Swimming...or Not

I've always thought it would be fun to have season passes for the swimming pool, and this year we live just down the street from our community pool. So before the official beginning of summer, when we heard passes were available at a discount, we went for it. We got a pass for everyone in the family, plus what they called a "punchcard" which we can use to bring guests with us. We can also use it to go to any of the other community pools in the Chippewa Valley here in Wisconsin. I thought that might be fun; surely we wouldn't have enough other things to keep us occupied over the summer.

The first week school was out, we went to Madison. We did swim in the hotel pool, but that doesn't count. Right after we got back from Madison, our son Kevin went to a two-week "Summer Institute" program that they run here. They offered all kinds of fun classes. One of the classes he took was about building model rockets. Fun stuff. But since we had to drive back and forth to Chippewa Falls to get him to and from class (about half an hour from Eau Claire (where we live) each way, depending on how fast you drive), that didn't leave a lot of swimming time. So we didn't bother going during that time.

Right after Summer Institute was over, we drove out to Salt Lake City for a family reunion and camping trip. We went swimming then, too, but our passes to the Eau Claire pool didn't work too well in Salt Lake City.

Then Kevin broke his toe.

And all our plans changed.

He hobbled around through the camping trip (he even carved a really nifty walking stick for himself) and then spent much of the next few weeks at home with a sore toe. He got to play on the computer a lot, and got waited on a lot, so it wasn't too bad. But we didn't think jumping around in the pool was a good idea.

Just when it was starting to heal enough that we could consider swimming, we ended up going to Seattle. The week after that was Cub Scout camp. He did go swimming at scout camp, in the lake with the other boys. He had a lot of fun, too. Meanwhile, those pool passes have been burning a hole in my wallet, so to speak.

Now it's the week before school starts. And it's the end of August in Wisconsin. And it's starting to feel like fall. The weather has really cooled down. But, darn it, the pool's still open through Labor Day. And, darn it, we're going to use those season passes if it's the last thing we do. So today we're going to bundle up and go down to the pool, and sit and splash and swim in the water, and we're going to freeze, but WE ARE GOING TO LIKE IT. So help me.

Home Again AGAIN!

Summer has really thrown a lot at us this year, including a last-minute trip to Seattle last week. On Friday afternoon at about 4:30 the week before, I got a phone call from my husband that went something like this:

Him: "Should we go out to Seattle next week?"

Me: "Uhh...you mean, should YOU go out to Seattle next week, right?" He travels a lot for work and I'm used to him scheduling trips. Especially to Seattle, where he'd already been earlier in the week, and also the week before that.

Him: "No, I mean, should we go out to Seattle next week?"

Me: "Uhhh..."

Turns out that his company wanted to send him to Seattle yet again for work, and he decided that if he was going he wanted to take us with him. Our son's still on summer vacation, so it really would work pretty well. Except for some small details, like getting space in a kennel for our dog for the weekend at 4:30 on a Friday afternoon. Not to mention his bordetella shot, which is required for boarding a dog at a kennel, but our dog's previous vaccination had expired exactly three days earlier. (Talk about timing.) Strangely, though, while it did take some effort and several phone calls, we were able to get him an appointment for a shot and a spot in a kennel we felt good about. And we felt good about taking the trip, too. It almost seemed like we were supposed to go.

Which really has me worried. We really had a great time in Seattle, visiting the piers, some local museums, and taking a ferry ride across Puget Sound. But why was it so important for us to go? Does this mean something terrible's going to happen to us now? Is there some great reason why we were supposed to visit Seattle together?

I don't know the answer to that one--yet--but we did have a marvelous time.