More swimming

Yesterday I went swimming a bit earlier than usual. I've been trying different meds the doctor prescribes for insomnia; the current one leaves me quite lethargic during the day. However I am addicted to the swimming so I keep it up in spite of the lethargy, and yesterday I went early because I was afraid if I waited until later I would lose motivation due to the lethargy.

I did four laps, up from my usual two. Somehow the minute I hit the water the lethargy disappears and I am capable of amazing feats :-). Just kidding.

The local eagles have been very active lately, gliding in the updrafts. Before I left home for the Reservoir I watched three of them circling the University, two of them were circling so close to each other they almost touched wingtips. Then they'd whistle at each other, "stay back! stay back!". Later while swimming I watched another five overhead. One of them swooped down and skimmed the treetops by the pond. It was so close we held our breaths afraid that it might hit a tree and fall down. The fish were jumping like crazy too. Lots of tiny flies right above the surface of the water that they were going for. A man was out swimming with his dog, they didn't swim as far as us but pretty far for a man and a dog. The dog was right at the man's side without actually hitting him.

When we got out of the water we stood or sat around drying out and warming up in the late afternoon sun. We chatted about this that and the other thing. One of the women, C, asked me for my cell number, I gave it to her and she recorded it on her phone. A few days before I was so tired—someone set off fireworks at 3am and I got up to check on Hapi and never got back to sleep again—and I had a backlog of tomatoes to can, so I decided to stay home and do tomatoes instead of swimming. C had waited around for me to show up thinking that I was just late so now she wanted my number so she could check on me if I didn't appear. I gave her the number and asked her to text me so I would have her number too. 

The tomato patch, still chugging along

When I got home after swimming there was a voice mail waiting for me on my cell (I don't take the cell with me when I go swimming), from an unknown number. I played the message. At first I thought it must be a pocket call because there was no recognizable message, just a bunch of background noise, but I didn't know who it was from because I didn't recognize the number. I listened to the noise for awhile to see if I might recognize who it might be.

I heard myself, it was us swimmers chatting in the sun after our swim. The message continued on for over 5 minutes, I think it only cut out when there was no further room for it in my voicemail. Then the test text came in from C. I texted back that I had just been listening to a voice message from her phone with all of us in it. She said she never sent that message. I think when she was recording my number on her phone, her phone decided that she wanted to call that number and so placed the call. It felt strange to be listening to a recording of myself and a few others just chatting.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I don't know how much longer Hapi will last. She's not eating as much, probably because she sleeps all the time. She's given up on the basement, she spends the night outside. Her fur is a mess, her bald patches are becoming noticeable. I now have to use the towel sling to help her into the car to go to the Reservoir in the morning. The couple who own Owen say they always look for Hapi, and are amazed that she is still coming for a walk. Mind you,"walk" is a relative term. She walks slowly to the pond, immerses herself and then just stays put. One day I walked all the way around the two ponds by myself because she didn't want to get out of the water. Then she walked back to the car by herself, because I was still on the far side of the pond. Another dog walker followed her to make sure that she didn't wander off, but she knew where my car was and just waited there.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The long weekend was kind of crazy here, the returning students were "packing" as the Premier put it, going around in huge groups unmasked and tightly packed. At least one kid was fined for it. I hope they settle down soon. Of course it's only a minority who are misbehaving, the majority are staying safe. But I am sure that the fireworks at 3am over the weekend were a student "prank".

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I talked to my son who has been waterbombing fires out west all summer. Actually he spent very little time actually flying, the summer started out cold and wet so there were very few fires this year. But he did go down to Washington state to fight fires there. Because he is considered an essential worker he doesn't have to quarantine when he crosses the border. Nevertheless he was in an area hard hit by the pandemic so the firefighters were staying away from town in their base camp as much as possible. 

He told me that in the nearest town people were taking the pandemic very seriously, social distancing and wearing masks. He said the rate of infection there was something like one in a hundred (this province's rate is around one in a thousand, and that's the highest rate in the Atlantic Bubble). Now he is laid off for the winter and debating whether to look for a winter job or just do "Daddy Daycare". He said they were further ahead financially if he just did the childcare, so he's looking for a hobby to occupy himself. He bought two guitars for his daughter's birthday, he intends to sign his daughter and himself up for lessons. What a good daddy!