I began my day by working on a literacy-related grant. I made some progress and felt good about it.

I have thought for the past ten months, since my hip seized up, that it would heal. I became very optimistic these past few weeks because, indeed, it did seem like it was getting better. Today I realized that this is not the case. Something is seriously wrong.

I decided to go swimming. I was in the pool, just playing, when it seized up. I was, at the time, thinking about the pool environment, and examining my writerly insights. The floor in the woman’s locker room and in the pool area seemed to me to be slippery. I remembered when I was a child, going to the John Marshall High School pool, and running across the floor. This was fifty plus years ago.

I had forgotten my new googles, so I borrowed a pair from a bucket that was sitting next to the bin of float boards.

The water was warm, enough so that I did not have to inch into the pool. The smell of chlorine was in the air, but it was not overpowering. Those in the far lanes were doing fast laps. The two fat guys on my side were hanging out. They were treating it like it was a hot springs. I did not want to bother them or the two women at the far end of the pool, so I grabbed a float board, and ducked under the dividers, into the second, empty lane.

I did a few laps, holding the float board in front of me and kicking my legs hard. I took note of the banners hung on the far walls – the Palmer High School swimmers, were for several years, regional champs. They were runner ups in 2020.

I next treaded water, doing a few more laps. I then put the float board under my butt and paddled halfway across the pool. This is where I might have erred because I was then in a crouched position. The board popped up a few times. The last time I did not see where it went.

Lastly, I did a real swim lap, both kicking my legs and moving my arms. And I breathed the way a swimmer should breathe, head down exhale, head up, inhale. I was, in doing this, attempting to show the ever-concerned lifeguard that I was not a hapless individual who any second would need to be rescued.

I got a few yards from the shallow end wall, and felt my hip seize up. I held it still and used my other leg, kicking my way to wall itself. Oh oh, I thought. I went to straighten up and could not. My friend Cathy was going into the pool as I was going out. She said she liked my bathing suit. I said my hip had seized up. She said that there was a hot tub. I said where, and as I spoke, I saw it.

It was odd, I thought, that I had been thinking hard lately about how I’d like to get into a hot tub. This one, it was just not hot enough. But I was glad to have a brief sit. This sit did not have the effect I had hoped. Once again, I moved in the all too familiar L-shape, from pool, to locker room, to shower, to dressing room.

I was able to drive to the hotel. There I worked all afternoon, sorting through moldy books. Admittedly, I am discouraged about both my hip problem and my work situation.

Next: 243. 9/7/24: My Two Favorite Days of the Year