Seasonal Not-Really Depression

I put on a halfway decent show of being a good New Englander, born and bred. I love crisp air, fresh snow, ice skating, walking when I can see my breath, sliding, cross country skiing, hoarfrost on the trees, hemlocks covered in snow, and the city lights through a veil of snow. I hate winter.

Swim Caps

We require swim caps.  I’ve lost count of the number of swim caps I’ve applied. I know I’ve put on my own swim cap between one and two thousand times.   I use four distinct methods: the ponytail hook, the eyebrow flip, the waterbomb, and the catch and scoop.  

Chasing Ghosts

Written Jan ’11

The phone next to the bed shrilly rang.   I rolled across the empty bed and grabbed the phone before it knocked itself off the small table with the enthusiasm of its ring..  “Donovans.”  The clock glowed 2:57 in large red numerals on the far side of the room.

“Are you okay?”

“Ethan?” He didn’t call in the middle of the night. He didn’t call from work.“What’s wrong?”

“There was a 911 call placed due to a hate rally.”

Aerial Attack

I was lifeguarding. I do that sometimes. It’s a nice change of pace from being the one to sound intelligent non-stop. Five guys were doing freestyle drills: Jake, Mike, Alex, Ethan, and Will. Ethan had the smoothest stroke, he’d been working on it weekly for over a year. Mike and Alex were pushing to keep up with him, although they were early in the upgrade from dog-paddle. All three were tall, thin, and barely buoyant rowers. Mike and Alex were swimming with us as part of their off season cross training. Will was older and trying to get active again. He had learned to swim last year, but it was coming back slowly. Jake was a runner who needed an non impact cross training option. He was reluctant to admit he wasn’t exactly an intermediate swimmer.

No Tears!

The little ducks made it through an entire half hour lesson without tears and deafening screams today! There were a few iffy moments, but generally progress. I dropped Mark today. No, don’t envision a baby slowly sinking to the bottom of the pool after a huge splash. It wasn’t close to that dramatic, and babies float surprisingly well.

Water Discovery

The longest term lesson I teach is also one of the youngest. The goal for the swimmers is dog paddle in 2012. Five of the kids are between 18 and 24 months; one is between 24 and 36 months. It will be a good lesson when no one cries. We stay sitting on the edge of the pool and one or two kids swim with me at a time.

Oops! Submersion

Regina was first a student about eight months ago, she has since gained ability to swim multiple lengths of the pool. She hadn’t really gone swimming previously. Her mother was definitely not comfortable in the water, even if she wasn’t quite a white knuckled watcher. Regina wasn’t fearful, but did have some sense. She never truly attempted a death defying leap. She’s fun to watch learn. I’ve learned a lot about how to teach while teaching her classes. She had one of the most memorable initial underwater experiences. It was the third class of an eight week session.

Goggles-Submersions

I had long forgotten the amazing vision goggles provide; it was a fact of life. I have to thank Julia for reminding me. Julia is a wild child, full of life and curiosity. She rarely sits still. She is best motivated by the reward of either jumping or flying into the water. She was in a class of less physically active children, much to her distress. I put goggles on everyone. The others, not memorable on this day, knew the uses of goggles. Everyone else knew they would be able to see. Everyone else knew we would be saying hi, counting, and waving underwater.

Generic Story Arc

I stood in the doorway of my grandmother’s sickroom. Until my departure from Andover, I had not known she was ill. My father had summarily sent me to his mother’s house, his childhood home, the family property, and her deathbed. Father had sent me, told me to take a taxi, and disregard the cost. He alerted me to my departure when he tipped me out of my bed, and told me to be on the front step within two minutes. His instructions were brisk, barely paused for insults, and my head had still been spinning when I staggered down the steps towards the nearest cab stand, a wad of uncounted bills clutched in one hand. I had taken a taxi, but I had taken a good taxi, my own passive aggressive revenge on his finances. I had thought, thought all the way through the bumpy roads out to what had once been a part of the town of Prescott, now part of New Salem. I knew better than to contest Father, I just had to survive, I was to leave for Europe in six days to spend the remainder of my time before college in the fall. I had finished high school some four months ago, and since had suffered Father’s whims. I would be nothing without his support and good will. It had been years since I had been here, a full four years, but, by the smile of some fate, I still remembered the turns on bumpy dirt roads, and the partly hidden turn off for the driveway.

Thunder

I couldn’t remember when I hadn’t known Nan Janvier. She and Bess were attached at the hip through high school, only separated when Nan decided to pursue an education and career beyond the small towns surrounding home offered. Now, I could understand her reasoning. Of the two of them, Nan was the wild one; she was usually the one in trouble for their exploits. She didn’t like Mr. Donny, Mrs. Janvier’s live in handyman and apparent boyfriend, so she basically lived with my family for her final two years of high school.
I learned early that Bess was the one to bother with hard questions, but if I wanted to simply know how, not a complex why, Nan was the one to bug. As the second surviving child of ten, I was rather used to fending for myself.