SCUBA- Day One (and today so far)
Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.
-Thich Nhat Hanh
I know I've been spending too much time at gas stations when I refer to a soda fountain as a "pump" and don't even notice.
One of the brighter spots of the week was finally making some Spicy Italian Vegetarian Sausage. They are rather spicy; sweet pickle relish complements them nicely.
The most interesting personal current event is that scuba class. Ryan had to be in Livonia yesterday and today, so he dropped me off at campus that morning with the bike. By the time 5:30 rolled around, I was not looking forward to biking home after swimming with my panniers, fins, and the rest of my gear.
After schlepping my gear around for 6 hours, I was eager to put it to use. There are 7 people in my class, which seems a good number. There were originally 29 signed up for it, which would be rather inconvenient when it came to pool time.
After a few hours of going over introductions and material we all moved down to the pool for the required distance swim. Ryan's been trying to teach me, but I'm still not a very good swimmer. Let's put it this way, I know 2 strokes: one is the elementary backstroke and the other is what resembles a prostrate elementary backstroke, but is supposed to be the breaststroke. In we went. I was able to do a lap of breaststroke, but I was feeling pretty stressed and had trouble relaxing, so I switched to the backstroke after that to avoid hyperventilation. Took me about 8 minutes to do 200 yards. No world records there, but painless.
Then it was time to put on our gear and buddy up for snorkeling. Going around in circles, practicing hand signals, playing catch, figuring out the flutter kick were all fun. Maneuverability with fins is still challenging, but that's alright. It'll come with practice. Even though the pool was a balmy 87, it felt freezing after a while. Very peaceful.
The next thing I know we're going over to the edge of the deep end slope to learn the pike dive. I couldn't do the pike dive after at least 10 attempts (and one in which I lost a fin on the way down). I certainly couldn't reach the bottom because I couldn't clear my ears. To practice for the nonstop distance swim, I went swimming on Wednesday (and began in earnest to unlearn my breaststroke) and developed a very slight ear infection. I thought it had gone away, particularly when I had been able to make it pop when we were covering equalization in the classroom. Nope. It's pretty clear that I've exacerbated the stupid thing. Disheartened and in pain I wasn't looking forward to loading up my bike (changing gears meant holding the fin bag in my teeth rather than under my arm). Fortunately, the pool would be officially closed for the weekend, which meant we could just leave our things on deck chairs and come back for them in the following days.
I heard a knock on the glass (I can't find a picture, but the western facing wall of the pool is a highly reflective slanting window--nearly impossible to see in during the day and nearly impossible to see out at night) and barely recognized Ryan's shirt.
I let him in through the stern "alarmed" emergency door. Turned out he didn't feel good having me ride home at 10:00, especially when still pretty damp. Ostensibly he was taking Ellen back to her university, but stopped by give me the car.
The car came in handy this morning. I have a raging ear infection and I did what I could with peroxide solution and ear drops, but I need antibiotics. This of course meant I can't go swimming today, not even the required 10 minute float/tread. Which is why I'm at the library instead of in the pool. To add frustration to injury, I couldn't figure out how to get to the pool. Every door in was locked. On my second circumnavigation, the emergency door was propped open. After explaining the situation to Scuba Dave, I was told to meet up with everyone in the classroom at 1:30. I'm going to complete the classroom portion of the course during this weekend and do the lab portion after my ear has healed.
Walking meditation does wonders. I think I finally have the hang of it. Once the rhythm is set, you don't really have to count the breath:step ratio and I was even able to "smile at my non-ear infection" which made the pain bearable. Gorgeous September mornings don't hurt either. After brunch (sliced sausage with relish, carrots with dill, and an apple) I felt even better. Now if only I'd been able to sleep 3 consecutive hours last night...
-Thich Nhat Hanh
I know I've been spending too much time at gas stations when I refer to a soda fountain as a "pump" and don't even notice.
One of the brighter spots of the week was finally making some Spicy Italian Vegetarian Sausage. They are rather spicy; sweet pickle relish complements them nicely.
The most interesting personal current event is that scuba class. Ryan had to be in Livonia yesterday and today, so he dropped me off at campus that morning with the bike. By the time 5:30 rolled around, I was not looking forward to biking home after swimming with my panniers, fins, and the rest of my gear.
After schlepping my gear around for 6 hours, I was eager to put it to use. There are 7 people in my class, which seems a good number. There were originally 29 signed up for it, which would be rather inconvenient when it came to pool time.
After a few hours of going over introductions and material we all moved down to the pool for the required distance swim. Ryan's been trying to teach me, but I'm still not a very good swimmer. Let's put it this way, I know 2 strokes: one is the elementary backstroke and the other is what resembles a prostrate elementary backstroke, but is supposed to be the breaststroke. In we went. I was able to do a lap of breaststroke, but I was feeling pretty stressed and had trouble relaxing, so I switched to the backstroke after that to avoid hyperventilation. Took me about 8 minutes to do 200 yards. No world records there, but painless.
Then it was time to put on our gear and buddy up for snorkeling. Going around in circles, practicing hand signals, playing catch, figuring out the flutter kick were all fun. Maneuverability with fins is still challenging, but that's alright. It'll come with practice. Even though the pool was a balmy 87, it felt freezing after a while. Very peaceful.
The next thing I know we're going over to the edge of the deep end slope to learn the pike dive. I couldn't do the pike dive after at least 10 attempts (and one in which I lost a fin on the way down). I certainly couldn't reach the bottom because I couldn't clear my ears. To practice for the nonstop distance swim, I went swimming on Wednesday (and began in earnest to unlearn my breaststroke) and developed a very slight ear infection. I thought it had gone away, particularly when I had been able to make it pop when we were covering equalization in the classroom. Nope. It's pretty clear that I've exacerbated the stupid thing. Disheartened and in pain I wasn't looking forward to loading up my bike (changing gears meant holding the fin bag in my teeth rather than under my arm). Fortunately, the pool would be officially closed for the weekend, which meant we could just leave our things on deck chairs and come back for them in the following days.
I heard a knock on the glass (I can't find a picture, but the western facing wall of the pool is a highly reflective slanting window--nearly impossible to see in during the day and nearly impossible to see out at night) and barely recognized Ryan's shirt.
I let him in through the stern "alarmed" emergency door. Turned out he didn't feel good having me ride home at 10:00, especially when still pretty damp. Ostensibly he was taking Ellen back to her university, but stopped by give me the car.
The car came in handy this morning. I have a raging ear infection and I did what I could with peroxide solution and ear drops, but I need antibiotics. This of course meant I can't go swimming today, not even the required 10 minute float/tread. Which is why I'm at the library instead of in the pool. To add frustration to injury, I couldn't figure out how to get to the pool. Every door in was locked. On my second circumnavigation, the emergency door was propped open. After explaining the situation to Scuba Dave, I was told to meet up with everyone in the classroom at 1:30. I'm going to complete the classroom portion of the course during this weekend and do the lab portion after my ear has healed.
Walking meditation does wonders. I think I finally have the hang of it. Once the rhythm is set, you don't really have to count the breath:step ratio and I was even able to "smile at my non-ear infection" which made the pain bearable. Gorgeous September mornings don't hurt either. After brunch (sliced sausage with relish, carrots with dill, and an apple) I felt even better. Now if only I'd been able to sleep 3 consecutive hours last night...