In the mornings these days Chip does his physical therapy and rides a stationary bike and I head out to the pool. (The early bird swim is 6-7:45 MWF.) “It’s social,” I tell him, and hope that’s true, never mind that with goggles and a cap on and with all of us with heads underwater, we only nod on the occasional shared turn. It’s fairly quiet in there, except around the edges.
During one break at the wall, Ike said the other day he was driving by in the dark and almost hit the bear that’s been getting into the dumpster in the pool parking lot. We agreed that it’s kind of scary out there with bears roaming town tipping dumpsters. The police had to kill one over in Skagway.
When I finished my workout, I walked with Joanie in the shallow end a few minutes and we talked about Belle for the obituary I was writing. Joan is a retired public health nurse and contemporary of Belle’s. (Belle was 87 when she died of Alzheimer’s. Her memorial service was yesterday.) Joan does her exercises in the pool, and also usually walks over from her apartment downtown in sneakers with a backpack on, and as it gets colder wears a Yukon style parka, with fur trim– anyway, Joan said that after she got to know Belle, who was also a nurse and a midwife, they learned they had very similar training and backgrounds. After nursing school Belle volunteered on the first sailing of the hospital and training ship SS Hope at about the same time Joanie joined the Peace Corps.
In the locker room I met a woman from New Jersey who moved here after visiting Haines on a cruise. She and her husband bought their house on Craig’s List. How about that? Like I said, the pool is pretty social.
In other seasonal news, it’s been trying to snow and no doubt will any minute– and the preschoolers get to wear their costumes to school, and tomorrow night from 5:30-7:30 there’s a harvest party for kids big and little at the school, and a Halloween Costume party for grown-ups at the Fair beginning at 6:30. I’m going to be on radio, doing the country show again today from 1-3– which means I get to play Sweet Baby James.
