Reflections on the First Week of Spring

Because I'd forgotten my beach shoes Monday, I descended the tile steps to the YMCA pool with toes curled to avoid picking up unwanted fungi. More than toes curled when I slipped into the shallow water. I yelped. The lifeguard said, “The heater part we bought Thursday didn't work. The maintenance man's searching for a new heater.” I remembered that Thursday. The heater had broken the night before, and water had chilled. I'd swum six laps to get comfortable. But four days without heat, the water was four times colder. No wonder only one other swimmer was in the pool. I took a deep breath, submerged, and came up doing a fast breast stroke. Goose bumps lined my arms. Frigid shivers wrapped my legs. I raced. After twelve laps, goose bumps disappeared. A hose spurted hot water into the shallow end where I'd yelped. After twenty laps, that yelping-water bathed me like a sauna. But a turn and a stroke had me back in arctic cold. I finished a half mile in a record thirty-two minutes. So, Wednesday, when an all day rain made my arthritis ache, I called the YMCA and asked if the heater had been replaced. “No, the water's still cold. The heater won't be replaced till Friday night.” I skipped Thursday's deep water fitness class.