My yoga outfit was upstairs and I didn't want to make the boys think they were being fed when they weren't. It's never fun to fake them out. I also didn't want to leave on the stuff I was lounging in, because I'll use loungewear for a few days at a time and didn't want it getting sweaty or dirty on the mat. So I finally joined the legions of hippies who do yoga naked. It was actually nice! I don't particularly care for the way I look in the stuff I wear for yoga anyway, so I didn't really miss it.
The neighborhood swim center finally re-opened yesterday, so I went there this morning.
I'm not sure what all was supposed to be done in the six weeks they were closed, but not much is different. My swim today was free because the sauna is closed for another two weeks and the hot tub was also out of service, so that was nice. When I walked in, the pool appeared to be gleaming, but as I treaded water, I could see a lot of the old spots on the bottom. The gleam comes from a huge new ceiling fan with an extremely bright light in the center. It replaces four smaller fans, at least one of which was probably broken. The rest of the light fixtures also seem to have bright new bulbs.
It was nice to use their showers again. They're strong and consistently warm, and the soap dispensers pump out tons of suds. Back at Snohomish, they're always cold and it's hard to get enough soap. There are private stalls at Snohomish, but I'd rather have a good shower out in the open than a bad one in private.
I'm disappointed to report that the lockers weren't upgraded as I thought they'd be. I think they installed new hooks for clothes and towels, and the racks for bar soap and bottles in the showers are new, but that's it for locker room improvements. The locker situation is still quite dire. I decided to finally count the issues today. As I left, there was only one other swimmer at the pool, so I'll assume he was using a locker. If that's the case, of the 46 lockers in the room, only 15 were available to use today. They're the kind you put a quarter in and get a key, and my lock made 14. Of those, four of the keys had everything broken off but the plastic knob, so there's no way to pin them to your towel or anything. I didn't count among the remaining lockers, but those either have no lock at all, or no key.
The ones that have no key were likely "claimed" by regulars, and that's a problem. And that problem is the reason I don't like this style of locker. My preferred policy is lockers you bring your own lock for, where all locks left on at closing time are cut. Second best would be a situation like at the YMCA where you can have your own locker permanently, but that's not sustainable at a public pool. Thankfully I avoid the pool when it's crowded so it'll hardly be an issue for me.
I also enjoyed treading water again for the first time in weeks. I did it for my full hour and my watch counted that as almost 5,000 steps. It's much more of a workout for me than laps is; the kicking is pretty similar, but my arms move much more. I may go again tomorrow. Maybe it'll be free again, which is a good enough reason. Turns out my new walking poles won't be here until tomorrow night, so I may as well stack the swims up early this week.
Oh, another good thing about treading water instead of laps is that I can keep my hair out of the water. I don't really know if the pools will mess up my gorgeous (and expensive) new color, but I'd just as soon not find out the hard way.
EDIT: I forgot to mention a few other minor changes. There's new carpet in the entry, and that looks nice. They've moved the vending machines from the entry to a little corner spot that used to be full of boxes. They've also cleaned up some other clutter around the front desk. I used to see (the swim center cat) Zoey's legs sticking out of boxes in the corner to I'm sure she's mad about her forts being moved. It was nice to see her today.