#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream

The Annual Farm Pond Funbelow Perimeter Swim

I had finally gotten an hour or two of sleep when the alarm rang me awake. Drat! Just a mostly sleepless night. Frank and I both fell asleep early and then woke up for hours. I lay awake listening to podcasts and then, finally, WCRB’s recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, recorded at Tanglewood last summer by the BSO. Somewhere in the listening I finally fell off. I fretted because I knew I wanted to wake rested for the perimeter swim. I was called out into the yard early and enjoyed that. Grass so wet. Brook so dry. River is higher for sure. My youngest was ready, and so was I. But, what about her sister? Well, she was deciding not to go. We went up a couple of times to check. We sang and danced a bit, hoping to encourage her. But she laughed and said she would meet us at the pond after the swim. It was warm and there were over fifty swimmers, including my brother, who founded the event twenty one years ago. I actually felt pretty good by the time we started from the beach. A lot of intense swimmers now come to the event, and some of the Iron Men competitors too. Well, I was swimming along at the start in the pack of swimmers (this is not a race, not a competition. It’s a friendly event for fun) and suddenly my head was smashed––I yelled an obscenity, thinking I’d smashed it into the dock, even though I wasn’t anywhere near a dock. I was stunned, had to stop and look around. Which stopped the pack of swimmers behind me awkwardly. I realized I hadn’t bumped the dock. I’d been kicked hard right between the eyes by some swimmers foot. I thought about stopping, but straightened my goggles and resumed swimming and started to cry in the water; tears just gushed as I crawled along. And I thought, well, I can get out of the water and have a good cry or I can stay in the water and have a good swim, and that’s what I did. I was out of the pack now, and by the time I got to my friend’s dock I was feeling better and then for the rest of the time I didn’t have a good swim, I had a great swim. I felt strong and happy the whole rest of the way. It was a gorgeous day. And I made good time for me. And by the time I swam into the beach Frank was there and my daughters and the Special One welcoming me to shore and then I felt, well, this was the perfect Funbelow. My daughter made great time, and my brother too. And then we all piled into one car and drove to a bakery in Wellesley for a treat. The rest of the day I got busy with projects at home until I fell onto my bed in the late afternoon for a much needed nap. And tonight, the harvest moon is an orange globe, bright in the dark sky, shining at the close of a happy September Saturday.