There was one other guy in the ten-lane lap pool when I entered. Instead of using the snorkel like I normally do when I'm there, I just treaded water while moving back and forth through the pool, basically "walking" through the water. Since I wasn't sharing the lane, I went backward half the time, which also helped me avoid awkward eye contact with the lifeguard. After my hour was up, I hit the hot tub for a few minutes to warm up (the pool is cold and the showers are cold) before heading over to WinCo. It's too bad I forgot to clear out old videos from my phone, because I think the video of the drive from the swim center to WinCo would have turned out nicely if it hadn't failed six minutes in due to the lack of space to save it. But I got the drive home from there.
An extra swim Friday was a fine plan anyway, since I have a tattoo appointment this Friday and will have to take a couple of weeks off.
Yesterday was a nice visit at my brother's place, though my sister-in-law went a little crazy with the food. So much stuff and of course you have to try a little of each.
Lately my alarm is set for 4:00am Monday-Friday and 4:30 Sunday. I often wake up at 4:07, which always makes me think of commercials for DisneyWorld, because the number in those commercials was always 1-407-W-DISNEY. Just like I doubt I'll ever forget the ZIP for Pueblo, CO is 81009. After my coffee, I had a bit of a hard time getting out of the house because I couldn't find anything. I'm keeping my gear downstairs in my office for now, and forgot that I already moved the Body Glide to the downstairs bathroom. Then I couldn't find my keys, which I put in the pocket of my hoodie because I had to go downstairs to use the Body Glide before putting on the rest of my clothes. The rest of the week will be easier.
I never run the dash cam on my way out to the island, but I wish I did today. An owl flew in front of me, just a few feet away from the windshield, swooping around gracefully and landing on a sign. I pulled over to try to get a photo, but it left before I could get my phone ready. There's no guarantee I'd have been able to get a decent video of everything if the dash cam was on, but it would have been cool to see.
My route today was almost backwards because I wanted to do the island toward the end. So I walked North first and saw that part of the river in the dark for the first time. Of course I couldn't really see the grassy part very well, so I stopped at the dock where the pavement ends.
The rest of the trail was its usual gorgeous self.
This is where the gate was with a sign saying not to walk any further, but they've removed the gate! They could have just opened it, but it's gone completely now. They also did some maintenance West of there so I was able to walk through without getting my feet all wet.
I saw huge banks of fog rolling in everywhere I looked, and it got colder while I was there, but unfortunately it never actually got foggy.
And I always love when the opportunity to play with the reflections arise.
9.75 miles in 3:08, 20,863 steps
Last week I did 10.2, which was a new Everett record, and could have easily beat that today. But my feet and back were ready to head home and I don't really need to get into the mindset that every week needs to be more than the one before. That leads to weird thinking. 9.75 miles is a very long walk and there's no reason to feel like it's not enough. It's plenty.
I almost didn't include this video, but I thought it was cool that I drove alongside the Amtrak Cascades train eight seconds in. I saw it from the parking spot, but again, couldn't get the phone ready in time.
Today was a great day for birds. Of course I saw the owl, and another I couldn't get a video of was a bald eagle I saw toward the end. I got another good video of an osprey, though, with sound.
And check out this insanely long formation!
Garrett just put up the Christmas tree upstairs, which is appropriate because this popped up in TimeHop today.
That means it's time for me to put together the downstairs one. I love that tree, but it's in 50 or so pieces. Seems like they could have fused some of those pieces together so it wouldn't take as long to put it up.