Chirpings in Postcards 4

The old Mission Beach Plunge before rebuilding, and the old me in the center working with someone.</font>

Every day on my way to the pool, I think of something new to say here. The minute I get out of the pool, I find my mind is wiped clean. Yesterday I was quite surprised by the number of folks passing me on the right. Today, I can’t remember what I was going to write about.

Maybe it’s the hot steam. Perhaps it’s the people we swim with. Such characters we all are. One lady comes and gifts us with a new joke every time she swims. Another tells us all about her newest ailments, yet still another is filled with her latest travel tales. From a distance, we sound like chirping birds.

I now divide my half hour of aerobics between the shallow and deep ends. I don’t say a lot while the ladies chirp. If one friend is in the pool, we chat about all sorts of things at a small remove from the others. This kind lady volunteers for the Humane Society. She takes animals to the various local nursing homes. Yesterday she saw one of her old engineer bosses at a home for those with Alzheimer’s. He didn’t recognize her.

“You have to go every day for folks with dementia and Alzheimer’s to remember you,” I said of course thinking of Duck.

Moving to the hot tub for fifteen minutes, the talk continues while we stretch. Yesterday I walked to the library. And home. Today there wasn’t an ache or ague to stretch out, but I stretched anyway. I can touch both knees to my chin now. That’s something I couldn’t do when I started this. I’m not much thinner, but the heat in that pool keeps me moving. And moving….

• Himself: He was filling in for vacationing folks up till today. Now he gets to go back to playing detective. He loves this stuff.
• Herself: It’s book day today. I love that. Very frustrated by the fact that this week I am three points high every single day. Yesterday ¼ cup of nuts through me over my points allowance. Everyday it’s something.
• Reading: ”Kinsey and Me,” short stories that fit with my fragmented thinking today.
• Balance: Some of the trip tours have been booked.