Finally! Back in the pool for a swim workout. Yummy.

Coffee in Leipzig. Red cup specials...

You know how, when you were young and oblivious, cuts, scrapes and various non-fatal wounds seemed to heal almost overnight? What a marvelous thing that was. I cut open the top of my right hand when I hit a lane line all wrong at swim practice last Thursday and I've been nursing the battered flesh ever since. Those big scrape wounds tend to be "weepy" and I tried to keep mine covered with right-sized bandaids. But there is no denying that the more years added to your ledger the longer the healing process for most (all?) things takes. 

I slept in this morning, drank coffee, and walked three miles and change through the hills with B. It was a glorious 46 degrees when we stirred and only 48 by the time we left the house.  A lovely start to the day.

I made it to the pool for the noon practice instead of my usual 8 a.m. aquatic adventures. 

In what I later found was an excess of caution I used a big, waterproof bandage to cover the back of my hand. Two physicians I swim with assured me that the high chlorine levels in the pool would kill anything I thought might have killed me instead. 

Swimming at noon on a near perfect day is like candy that won't rot your teeth. Or wine that will never give you a hangover. Or chocolate cake with no calories. The air temp was about 60° and the water temp was a near perfect 80°. The sky was clear and Texas Blue. Practice was not nearly as well attended as a usual Tuesday morning practice so everyone got their own, individual lane. The hour shot past.

I've been cleaning up the studio today and stopping from time to time to play with cameras. The current favorite camera, the one sitting in the car right now --- patiently waiting to see where my coffee break of the afternoon will take us --- is the oldest and most beat up of my Leica SL collection. Just for grins (and because I like the tonality...) it's wearing an old, 50mm f1.4 Canon FD SSC lens. The camera seems to play well with the lens and  the lens just seems happy to be out of the drawer and out in the world.

I'm glad I made it to the pool today. I was beginning to worry that I was putting off returning because of the accident. But I was equally worried that I had gained a pound, what with the travel and then the down time from the pool. I've weighed a bit less than 160 lbs. since 2001 and I'd hate to cause the trend line to deviate. If it did and I gained I might have to find my own fad diet to torture my readers with....

I was supposed to photograph a new hire at my favorite law firm today but the poor guy broke his foot yesterday and the last I heard from the office manager was that the attorney was heading to an orthopedic practice to get some scans. No shoot for today! Well, at least no shoot for a client...

I'll be back in the pool tomorrow morning. Can't get too much of a good thing. Gotta keep that resting pulse rate nice and low...

Some pix from Berlin:

A fellow beta tester for the Samsung Galaxy NX camera and lenses.