Car Pool

Spring swim season in is full bloom. Simon, Nell and Brian are all swimming right now. Simon started this week. He's in Lane 1, right where Nell was two years ago. I am coaching Lane 1 on Monday and Wednesday nights at least until he gets a bit more comfortable with the routine. I love coaching Lane 1. It fits right in with my new life philosophy: Anything Worth Doing Will Take Lots of Patience and Hard Work and Time. The swimmers are all 6-years-old and very eager. Most of them can barely make it from one end of the pool to the other. But when they do, they are tremendously proud of themselves. Makes my night every time.

We still have just one car, and the schedule on Monday and Wednesday nights is nuts. Simon swims and I coach from 4:30 - 5:30. Nell sits in the bleachers with her Harry Potter on the iPod and watches or sometimes walks up and down Lane 1 with me. Nell gets in the pool with her swim buddies at 5:30. I hustle Simon through the locker room and drive him home. Then I run back to the pool (quite literally, run), hitting all the hills I can find. While Nell is showering I sit for 10 minutes in the sauna to build up my heat tolerance. No sense wasting that opportunity! The Other Mothers in the locker room think I'm weird, and with good reason, of course.

Brian and the boys pick us up at 7 in the trusty minivan. Brian drops himself off with his bike, swims with the Master's Group for an hour or so, and rides home. I drive everyone home, get the boys in bed and make dinner for myself and Nell. Crazy, but so far it's working.

Anyhoo. I'm going to run 2 hours with Susan at 2:00 this afternoon. This is my absolute worst time of day. If I sit down at 2:00 in the afternoon, I fall asleep like a narcoleptic old man on a park bench. Doesn't matter where. Kitchen chair, toilet, sofa, floor: I'm out like a light.

This will be my last real run before Wapack next weekend. We're staring down a week of rain to make the trails up there nice and muddy. More mud=more fun!