Just Keep Swimming...

When life gets you down do you wanna know 

what you've gotta do?  Just keep swimming. 
Just keep swimming. 

Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. 

What do we do? 

We swim, swim.  
-Dory

This year I decided Zoey was going to learn to swim.  I looked into swimming lessons and the price quickly discouraged me from that idea.  As long as we're here in Midland, we have free access to the trailer park pool, and an opportunity such as this may not present itself in the future.  So since I'm not working, I decided I'd teach her myself.

Trying on goggles, with jammies.

She was on-board with the idea in theory, but the reality was a bit beyond her comprehension.  She has never enjoyed the feeling of water anywhere near her face, and the tiniest drop running towards her eyes in the bath would result in hysterical crying and an exasperated mother trying to calm the irrational child.

Fully entering a pool was equally challenging as she would tense up if she wasn't fully clinging to me; and stiffly thrash her arms and legs unwilling or unable to follow any direction from me or anybody else.  When I would try and get her to float on her back, with me supporting her; the same result, tense thrashing and refusal to put anything other than the back third of her head in the water.

With a full summer of practice available, I started her out first weekend the pool opened and started getting her accustomed to the water by going several days a week.  Our sessions were short since even if the weather was over a hundred, her little body couldn't stay warm in the cool pool and in a matter of 10-20 minutes she was shivering and her lips turned purpley-blue.

She started to relax a bit after a few weeks and was even willing to launch herself from the shallow end into my arms a couple feet away, but still no face in the water.  A low buoyancy life-jacket allowed her to start to tread water a bit, without the fear of getting anything on her face.  Then I got her a pair of goggles, which she refused to wear at first, but after much bribery, she put her face in the water, and from that moment on it was 1, 2, 3 and down she would go as long as she could. 

One month from the day we started our regular lessons, she suddenly put her face (with goggles) in the water and swam a good 4 feet to me, then raised her head to tread water.  It was as if she suddenly figured it out.  Her reward was a cute wetsuit I won on ebay, to let her stay a little warmer while swimming.

I am so proud of my little girl who now even puts her face in the water without goggles, although very briefly, and can swim.  We now can swim laps together in the pool with snorkels, unassisted by flotation and she loves get thrown to the bottom and swim to the top herself.  She still has a long way to go for me to be confident with her far from my rescuing reach, but she accomplished what we set out to do, and I couldn't be happier.

Desert Oasis

 

“In the desert, the only god is a well.”
― Vera Nazarian, Dreams of the Compass Rose

We live in a desert, and like all deserts, there are oases.  All of the oases in Midland are man-made, slippery slime coated ponds unfit for even the ducks who frequent them or local highly chlorinated pools where every soul for miles retreats during the summer 100° temperatures.  Last weekend Karlie, Melissa, Zoey and I decided to make the trek to find a pool a little less chlorinated and whole lot more beautiful; Balmorhea.

Balmorhea State Park was created under Roosevelt's New Deal program in the 1930's during the great depression.  The program cemented in an area of wetlands to create a 3.5 million gallon freshwater swimming pool, complete with a shallow area for kids and 25 ft deep "natural"  (term used loosely) area with rocky bottom.  Many people bring their snorkel and scuba gear to view the various underwater mosses, fish, snails, and the occasional turtle (from what I hear).  All of this bad for the habitat, but good for a fresh dip.

We arrived early since the park limits entrance to the number of parking spaces and made full use of the crystal clear waters.  Zoey is practicing her swimming abilities, ie thrashing, so she donned a cute little whale fin life jacket for the adventure (I think it's a shark, but I guess sharks aren't cute enough for her). Zoey spent a lot of time in and out of the pool because the 70° pool was just too cold for her skinny little body to endure for too long, but she enjoyed every minute nonetheless. 

The kids in adult bodies, Karlie, Melissa and I, took turns snorkeling and improving deep water diving skills.  Once as I floating along I viewed a man scuba-diving nearby.  I waved and he waved back, then rose from the bottom extending his spare regulator towards me.  I was not going to pass this up despite the little thought of what other slobber may be on the regulator.  So I quickly dove to meet him, and grabbed the regulator, shoved the possible germ infested piece into my mouth, purged the water (this can be done by pushing the purge on the back of the regulator...a little trick I learned during a short lesson 13 years ago scuba-diving through Sandals Resorts in Jamaica) and off we went along the bottom of the pool.  It was a blast, and upon surfacing I am convinced I need to get certified.

Midway through our day we walked to the source of the water, where, in the 90's, efforts have been made to rehabilitate a fraction of the wetlands that were destroyed during the construction of the pool. As in the pool there were several large black Headwater Catfish, Mexican Tetras, and Comanche Springs pupfish(an endangered species specific to the area).  We sat on a dock tossing bread crumbs to the fish,glimpsed a garter snake slither throughing the water, and lured Red-eared slider and Texas spiny soft-shelled turtles to the surface with our delectable white bread, not fit for human or animal consumption.

A little bit sun baked and a whole lot tired, we left around 3pm for a quick glimpse of the Balmorhea Lake then on the road again, Zoey was out like a light and slept the entire 2 hour drive back to Midland.  Along the way we took a few moments to photograph one of the many cool old farm buildings supposedly abandoned when farmers and ranchers became rich from the oil under the land they once worked.

The trip was a great outing for the weekend and was reminiscent of  the cool although not so clear waters of Dierkes Lake I had grown up with.  I think we'll have to go back sometime, perhaps next time we'll drag John along, even if it isn't his cup of tea.