The first time I entered and finished the Great Chesapeake Bay Swim (2005) I came out of the water and said “I’m glad I did this once but I never want to do it again.” Two years later I wanted to do it again and did. And now, five years later, I have done it for the third time. This year, three men were recognized who have done it 25 years in a row. Multiple swims are the exception, however. Sixty percent of those who complete the bay swim only do it once. …
In one sense, this is a swim I would like to forget. I began and swim and did not complete it. But in another sense, this is a swim where hopefuly some lessons were learned that I can take away. We sometimes learn from our failures even more than our successes. …
2012 was the 25th anniversary of the Jim McDonald Lake Swim in Reston, VA. It was my third time to swim. I swam in the 5k (3.1 miles) event on Saturday, May 26th. There were also 1 and 2 mile swims on Sunday. I finished 68th out of 90 swimmers in the wetsuit division of the 3 mile swim with a time of 1 hour and 41 minutes. My pace per mile was 32 minutes and 52 seconds. I was reasonably pleased with my effort, although I had hoped to finish with a pace closer to 30 minutes per mile. It was a nice day to swim, although warmer than you would have preferred. I had planned to do the Sunday swims but due to the water temperature wetsuits were not allowed and I chose to skip. In in 3 swims combined there were nearly 800 swimmers. Jim McDonald is a popular and premier event and ably managed by the Reston Masters Swim Club president Gordon Gerson. …
The annual Centennial Lake Swim was held on Sunday, May 13, and 2012 was my first time to participate. It was a calm, cool day and ideal for swimming in a lake. Centennial is not a large lake and this one-mile swim pretty much goes around the lake perimeter, covering most of the lake during the swim. The event was sponsored by the Central Maryland YMCA Masters Swim Team and was well staffed and organized. (http://http://www.cmym.us/) …
The State of Maryland is bisected east/west by the Chesapeake Bay and we refer to these sections as the Eastern Shore and the Western Shore. Although I live and work on the Western Shore, the Eastern Shore is a land of great interest and pleasure. The portion of the Eastern Shore that faces the Chesapeake includes a number of tidal rivers such as the Pocomoke, Wicomico, Nanticoke, and Choptank. On 5/5/2012 I joined about 69 swimmers for a 3 mile swim in the Nanticoke as part of the 4th annual Nanticoke River Swim & Triathalon (http://www.nanticokeriverswimandtri.com/). …
When I was a young man and newly married, also being at the same time a poor college student, I did not want or need the burden of another child to raise. Our first had arrived just eleven months after the wedding. I did, however, want to have sex with my wife. The answer, of course, was contraception, and the most obvious solution was “rubbers,” as we called them then. …
You may have noticed that there are tall tree-like things appearing all over the landscape these days. They are not trees although they sometimes stand among trees. They are towers that hold the electronics to transmit our various signals for telephones, cellphones, television, radio, and who knows what else. They are shiny metal and easy to identify. And one of them can grow up almost overnight in a place there never had been one before. Sometimes they grow up from the ground and also they can sprout from the tops of buildings. They are not attractive. …
Nose hair is on a list of things we avoid mentioning in polite society. Most people think of it as an unneeded relic of our ancestory or as a defect in the design of our bodies. Medical people may tell us that hair in the nose protects us against environmental threats such as germs, fungus, and spores. But appearance usually trumps health concerns. The celebrities whose appearance we admire and emulate do not have nose hair showing. …
I received the following notice with my mail: “Dear Customer, the Postal Service depends on you to meet postal requirements regarding delivery and collection of mail to curbside boxes. Please keep the full approach and exits to your mailbox clear, as illustrated in the examples below. Removing trash cans, snow, vehicles, and any other objects from the area allows the carrier to deliver your mail safely and efficiently without exiting the vehicle. Your cooperation in this matter is sincerely appreciated. Thank you. Your Postmaster.” …