At last night's fourth and final swimming lesson (despite it being a seven-week course), the college student instructor gave me tips on how to swim as a workout as she helped me refine the three (of the five total) strokes I've learned. She was a great teacher in that she didn't overwhelm us. Gave us a tip here, a tip there, with a lot of encouragement in between. That's a style that apparently works for me. Now I will just need a pool in which to practice what I've learned - after I've bought some new goggles that fit my eye sockets better.
On the way home from swimming, I drove the way that I like to ride my bike from the U of M St. Paul campus. It was a little icy in parts. All I could think of the whole way was how I wish I could go for a decent* bike ride on my road bike right now. Some people - a lot of people - still ride road bikes when it is cold and icy, but I don't and I feel like I have unfinished road bike business this year.
Despite this self-pitying unfinished business thought, I was thinking how I started riding my bike for real once I started doing the MS rides when my friend Stacy was diagnosed with MS and am grateful that she's doing well. I feel grateful, too, that she wanted to join me on this swimming lesson adventure and that she's willing to pay extra attention during her last two lessons to teach me the two strokes I didn't learn. (That will be amusing to watch. Maybe we will charge admission, once we find a pool.)
I thought about others with MS who aren't doing as well, despite many advances in MS research. They are responding to their situations so gracefully, and I'm grateful that they've shared their stories with me.
What else am I grateful for on this reflective morning? Restaurants that bake pies for you when you're supposed to BYOP to someone's house for dessert, and restaurants that serve Thanksgiving dinner when it is a year that you're just not into doing it yourself. Trotter's and Merlin's Rest, I look forward to giving you my business this holiday weekend.
Happy Thanksgiving, friends.
* Decent: Around 45 miles, partly sunny, 60-degree day with little wind on roads in the city exploring new routes with little traffic.
Note: I spent time this week getting my sites for next year up and running. If you have any suggestions of what would be more interesting, I'll take them. I shortened up the text a bit, but feel like maybe I should mix it up a bit this year.
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