Ohio Street, August 15, 2010

It is strange that today was my first official Lake swim of the year. We, Ken, Jody and I, left my place at 6 AM on a Sunday morning getting stuck on the Kennedy expressway in construction for about 30 minutes. But even close to 7AM parking was again plentiful on Ohio Street by the underpass, just like many years ago. We thank Mayor Daley and his ill fated parking meter sale for this, as well as completion of the humongous new condo building on the formerly vacant lot at the east end of Ohio St. Possibly in this economy no one lives there. At least no one who would want to park on the street at 7AM on a Sunday at $2 an hour. The beach was crowded with swimmers, most with wetsuits, where did they park? From the look of it many rode bikes.

We met Sue and Erin, our newest member, at the beach. Sue had also been delayed by the construction but Erin was patiently waiting. The water was calm, sky mostly cloudy but air about 80. The water felt cold, I guessed about 70 the others guessed lower. Our perception may have been skewed as we have been swimming in a 85 degree pool this week. Actually it averaged about 68.4, warmer near shore, colder at the curve. This westerly wind thing has lasted for about 6 weeks, giving a permanent inversion, the eastern half of the lake is baking in the upper 70's. We swam to the curve and back. For some reason I had trouble swimming straight on the way out, but with the big black condo building by the beach back was no problem. It was a nice swim. Ken had 6 minutes left on his meter which he thought would get us some coffee at Starbucks, fortunately Jody fed the meter as we dawdled for about half an hour. Except for the traffic a good morning.