Camaraderie Lost

I was torn on Tuesday since I wanted to go to yoga and I wanted to go swimming.

When I go to yoga, I can hardly make the outdoor pool that closes at eight. I'm able to get in about 20 minutes before it's time to get out. Of course, 20 minutes is better than nothing but it's not really worth the fury of stopping, changing clothes and eating in the car.

I decided to pause and hit an indoor pool that has afternoon swimming from 7:30 until 9:30 p.m. I was jonesing to swim but I also wondered whether I was pushing it...

I also felt odd going to the indoor pool because I haven't been since Memorial Day when the outdoor pool opened and I felt like I had lost my camaraderie with that particular community.

Got to the pool and it was way more crowded than I expected. I sat down for a minute, wondered if I should just go home, thought about gas burned for naught then went outside to my car. It was about 8:20. I decided to wait. This one family is about six members deep and they have a habit of leaving about 8:30. Sure enough, they spilled out of the pool house and into their car. I went in and there was an empty lap lane. I paid my money, chit chatted with the lifeguard and when I went to sign my name, I saw Kathleen ______. No way. I looked in the other lap lane and saw the telltale black swimming suit. It was Chatty Kathleen.

As I walked to the end of the lane, I said "Hi Kathleen" and she remembered my name. I know what you're thinking -- I should not have engaged but it would have been rude. Of course, she immediately started with the chatter. I thought I heard cadaver but was not sure. Yes, I heard cadaver. Kathleen had back surgery about four months ago and just got permission to start swimming again; she has cadaver bones from two people and a bunch of screws. After listening for a while, I jumped when I found a pause in her conversation and told Kathleen that I was going to get in a few laps. It was 8:45 and, realistically, I had about 30 minutes to swim.

Kathleen exited right around the time that I started swimming. After swimming outdoors, the water was shockingly chilly although I adjusted to the temp while Kathleen talked.

I did my ritual floating after doing laps, climbed out of the pool as the lifeguard yelled for her kids to also get out.

I'm glad that I went. I wanted to test my stamina for 25 yards of front crawl breathing since I've been doing pseudo-lane swimming at the outdoor pool.

Overall, I've still got it...