One fine day

Yesterday afternoon, the weather was just bad; completely overcast, with not a break in the clouds anywhere. Not really any heavy rain, but no thin clouds, slightly bluer clouds either. And just enough lightning to discourage me from going to the pool.

Today, however, the sky was just partly cloudy, and the rain was held at bay. And while a dark set of clouds did roll by (and drop some rain) while I was in the water, I managed to get my whole 5200 in... although I was the only person in the water for the last 20 minutes or so (people seemed to get out because of the rain, which lasted maybe a minute and was done).


Shoo-be do-be do-be do-be do-wop-bop
Shoo-be do-be do-be do-be do-wop-bop

Blame it on the rain, yeah, yeah...

I tired to swim today. I wasn't particularly motivated to do so, being tired from being at the pool 5:30-8:30 Friday night, and all day yesterday and today (7 a.m.-8:30 p.m., more or less); and also being tired from an apparent lack of sleep. The fact that I got in 4500 long course yesterday didn't contribute much either. Or the rather general pesky stress helping at the meet entails for me (due to what I tend to do at meets).

But what really screwed things up--and completely thwarted my initiative that did get me to put my suit in my car this morning and got me to walk out to said car and get it and get into it--was the lightning that happened over the pool a 300 into my swim. That the storm stayed in place overhead for the next hour really dampened this as well. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.


Blame it on the rain, that was fallin' fallin'
Blame it on the stars, that shine at night
Whatever you do, don't put the blame on you
Blame it on the rain, yeah yeah

Que sera, sera; what ever will be, will be...

I nearly walked in on a bank robbery today.

On occasion for work, I have to make deposits at a local branch. My drive to the bank branch today was mostly normal: heavy traffic, got to stop at 6 of the 7 stoplights, which just allowed more time for me to hope that the air condition would catch up with the cooked air in my car from the 90° day. As I was on the started passing the beginning of the strip center the bank is in, a police car with its siren on passed by me and turned into the parking lot entrance before the one I wanted. I did not think much of this, as there are about 20 stores in the strip center where I was headed.

I turned into the next entrance and as I was parking noticed how vacant the parking area near the bank seemed. As I walked up to the door, I also noticed two things: 1) that the bank was pretty empty, and 2) a piece of paper had been taped up to the door. One the paper it said (more or less): 'This branch temporarily closed due to an emergency. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and ask that you either try back later or visit our neighboring branch at... (and gave an address).' So after doing a double-take to note where the alternative location was, I headed back to my car, deposit still in-hand.

On the walk back, an unmarked police car slowly crept through the side of the parking lot I was parked on; which I took to be the car that had turned into the parking lot before me on my way in (just cruising around). As I opened the door to my car, I turned back toward the street and noticed a second unmarked police car parking on the street just outside the entrance I'd come in. Now just a bit intrigued but also not really wanting to stick around, I rather normally (read calmly) pulled my car out of its space and proceeded to drive around the corner that the bank is on, to make my way out of the strip-center parking lot. As I got around the corner, I noticed a third, unmarked police car (most likely the first one I saw), parked on the other side of the bank and completing a triangular watch position on the bank. The 3 cars, combined with my glimpse through the bank's windows of a solitary figure standing in the lobby and not appearing to be dressed like a bank employee, started to solidify that I'd nearly walked in on a robbery in progress....

Somehow, I don't think my helping out at the International Age Group meet this weekend (tonight, tomorrow night and all day Saturday & Sunday) will live up to this excitement, but I'll wait and see. Hasta.

addendum: I was able to confirm today (Tue.6/30) that it was a robbery.

Que sera, sera
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours to see
Que sera, sera
What will be, will be

The world makes its rotation...

The summer solstice was yesterday, and I completely missed my chance at having some kind of pagan celebration for it. Drat. Course, it was Father's Day as well, and I did manage to call my Dad, so that was good.

As for today, in a rather strange occurrence (perhaps marking the change from days getting longer to them getting shorter?), I managed to leave work on time for the first time in months. That had me finishing swimming and home relatively early (7:15), so much so that I managed to get some laundry going tonight and to watch The Man Who Knew to Much. (Did you know that 'Que Sera Sera' is from there? Well, actually, in the film it's called "Whatever Will Be, Will Be". Doris Day sings it fairly early in the movie, in some probable Hitchcocking foreshadowing....)


Gotta get my message
Stop spending all our precious time
Because before you know it
We'll be down to our last dime

There are no explanations
For why I feel the way I do
The world makes its rotations...

Clock strikes upon the hour, and the sun begins to fade

It is quite easy to tell how long one is stopped at a red light when a song starts on your iPod as you pull up to the stoplight.

