Evanston, September 13

The weather people promised a hot day, the third in a row, no rain and water in the mid 70's. They lied. First of all it rained. And second, the water temperaturetook one of its sudden tumbles, more typical of August, but often associated, paradoxicly, with hot weather. It was only 67. We had a guest today, Ken has, at leastfor now, joined our little group. We took him to our usual beach, the construction crewswere taking a day off so parking was possible. Fortunately Ken is also able to handlecold water so his lack of a cap, along with Mike, wasn't a problem. I probably had an extra latex cap in my bag anyway. From shore it looked quite calm and the swim out wasfine, Ken is comparable to Mike and me in speed so we swam in formation. At the turn the flag was limp which I took as a good sign as the wind was to be from the south. But we were again deceived, the small waves were much less friendly going back. By the time we finally arrived we had scattered, Mike to the right, Ken to the left and me, who onlywanted a cooldown from Saturday, bringing up the rear in the middle. Part of the problemis that we were aiming for the lifeguard perches, which, as has happened to us before thistime of year, were being moved by park staff to safer ground. Ken claimed to be impressedwith our swim so we may see him again.