Here I was getting all excited to say I'm halfway through my social media diet--proud to say Facebook has been bumped off my most-visited website panel on Chrome--then I realized I've been counting chronologically. And that's not how Lent works. I won't bother you with the specifics, but it turns out Sundays and Holy Week doesn't count so really Lent is longer than you'd expect.
It confuses me. Like all the fish commercials this time of year. Fish is meat, in my opinion. And I'm skeptical that Lent-eaters make up that large of a buying public...but, hey, every dollar counts.
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Forgot to mention yesterday that we've signed Leda up for swim lessons. These are the same parent-tot lessons that Cole was a freaked-out drop-out in last summer. Looking back, I'm not surprised. He may be adventurous, full of energy, and love the water, but he's not great with structure, transitions from activity to activity, and actually scares quite easily.
Leda, on the other hand, loves to bounce, splash, music, I think the whole thing will be right up her alley. Kelly will be taking her for all but one week, I think. And I think they'll have a blast.
It should be interesting to see how it plays out. We're lucky enough in my suburb to have not just one but two public outdoor pools plus multiple indoor private pools. We're actually not renewing the pool passes Cole and I had last year though--first off, Leda would need one this year. But, mainly, they have chosen to renovate the ice rink and pool structure we didn't go to. So that will be closed for the season meaning everybody will come to the pool we were at last year. No thanks.
All the swim lessons then have gotten moved around. And rather than wait until summer, we've chosen an indoor spring session which is at the high school pool. Never been, but I hear it is old and in need of repairs. Should be interesting. Maybe not so quite a big circle of swimmers this go.
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Now that I know a little more about what makes Cole tick one year later, I totally get his swim lesson phobia on several levels. And this news from the weekend fits in nicely with a discussion I was just having with Kelly about OWS (open water swimming).
Lots and lots of triathletes freak out when they aren't in a pool. Frankly, it bothers me none and I purposefully try to swim in the lane where I can't touch bottom to get used to it. And, though it is hard, I try to ignore the lane lines and clear water to imagine in being muddy...just for mental prep.
Then again, I also grew up in Boy Scouts and have had to swamp a canoe in a lake before and have been out on large bodies of water in a small boat. So my fear of a lake is minor.
Contrast that with other OWS and I'd say a polite "no thanks" when it comes to doing a triathlon. People flock to the Ironman FL course because it's fast, but you won't catch me in a salt water, waves crashing situation. Granted, Lake Michigan can be cold and intense, but it also doesn't have stinging jellyfish.
For those of you not familiar with the Escape From Alcatraz triathlon, they take you out on a packed boat into the middle of San Francisco Bay and you jump over the side to swim in rough, cold, shark-infested waters back to shore...where you then bike and run. It's a famously difficult triathlon experience. And this weekend (early because of the America's Cup this summer) there was one death and about 3x more rescued swimmers than normal. The death was from a heart attack, but still...that's 150 people they needed to help because the water was 50 degrees and extremely choppy.
I'm just saying that perhaps there is a reason I'm attracted to a relatively smooth, warm, lake swim!
It confuses me. Like all the fish commercials this time of year. Fish is meat, in my opinion. And I'm skeptical that Lent-eaters make up that large of a buying public...but, hey, every dollar counts.
* * *
Forgot to mention yesterday that we've signed Leda up for swim lessons. These are the same parent-tot lessons that Cole was a freaked-out drop-out in last summer. Looking back, I'm not surprised. He may be adventurous, full of energy, and love the water, but he's not great with structure, transitions from activity to activity, and actually scares quite easily.
Leda, on the other hand, loves to bounce, splash, music, I think the whole thing will be right up her alley. Kelly will be taking her for all but one week, I think. And I think they'll have a blast.
It should be interesting to see how it plays out. We're lucky enough in my suburb to have not just one but two public outdoor pools plus multiple indoor private pools. We're actually not renewing the pool passes Cole and I had last year though--first off, Leda would need one this year. But, mainly, they have chosen to renovate the ice rink and pool structure we didn't go to. So that will be closed for the season meaning everybody will come to the pool we were at last year. No thanks.
All the swim lessons then have gotten moved around. And rather than wait until summer, we've chosen an indoor spring session which is at the high school pool. Never been, but I hear it is old and in need of repairs. Should be interesting. Maybe not so quite a big circle of swimmers this go.
* * *
Now that I know a little more about what makes Cole tick one year later, I totally get his swim lesson phobia on several levels. And this news from the weekend fits in nicely with a discussion I was just having with Kelly about OWS (open water swimming).
Lots and lots of triathletes freak out when they aren't in a pool. Frankly, it bothers me none and I purposefully try to swim in the lane where I can't touch bottom to get used to it. And, though it is hard, I try to ignore the lane lines and clear water to imagine in being muddy...just for mental prep.
Then again, I also grew up in Boy Scouts and have had to swamp a canoe in a lake before and have been out on large bodies of water in a small boat. So my fear of a lake is minor.
Contrast that with other OWS and I'd say a polite "no thanks" when it comes to doing a triathlon. People flock to the Ironman FL course because it's fast, but you won't catch me in a salt water, waves crashing situation. Granted, Lake Michigan can be cold and intense, but it also doesn't have stinging jellyfish.
For those of you not familiar with the Escape From Alcatraz triathlon, they take you out on a packed boat into the middle of San Francisco Bay and you jump over the side to swim in rough, cold, shark-infested waters back to shore...where you then bike and run. It's a famously difficult triathlon experience. And this weekend (early because of the America's Cup this summer) there was one death and about 3x more rescued swimmers than normal. The death was from a heart attack, but still...that's 150 people they needed to help because the water was 50 degrees and extremely choppy.
I'm just saying that perhaps there is a reason I'm attracted to a relatively smooth, warm, lake swim!