This happened to me tonight. As I pulled up to a turn about a block away from the pool, my iPod finished playing Linkin Park's Breaking the Habit and moved on to Whitney Houston's I Learned from the Best. I then proceeded to sit in the left turn lane waiting for a green light until 4:19 into the song....

(And hearing the latter song reminds me of how she worked through a performance of it to find the end note...)


...Spinning through the town
Sooner or later, the fever ends
And I wind up feeling down

Eres sirena; Oigo tu canto y me ahogo en tu cadera

There is nothing quite like having a free weekend in which one does basically nothing, after not having a weekend to do such for over a month or so. That was this past weekend.

On Friday night, I went down to Miami Beach (for the first time) to have dinner that with a friend in town (and also met up with another friend who've I've not seen in about 20 years--which was good).


I spent Saturday editing on Wikipedia (basically putting the top-8 swimming finishers on their from the 2003 Pan American Games--incredible excitement)--and didn't even swim due to the pool being closed for a meet.


And Sunday I swam, saw Terminator Salvation (good--particularly as I don't think I've recall seeing the 3rd Terminator movie), watched the end of True Blood Season 1 (on DVD) and saw The Hangover (funny).

All-in-all, rather occupied, but not terribly productive. It was a good change of pace.


Eres el mar
Eres el mar

So you want, to be free; To live your life, the way you wanna be

It managed to start storming as I got to the pool on both Monday and yesterday this week.

Monday, as I pulled into a parking space at the pool the wind picked up. I walked over to the entrance gate, and the pool was on a lightning "break". As the storm didn't appear to be clearing, I decided to head back home; only to have a heavy rain start falling before I could even get back to my car. That rain continued for about the next 10 minutes of my drive home--fun.

Yesterday was similar, with the lightning clapping right as I got to the gate. Although I was luckier today: weather was clear and I got my whole 4200 yards in. Hopefully the weather will hold up the rest of this week....


Jaded hearts, heal with time
Shoot that love, so we can stop the bleeding

All the boys think she's a spy; She's got Bette Davis eyes

Well, thanks in-part to a 3-hour nap yesterday afternoon, I have managed to survive 3 drives up to Boca this weekend. There was one yesterday and one today for a meet I'm helping out with up at FAU, and a second one today to see Night at the Museum 2. (And to think I went months and months without going once--granted I was out of town pretty much every weekend last month.)

Strangely enough, I am currently much more entertained by the 8th-grade-level books I've been reading (the Percy Jackson series mentioned in the last post), than I was by the 8th-grade-level movie I saw tonight (not that Museum 2 was bad, just not, I guess, what I really was in the mood for).

In any case, I've a few more chapters to go in The Last Olympian (which is apparently Hestia, in case you're wondering whom the title referents), so I will get to that. Hasta....


And she'll tease you, she'll unease you
All the better just to please you
She's precocious
And she knows just what it takes to make a pro blush
She got Greta Garbo's standoff sighs
She's got Bette Davis eyes

You shouldn't have to jump for joy

The weather cooperated much better on Tuesday and yesterday, so much so that I felt compelled to not swim tonight (after swimming both the past two nights)--despite the clear skies. I talked myself into the notion that the weather will be fine tomorrow, and that I could instead come home and read some more of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson & the Olympians series I'm in the middle of. And while I know they are written for 8th graders, there are written by someone from my hometown of San Antonio (plus the 8-grade level makes them a quick read for me).

These are five books in the series. I read the first (The Lightning Thief) on Sunday; the second (The Sea of Monsters) on Monday; took a break on Tuesday night (reading through most of the night instead of sleeping is not the best thing); and the third (The Titan's Curse) on last night. Although, now that I think about it, I should probably attempt to get to bed earlier tonight... so I guess I'll hold off on starting book #4 (The Battle of the Labyrinth) to help with that.

But hopefully, in breaks of the meet I'm helping with this weekend, I'll get some time to read....


Shout, shout, let it all out
These are the things I can do without
Come on, I'm talking to you
Come on

They have no shields, no secrets to reveal

Tonight's swimming practice that I did...

100 swim-100 kick-100 pull-100 swim
200 swim
100 kick
- - - - - - - -
30 minute lightning "break"
- - - - - - - -
200 swim
200 kick
200 pull
1250 free, easy & smooth
- - - - -
250 back kick
150 back pull
- - - - -
lightning break #2*

*I'd actually intended to do about 900 more, but when the second lightning-forced break happened for the night, I decided that the 3,000+ yards I had done was enough for the evening (although, hopefully, I'll get through things tomorrow).


Pay no mind to what they say
It doesn't matter anyway
Our lips are sealed