I've had an 18 month run of regular daily swimming at the local pool. I succeeded in eliminating the beer/wheat belly I was developing. I have enjoyed the mid-afternoon naps the laps induced. But this exercise experience has run its' course.
Perhaps it's boredom of the routine. The price of the monthly pass was reasonable. When I started the facility had been remodeled, the pool and locker rooms re-tiled. The staff and lifeguards are friendly. The place had a lot going for it.
I started to unravel in early September, questioning the logic of inviting the local dogs for a swim on the last day of summer operation at the adjoining outdoor water park. I asked the woman behind the glass at the entrance, "Who's idea was this?" She laughed, said something like it's "cute" and blew me off. I retorted, "You let dogs in the public pool? That's the dumbest thing I have ever heard. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb." She shrugged and laughed, "What are you going to do?" I got the same reaction from the Chief Engineer, but at least he agreed with me.
Then I started to notice the other regulars I swam with and their habits. In some Woman Logic that I will never understand, some show up pool side and change into more clothes than they showed up in. Wet suits, leotards, long sleeve shirts, and one that really escapes me, they wear their shoes - their running shoes - in the water. Several women wear their shoes in the exercise class, their smelly, sweaty tennis shoes. WTF? and the woman who swims in a full length, white, silk dress. Morman Woman Logic, I assume
The swimming lessons were busy in the summer, baby to adult. I don't understand hiring a stranger to float around for a half a hour holding your baby, they must have more money than they need. Maybe these Moms just need alone time to look at their phones, because that is mostly what they do. By the shape of the bodies, a little swimming wouldn't hurt. But that's their business.
Then you have the obese. They walk in the shallow pool or float in the deep end. You know, these are the people that wash themselves with a rag on a stick. And a few obvious mentally troubled that stand in the shallow pool and stare, not doing much.
I mention these folks because I interacted with them for this time. And I started to realize, that for the past eighteen months, at least in the male locker room, I was the only person that ever took a shower immediately BEFORE I went in the pool. Every single person seemed to walk in, take their shirt off (or wear their shirt) and get in the pool. Every dirty teen aged ass, every skin lotion soaked woman, every girl with 3 ft hair floating freely, I never saw anyone shower, just change and go in the pool.
So, before the MRSA starts or the staph infection sets in, I'm out of there.
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reprinted from 11/16/2020
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