Evanston, October 3

This morning Mike calls early with news that the Evanston water has warmed up. Generally during the season south winds bring cold water but maybe the pattern is different in October. So after work I meet Mike at our usual beach to see if he is telling the truth, also it is an unusually warm October day with temperatures near 90. Mike is right, the water is 65. But, although the wind speed is moderate, there are short wavelength waves coming in from the south east. We were not sure how far we would swim, it is certainly warm enough and Mike is feeling better so he urges me to swim farther, even though I am concerned about the swim back. Finally, about 3/4 of the normal swim we come to heavy surf where the water gets shallow. Mike finally agrees to turn back. It is a tough swim back, visiblility is bad and swimming into these not high but frequent waves is not fun. We seem to be making progress but every time we pause to look around it seems we are being pushed backwards. Eventually we come into the "shadow" of the south wall and the going becomes easier so we do make it back. We celibrate by breaking out an end of season beer on the beach. There are actually quite a few people on the beach and even in the water, we get an earfull from a local about how the lifeguards seem to think their job is to discourage, not facilitate swimming.