Swimming Pool

gnat on 2002-06-02T03:28:36

We have an extra deity-knows-how-much on our mortgage to be able to afford the kind of upper-middle-class suburban neighbourhood we live in for only one reason: the pool.

And, seeing as how this is our first summer in the neighbourhood, we're getting our money's worth. We were the first in the pool this morning, swimming for two hours before the next families arrived. Raley and I bailed to snooze after one hour, but Jenine and William could have splashed on all day. Just as it got warm and the just-graduated-high-school teenage girls started arriving (be still my lecherous ... heart?) we went home.

And slept.

Holy cow, does swimming wear you out or what? Not that I can swim, but perhaps flailing is even more exhausting than swimming. It's a fun way to get a workout, throwing William around the pool and running laps holding Raley.

I grew up near the sea. Cleaning stinky salt water off you is a big motivation for washing after swimming. With a pool, though, there's always the temptation to just skip the washup afterward. Bad move. I scratched one of my legs to a pulp today before I realized "oh, I have a thin film of hydrochloric acid eating into them. No wonder they're itchy."

Like Mork, I'm not familiar with the ways and customs of suburbia. Unlike Mork, I don't get to bang Mindy. But my life is being taped before a live studio audience, so perhaps there are some similarities after all.

--Nat

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Pool Time

chaoticset on 2002-06-02T03:49:08

It is indeed tiring. My mother's explanation was that it stresses a lot of muscles that never get touched during normal regular-effective-gravity exercise, although I couldn't guess the truth of that.

I've always liked just floating in a pool, staring at the sky or the roof. Lap swimming always seemed so...wasteful, somehow. Wasteful of good relaxation time.

Muriatic acid

belg4mit on 2002-06-02T04:54:06

There'd better not be a thin film of
HCl on you (never mind that is has a
low boiling point/vapor pressure).
It's only used to adjust the pH as
necessary; urea is basic afterall ;-).
There might be something else in the
water, or your're jut not used to it.
Never washed up as a kid, though we had
our own pool. Public pools tend to use
*way* too much chlorine. So if you're
blonde, you probably want to get in the
habit of at least rinsing your hair.

Re:Muriatic acid

hfb on 2002-06-02T05:55:03

I used to be on swim team and wound up with green straw instead of hair one summer due to the chlorine and not rinsing after 4 hours in the pool every morning. Always rinse your hair.

The worst part of public pools is the snotballs on the bottom of the pool. :)/P.

Re:Muriatic acid

vek on 2002-06-03T15:13:37

The worst part of public pools is the snotballs on the bottom of the pool.

Yeah that and the water getting mysteriously warmer as you swim by someone :-)