  The chop was a pain for breathing to either side.  I'm swimming along thinking that the people on the pier must be thinking 'That guy swims like crap' out there.  So, I decided to really PULL with my arms for a while-and to my mild surprise in the rough water-it helped my speed significantly.
So, I had an epiphany of sorts this afternoon: swimming is HARD.  No, really-I mean it.  I'm used to hard or difficult swims but the difficulty of sustaining a hard arm pull stroke after stroke after stroke is something that maybe never sunk into my thick skull until today.
Surfline.com has the temp at 57-59 again, but today I'm with the 57.  I feel like I got my money's worth of cold misery in today's swim.  Oh, by the way, Oceanside doubled the parking meter price from one dollar per hour to two dollars per hour.  Bummer.  Still a good deal for 2 bucks, though.
So I need to PULL HARDER when I swim.  My time today was a full minute faster today-even in rough water-than yesterday in flat water.
The fog has been rolling in late afternoons lately, and as I was leaving the fog was developing.
Visibility and water color was good today.  I saw a bunch of tiny fish just off the beach when I went in.  And that's my report for the pier swim for Monday, the second of January, 2012. 

"The first time you quit is the last time you try."