A Week of Dipping!

I've done seven days of dipping in a row, and I'm going to try to keep going! Most of the dips have been with at least one other person, but today, like Thanksgiving, I went on my own. It's a different ballgame, because I just go there, jump in, swim around for 5 minutes, get dressed and leave. As opposed to waiting for everyone to arrive, choreographing a dive routine, dipping, getting out, eating chocolate, sitting in someone's car warming up, and then leaving like 3 hours later - which of course is also fun. Yesterday I was hanging out with this woman in her car before swimming, and we were watching this pontoon boat coming across the lake, and just chatting about it - like, why does someone have a pontoon boat on such a small lake, and was it battery powered, etc. When it stopped at the dock, we realized that Santa was on the boat! Apparently he was coming from a Christmas party at this club on the lake - so funny! We got a picture with him. I'm not sure if there's really any long term effect of all the dipping, it seems to help my sleep and stress levels. 

Today I had the day off and instead of going for a nice hike like I was hoping, I took my cat to the vet. She attacked me a couple times - it was pretty scary actually. Now I know how poor Rufus feels. Anyhow, he thinks it's her thyroid, but the numbers don't make it seem like she needs meds yet. I bought her a supplement from Chewy - we will see if it helps. 

PS. Water is around 47 degrees!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to my reader. :) It's been a minute since I posted, but I've still been swimming, doing yoga and parkour. The water in the lake is getting cold again - it's down to 48. I've been swimming for three days in a row now - it's weird how much I like it when it's so cold! Today I stopped by the lake on my way to my sister's for Thanksgiving. When I got there, this guy told me that there was some ice on the lake already! He'd been kayaking and I think thought swimming was a bad idea. I thanked him politely, and went and down to the water. Since it was just me, I was able to get there, lay out my stuff, strip to my swim suit, and jump in. I've been jumping off the dock lately because it's so much easier - you just have to be decisive for one step and then your in the water. I do try to breathe out to make sure I don't gasp in air. Will have to see how long I can do this.

I stayed in the water for just 5 minutes, got out, dried off, got dressed, and left. It's at the point where my skin feels cold and a little numb, but not freezing. Getting out of the water feels warm because I'm a little numb, but it's not so numb that I can feel my skin.

I made two pies - pumpkin cheesecake with a graham cracker crust and a sour cream and turmeric glaze. My sister was like "turmeric is so healthy!" Tee hee. And an apple pie. I'm only pescatarian 364 days a year (except leap year, which is 365) and I have to say I ate a lot of turkey, and it was delicious! I even carved it and didn't mind.

One of my cats has a bad case of food aggression. I'm going to try some CBD oil to see if it helps. I should take her to the vet I suppose, but we were there just a few weeks ago, and her blood work was fine.  

Beach yoga and a Baptism

I've never seen anyone be baptized before, so it was kind of fun to have a baptism at the beach! One of the new swimmers is a yoga instructor, and she offered to do a 20 minute restorative class on the beach. There was actually a pretty good crowd, probably about 20 or so of us, which isn't that common for our winter swims. The beach is a little bit hilly, which added to the intensity of the yoga, because we were tilted downhill for our dogs and planks. We started the class by setting an intention and doing some gentle stretches, which felt really nice on the beach in the sand. Then we did some cat cows and sun salutations.

As we started moving, the church group came down to the water - I think they were surprised to see a yoga class on the beach. They had a little ceremony and the four guys who were being baptized gave speeches, and then they went into the water. There were two guys who did the dipping, and a woman who was in the water taking photographs. The first guy walked in, and we could hear them doing some prayers, and then they dunked him! Everyone from the church group clapped, and the yoga group all paused our warrior 2 and clapped too. The four went in one at a time, and we clapped for all of them. It was a pretty funny day at the beach. (There were a few people there who were just there to be at the beach, and they were like "WTF?")

The church ceremony ended right around when the yoga class did. They all left and we changed into our swimsuits and went for a swim/dip. I'd already been to a kind of killer parkour class, so I just went in and treaded water without swimming. It was about 61 degrees in the water. 

Not the best week ever

This week was really difficult. It turned out that one of the kittens had a parasite, and I had to fight with the rescue to get them to pay for the trip to the vet. They were like "we will just send you the meds," but they didn't know what was wrong with him, and they also didn't send me any meds. Finally I just took him to the vet because he clearly needed to go. The vet gave me some meds that cleared up what turned out to be giardia, but then he caught a cold from the other kitty, and his eye was swollen half shut and oozing puss. So, I just took him back to the vet, because I had waited too long the first time and I wasn't going to do that again. They refused to pay for it because "if every foster went to the vet for anything, we wouldn't exist"! I was so annoyed, because he had a fever and was really sick. I demanded then that they find him a new place right away, which thankfully they did. So last night I decided it was time for the kittens to go, and I went on a mini road trip to drop them off. 

Joey went to his forever home in NH, where he has a new kitty sibling, mom, dad and boy who looked like he was about 10 or so and was super excited about him. Their house was full of books and pictures of their family - it looked like they maybe had a daughter as well, who wasn't home. They seemed like they were going to be a nice family for him.

Then I took Patch to another foster in Fitchburg. I felt really bad about sending him away when he was so sick, but I just couldn't take care of him any more without the help of the rescue. It turned out it was the best place for him! The woman there was so nice! She has 3 dogs and two other cats, and a son who it sounds like was about 8-9 who loves cats. So, Patch was going to stay in the sons room until he was on the mend. She also has a really good friend who's a vet and can take care of Patch. I cried when I dropped him off, and for the entire drive home. Maybe I'm not really the fostering kind, but it was so intense when Patch was sick.

