Physical Meditations

Madrona Park, my favorite swimming hole along Lake Washington, has removed its diving board. Something about some lame kid getting brain damage while diving into shallow water. (Soon there'll be warning labels on bottles of water so that people don't accidently drown in them.) Consequently, this summer I will not host my normal sundrenched season of spring board contortionism. Instead I've decided upon tennis. Olaiya is picking up the game at an alarming speed, and has her eye on a fetching set of "tennis whites". So even when she doesn't play well, she'll look great! Steve and I also crossed rackets recently and smashed balls over the fences (not just over the net, mind you, but right out of the park!) with great frequency... Trumpeting "Homerun!" each time a ball would sail off into the blue ether. Neighboring tennis players didn't find this near as amusing as we did.

In other athletic adventure news: one of my three softball teams is finished for the year. Kate's Pub won the Seattle Bar League Championship two weekends ago. Then we all got drunk. Actually we were a little tipsy to start with.

All Hail Kate's Pub!

Now I just have to survive the rest of the season in my Jewish Community Center league. The starting shortstop in my B league team just went down for the rest of the season with a nasty ankle sprain, and last week someone had to be carted away in an ambulance (and this is the league where people usually play sober!) My biggest injury complaint this year has been all knee skinnings. I actually decided to dye my bedsheets coffee brown so that all the little blood stains from my scabby knees won't show after a decent washing. A brilliant plan, but now my sheets act like camouflage when Olaiya is lying in bed. I have to be careful not to accidently crush her.