The Girl and the Man

The other day, the Girl got into some trouble with the Man.

Let me just backtrack a little. We had a whole day off together and that day happened to be a recovery day for both of us. That happens quite rarely. We decided to go to the pool; this was after day care hours so we had to bring the Lorax into the pool area. We have done that once before; one of uf swims a couple of laps, while the other one wathces the Lorax. Then we switch off and keep switching off until we have each swum about a mile.

Now, the other day, the Lorax was in a good, docile mood. He just sat there, marveling at the ceiling and babbling to himself. It felt like overkill to have to sit and watch him. The Girl then had to go to the bathroom while I was swimming. She told me that she was going but was just going to leave the Lorax behind. We discussed it a little bit and off she went.

When she came back, the lifeguard was over by the Lorax, waiting for her. I hadn't noticed until then. She was arguing loudly with the lifeguard about leaving the Lorax behind. I did one more lap and then joined the conversation, which was getting heated. The lifeguard basically felt it was unsafe to have a kid in the pool area, period. He had opened up by saying that all the noise and the hot air was bad for babies. Probably not a smart move for an 18-year old boy in front of a young mom, who happens to be a doctor who reads every medical study on childrens' health she can find. So things got a little ugly.

But the case was such that, without argument, the Girl had left the Lorax behind, which is not allowed at the YMCA.

I finally had to enter the discussion, apologizing for our mistake, promising it would never happen again. It was a nice good cop/bad cop move that worked well. The lifeguard backed off and let us keep swimming.

Thankfully, I had told the Girl to bring the Lorax along with her, and actually offered to watch him while she was gone, so I left the encounter looking like a rock star. Also, I have to admit it's exciting to see her get into tussles like these.

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Running is great. We ran long together on Saturday. I ran 27 miles, the last 15 of which were run around 6:45 pace. The last 5 were closer to 6:15 pace. I was tired at the end; very tired. But it felt like there was a little left in the tank.