[travel blog] - just keep swimming... in kentucky!

well what can i say...
i'm in kentucky right now
on a work trip
about to spend my second nite
in the lil ol' town of owensboro
it's a quaint lil town
and i must say,
nothing at all like i expected
in fact,
i even learned from some locals
that they don't even really have a fried chicken specialty here
(tho they do have bah-bee-cue)
and that ol' colonel sanders
mighta jist come from the deep-ah south
and chose kin-tuck-ee because it sounded good
oh-ah sumthin
another illusion shattered
how sad.
anyways,
quite a few folks around here
have just a hint of that ol' suth-un drahl
and if you don't know it already
i just love the way it sounds!

so anyways,
on to the explanation
behind the title of the blog
only 3 days on the road
and i was feeling bloated already
so i started inquiring about a pool in owensboro
and heard that there was one at each of the ymca's here
the first one was a few minutes from my hotel
and off i went at 6pm
thinking to get a nice swim in before supper
however,
as friendly as the people were there
unfortunately
the pool was about the size of the king sized bed
in my suite at the hampton
luckily
when they realized "ah wuz lookin' fer a LAP pool"
they pointed me in the direction of the other ymca
and so off i went
and discovered huge modern well lit and fabulously clean facility
i was a bit early for the lane swim
as they had the whole pool booked for lessons until 7pm
so i wandered around for half an hour
and checked it out
very very nice
the pool was a five lane 25 yard pool
with fairly narrow lanes
(as one of my fingers found out
when i swam my first length of fly
and smacked it right good n' hard)
but quite empty too
once the lessons were over
and so off i went
the water a dark clear blue
(dark because this was the one room
which wasn't extremely well lit)
and the surface smooth and calm

walking into the pool
brought back A LOT of memories
i don't know if it was my imagination
but i had many of my first lessons
at a ymca back in sault ste. marie, ontario
and this pool looked SO similar
right down to the tiles
that for a moment
i could see in the kids taking lessons
an itty bitty kirby
trying hard as heck
to stay afloat...
very weird
anyways,
the highlight of my day
was this swim
for a variety of reasons
the people were SO friendly everywhere
and after i did my standard kirby warmup
(100m free continuous WITH flip turns... wow eh?
and 50m psuedo-breast)
and then a couple lengths of hypoxic stroke counts
one of the older guards came over to me -
he complimented me with that fine accent of his
telling me that i swam beautifully and so silently and smoothly
wow!
i don't get compliments like that from strangers often
and if i were standing on land
i'd prolly be rubbing the heel of my foot with my other foot
as it was,
i think i did that anyway
but it's kind of different when you're in the water
i must say,
i was speechless
yup
mumbled a shy thank you
as he reiterated his compliment in a couple of different ways
and i just stood there in the deep end
(there was a ledge)
and didn't know what else to say...
i mean what CAN you say other than "um, thank you"?
i guess one could blush
but i've never seen myself blush
so i don't think that's possible
anyways,
i continued to swim
in my usual way
slow gliding lengths underwater
with plenty of rest...err meditative states of intense focus
in between to catchmybreathREACH ENLIGHTENMENT
(YAH)
*blink*
when i noticed a man swimming in the lane beside me
he was quite a large man
and i smiled and nodded at him
we got to talking
and i found he was just learning to swim
and was having some problems
(like he didn't have goggles...
oh, and he didn't know how to swim very well)
i commented that goggles might make things easier
(as i had noticed that he was swimming
with his eyes closed and often times
when he tried to breathe
he was missing the air...
it happens you know)
a few lengths later
he borrowed a mask from his 12 year old step son
(mason)
and did MUCH better
i don't know
if it was the friendliness of the people
the compliment from the guard
or what
but i was in a totally relaxed and open mood
and chatted with him and his step son
in such an extroverted way
(moi! l'introvert extraordinaire!)
but i was totally not in "work-mode" or "performance-mode"
it was almost like it was natural or something
so i showed the kid some air rings
which is really cool when you see it the first time i guess
and had tons of fun
for the next hour
between the odd lap of whateverifeltlikeswimmingatthemoment
(usually to stay warm)
i'd hang out with the kid
and just play
and i was totally accepted
as a kid!
man,
it was SO much fun
making faces underwater
yelling messages
floating like you're dead
swimming like a bug
copycat
tag
see-who-can-get-the-dizziest
swim-like-an-armless-frog...

i don't think i ever had that much fun
...even as a kid
:)

i met his sister
his mother (who later came on deck with a lil baby)
his step brother
and seeing them play
i suddenly thought of why
i love coaching so much
it's the fun of it, eh!

some of the games we played
would help him become a better swimmer
or rather find a softer balance in the water
and that was just plain neat
because it was all fun

i stayed at the pool
a bit longer than i'd intended
but by 8:45pm
i was famished
and hunger pangs
began to remind me
that it wouldn't be much more fun
if i kept ignoring him
(yeah,
my stomach was a "him" today)
(don't ask)
so i said goodbye
to my new friends
and he was asking his mom
if he could come back tomorrow
(as i'd said i'd be swimming the next couple nights)
and it was really neat
i'm finding
that
it's the little things in life
that are really spectacular sometimes
anyways,
now it's time for bed
as i've a long day of work ahead of me tomorrow
and i cannot help
but look forward
to a swim tomorrow
even if my new friends
do not show up
for who knows
what lil joys
tomorrow will bring?
:)