Getting a running start on handling a hot week.

We don't have masters swim practice on Mondays. Our club pool is closed on Mondays for cleaning, maintenance and to let the water "settle." I hope someone on the lifeguard staff turned on the aerators last night to keep the water cool. Nothing makes swim practice tougher than too high a water temperature. In fact, for hard swimming anything over 82° is uncomfortable and anything over 84° is dangerous. 

So, my regular pool is closed today and we've got a week of increasing heat in front of us. How to get a jump start on staying cool? I got up this morning, looked at the seven day forecast, grabbed my swim gear and headed straight over to the Deep Eddy Pool. It's run by the city of Austin and it's filled with spring water from deep underground. The average water temperature in the Summer months is around 72°. They drain and refill the pool every three days to insure the purity of the water but even so, by the end of the Summer the pool takes on a green tinge. Nothing dangerous; just a bit green. 

When I exited the car to join the small band of daily swimmers waiting by the gates for the nine a.m. opening I took note that the ambient temperature at the time was already 85°. All forgotten and forgiven when I slipped into a shaded lane in the deep side of the pool to swim some laps. The difference between our swim yesterday at Rollingwood (84° water) and my swim today was over twelve degrees. So refreshing and so delightful. Not cold enough to shock me when sliding into the water but cool enough so that even after a mile it still felt ....... refreshing. Cool. Sweat free. 

After I got that mile in I stayed in and paddled around luxuriating in the chilliness. The lanes were full this morning but there wasn't a line of waiting swimmers. The lockers and showers are in an open air courtyard and I had forgotten the joys of taking a post swim shower under open sky, surrounded by landscaping, with birds ducking and diving overhead. An absolutely lovely way to start out the week.

By early afternoon the Gen-Zs and the Millennials will be awake and the pool will be thronged with lap swimmers and, on the other side of the wall between the lap lanes and the huge, shallow pool there will be groups of small children with moms and dads in tow living life large in one of the nicest pools in one of the nicest cities I know of. Too busy to bother with swimming laps after the morning crew. Too many people waiting for lanes to open. Too many people who don't know the protocols. But first thing in the morning and you have a chill buzz for the rest of the day. Almost feeling down about "having" to go back to the club tomorrow and plow through the warmer water..... almost. 

Now, after coffee, I'm procrastinating about billing Thursday's project, thinking vaguely about marketing, wondering when my passport will arrive and playing around with combinations of cameras and lenses. 

Life is pretty damn good.