A long, strange day. Not bad, just strange.
It started out early with the first day of swim class for both YaYa and LuLu. Lu was up first and because of her age I had to accompany her in the water. She outpaced all the other kids, using her noodle or kick board to go as much as thirty feet further than the rest of the students, and sometimes had time left over to do it twice.
I was a little confused. When you take her swimming, be it in a lake or a pool, she is super timid and scared of the water. Today was a different story, obviously, but I can't fathom why.
We'll see if it continues. The teacher was pleased to see only six kids had registered (as opposed to 17 in some of her other classes) and so promised to push them all. By the end of the class she wants them to swim a crawl across the width of the pool with their face in the water.
Good luck with that.
At the high school that hosts the classes there is both a girls and boys pool, although the classes mix genders for both. LuLu's pool was a beautiful oasis of small decorative tiles with an early 20th century flair, like something you'd have seen on Titanic. That was the girls pool. YaYa's class took place in the boy's version, a dark and somber affair.
More perplexing was the mix and match locker rooms. Because both genders were using each pool there were curtains and dividers put up to separate the sexes, but in an awkward and haphazard fashion. I changed in a girls 'makeup room' while YaYa had to walk through a locker room full of little boys to get to her pool. I'm not so prim as to find evil in her seeing a four year old's wee wee in an innocent setting, but geesh - I'm sure someone is calling their alderman tonight.
I didn't stick around for YaYa's class, choosing to drop Lu off for the first sleepover at my Mom's new digs, but I'm told she did great.
* * *
Afterwards one of YaYa's friends came over for a visit, which was just about the last thing I wanted on a Saturday when the Badgers played in Ann Arbor. What's worse, she didn't bring over her bike, meaning it was going to be a 'in the house' kind of a day.
So I packed Smiley and her friend in the bike trailer, tossed YaYa on her bike, and pedaled her home to grab her wheels. She lives a few miles east of us and there's quite a few hills between our respective homes. I still managed the round trip in under forty minutes and only had to take one hill on foot, plowing through the others.
Unfortunately, I also had my first bike accident in a quarter century. Coming off a steep hill I was enjoying the downhill speed, thinking to myself 'I'm going to pay for this on the way back home' when the bill came due right then and there. I couldn't brake in time and jumped a curb. I started to drag my feet to slow down but still managed to jump the median, knocking my handlebars out of whack before coming to a stop.
As accidents go, it was a 1.2 on a scale of 1 to 10. I didn't fall, no passengers were hurt, we were in no danger of being hit by a car, and I walked away with only a few scrapes and a bent toenail. It certainly doesn't match the infamous Riding my Bike While Wearing Roller Skates as I Pass the Hornet Bush incident of '82 or '83.
Lesson learned: Must. Go. Slower. and. Brake. Sooner. On. Hills.
* * *
Then work called to say that one of my managers, a long time friend of mine, quit on the spot. There was no real need for me to go into work to finish her job, as the end of day procedures are elementary and intuitive, but as Rob Roy said 'There's a price to be paid for being the leader of men', or, in my case, mostly women. So with Lisa at work I snagged a babysitter and trudged in for a largely wasted half-hour or so.
I spoke my friend later and was pleased to hear her reasoning was impulsive but at the very least triggered by some actions that took place there today. It doesn't make the method of her departure any better, but as her friend I'm glad she didn't quit just because she was having a bad or 'blue' day.
* * * *
Upon my return I found Socialist on my porch. Together we moved that old stand-up freezer from my shed down the cellar steps and into the basement. It's resting spot wound up being right next to some of my NKOTB collection, which I pointed out to the man.
"You are so gay," Socialist said. "Just come out already."
* * * *
When Socialist was helping me I asked him the Badgers score. 19-0 was his reply. Fast forward to me turning on the TV to find Wisconsin down 27-19. There were some last second heroics, capped off by what seemed to be the tying two point conversion, but it was called back on a penalty. Game over, Michigan victory.
*(%^*&
I was so ticked I asked the sitter to stay and took Smiley on a bike ride to work off some stress
Then the Brewers lost to the Cubs. With one game left they're tied with the Mets for the wildcard spot. There is a certain nostalgia to this announcement. Back in '82 we entered the final regular season game tied with Baltimore for the Eastern Division lead. With Jim Palmer on the mound for the O's, shortstop and future Hall of Famer Robin Yount tore him apart by yanking two homers out of the park and leading the Brewers to the playoffs.
I wouldn't mind a repeat tomorrow, with any Brewer playing the role of Yount (Braun?).
* * *
Cute detail of the day: I cut the lawn tonight, as always with the old fashioned manual wheel mower, when Smiley trotted out to join me. It took me a second to notice that he was pushing a toy mower alongside me. We continued on like that for quite awhile, with a smile on my face the whole time.
