Totebag winner

[rootbeer1]

Been a pretty busy week. Last weekend we went to keanubear's birthday party, where we received the grand prize, the official John Ashfield Totebag, after Neil, the original winner, left it behind:



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As another way to remember poohbearhjim, I've created a web page for some of his family's recipes, and it can be found here.

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I went to the gym yesterday and met a friend who, surprisingly to me, can't swim. I had time, so I helped him try to do some rudimentary dog-paddling. It just sort of amazes me when I find friends who can't swim, especially since my family's vacations, when I was growing up, seemed to center around water -- swimming in the ocean, pools or lakes. In high school I opted out of the regular PE requirement in order to swim all year, and at the end was certified as a lifeguard. And even now, although the ocean is too cold to swim in here, I look forward every summer to the various pool parties around the bay area, and not just because they are filled with hairy bearded men in Speedos.

But I think there are more people than expected who don't swim, or never learned how. So ... poll-time!

[Poll #1134139]

Comments

[reslbear.livejournal.com]

If I rescued you then you would have to pay me back with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. :-)

[rootbeer1.livejournal.com]

Heck, just skip the rescuing!

[quirkstreet.livejournal.com]

I can swim the length of a pool much better via backstroke than face-down. For some reason, an ordinary crawl stroke just wears me right out. So I usually say I'm not a swimmer. I wouldn't want to count on my abilities in a crisis.

[rootbeer1.livejournal.com]

Nyahh, a backstroke counts. Swimming isn't just a crawl, it's the ability to move yourself in the water.

[quirkstreet.livejournal.com]

Except in white water rapids. Where you're supposed to put your feet first, and keep your head above water, aided by your life vest. Except the water in the rapids is lighter because of the air mixed in, so your head doesn't stay above water all the time because your buoyancy changes. And if you don't know how to hold your breath right, because you can't do the crawl-type strokes and never learned the whole breathing thing, you take in water in your nose during the rapids. And then you panic.

Fortunately, you are among friends who help fish you out of the river before you panic further, or drown. But then you see the scene in Ratatouille where the rat goes through the "rapids" in the Paris sewers and it's like you're drowing all over again.

Hi! ;-) I'm not still upset about that at all. ;-)

[bearfuz.livejournal.com]

*Ding* I'm afraid our time is up. But we've made good progress today. Let's start with that next week, shall we?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

In order to graduate from my college, you had to pass a swimming course. (The school legend is that the donor for the athletic centre had a daughter who drowned and so made that a condition for his gift.) I wasn't looking forward to it because I'd gone to swimming lessons at least three times before and flunked every time. But then my teacher showed me the backstroke and back crawl and I was like, Wait, I can swim WITHOUT having to put my face in the water? Holy moly, this shit is fun! Turns out it wasn't the swimming I didn't like, it was the breathing. Also, I was too ectomorphic back in the day to float well, so just treading water was a bitch, but time and tide have taken care of that.

[bugsinamber.livejournal.com]

Did you go to Cornell?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I went to the Cornell of the West. Or, as we used to call it, "U of C".

[bugsinamber.livejournal.com]

Coincidentally, Cornell has an almost identical graduation requirement and legend attached to it but apparently the legend proves false. Students aren't required to take a swim class unless they fail the swim test that they usually take during orientation week of their freshman year. The swim test consists of swimming three consecutive lengths of the pool; the first using breaststroke, the second backstroke, the third is whatever you want. I got no less than 10 feet away from finishing my third and final lap when I got winded and had to be helped out of the pool. So embarrassing. But the class definitely helped me improve my form.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I didn't even take the O-Week exam since I knew I'd fail. IIRC, it's not specified what stroke you have to use, you just need to complete a set number of laps.

I also want to state for the record that the fact that my swim teacher was so much more HAIRY and GORGEOUS than anyone who'd tried to teach me previously had nothing to do with me passing the course. But, dayumn, it didn't hurt!

