just some of bill canning's birthday swimmers!
ralph, madison, grady, lftc, claudia, sunshine, bill, diana, anne, beth, phoenix, ashley, alexis, bill

Last week I ran into a distraught Cary in the parking garage, fretting and wringing her hands, all worried about her beloved Bill not having a swim group for his birthday. She sent out a little email but the real force was us peoples! The people who can sway the vote, people who can lure, at first with sweetness and if rejected can immediately resort to demanding, pushy, guilt trips and vague threats. Like 'don't make me come over there' and you know that's just scary. Even total strangers showed up, really! This photo doesn't show Wendy and her pal, or Teresa, a new girl I picked up from the sand. (it's just my way, people, I'm a swim floozy) Our group was far and wide today, we covered the cove with our awesomeness! 16 swimmers! Wow, really? I had no idea until just now. I guess that's how many of us it takes to fill Cary's shoes!  I know I safely speak for all the group when I say we missed Cary, Cami and Leonard and Lyndee very much and despite that, they can look forward to some bragging. Colorado, my ass.
I can think of one funny thing about the new girl,Teresa, she wanted to swim with us, she's heard good things, (who hasn't) but wasn't quite prepared for our love of distance, the zeal for adventure and the general hardcore. I mean, Dianadarling was present, it doesn't get more hardcore than Diana.
So Teresa kept stopping every 50 yards or so, popping her head up looking for the 'goal' and asking where we were going, are we there yet, where is it, what does it look like and so on. I kept telling her to follow the heads, go that way. She kept stopping though and kept asking the same questions: where is it? where are we? are we there yet? where are we going? which way? I could sense a bit of panic and I kept thinking that any moment now she'd get hysterical and start screaming; WHERE ARE WE GOING? WHERE'S THE BUOY? WHERE'S THE F*CKING BUOY? WHERE AM I? So when we finally reached the 1/2, she was out of there. Bye bye suckers, it was fun but later..
Wait until winter, woman, then complain. I wonder if she'll come back?
Thank you everyone for making Cary's plan work, for being the most beautiful and toughest swimmers around, for all your efforts to recruit or allow yourself to be recruited, for the effort to get there, it's not always easy. I love you all and let's do it again and again until we just can't. But don't be surprised if someone comes to tow you along.
lftc-out