"Awesome!"

Next Swims:
     Mon-Fri 6AM and 5PM
     Saturday/Sunday 8AM and Noon
     Saturday bonus swim: 6AM

Last Swim:  Friday 6AM
Water Temp: "Awesome" - 70 (toe-mometers)
Air Temp:  High 60s to start, a little chilly
Clarity:   Pretty clear
Waves:  Sweet gentle swells
Kru:  Patriarch, Lydia the Tattooed Lady, Pool Noodle, Sheila, Showgirl, Dragonfly
Early shift:  Diablo, Flipper Man

An inexplicably skeleton Kru given the joyous conditions.  As we headed down, PN pointed out Flipper Man coming in from the north with his signature double backstroke.

At beach level, Showgirl texted that she was running late, but would meet for coffee after.  I reported this out, but there was a sense of not-rightness, no Showgirl on a Friday?  Sheila was first to wade in boldly and declared, "Not bad."  She swam out the rock gateway, her head popped up, and her voice rang back, "Awesome!"  Awesome?  We looked at one another.   There had been some skepticism of Diablo's report of "warm" since yesterday he had also said "warm" (along with the 'stay on top of the water' proviso.)

But it truly was warm.  And awesome. The soles of your feet on the damp shoreline rocks tell the story - when it's cold, they suck your body heat right out.  Today, no news from the feet = good news.  I waded in - no clarity inside the rocks, but right away I knew the temperature was something special.  Sunlight began to peek over a bank of clouds to the east and played on the driftwood cast up on the rocks.  Further out, I could see my arms and read my watch face clearly.  And were those wavy things....sand ripples?  Pretty clear!  The color of the water was...how to describe that exact shade of pale blue?  More blue than green, more gray than periwinkle, yet still kind of glowing, luminescent.  I neared New Mudslide, one pink barbie (PN) churned on ahead, but enough for today.  Sometimes you just don't feel that extra push to round up the yardage or the time, and that's ok. I turned and nearly collided with Lydia, also headed to Mudslide.  

Opposite the Clearing I encountered another swimmer; we both stopped.  
"Are you going back?"  
"Yeah, I'm done." 
"I'll go back with you."
"Ok, but who are you?"
Unmistakable laugh.  "Showgirl!"
Happier now, order restored, we headed back to the rocks, and then a little extra, just because it was SO BEAUTIFUL.  The sunlight sparkled down into the water on my left side like another companion.  "I thought the wind yesterday would make it colder...but it didn't," Showgirl observed.  We pondered this, marveled.

One of those days - not just that you hate to stop - it feels like almost a  moral imperative to continue on infinitely, until you couldn't physically lift an arm, to soak every last bit of goodness out of the water and the air and the sky and the shore.  Maybe one day we'll do that.  But today, we packed up, headed up, toward other obligations. But I relived it a little, writing this.