Sunday Afternoon Swimmer's Party. New Lens Ordered. Life on an Even Keel.

 

We had the annual Holiday Party for our Masters Swim Team today. One of our fellow swimmers hosted it at his home. The party was scheduled to run from 11-3 and was well attended. Coaches were there, tons of swimmers were there. The open bar was there. The catering was there. The sunshine was there (one of those great houses open to the outside with lots of space to mingle and come together in small groups). A groaning dessert table. Tons of healthy side dishes and near endless cheer. It's a favorite party of the season for many of us because we have time to really get to know our fellow swimmers --- and their non-swimming spouses. 

What was missing? Negativity. Gloom. Self-pity. Helplessness. Loneliness. Envy. Comparison. Sermons. The ill-used word "should've." And out of shape people.

All of which reminded me of why I swim. Every day. Why I love being around people for whom success and happiness is a daily thing. Not a goal. Just a way of being. Swimming year round in the outdoors, in a sparkling, clean pool, surrounded by happy and seemingly well-adjusted people, is so incredibly therapeutic one wonders why pharmaceutical companies haven't tried to bottle it and sell this kind of joy for a king's ransom. 

A bit before 3 we headed home and I found myself looking forward once again to Tuesday morning's swim practice. And another full year of swimming, camaraderie and being able wear the same size pants I did when I was in college. As my doctor routinely says at yearly physicals: "Whatever you are doing....keep doing it." Being in shape may not extend your life at all but it will sure make the time you have a lot more fun. Can't buy that with an Amazon link. 

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I finally decided what I wanted the company to give me as a Christmas bonus for all my hard work at the VSL idea and content factory. I talked about it to the boss. I let him know that the Leica 75mm APO Summicron SL was the ticket. He laughed (a bit too derisively) and mentioned that my silly idea of gradual retirement had cost the company tens of thousands of dollars in profits this year. I sat quietly on the edge of my chair, my tattered cap in hand, looking down at my worn socks poking out of my Birkenstock sandals and waited for the next shoe to drop (and me without toe protection). My boss got up from behind his desk and walked to the whiteboard that hangs on the wall to one side of his collection of Napoleon statues and Neville Chamberlain knick-knacks. He pointed to a graph of clients to whom I'd waved "goodbye." And the he flipped over a transparent overlay showing the decline in income caused by my happy enthusiasm about waving ponderous clients "goodbye." 

"This!" he said, "This is why you are NOT getting a hopelessly overpriced Leica lens as a year end bonus." And then he hastily drew an image of a lens on the whiteboard. I didn't have the heart to tell him we'd run out of dry erase markers and I had substituted big, bold Sharpies instead. And he said, "After discussing your disappointing performance with the board of directors we decided that you deserve one tenth of what you're asking for. We're done with this discussion. You're getting a Voigtlander 75mm f1.9 M Ultron lens and you'd better enjoy it. That's all. No fruitcakes. No hams. No car battery jump starters. The VM lens is it." 

Oh, I'll take the lens. That's for sure. But little does my pompous boss know that I'm the majority stock holder in the company and I'm firing him and the board at Christmas. A clean sweep going into 2024. 

In retrospect though, I guess the VM lens makes a lot more sense. It's smaller and lighter. Less bulky. Marginally faster. And thousands and thousands of dollars cheaper. I like M lenses. I can use them on everything from an M camera to  SL cameras to a Panasonic S series camera to a Fuji 50Sii. ( They won't cover the Fuji's extended frame but they will sure look cute on the big camera....). I'm hoping to gift wrap it, forget I bought it and put it under the tree so I can open something really cool on Christmas morning. That's the initial plan at any rate. Too late to back down --- it's on the way.

I don't know how we ever got anything done in Decembers past. Seems like one dinner party, reception, opening, gala, fund-raiser and family event after another this time around. Just keeping dinner jackets in decent shape and shoes polished is turning into a chore....

Hope you have happy chores to attend this season. Beats watching football on TV. (How would I know? I've never watched a football game on TV....).

That's my wrap-up for the weekend. Hope yours was spectacular.