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DarrkeThoughts
You probably swim the same way you walk, DarrkeThoughts - naturally. Now I am trying to learn how to change form floating on my back to floating face down, and vice versa. To you it would be a piece of cake - me? I can't do it - yet.
posted by
johnmacnab
on August 6, 2006 at 6:15 PM
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I was a regular fish as a kid...I can only imagine how it must be to try to "learn" to swim. I never thought about how many things you are doing at the same time.
posted by
DarrkeThoughts
on August 6, 2006 at 8:05 AM
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Blanche01
The email problem has been getting on our nerves for months, Blanche, but when it doesn't rear it's ugly head we have tended to ignore it. Now it is war.
posted by
johnmacnab
on August 5, 2006 at 6:07 PM
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bel 1965
Do it the way I did, bel 1965. Find a pool that gives adult swimming lessons. That way you have a professional instructor who won't make you feel embarrassed starting so....young?
posted by
johnmacnab
on August 5, 2006 at 6:03 PM
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JohnMcNab,
I had the same experience .Dave did with your email (a while back, this wasn't recently). It bounced back. Just so you know. Those damned computer meltdowns are so annoying.
posted by
Blanche.
on August 5, 2006 at 10:09 AM
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I don't know how to swim
and at 40 feel kind of silly about learning. But you know, you just made me think about it again. I just might.....
posted by
bel_1965
on August 5, 2006 at 6:50 AM
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FF
If you hated your swimming lessons when you were young, perhaps it is just as well that I am starting so late in life. Good luck with the kids lessons, FactorFiction.
posted by
johnmacnab
on August 4, 2006 at 9:31 PM
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Good for you.
We have been hosting a small group lesson at our house once a week with an instructor..but that is for a bunch of kids. They are probably already better swimmers than I am LOL. I learned at the Y when I was a kid and hated my lessons.
posted by
FactorFiction
on August 4, 2006 at 7:18 AM
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mneme
I'm glad you popped in, mneme.
posted by
johnmacnab
on August 4, 2006 at 4:53 AM
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Dave
Thank you Dave. We spent most of yesterday trying to get johnmcnab back and all that happened was we lost other programmes. It will have to wait until another day, but I look forward to getting in touch with you.
posted by
johnmacnab
on August 4, 2006 at 4:35 AM
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Nice to meet you
and I'll drop in again - I enjoyed reading this :) often all it takes is one person to take the plunge...
posted by
mneme
on August 4, 2006 at 4:25 AM
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John, the short version of my email to you was that when your Blogit
subscription expires, I sincerely hope that you're going to renew it. There was a lot of other stuff too, but I'll save that for when you're contactable. When you are, drop me an email via the Blogit link and I'll send the email to you as I have kept a copy.
posted by
_dave_says_ack_
on August 4, 2006 at 1:28 AM
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Whacky
I hadn't thought of it that way, Whacky. Thank you - I feel myself standing up straighter already.
posted by
johnmacnab
on August 3, 2006 at 5:29 PM
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Blanche
Oh dear, Blanche. That means I'll actually have to write it and make it funny, but it won't be this weekend.
This weekend we have our American grandson staying with us and we are going to the Maxville Highland Games on Friday and Saturday. Sunday will be looking after a precocious PITA pre-teen. Monday will be the biggest auction of the year. Tuesday? We may recover from the stress- alternatively we may get pissed as newts and recover on Wednesday.
posted by
johnmacnab
on August 3, 2006 at 5:28 PM
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So you are a hero! Bringing employment to at least three instructors!
posted by
Whacky
on August 3, 2006 at 4:56 PM
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oh, no, not a post, John,. lol! I can't wait.
posted by
Blanche.
on August 3, 2006 at 2:24 PM
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Blanche
I'm surprised you got the 'rude nude' part, Blanche. The lead up was wrong. It shouldn't have been 'there's a connection for you,' but I couldn't think of the correct word until....damn, I've lost it again. Thank you again for the Dave Barry comment, and I can feel a post coming on
posted by
johnmacnab
on August 3, 2006 at 2:15 PM
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Pat_B
I liked that part as well, Pat. Not only did she remind me of Ell, I thought that if I mentioned it, I might get some Brownie points. Sigh! If only Ell read Blogit. Thanks for the compliment, Pat.
posted by
johnmacnab
on August 3, 2006 at 2:13 PM
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Also, I just got the "rude nude" part, John, LOL.
posted by
Blanche.
on August 3, 2006 at 1:53 PM
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All the swimming descriptions are wonderfully convoluted,
just the way we feel before we finally get it. Also loved the comments about the young beauty who reminded you of someone... 18-year-old Ell. Too cool. :)
posted by
Pat_B
on August 3, 2006 at 1:34 PM
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jacenta
Blush again, jacenta. Thank you. I do know that one of my many foibles is getting every little detail explained to me, but it will click - that is an order, johnmcnab.
posted by
johnmacnab
on August 3, 2006 at 7:39 AM
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.Dave
Blush to the hero part, Dave. The wonder of swimming, hooked me last year when I first went in a pool at a friend's house and plucked up the courage to go under water (still holding on to the ladder with clenched hands, you understand) and keep my eyes open. And when I finally floated face down it was an unbelievable feeling. A wondrous feeling of weightlessness which almost made me cry out at the sheer waste of time I had caused myself. Just like the first time on a motorbike or car, or....well, you get my drift.
I realize that it will all come together. I do know that it will click, but I get so bloody angry with myself. I was trying to justify my lack of co-ordination by explaining to the instructor at the end of the last session that it takes 9 separate movements to select a gear using a manual gearshift, but I think that went over her head.
posted by
johnmacnab
on August 3, 2006 at 7:36 AM
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johnmcnab...
