Taking the Plunge

Today there's a street fair on Main Street.  So, not a parade this time, but lots of food, a couple of bouncy houses, and sidewalk sales.  (I love small town living.)  Dave took Samuel for a little while so I could go to lap swim!

Ah, lap swim, how I've missed thee; although, we may have a love-hate relationship in the morning.  Seriously, it's been ages since I've done that.  I mean, I've gone to the beach with the kids, but that's not really exercise--especially when you consider that I sit in my chair reading homeschool magazines while the lifeguard watches my kids.  (I keep an eye on them too, of course.  I used to be a lifeguard myself, so it's kind of hard for me not to watch the water.  I'm just trained that way.  I mean, simply trained that way.  Ahem.)

So, I did 13 laps in half an hour, but five of those were with a kickboard so I could work on my scissor kick.  Whenever I do the front crawl, I either forget to kick altogether, or I kick harder with my right leg than my left and I end up veering off course.  I'm attempting to even things out.  Whenever I can, I try to get a lane by the wall.  That way, at least half of the time, I'm veering toward the wall instead of an innocent by-swimmer.

I "took the plunge", so to speak, and bought a swim pass for the quarter.  Since we already have a family membership, it only cost $33 for unlimited swimming until the end of December.  (A family membership is a mere $60 for the year.  Yeah.  The year.  For the family.  Another reason to love small-town living.)  I need to go eleven times per month to break even.  (It costs $1 per time for a member without a pass.)  So, I'm committed, I guess....  LOL, that sounds so oxymoronic.  "I guess I'm committed."

It is such a gorgeous day here.  I'm thankful it's Saturday, because I would not want to do school on a day like today.  We'd be playing hooky.  It's 82°F with low humidity and a light breeze, and I'm sitting on the front stoop watching golden leaves flit to the ground.  Ahhhhh....  The only thing putting a damper on my bliss is that I can see Hillbilly Hell being constructed kiddy-corner across the street.  Hey, that's what they call it.  There's a sign and everything (with a pentagram on it, no less).  These neighbors go all out for Halloween:  scary mannequins, an old trampoline converted to some kind of spider web with a 3-D skeleton on it, a demon holding a scythe, a clown with red-glowing eyes on a cross, and there's a soundtrack.  So far, it has: howling wolves, crazy drums, painful screams, some "MWAH-HA-HA"s, creepy organ sounds, "Jaws" music, ghostly moans, and "The Twilight Zone" theme song.  (That last one's not so bad.)  Unfortunately, my younger kids can see this from their windows.  It's also lit up at night, all the better to see it at its spookiest.

*Sigh*

I don't get it.  Why?

*Another sigh*

At least they do a nice Christmas light display....