Evanston, August 14

I have been gone for several weeks, swimming in the Lake of the Ozarks, not swimming in the Long Island Sound which looked oily. We were to swim yesterday but it was too foggy. Today Jody, Bill (Jody's husband whom she has been grooming to replace me as her open water buddy), and I enjoyed a day that was perfect for a novice lake swimmer like Bill. It was glass flat and 76 degrees. The sun was partially obscured by a light overcast so not glaring in our eyes. We swam to the wall and back with Bill first to arrive, not because he was the fastest but because he is not comfortable yet to stop in the middle of a lake swim to chat. By the time we finished the glass had turned to light ripples so we got the best part of the day.