Ohio Street, September 18

A lucky Lake day. I got vibes this week from Jody suggesting that in spite of her difficult time at Big Shoulders she was not ready to give up the Lake for a hot indoor pool. So I promised to keep an eye out for a good weekend day to go to the Lake. I was thinking Sunday, but yesterday it looked like today, Saturday, would be better if the storms held off. So I conditionally suggested a swim today to the group but promising nothing in terms of warm water or conditions. I got no response and wasn't so eager that I would go myself. But not getting a no from Jody seemed unusual so I kept an eye on the street in front of my house to see if she showed up anyway. Sure enough she did. So I threw on a suit and grabbed my warm cap, goggles and a towel and we were on our way.

The Lake was perfectly flat, air cool with some blue sky visible between clouds. Only one wetsuit swimmer in the water. As we got in it felt cold, colder than last week, but not 50's cold. So we pushed on and figured we could at least make a half mile. When we got to Chicago Ave we stopped and I looked at my thermometer watch and it was 65. We were actually feeling good so we swam the whole mile to the end and back. By the time it was done we felt great. The water that felt cold to our hands getting in now felt fine. By then there were many people in the water, in fact there was one poor older guy swimming in boxing trunks with no cap that Jody and I both literally bumped into during our swim. We decided to rate today as "awesome" and were annoyed that we almost missed the swim.

Two and a half hours after we left the Lake there was a large thunder storm. So we hit it just right.