blues are settin' in

Today is one of the saddest days of the year for me. My backyard pool is now closed for the winter. The guys from the pool company came today to embalm it with antifreeze and pull the shroud-like cover over it. This year we bought cinderblocks to hold the cover down rather than the water bags we used last year. The water bags were supposed to be reusable but every one of them leaked.

The weather today was beautiful. It was 80 degrees with low humidity. I knew I had to go for one last swim before the pool men arrived. I haven't been swimming for a couple of weeks because the water had gotten too cold but I decided to brave it anyway. I stood in the shallow end for a while trying to get used to it. The water temperature was 68 degrees and felt bracingly cold as I did a couple of laps. When I got out, my toes looked almost as blue as Leonardo DiCaprio at the end of "Titanic."