The Escape I Needed

December 11, 2023

Today at the lake, the water was cool and cold and perfect. All my stress dissolved.

In the water I can other have superficial thoughts because my brain empties. Or, more like my thoughts are surface, observational, fleeting.

There’s some sand on the bottom. There’s some seaweedy thingies. There’s some wilting milfoil. There’s that rock that marks the edge of the swim area.

I can’t worry about anything in my life because in the water my brain doesn’t work like that.

I didn’t even hate on the birds today even thought there were globs of white poop in the water. Whatever.

Variety

I swam breast stroke, then did crawl for twenty strokes. Then back to breast stroke. A few times I did forward chair, then reverse chair, my signature moves. I floated on my back. I jogged in place three times. I went around the cement dock once. My foot kept getting tangled in my extra rope that was tied to my bouy and to my kick board. It’s a stupid kick board because it’s too small to use in the lake.

It got dark fast, and then I couldn’t see the bottom of the lake very well. For a moment it was like swimming in Sweden, where the clear water gets quite dark because of the dark sand underneath.

I stayed in the water a few minutes more so I could jog in place one last time, then I swam into the shallow water.

Hot Shower

My friend was just finishing her walk, so we chatted while I showered and changed. As we reached the car I saw M. He feeds and communicates with the birds. I was too engrossed in my conversation with my friend to wave to him.

Now I’m home, making food, and it’s full-on dark out. In an hour I’m gonna go squid fishing with my buddy, Willy. My fishing name is Starsky. Night night.