friday5

Friday 5 for September 5: Swimmingly

Hello, and welcome to this week’s Friday 5! Please copy these questions to your webspace. Answer the questions there; then leave a comment below so we’ll all know where to check out your responses. Please don’t forget to link us from your website!

1. Where and how did you learn to swim?  I would swim underwater, holding my breath across the pool or sometimes bobbing up in a lake.  But I knew it wasn't swimming.  One day, in a pool in the desert, I decided that I COULD stay on top across the whole length, and just took off.  I was 13 I think, and that was the first time I swam across the top of the water. 
2. How far away is the nearest swimmable body of fresh water, and how’s the swimming there?  If you mean a pool, it must be about a 3/4th of a mile away, and I've never been in it.  I did put a toe in the indoor pool at a local gym, and the water was so warm that I thought, "no thank you very much!"  I asked how warm it was and they said that it was 89°.  I thought, "No wonder it's loaded with chlorine."  If you mean lake, we haven't got any lakes that aren't reservoirs, and no one is allowed to swim in them at all.  Well, just the fish and the water birds.
3. How long has it been since you’ve been for a swim?  I haven't been swimming since before my knee replacement.  2010?  Part of my re-hab was to walk in a pool.  No thank you!
4. What’s the nearest community swimming pool like?  It's very small and only open, of course, in the summer and fall. 
5. What experience do you have with jumping off stuff and into water?  I can execute dives off all the springboards but could never get myself to dive off the Olympic 10 meter platform.  Brrrr!