Of course I knew you are a hero. You are just trying too hard, but one day you will relax a little and it will just all come together naturally. You wait and see!
posted by
jacentaOld
on August 3, 2006 at 7:16 AM
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.Dave
I didn't receive your email, Dave. Thank you for sending it. My computer crashed months and months ago and although I had all the files backed up, apparently that did not cover the emails and contacts.
I lost every email address I had and every email I had stored, so I am having to wait until my friends contact me - that will probably be Christmas time, as per usual. It took me months to find out that 'johnmcnab' no longer had a password and it is very difficult to replace it.
Because my computer is linked to Ell's and hers is the main one, she has to do the password request from her PC. The problem with that is that as far as 'sympatico' are concerned, someone has already taken 'johnmcnab'. No matter how much we try to tell them that the someone is me, they don't listen.
It is a gigantic pain in the ass as I use 'johnmcnab for eBay and other places. It will be interesting to find out what happens with Blogit on the 10th of August when my subscription expires.
posted by
johnmacnab
on August 3, 2006 at 7:08 AM
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TAPS
It confuses me so much Taps, that I am liable to drown as I try to work out the next move.
posted by
johnmacnab
on August 3, 2006 at 6:58 AM
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Blanche
I know the feeling about being rude to a rescuer, Blanche, but then I wasn't nude at the time....there's a connection for you.....rude nude. When I first started the swimming lessons, there were classes being held for children - I mean 9 months or a year old. It was fascinating watching the parents stand in the water and hold the children as they instinctively tried to swim.
posted by
johnmacnab
on August 3, 2006 at 5:18 AM
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A wonderful story, beautifully written. I'm a lover of swimming and my
preferred stroke is the breast stroke. I taught my wife to swim at the age of 22. It will suddenly click, John. You will be putting in huge efforts to coordinate all the moves and it'll seem like it's never coming and then suddenly, you'll not be thinking about the moves any longer, you'll just be moving. Like riding a bike, the moment you crack it, you'll never look back and the real serenity of swimming will hit you and absorb you.
As for you being a hero. We already knew that.
posted by
_dave_says_ack_
on August 3, 2006 at 1:08 AM
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John, I attempted to email you just now, but it was returned. Can you let
me know whether you received it. I shall now read the post.
posted by
_dave_says_ack_
on August 3, 2006 at 1:02 AM
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Johnmcnab, You make the breast stroke sound so complex that no one could ever get it together. LOL
posted by
TAPS.
on August 2, 2006 at 9:24 PM
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No admiration, John, it's second nature now, I was a Tadpole, then a Minnow
when I graduated the YMCA swim clas. That's what's amazing about teaching kids, they take to it, like (scuse me, I just have to say it) ducks to water. Foreign languages, computers whatever, there's no intellectual inhibiitions.
I have had an interesting life. I'm glad that part is over. Swimming in the river, and nearly drowning because I suddenly realized that I was literally in over my head was not smart. Sadly, the thing I regret most is that I was rude to my rescuer. I brushed him off and went back to my friends, I think I might have been in a little bit of shock, not to mention embarrassed. It was a nude beach back in my hippie days.
posted by
Blanche.
on August 2, 2006 at 7:06 PM
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strat
Cheers mate. And thanks for the drink. I'll chill it immediately.
posted by
johnmacnab
on August 2, 2006 at 7:01 PM
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Blanche
You have had, and are having, a very interesting life, Blanche. Skinnydipping! Oregon Rivers and etc. I haven't tried to swim or float anywhere there is a current of any kind. On my second last lesson, when I was getting really pissed off with myself for not being able to tread water, I asked the instructress if it was OK if I tried to float face down in the deep end. I did it easily. I even floated on my back in the deep end easily, but tread water.....not a hope. I am getting angrier with myself so I will probably do it this week.
I watched someone doing the crawl today. You have my admiration for being able to do that stroke.
posted by
johnmacnab
on August 2, 2006 at 7:00 PM
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It's good your doing this. Everyone needs to know how to swim.
So you go, hero!
posted by
strat
on August 2, 2006 at 6:46 PM
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John, well, it helps to know that you have floating as an option if you get
too tired. I nearly drowned once, skinnydipping in an Oregon river. I had got out into the middle of the river, stupidly not realizing that the current was too strong. I had to float until someone on the beach came and towed me back to shore.
I blame it on the excessive amount of Yukon Jack I had just drunk. I never touched the stuff again. Ick.
posted by
Blanche.
on August 2, 2006 at 6:21 PM
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Blanche
I prefer floating on my back as well - I can do that, and it is the most amazing feeling. I wish I had learned when I was a kid, Blanche. I would happily forgo the freezing panic as I sink beneath the surface.
posted by
johnmacnab
on August 2, 2006 at 6:17 PM
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Azur
And there I was, acting like a drip.
posted by
johnmacnab
on August 2, 2006 at 6:12 PM
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Yay, JohnMcnab, I thought it was an inspirational thing to do,
I started swimming lessons before I was old enough to think about it. Where is the courage, the facing of deep inner conflicts in that? I was simply too young to grasp the ramifications, although, being as nearsighted as I am, I never felt comfortable with diving. I still do not like diving off a board.
However, mastering something as unnatural as entering an alien environment, water, and challenging yourself to overcome that primal fear is heroic. I'm glad you got some kudos for it.
The breast stroke exhausts me. I prefer the crawl. Actually, I prefer at this point, to float on my back.
posted by
Blanche.
on August 2, 2006 at 5:55 PM
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So you have made a big splash there
posted by
Azur
on August 2, 2006 at 4:30 PM
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