Flip Turn

I am happy to report that my swimming is progressing. Forty-five minutes, five days a week, back and forth I go, sometimes like a minnow, sometimes like a whale. One day there was a woman swimming in the next lane, an aggressive swimmer who swam with a rage the likes of which I had not seen. I was glad she wasn't mad at me. I became consumed with envy over her flip turns. She wore flippers and every time she hit the wall there was a "wham, slap" and then off she went again down the lane like a tormented walrus. 

 Flip turns have been my nemisis. I can't do them, but this woman stirred up my competitive juices and I became obsessed. If she can, I can. So I tucked my body into a somersault position, held my nose and went for it. It wasn't pretty. It still isn't, my flip turns are more like flop turns, but persistence is the key, and I shall triumph.

 That same day I showered and stood in front of my locker naked as a jay bird, working the combination on my pad lock. It would not open. I have used the same combination every day for six months and IT WOULD NOT OPEN! Feeling rather vulnerable, I realized that all my clothes and my car keys were in that locker. An angel in the locker room said "I will get help." Four magic words. She returned with another woman and some monster clippers. It didn't end there, we needed the muscles of a man (oh dear) so we cleared the locker of all females so that he could come in and get the job done.

 My little wet YMCA towel wrapped around my shivering body did not keep me warm, but I was warmed by  those angels in the locker room. Who knows, maybe one of them was that "Angry Goddess of the Flip Turn" coming to my rescue. We all look the same with bathing caps and goggles, without them, it's hard to tell.

It's All Temporary