I have become a huge test strip to determine if a pool contains chlorine or not. As I said in my last e-mail, Tuesday I went to the Hastings High School pool and swam. I had been told that they don’t use chlorine so I was confident that things would be different and I would find a place to swim until the lakes are warm, which may take a while with the weather we’ve been having.

I lasted until about 4 PM before the first welts started to appear. I swam one lap (50 meters) without my nose clip and that’s all it took. My nose stuffed completely and I thrashed around all night trying to breathe. Jean must have had just enough wine because she never heard me. I can tell you without question that the high school does use chlorine. I’ll spare you the gruesome pictures. I couldn’t find anyone who wanted to take pictures of a naked 60 year old man with a rash.

I’m down to three options. Swim in it anyway and endure the reactions…not a good choice…insanity may win out. Buy a $15,000 to $20,000 endless pool that  disinfects with baquacil…expensive and I don’t have a place to put it. Or offer to pay the difference in cost if one of the pools switches to something other than chlorine or bromine…probably won’t happen. I guess there is a fourth and that’s to quit swimming. That’s probably the one I’ll choose. I can still swim in the lakes when it gets warm enough and continue with a crappy swim time in the triathlons. With my recent hip problems that should complement my crappy run times nicely.

I’m showing the cottage today at 2 PM. I’m not getting my hopes up, but I did have two calls yesterday so people are out looking. This will be the best time of the year, but the next door neighbor just listed her place for significantly less. That kept me awake one night until 2 AM, worrying that no one would want to pay that much more, but I’m guessing it’s less for a reason and I know our place isn’t overpriced. If it doesn’t sell, it’s still a nice place…bigger than we need and more than I want to take care of, but nice.

I used to play golf a lot and belonged to Hastings Country Club for years. It sounds like a high prestige place but it’s still only a golf course. A great course in prime condition, but the membership’s down and there aren’t nearly the social activities that there were years ago. Buying the condo, we get a free membership for a year. I was telling Jean that with her maintaining the house on Green Street until it sells and me maintaining the cottage until it sells, riding bike with our group on Saturdays and running with the running group on Sundays, we probably won’t play enough to make it worthwhile.

We’ve never been big on decorative pillows or stuffed animals on the bed. Many people are and they really look nice, but we haven’t done that. If it was up to me, the bed would only be made in the morning if company was coming or we had just laundered the sheets. Friday night we stayed up until midnight watching a movie and talking with Becky.

I had a couple of glasses of wine and so did Jean. I got into bed and there were pillows all over the place. When Jean came in I said something like “What’s with all the pillows?” For some reason it set us both off and we started laughing. We laughed for a good five minutes and I had to sit up once just to catch my breath. We either had more wine than I thought or we were releasing stress from having the two places for sale with nothing happening.

The hip still continues to cause problems and I’ll soon do what I should have done long ago and see my doctor. I’ve been putting it off hoping the injury would heal and not wanting to get a cortisone shot, but that’s probably what it needs. I’ve never had a problem with shots. But since the bike wreck, I’ve been poked and prodded so many times that visiting my doctor, who is also a friend, stresses me out. I don’t know what happened but I would be physically shaking the many times I saw him during that first year. Add it to my long “weirdness list”.

Just (About To Cave In And Ask For Help) Jack