Dude...a snorkel?

So, this morning I woke up before my alarm, which is really sad - it is set for 4:30am on mornings that I teach spin class. So, this means I was up VERY early! It was raining pretty hard, and when I let Tucker out, I noticed how much the temperature had dropped overnight. Brrrrr. Winter may actually be here.
Since I was up a bit early, I had a few minutes to sit on the couch sipping my nice, hot cup of coffee, prior to heading out the door. I'm not sure I've mentioned much about spinning class on this blog, but I teach a spinning class a couple times a week, at a community center in Mission, KS. I always enjoy my class participants, but the group I have this month has been a really neat group. I look forward to seeing them each week, and I've seen great improvement in their spinning in such a short time. I worked them hard this morning, and they still left with smiles on their faces.
After class, I headed to the pool to get in my swim workout. I figured with the weather forecast calling for snow, etc....I just figured it would be best to not leave room for skipping the swim after work. :-)
So, the pool was packed. I waited for a while before a lane opened up. Cool - I got to share a lane with a guy I know from spin class. Well, little did I know, he was wrapping it up and out of there before I finished my warm up. And, into the lane comes another person. Are you kidding me? Why, why, why do I ALWAYS end up with the big dude with all the swimming paraphenalia with him?!? Seriously - the dude gets in the pool with his fins on (not awful, lots of people swim with these), AND a big ol' face mask and SNORKEL!!! What?! I wouldn't even care so much if I hadn't had this experience before and knew what was in store. Yes, he inevitably ends up right next to me for the better portion of many laps, and he likes to swim more towards the middle of the lane, and doesn't really freestyle...not sure what it is, but I occasionally get hit. It's all kinds of fun. Why me? I continue swimming. At each of my 10 second breaks, my eyes are feverishly searching for an opening in another lane. Nope, it doesn't happen. And this fella is the energizer bunny today, 'cause he just kept swimming and swimming and swimming. Finally my workout was complete and I exited the observation tank (remember he was wearing a face mask...yep, that's really nice).
Oh well, I suppose it's good prep for swimming with masses of people in a lake!

On a more serious note, I attended a funeral this afternoon. One of the guys I team with at work lost his mother earlier this week. I did not know his mother, but wanted to attend in support of him. Sitting in that service, I was reminded again just how fragile life is. We are not promised another day, yet we live as if we're never going to die, and treat those we love as if we are guaranteed another chance to tell them what they mean to us. It is a good reminder that life here is temporary, and eternity is what really matters.