Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales

I was in the pool after work, exercising. It's really boring, but I was writing a LJ post in my head about how this gym was working out so well, and wondering if it was like relationships -- you have to try a couple before you find one that works for you. I was right next to the deck (inside most lane), lost in my thoughts, when I heard a body fall. The deck is concrete, the sound of a limp body hitting wet concrete makes quite a loud slap.

I stopped and spun around towards it, an old man was face-down on the deck. I was the closest by far, just an arm's reach away, but I was in the water and pulling myself out without using the steps just wasn't going to happen. I started calling for other people to help.

The guy started waking up, but he had no idea what had happened and his face was twitching oddly. Luckily he listened to me when I told him to stay still. I talked to him for a while while others milled around/went to get cell phones/went to fetch staff. Then unfortunately the man sat up. Luckily someone else was close, because he passed out again and would have hit his head on the bench if someone hadn't been close enough to catch him.

Eventually (too long, in my opinion), staff came. They called 911. Felt like a long time, but eventually a whole pack of rescue people came (6 paramedics and 2 cops). Since I had been the closest and seen the most, different ones kept asking me what happened, so I repeated the story each time and answered their questions as needed.

He didn't want to go, but eventually they convinced him to let them take him to the hospital. While in the beginning I was worried he might be having a heart attack or stroke (the latter especially, since one side of his face had been twitching), it turns out he likes to stay in the steam room a lot longer than recommended (recommended time for healthy people is 5 minutes, he was a 70+ year old man with high blood pressure and stayed in for 15).

So now I wish I had stayed bored instead!

And on the gym? It's equal to or better than my previous gym in all ways but one: The showers in the locker rooms. The Y was meticulously clean. The showers in the locker room in the new gym are GROSS. I've only used them twice now, but I never will again. Hair everywhere. I do not know how women aren't walking out bald, there are such big clumps of long black hair. So gross. Luckily the gym is only 10 minutes or so from home, I can wait that long to shower. (Plus the water gets barely warm, and there's the least water pressure of any shower I've ever been in, while the Y showers were the best ever.) Even with the shower issue, this gym is working out great.

A hodgepodge of topics.

- Swimming. Someone clued me in that there was a gym with a pool (an INSIDE pool) in my town. This would be an improvement over my current gym as the pool is not outside. Also, it would be about 10 minutes one way instead of 30. (Oh how I hate to exercise. oh how I hate spending an hour extra travel time just to exercise.) This is good as swimming in 50 degree weather is just miserable.

- Cold. Know what sucks after you've been swimming in 50 degree weather? Your apartment having no heat. Man, is it cold. They sent the complex repair guy out to look, but he couldn't fix it, so they need to wait for someone from a heating/cooling company on Monday. High tomorrow will be 64, so it could be worse, but still won't be fun.

- Money. Leaving the Y will cost me a lot of money. You basically have to pay for two months your first month (monthly fee + membership fee), and you have to give 30 days written notice to quit, so that will basically be paying three months for, what, three weeks? Blah.

- Graze. I ate my last two snacks of the box. scandinavian forest (blueberries, lingonberries, cherry infused raisins and apple) and white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake (raspberry infused cranberries, white chocolate buttons and hazelnuts). (Why, oh why, does the company hate capital letters so much?) While I couldn't tell one dried fruit from another (other than the apples), it all tasted great. The cheesecake one was okay (turns out I don't really like hazelnuts, but I love white chocolate and the cranberries, so that was good enough).

I wonder why they use so many infused fruits. Cherry infused raisins? Why not just used dried cherries? Seems like it would be less effort and more of the flavor they wanted.

Anyway. Going to go see the new gym tomorrow instead of swimming. I can't get a chill swimming and come home and sit in a cold apartment all day. If the new place looks nice, I might take a swim there (since they'll likely offer a free day pass).

What a day! Poisoned? Sea sick in the pool? And a visit from firemen!

When I got home from work today, it smelled like there was an electric fire in my apartment. I checked everywhere, felt walls, outlets, my computer, all my electronics, but nothing was hot. So I called the fire department. (Not 911, a non-emergency line.) Then I packed up my cat and went outside to wait.

In the minute or two before the truck arrived, the apartment handyman happened by. He was doing work in the apartment next to mine, so I asked if anything he had been doing could have caused a burning smell in mine. He said no.

When the firemen came (how is it that all firemen look hot?), he was still inside. Together they realized the smell was from work he did on pipes, he had to do something under my sink area (drilling up from below my apartment? His English wasn't good.). So the firemen left.

Thinking that was settled, I played around on the computer a few hours before it was time to go to my first water aerobics class. I really don't like my new bathing suit, but other than that the class started out great. Maybe 20 other women, all of them older than me, all of us heavy. One of the two teachers was a young skinny guy, which at first worried/annoyed me, but he turned out to be great.

About halfway through the class, I started felling nauseous. It got bad to the point of me sticking near the wall, so I could get out fast in case I had to throw up. As the class went on, I felt worse and worse. It didn't stop when I got out, or driving home.

Since it had been darned cold, first thing I did when I got home was take a hot shower. Then, even though it was 7:30, I went to bed. The smell (from under the sink) annoyed me, so I got back up and opened all the windows and turned on the overhead fan.

I slept for two hours, now I feel better. So the question is, did swimming make me nauseous? I had been in fresh air for an hour before it hit, so I suspect it wasn't a result of sitting around in the smell for a while. (I had the AC on in my apartment for a few hours, thinking that would be enough air circulation to get rid of the smell. Belatedly I wish I had opened the windows as soon as I smelled it.) I suspect it was swimming, since it felt like motion sickness. Even though I paid for three months of classes, if this continues, I won't be able to keep going. :(

Minor issue compared to those things: When it rains, it pours. I have five books from publishers waiting to be reviewed! They all look like books I'd like to read, so yay free books, but it's still daunting to have a list like that waiting.

I don't like leaving windows open when I sleep (my apartment is on the ground floor), but I think I'll leave the kitchen one open to help get rid of the smell. I wish I knew what the guy did -- I bet he used some kind of epoxy and that there's a warning on the container to use only in ventilated places or something.

If I had known my life was going to take this turn, I would have officially joined 50bookchallenge. We're still in April, and I just finished book #18. In 2012 I read 30 books total. It seems quite possible I might really hit 50 books this year!

Book #18: The Last Colony by John Scalzi.

The rule of this series seems to be: The further I get from the first half of the first book, the less I like the story. The first part of the first book was magic: We got to learn all the new tech, the characters, the new settings, everything was new and exciting. Of course you can't continue that through a whole book series. The latter half of book one and all of book two directly involved all those new things, so they were great fun. This third one moved further along the path (as a book series would have to do), and I was slightly less interested in things.

That's not at all to say this was a bad book! I read it in less than two days, with work and eye strain slowing me down. Heck, I read all three books of this series in six days; I haven't read books at this pace since I was a teenager. (With my then-young eyes I was able to read a book per day. I read those doorstop Clan of the Cave Bear books in a little over a day each.)

The next book in the series is Zoe's Tale, a retelling of this book's events through the eyes of the main characters' adopted daughter. I didn't overly like her in this book, so I'm a little worried how I'll like the book. In May a new book will be published, so perhaps the timing will be right to read it after Zoe's Tale. (Though to be honest, I wouldn't mind a pause between them. I'm feeling the need for a palate refresher.)

( This is getting long, so RL stuff behind the cut. )

It wasn't very smart of me to teach my cat how to sit up and beg. Now she does it all the time, and it's so darned cute I can't help but give her a treat for it.