It was lovely to be reunited with Angie and Sheila for a swim this morning. I didn’t think I’d make it: I sent a message to the group at 3 in the morning when I was aching all over and feeling terrible. Don’t expect me. But then I woke up a few hours later feeling… Read More Reviving (Day 316)
Kevin and I drove all day long and, at the end of it, nothing felt quite so good as getting into the water at the Albany Bulb. I brought home a cold and mostly came home wanting to crawl into bed, but I didn’t feel bad enough to miss a swim and so off I… Read More Home (Day 315)
This morning I went for one last swim with the Cold Water Addicts. A little snow still clung to the ground, but it was clear and beautiful. The mountains of the Olympic Peninsula across the Salish Sea rose up dramatically and, for the first time, I realized how tall they were. In the previous days,… Read More Healing Cold (Day 313)
The milestone of 300 swims seems somehow less momentous than 100 or 200 did. Maybe it’s because I’m so close to the end of my year of swimming: 365 is the number on my mind these days; 300 is just a signpost telling me it’s coming soon. But maybe it’s also because daily swims have… Read More 300 Days of Swimming
Along with excellent music, Hazel and I got our booster shots at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival yesterday. We couldn’t believe it when we stumbled across the San Francisco Free Clinic booth offering boosters—we’ve been struggling to schedule ours—and jumped right on it. I was so glad to get it, but was feeling it today.… Read More Slow (Day 274)
I made the questionable decision to swim at the pool today. Questionable because all day I felt a gaping hole in my life having not frolicked in the open water. I felt anxious and unsettled—two feelings that melt away when I swim in the bay (or lake, or ocean, or river). In 2014, the marine… Read More Blue Mind (Day 255)
Today Eliza left on her road trip back up to Victoria for another year of University. I sat on the stoop and watched her drive away, my heart full of the complicated mixture of pride and sadness that is becoming a familiar part of parenting a young adult. I wanted to go inside and sob… Read More Crying into my Goggles (Day 241)
The cold that has been nipping at my heels the last two days settled in for real today. I’ve been hacking and sniffling and sneezing and feeling like garbage all day. Multiple Covid tests continue to tell me it’s not that and I don’t really feel like I felt in April when I had Covid… Read More Swimming with a Cold (Day 220)
Today feels like it’s lasted at least a year. We woke up at 4:10 am Quebec time (1:10 CA time) and headed to the airport for a long day of travel. Hazel and I had minimal delays, but Eliza was stuck in various airports for hours upon hours (she’s still in the air as I… Read More A Very Long Day (Day 219)
After my week of road-tripping followed by two weeks of COVID, I am impatient for life to return to normal. I went to sleep last night determined to wake up and go to Lift and Sprint this morning. But when the time came to change out of my PJs and into my sports bra, I… Read More Slow Recovery (Day 115)