{"id":2247,"date":"2017-08-14T01:56:40","date_gmt":"2017-08-14T01:56:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/?p=2247"},"modified":"2017-08-14T01:56:40","modified_gmt":"2017-08-14T01:56:40","slug":"the-feel-of-the-water-this-is-fine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/14\/the-feel-of-the-water-this-is-fine\/","title":{"rendered":"the feel of the water, this is fine"},"content":{"rendered":"

I bought a pair of swim paddles online and when they came in I was super stoked to try them in the pool. \u00a0I imagined tearing through the water and creating a wake behind me. I figured I\u2019d be tired and sore afterwards, but it would be worth it to master the water.<\/span><\/p>\n

But, they didn\u2019t work. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If I had them tightened enough so they weren\u2019t loose on my hands, the bands dug into my fingers painfully. \u00a0Too loose, and they would slap back against my hand with each stroke.<\/span><\/p>\n

And instead of pulling me through the water, each stroke was a fight. \u00a0I would get the barest increase in power every so often, but I was mostly flailing about as I made my way down the lane.<\/span><\/p>\n

I tried a couple laps, but was so uncomfortable with the paddles that I gave up on them and left then on the side of the pool for the rest of my swim.<\/span><\/p>\n

They had promised to retain a feel<\/em> for the water with their design, but instead I realized that I could really feel the water without them. \u00a0And had been all along without realizing what that meant.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s kind of a strange sensation \u00a0– to get a grip on a liquid and use it to pull forward like climbing the rung of a horizontal ladder. \u00a0And then finding that sweet spot where all the effort slides away and I slip between the molecules of the water like I was born to it.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll keep after the paddles and eventually learn how to use them, but in the meantime, I can<\/em> feel the water. \u00a0And I’ve mastered it as much as I’m able.<\/span><\/p>\n

——————<\/span><\/p>\n

Jim and I went out to dinner with a couple of our friends last evening. \u00a0We had brick oven pizza in a tiny, tiny restaurant and enjoyed an easy and fun conversation.<\/span><\/p>\n

After dinner, we headed to a bar called the Hopping Frog to see a band called Shooter Sharp and the Sharpshooters – who played an old-school version of country music. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Now, I was clearly out of my element. \u00a0I don\u2019t drink, I\u2019m not a fan of crowds, and well\u2026 I\u2019m not a fan of country music. \u00a0There are a few artists that have a very few songs that have a sort of pop\/country sound that I like, but this did not fit into that very narrow window.<\/span><\/p>\n

The performers were all very technically talented and seemed to be really enjoying themselves. \u00a0But the acoustics weren\u2019t great and I couldn\u2019t make out what they were singing most of the time – though I did catch the title of one song was \u201cYou finally said something good when you said goodbye\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So, yeah.<\/span><\/p>\n

I sipped my ginger ale and settled in – insisting that I was fine to my friends. \u00a0And I was. \u00a0The music wasn\u2019t my cup of tea, but I was fine with that. \u00a0\u00a0The company was excellent and the contents of my head are usually more interesting that reality anyway.<\/span><\/p>\n

I counted the number of acoustic tiles on the walls of the bar (21), planned an escape in case there was a riot (I always do this when I go someplace new. \u00a0a). Only one exit visible, but we were seated near it. \u00a0b). Improvised weapons – broken bottle of ginger ale or mic stand\/signpost.), and tried to visualize a 4 dimensional object (I couldn\u2019t).<\/span><\/p>\n

And I had fun. \u00a0Of sorts. \u00a0Though I apparently had some odd expressions on my face at times. \u00a0When the band took a break I joking said aloud, \u201cComputer: End Program\u201d in case it was a simulation.<\/span><\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not likely to make that venue a regular occurrence for me and I didn\u2019t buy the Shooter Sharp and the Sharpshooters CD – though that was an option – but I was fine. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Really. \u00a0\ud83d\ude42<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I bought a pair of swim paddles online and when they came in I was super stoked to try them in the pool. \u00a0I imagined tearing through the water and creating a wake behind me. I figured I\u2019d be tired and sore afterwards, but it would be worth it to master the water. But, they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_bluesky_dont_syndicate":"","_bluesky_syndication_accounts":"","_bluesky_syndication_text":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2247"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2248,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2247\/revisions\/2248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}