The trick is to keep breathing

Well all the time ya spend trying to get back what's been took from ya, more is going out the door. After a while you just have to try to get a tourniquet on it.

Lately, I'm not the only one
I say, never trust anyone

Jump in the line

During my normal drive to work, I pass by a fenced park, that is about a block in size. The main feature of this park is a large mango tree, which is centered on the block. Under the tree is a lawn.

This morning as I drove past the park, one addition to the scene occurred. The tree still shaded the square park and it's green wire fence. An early mist softened the air. The morning sun, softly lit things through the light cloud layer. The addition: perched atop the fence, in a row, were 4 ducks. Standing there, on the fence, all facing the street.

Alas, I had no camera take a picture of this, but in some respects, it's better that I didn't.


Shake, shake shake, Senora
Shake your body line
Work, work, work, Senora
Work it all the time

Ooh, just a little bit dangerous

When I arrived at the pool tonight to swim, all the lanes were filled. So I determined that I would need to share a lane, and set about identifying which of the several single-swimmer lanes to ask.

After scoping things out (in all my near-sighted wonderness) I went up to a gentleman as he stopped on the wall, and the following conversation ensured....

• Me: "Is it alright if I share the lane with you?"
  
  
• Swimmer in water (SIW): Yes.
  
  
• Me: Cool. Do you want to split the lane or circle or something else?
  
  
• SIW: Well, actually, I'm doing backstroke right now, and I won't really know where I will be.
  
  
• Me: Oh, ok. Well, so do you want to pick a side and-
• SIW: I don't know where I'll be; I kinda go all over the place when doing backstroke.
  
  
• Me: That's alright: I can keep an eye out for you. So should I take this side-
• SIW: I kinda go all over the place, and can't really stay straight.
  
  
• Me: It should be ok, should I just take-
• SIW: I just don't really stay on any one side.
  
  
• Swimmer in the neighboring lane: You can get in here.

Now, as his responses progressed, I began to wonder why the gentleman initially said that it was ok for me to share the lane: with each subsequent answer if became further apparent that it was not alright.

Get out of my way, get out of my sight
I won't be walking on thin ice to get through the night

Fading like a flower?

I am just back from a meet this weekend in Clearwater. Overall, things went well. My main goal for things was just to get a status on where I am and to start getting used to racing again--which I think happened. I was not really looking to try to race too hard, and in the case of the 400 IM, I was checking if I could finish it (my fly is in mid-revamping at the moment).

The result? Well, I was able to come back well in all my races, particularly the 2 backstrokes, where I came back on people in the back half (and even-split-ed the 100 to boot). I continue to be perplexed that I went out faster in my 500 than in my 200 free; but I am also just happy that I was under 2:00 in the 200 free and sub-55 in the 100 free.

In any case, times from the weekend:

• 100 free: 53.48 (25.86/27.62)
• 200 free: 1:57.72 (59.09/58.63)
• 500 free: 5:03.58 (58.34/1:01.44/1:01.96/1:02.23/59.61)
• 100 back: 57.21 (28.55/28.66)
• 200 back: 2:04.50 (1:01.84/1:02.66)
• 100 fly: 56.45 (26.62/29.83)
• 400 IM: 4:38.05 (1:03.50/1:12.26/1:18.10/1:04.09)

(I'm not completely remembering the event order, save that the 400 IM was the last event on Saturday, and the 500 the first on Sunday.)

I will try, I just need a little time

Sometimes you wonder if this fight is worthwhile

A large portion of my January was spent reading these four books by Russian author Sergey Lukyanenko.

I had read the first book (Night Watch) a few months ago, but decide to re-read it when I finished my previous book just before the holidays (and figuring that I would get the remaining 3 books in the series for Christmas).


My getting three sequels (Day Watch, Twilight Watch, and Last Watch) almost ran afoul of the Kindle I also got; but instead I now have the 3 books running afoul of using my Kindle.

In any case, if you are looking for a good, semi-fantasy book series, I recommend these. And now I go to read... something else (I've not quite figured out what just yet).


The precious moments are all lost to the tide
They're swept away, nothing is as it seems
The feeling of belonging to your dreams

Another day, just breathe

The past weekend went rather well. Highlighting it were two things:

1. I made it to the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art to see a Norman Rockwell exhibit there. The exhibit is in its second-to-last weekend, but wasn't too crowded (thankfully). Among the items in the exhibit were many of his paintings--including No Swimming [pictured at right] as well as Lincoln for the Defense--and a wall with the 300+ covers Rockwell did for the Saturday Evening Post.


2. A field trip to Fuddruckers.
I had been under the impression that all the Fuddruckers within driving distance of where I live had closed. However this is not the case. There were two locations that have closed: one less than a mile from my condo closed just before I moved to Lauderdale; and the next nearest location (about a 10 miles away) closed about a year-and-a-half later. So for the past 2 years or so, I thought there weren't any in South Florida. However, while in Pittsburgh in January, I found out two locations are still present in Miami-Dade County. And after a semi-indirect trip to it (taking about 2 hours), my friend and I found the closer one in Pembroke Pines (it took about 30 minutes to get back from it).

So all-in-all a good weekend. The weather was even nice: sunny and not cold.


Another day, just believe

Strange highs and strange lows

2010 has been a bit strange so far (Happy New Year, by the way).

The weather here in South Florida went from hot (those 90s in early December) to cold (we had a week of 40's at night, and 60s during the day--I even had to use my heater at home). It was so cold, a local Masters meet got postponed a week because the water was too cold (the pool's heater couldn't keep up with the dropped air temp). The delay worked out well for me as it moved the meet from the MLK weekend, when I was out of town in Pittsburgh (where it was unusually "warm": in the 40s and not snowing for the first time in 2 weeks).

Because the meet was moved (to last weekend), I was able to go for a day. I even managed to swim a 1000 and did ok (10:49). I actually went to help with running of the meet, and decided to swim the 1000 kinda on the spur-of-the-moment. As such, I decided to not warm-up for the race--a decision partially swayed by the fact that for the past couple years warming-up has seemed to hurt rather than help. But in a change, last weekend's swim really felt like it could've used a warm-up (which is a good thing in the overall scheme, but meant it the swim didn't feel so hot).

Anyways, post that 1000, my swimming training has actually picked up a bit this weekend. My yardage had been flirting with 5000 for most of the month, but this week I bumped it up to 5,500 and, surprisingly, started feeling a bit better in the water.

Hopefully this will mean good things for February....


There'll be days, when I stray
I may appear to be completely out of reach
I give in, to sin
Because I like to practice what I preach