It was a spectacular morning. Colleen joined me again and as we swam out the sun rose behind us in pinks and purples and grays and golds, the clouds shaded and highlighted in changing colors as the morning progressed; the water a tangle of light. In front of us, a group of California brown pelicans… Read More Pelicans (Day 110)
Colleen met me for my swim this morning and I was so glad to have her company. It was another low tide day, another post-rain swim. There was a discouraging amount of trash in the water when we first got in, but things cleared up as we got further out. The temperature had risen significantly:… Read More Tired (Day 109)
COVID sucks and it was another solo swim for me this morning (those two statements are related). After more than a week of this, it’s become routine. I stir awake while it’s still dark, wonder what time it is, and when I turn over and look at the clock it’s always 5:20 or 5:13 or,… Read More Another Solo Swim (Day 108)
I felt so normal, so like myself, last night that I was sure COVID had left my body. Excited at the prospect of getting to swim with a gang in the morning, I took a COVID test to be sure. It was positive. I was still feeling the disappointment when I woke up this morning… Read More Moonset (Day 107)
I swam by the cigarette butt you casually flicked into the gutter this morning; the empty Cheetos wrapper you dropped on the sidewalk; the rotting orange you tossed into the grass; the baggy that got away from you and you didn’t bother to chase; the plastic bottle top you chucked, laughing, at your friend, which… Read More Dirty Water (Day 106)
Colleen texted last night to say she would join me again for my early swim today and I was so glad. For her company, of course, but also because if Colleen was planning to swim it meant she wasn’t worried about the run-off from the rainstorm we got yesterday. I had already decided I was… Read More Navigating Risk (Day 105)
A silver lining of my COVID isolation is this shift to early morning swims. As soon as I drive through the intersection of Buchanan and the freeway entrances, I begin to get excited about what I will find at the water. What will the clouds, the light, the wind, the colors be like? It’s never… Read More Light (Day 104)
Colleen joined me for my early morning sunrise swim today. I was happy to see her and to have company (albeit very far apart) after so many solitary swims. Except for the two of us, the beach was empty when we arrived, the sky just beginning to brighten. The bay, serenely calm, seemed to glow. … Read More Sunrise with Colleen (Day 103)
Peace and solitude were the words for my swim this morning. Oh, and cold. The water temperature dropped ten degrees since yesterday, according to the beautiful graph my swimming buddy, Colleen, is making to keep track of her swims. The cold temperature and the churning energy of the water were the only remnants of yesterday’s… Read More Solitude (Day 102)
I don’t think my immersion in water today counts as a swim even under my most generous definition of that term. I woke up early again and decided I felt well enough to swim and headed to the Albany Bulb in the pre-dawn when I could do so in solitude. It started raining as I… Read More Quick Dip (Day 101)