not long now

On one of my break-time walks last week, I saw that the public pool by the library has finally opened up for lap swimming during lunch hours on Fridays. Today I grabbed my backpack, walked across the street to the park, and swam like a fish in the warm water for half an hour. Showered off in the sunshine in the open-ceiling changing room, stuffed my wet suit and towel into the backpack, and walked back to work. It felt really good - the quiet loudness of the water, the sound of your own breath, the snatches of music playing from the guard station, the feeling of hitting a flip turn and smacking your feet onto the wall. I felt more like myself than I have in a long time. I'm even getting a faint tan. Maybe.

So, there has been a thing going on over here. A week ago my mother (a teacher) found a foreclosed fixer-upper next to her beach-side school, and we've been visiting with contractors and realtors, talking to banks and trying to get a bid in before traveling. Everything is up in the air, and my mother would have to sell her current place and live with us for months while the roof comes off and a new one goes on, but something might be happening. It's kind of exciting.

 

Yeah, the foundation is cracked, but that VIEW

 

Meanwhile, I'm in a big damn hurry to clean the house and get things repaired before sister-in-law arrives to babysit our cats - one of which has decided to develop diarrhea because I had to switch them all to a new brand of food after another of them developed an allergy and went bald. She won't notice, though, because the bathroom is painted, right?

Disclaimer: it was all coffee-colored before sanding, then it did the weird naked wood thing

 

Family leaves Thursday, I follow on Saturday. Still not excited, but maybe that's just adulthood for you. I'm feeling glad to be getting off work for two weeks, though, and that is close enough for me.