[bugsinamber.livejournal.com]

Alas, I wasn't so richly rewarded for my failure. Actually, that's not entirely true. As I sat in the locker room, wheezing and quietly dying of shame, this cute n' beary guy who saw me being helped out of the pool offered to get me a soda to help me reconstitute. That same guy is my best friend to this day. He's straight but I don't hold it against him. ;-)

Come to think of it, there were a couple of hot guys that had to take the swim class with me. The post class shower in the locker room was always a good time to take a few peeks at hunky naked bods. This one particular guy was of Greek descent, husky and oh so perfectly hairy. He was also frustratingly flirtatious for someone who claimed to be straight. He was always grabbing my ass and sometimes reaching for my junk, usually once we were clothed. One time I cornered him in my dorm after he grabbed my ass and tried to kiss him but he wasn't having it. I wonder what he's up to these days...

[rootbeer1.livejournal.com]

It's the bedspread in the Marcia Brady Guest Room ... and it's available at IKEA. (Or it was, a few years ago.)

[quirkstreet.livejournal.com]

The Marcia Brady Guest Room really does have to be seen. It's FABULOUS.

[quirkstreet.livejournal.com]

But the sheets are to die for. As is the cooking.

[beg1n.livejournal.com]

Never did for some odd reason. But I love splashing around in a pool, lake, ocean, or gutter.

[rootbeer1.livejournal.com]

I always saw it this way (and I hope it's not racist):

Many lighter-colored people spend time by the water because they want to be tanned, and that's where dedicated tanning usually takes place. If you have no interest in your skin being darker, that removes one of the reasons for spending time by a pool or at the beach.

[rootbeer1.livejournal.com]

Like you suggested above, it could also be related to geography and climate. I'd think more of the general population in Florida learn how to swim than, say, the general population of North Dakota.

[paterson-si.livejournal.com]

and you can hardly get me out of the water when i am the coast :)

[ponycub.livejournal.com]

I could not swim untill just this last summer. Britbear got me swimming lessons. I still wouldnt say i can swim. But i could probably make it to the side of the pool or something if i fell in the deep end.

[geofferbear.livejournal.com]

no shit, eh? i never knew......

[fogbear.livejournal.com]

Swimming was my sport between the ages of 11 and 18. When I developed sleep apnea a dozen years ago, my most frequent nightmare was that I was drowning. I haven't been able to swim the same way since.

Where are the pictures of this man in speedos, hmmm?

[erik415.livejournal.com]

I guess I'd have to say that I can swim pretty well. I was a lifeguard for several years when I was younger. During the summer I'd work at beaches & lakes and in the winter I'd work at health clubs with indoor pools. It was a great gig to have in highschool and college. I eventually became tired of roasting myself in the sun and became a lifeguard trainer for the American Red Cross.

[chuckersil.livejournal.com]

I can swim... I won a gold medal in my summer camp olympics once for swimming.. then I got fat and couldn't win anymore.. but I can still swim.

Luckily for me, the males in my family have always been "buoyant."

[geofferbear.livejournal.com]

my mom was insistent that her kids learn how to swim and swim well. i think she had some quasi-irrational fear we'd drown or something. i was captain of my HS swim team and swam for exercise thruout college and grad school. i gave up swimming regularly because it makes me, uh, too lithe.

[akil.livejournal.com]

I was *way* too uncoordinated as a kid to learn how to swim. My mom enrolled me in classes when I was a kid but I never got very far.

Fearing that I'd have to take California's "mandatory" swim test in order to graduate from high school, I tried again when I was 14, but to no avail. I took that set of classes at the YMCA. Enrollment dwindled so much that by the end, I was the only student in the class. Even with the dedicated attention, I was unable to swim. (I never had to take the swim test, either ... Whew!)

I feel that now, as an adult, I have a much better awareness of my body and that I'd be successful. I'd like to think that learning to float on my back or tread water won't be nearly as daunting now.

I can float and make it from one end of a pool to the other but it's not pretty. :)

F.M.S.

[abearius.livejournal.com]

I tried to start a group called Fat Men Swimming. It never got off the ground because I ran out of steam and ambition. But it was a cool idea. :-D