I'm pretty sure the reason I never really learned how to swim well is exactly that I grew up with the ocean. So I'm totally comfortable in the water, but almost always keep my feet on the ground.

I'm not picky about my water - salt always throws me off a bit because I learned to swim in Lake Huron, but I'll basically swim/kayak/row/sail in anything you put in front of me.

My parents made sure to put all three of us in classes at the Y.

Ocean swimming: I like to swim out past the waves and just bob about with my ears underwater (and then play the soundtrack to The Piano in my head). And half my ocean swimming was jumping off Gramps' boat on the south shore of Long Island.

Yearly vacations on the lake, with lots of dock jumping and snorkeling for golf balls and turtles. And the local watering hole was Short Falls, a bit of river where if you were cool enough, you could swim to the far side and use the rope swing. Snorkeling there, too.

Rivers are still my preference. Especially for floating down rapids on those giant tubes.

I have learned that I can run the 30 faster than an NFL back.

If NFL players were mothers whose kids were in danger behind the opposing line, there would be a lot more fatalities on the field.

Oy cashmere, that is scary. Mac has had swimming, but has now been away from pools for a year. He also has a tendency to freeze when scared now so I am afraid of what would he would do.

You could not have gotten me into a pond at their ages.

Is it the shark thing?

(Pond sharks!)

Is it evil that I'm sitting here watching my neighbors pack up their shit and move with a gleeful smile? I really can't stand their son-- he's one of those kids who would play with Nate and be really nice as long as no one else was around-- the minute a "cooler" (read: older) kid would come around, then Nate was fair pickings. Plus, the males in that family are Civil War reenactors and they're not exactly Union sympathizers.

I will miss their daughter though. She was always sweet to Nate and very much a nerd the way he is. I always wondered how she was born into that family.

Scary, scary, Cash.

My folks grew up in the water, of course, being in Hawaii. And we had a large pond when I was a kid, so I was always in some kind of water or other. I didn't turn out to be an actually good swimmer, although I love it.

I dunno if I could handle the neighbors right on top of you thing anymore. New Mexico kinda cured me of that, although I moved there from downtown Wichita. Not large, I know, but I loved being able to walk to hear bands. But anymore, I have only one neighbor that's closer than two streets away. And I like it that way.

This neighborhood's lots are about a quarter acre each, so it will fill in at some point I assume. But other than my contractor neighbor who seems determined to build the entire region up one house at a time, there is zero construction activity here. So it may be some time. I still hope to buy some of the surrounding lots at some point and give myself a larger buffer zone. But it's lovely at the moment.

I need to take neighborhood pics for y'all.

I started swimming lessons when I was 2 or 3. When I learned the water was over my head, I freaked and they couldn't get me in a full sized pool for another couple years. I don't know what to do with the ocean, and lakes are awfully full of...things. I can deal with wading in clear flowing rivers, but...I like my water clear and calm for swimming.

Farmer's market is gonna do me in. I have too many tiny sweet tomatoes, white peaches and plums and cukes. I gotta eat a lot of produce now.

Off to the salvage store. I need a strike plate. And to investigate.

Jesus, Cash, that's the stuff of nightmares. Thank goodness they're okay.

I'm not sure I've ever been in a pond. But lakes, rivers, ocean, I'm good with all that. Although like Jesse, I never got the hang of *swimming* in the ocean. I tend to splash in the shallows and keep my feet on the ground, too, because I've been caught in the undertow once or twice, and have had waves knock me over.

I love the ocean's smell and sounds, like Barb, but for actual let's-get-some-exercise swimming I prefer a pool.