The Fastest Hour

You can never completely erase pool evidence. Usually, droplets of water remain on my face after I have changed out of my swimwear which reminds me of the advertisement for the St. Louis Blues -- Do you bleed blue?
I had been looking forward to going to the pool all day. I was not disappointed when I got in the water and I even managed to work out a kink in my right thigh from my stint on the Adaptive Motion Trainer yesterday.

The hour went by so fast though. I swam 20 laps while resisting the urge to sing Etta James' At Last because it's hard to swim and sing at the same time.

Three kids were practicing their diving skills by tossing soda bottles filled with water into the deep end and retrieving them. I need to get in on that practicing one day so that I can feel more comfortable.

I learned something new too. I should be washing off my goggles with cold water since the chlorine can destroy the anti-fog coating on the lenses. Who knew?

Kids Say The Darndest Things

Water slammed against my left ear, went into my nose and, of course, my mouth as I was doing the back crawl because thirteen kicking kids and five adults make for some very wavy water.

While I was at the edge of the pool, Markia got out of the kicking line-up to tell me that the black line was just for us. She wanted me to know that I could go beyond the black line. Since I haven't mastered the front crawl breathing yet, I usually pause at some point and I guess that Markia was watching me and also wishing that she could venture into deep end territory.

Since Markia is one of the more advanced of the younger swimmers, she and a few others were eventually allowed into the deep end. They had so much fun doing cannon balls.

My birthday is next week, Markia said as she climbed the ladder on her way to cannon ball glory. You know what I'm getting? Goggles.

Markia asked if she could borrow my goggles and I obliged. I did a few more laps and headed to the locker room to get dressed. When I returned to the pool area, I took my duffel bag and sat on a bench. When Markia noticed me, she came over by the gate. I broke your goggles. I'm so sorry. I'll buy you some more. Markia did what many adults find hard to do. She copped to what she had done, apologized and offered to replace the thing that she had broken. I assured her that she did not have to replace the goggles. In fact, I'll give her my spare goggles at the next open swim.