September | 2021 | BulgingButtons

Don’t get me wrong… it’s gorgeous. It’s finally starting to get a bit cooler in my area (no more heat advisories at school, so kids can have outdoor recess at last). I’m happy about not feeling like my skin is frying and my lungs are shriveling up after a few minutes outside. A whole new section of my wardrobe is becoming accessible with the cooler weather, and I can wear my favorite NFL team’s shirt (which happens to be long sleeved) without completely roasting. These are all excellent developments. So what’s the issue? The pool.

You see, everyday for the past four months I have put on my swimsuit and gotten in the pool to exercise. Okay, not everyday. I missed ONE day when I was out of town and the weather was bad, but every OTHER day I’ve done it. Not only that, but I’ve really enjoyed it. AND, as an added bonus, my current lab work showed that it has made a positive impact on my health (as well as helping me painlessly shed a few pounds). My doctor’s parting words were something to the effect of, “Keep it up!” Gulp.

I want to keep it up. I really do. I actually enjoy this time to myself in my backyard. I look forward to it each day. But over the past few days I’ve notice the water getting increasingly cooler. My pool doesn’t have a heater. What was really enjoyable is becoming more difficult to do. Pretty soon that water is going to be too cold to enter. Then what?

Join a gym? No thank you. Walking around in a bathing suit in my own backyard is no problem, but in a public place? Nope. And sharing the pool with people who no doubt are there to actually swim can be problematic. I know. I used to be a lifeguard (you know, wearing a bathing suit in a public place).

Head up to mom’s condo? Their pool is heated, or at least it’s supposed to be. And in the 40 plus years that I’ve been visiting that place (including the two brief times when I lived there) the pool has been vastly underutilized. Really, it’s not the worst idea, but the distance, traffic, and horrible neighbor who has nothing better to do than harass people make this option less than ideal.

Use my friend’s community pool? It’s pretty close, and she says it’s heated, but I would have to get her scanning device to get in each time (I guess they’re pretty high tech over there) and the thought of driving home in a wet bathing suit is really unappealing. Brrrrr.

Get a wet suit? Don’t laugh. I’ve researched this option, and I know that they do make them for virtually every size and shape of body, but it’s a pretty big investment for something that I don’t really want to deal with. And apparently if you don’t get the right size it really doesn’t keep you warm. It’s supposed to be very snug when you first put it on. I imagine it’s like trying to squeeze a sausage into its casing. And do they dry in a day? I’m not sure. And where exactly do you keep it? I’m still on the fence with this one.

So there you have it. My dilemma. I know. I should just do a different kind of exercise. Of course. But this is the first time in my life (EVER) that I’ve found an exercise routine that I enjoy and that I’ve been able to stick with. So wish me luck, and a few more days of warm weather.

Is one of these in my future?

My exercise streak is still unbroken. I think I’m officially hooked. That time in the water jogging gives me a chance to do some thinking. Sometimes it’s about the dragonflies and hummingbirds that come to visit, sometimes it’s about what happened in school that day, and sometimes it’s just about K-pop or what I might like for dinner.

Yesterday, however, my head was full of 9/11. I couldn’t help but notice the planes overhead, and think about how it was just a normal day to go fly somewhere, just like it was on 9/11/01, until it wasn’t.

It seems that everyone over a certain age remembers where they were that day. I also remember the Oklahoma City bombing, and the snafu in Waco at the Branch Davidian complex. But of course 9/11 was in a class by itself. A horrific, difficult to grasp series of events that, until they happened, seemed impossible to most people. I saw what happened, but I couldn’t quite wrap my head around it.

Here we are, twenty years later, and the images are still gut-wrenching. The stories of the survivors, the stories of the heroes, and the stories of those they left behind stay with me. So many children lost a parent that day. So many parents lost a child.

I kept on jogging in place, taking in the quiet of my neighborhood, the sunny sky, and the planes that kept on flying, and I hoped for a peaceful future.