The rain returned to the Bay Area this week, which was a glorious relief after our alarmingly dry January. The dingy air that has hung like a dirty film over everything blew away with the storm, and the sky has been crystal clear. What isn’t crystal clear is whether we should be swimming when it… Read More Rain
Five weeks have elapsed since 2026 began, and this is my fourth blog post. That means my New Year’s resolution to post a blog a week is not going great. But it’s not going terribly either. At least it won’t be going terribly if I actually sit down and write this post. If I publish… Read More Routine
This morning, I went for a solo swim for the first time in a long time. When I was swimming every day, I often swam alone. My commitment to getting my body into a body of water came first; finding someone with whom to share the experience came second. Now that I am no longer… Read More Alone in Community
Happy New Year! It’s been a rainy start to the year with swims in a bay of questionable water quality, full of the detritus carried down storm drains. But it sure is beautiful! I’ve resolved to post once a week this year, which should be a huge upgrade from the once-a-year I posted last year! Unlike… Read More Happy New Year
On our drive down to the bulb for our swim this morning, Kim and I joked about the coming winter, the plunging water temperatures. “I can’t wait for my antidepressant to return,” I said. “I know,” she said, “I need my euphoria drug.” Many think we are crazy for loving the cold water as much… Read More Keep Swimming
I swam every single day of February and most of March (through the 23rd) at the Albany Bulb. Fifty-two days definitely marks my longest streak of swimming every day in one place. When I was swimming and blogging every day, I made an effort to mix things up just so that I’d have something to… Read More February & March at the Bulb
I have two major goals that implicate swimming in 2024. Number one is to finish my year-of-swimming memoir, which I spent last year busily working away on. Sometimes I think it’s nearly finished and sometimes I think I should throw it in the garbage. Number two is to make a temperature blanket: Each day I… Read More New Year New Swimming Schemes
A beautiful thick fog greeted us for our swim at the Albany Bulb this morning. I love a foggy swim, the way it erases all the familiar landmarks and you feel like you could be anywhere. I love the muffled feeling to the air, the mystery, the peacefulness that seems to settle over everything when… Read More Coldtober Day 15
This morning was all pastel pinks, silvery greens and pelicans swooping in from every side. It was the most perfect kind of morning down at the Albany Bulb. No matter where I go or how beautiful those places may be, nothing beats my home waters. As Colleen said of my potential blog post this morning,… Read More Coldtober Day 12
Well, Coltober did its work of revitalizing my daily swimming but not daily blogging! I am struck by how difficult it is to blog every day (or ever) and reminded anew that the greater accomplishment of my year of swimming was not the fact that I managed a daily swim, but that I actually wrote… Read More Coldtober Days 2-4