The reason that I wanted to have them leave was that my cat Tigger was hiding under the bed and not eating. I started noticing that her food dish still had food in it earlier in the week, and just thought the Cats were upset, but then last night there was clearly something wrong. And I felt so bad for spending so much attention on Patch and ignoring my kitties. So, today I had to take Tigger to the vet. I thought she had giardia (which probably she does, the vet gave me meds for her). But also he said that she was skinny and dehydrated, and he did some blood tests that found that her sugar levels were high. She may have diabetes. When he told me about the symptoms of diabetes it made sense to me - she gets really hangry during the day and hisses at Rufus and me until I feed her. The vet said that Tigger was his best patient today - I was like "wow, she must really be feeling sick, because she's usually a pretty fiesty gal at the vet." Anyhow, they did some more expensive blood work and we will see what happens. In the meantime I have to rub a cream on her ear to stimulate her appetite. So weird. They gave me a bag labeled "Tigger (they go bounce)" with her meds; so cute!

On Thursday this week I woke with the worst migraine I've had in a few of years. It was like 7 am and the urgent cares don't open for another hour or so. I called my sister, but she didn't answer, and then I didn't think I could wait for her to come anyhow, so I called an ambulance.  They took me to Cambridge Hospital, which I haven't been to before. I have to say they were so nice there - everyone from the doctor to the PA, nurses, even the janitor was nice! And, they gave me three warm blankets when I was cold. Their equipment looks ancient, and the toilet in the bathroom looked like it was from the 1950's, but I'm still thinking of switching to a doctor there. They were super fast, kind, and my headache was gone in like 45 minutes. Anyhow, that added to the week, with me feeling like crap all day on Thursday. Thursday afternoon Patch and I took a nap together on the couch. He was so cuddly! I miss the kittens, but it's so nice to be back cuddling with my cats.

I would foster again, but not while I have Tigger and Rufus, and definitely not with that Rescue!

Below 60

Today I had a big swim day, with the Y in the morning, and the lake in the evening. I was working from home today, so I was able to go to hit the Y and get home and only get up about 45 minutes earlier. I had the whole pool to myself! It was nice - I swam for about 20 minutes, according to my fitbit, a 2'45" pace for a total of 1025 meters. I feel like I'm swimming a little slower lately, but that's because I have been focused on my breathing, and looking straight down. Hopefully I will get the hang of it, and it will help me go faster.

After work I met a friend at the lake - we decided to jump in off the dock and swim over to the club and use their slide and dive platform again. The water was 59.2 degrees, which is getting kind of brisk - I didn't really want to put my face in the water for the entire swim, and swimming breast stroke over there felt like forever. It was really fun to go down the slide, and scary to jump off the platform. Swimming back was actually easier; the water was starting to feel not too cold. After we had chocolate and some candy corn, and I headed home to the cats + kittens. 

I've had the kittens for 17 days now. The cats aren't happy about it. They are the cutest things, and I wish I could keep them, but I can't. One of the kitties has had an upset stomach and diarrhea for about a week. I asked the woman at the place that coordinates the fosters what I should do, but she's ignoring me. I tried a kitty anti-diarrheal which didn't seem to work, and now I'm feeding him chicken and rice for his meals. I hope this will help. It seems to be related to when he eats - I imagine that the food changes haven't been so great for him. 

Water slide

Saturday and Monday nights I went for an evening swim with a few of the merfolk. The air was in the mid-60's and the water around 61-62, which is chilly but becomes mearly "crisp" once you are in. We decided to run down the dock and jump in together, which is fun, but also a little startling. I kind of prefer it, because it gets the hardest part over with, though you can't do it when it's totally freezing because you can have that gasp reflex and drown.

On Saturday we swam out to the first bouy from the sailing club, and then decide to swim a little further. There's a club that's pretty close, and so we decided to swim there. Once we got there, we got out of the water and when down their slide! It was really fun. Then we decided to jump of this platform that they have - I think it's about 12 feet, into the water. When each of us got up there, we were like "that's actually kind of high."  I thought about not jumping, but then was like "just take a step and gravity will take care of it for you." And it was super fun!

Monday night we came back, and did the same thing again! The platform was still a little scary to jump from, but then it was fine.

Today I'm hopefully getting a lyme vaccine! I'm participating in a clinical trial, phase 3, and I have a 50% chance of getting the shot, and 50% of getting placebo. I hope I get the real thing!

Swim Updates

My swimming in the pool now is much like my initial running. It's a bit choppy and needs work, but for the most part improving. Today I did a swim at the Y that was a little slower, but I worked on practicing looking down and breathing without lifting my whole face out of the water. I also tried to practice turning my head both ways, as a prep to breathing on both sides. According to my fitbit I swam 1275 meters in 35 minutes, which is a pace of 2'45"/100 m. I went at 12:30 and had to share a lane the entire time. I realized that it's better to be the faster swimmer in the lane, because once you pass the other person you can move a little more to the center for the rest of the lap, since they won't be in front of you (as opposed to when you are slower and the other person can pass at any time).

I've been swimming 6 times since I last posted about it on Sept 30:

Oct 2    1559 yards    34 min         2'24"/100 m

Oct 6    1778 yards    47 min        2'53"/100 m

Oct 8    930 yards      26.30 min   3'07"/100 m 

Oct 8    739 yards      26.28 min    3'55"/100 m 

Oct 9    711 yards      18 min         2'46"/100 m 

Oct 10   820 yards     18.46 min    2'30"/100 m

Some of these are outside, some inside - I need to keep better track of which was which. I think the really slow ones are outside for sure. 

October 9 was definitely the full moon swim - it's interesting that this one seems reasonably fast, because there was a lot of hanging around chit-chatting in the water. I did try to swim faster, though, because the other people I was with were faster.

The water is starting to get colder. It's been down to about 62 degrees, at which point it definitely feels cold. But, so much colder to come!