Almost forgot this!

I started something new on Monday. So far, I can feel a difference though visibly, there are no results. I started swimming at the local Parks And Leisure Services public pool just a few miles down the road. I go swim laps for about an hour, take a shower there too.

Rhapsodizing a moment here, so excuse me. I found the place by sheer serendipity. My sister & went to the main office of P.A.L.S.'s to sign my nephew up for soccer. While she filled out the forms, I wandered about & was impressed. We had been to the local YMCA & all things considered, the Y is a better facility. However, none of us can afford a $100 sign up fee, plus $125/month to use the facility as a family. For just me, it is a $75 sign-up fee + $55/month. The Y is a better facility, can be accessed anywhere if you travel, and their resources are all in 3 major locations, which is a nice feature.

However, all I want is to be able to swim laps because I can not lift weights, jogging is a no go, and I've already been told that anything beyond walking, yoga, tai chi, and swimming is a guarantee to destroy my lower back & knees, not to mention I'll run the risk of destroying my right hip joint entirely. I was even told that if I decided to take up kayaking or canoeing or kayaking or any thing along those lines, I have to approach it the way I do my walking. LIMITED! Too long, too much stress, I'm liable to slip another disc.

Soooo, paying for a bunch of stuff I can not use rubbed my literally poor self raw, so I kept looking. On the day we signed Little Man up for soccer, I found it! P.A.L.S. has several pools! The 1 I go to is just down the road by my nephews future high school. It is $25/person for a month (or $35 for a family), unlimited usage. They also have a really nice soccer field, walking tracks, play grounds, handball courts, small classes for yoga, tai chi, arts & crafts, etc. I'm excited about this because so far I have enjoyed it. We'll see what happens in a month.

I do feel bad about the poor life guards though. So far, I have been the only person there in the morning. That has to be incredibly boring watching me dog paddle back & forth, you know?