{"id":2588,"date":"2023-10-03T17:55:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-03T17:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.todayatthelakeblog.com\/?p=2588"},"modified":"2023-10-03T17:55:00","modified_gmt":"2023-10-03T17:55:00","slug":"no-pain-in-the-rain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/todayatthelake.blog\/?p=2588","title":{"rendered":"No Pain in the Rain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tues, Oct 3, 2023. Stockholm.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today at the lake, it was pouring rain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I made plans to meet my new swim buddy, H, at her beach, but I was late getting up, so we pushed the time out a bit. Even with that, I was late because Google Maps said it would take me 13 minutes. It took longer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time I arrived I was all the way soaked and a wee bit cold, but I didn\u2019t care. H was there in her giant swim parka, and we were just as happy to swim in the rain. I struggled to get my wetsuit on because it\u2019s hard to get on and even harder when I\u2019m wet. <\/p>\n\n\n

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H doesn\u2019t wear anything but a swimsuit, so she was able to get in and start while I struggled to get my gear dialed in. It seems that I have lost one of my gloves, which pisses me off because they were $50! F!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, I got in without gloves and without my shoes, which was tricky because the ladder has very slippery wooden steps. The water felt amazing; cool, refreshing, clean, alive. There is a children\u2019s pool on the shore, as well as a little swim area for kids formed by the U-shaped docks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love how they make the docks here. It\u2019s very orderly and casual at the same time. And every dock has a lifesaver. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s actually quite nice to be in the water when it\u2019s raining. It\u2019s so peaceful. The water is totally flat. The drops make teeny tiny circles when they hit the water. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the distance there was a sailing class taking place. Nice to see the white sails go across the lake. Next to the swim area there were a bunch of big, old boats. I wished that I had a headcam to capture everything I saw. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

H and I swam back and forth, then met in the middled and floated and chatted for a bit. Hugging my buoy and chatting in the water is such a wonderful way to do girl time. It\u2019s like walking and talking, but you get to be in the water. <\/p>\n\n\n

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The brackish water has a smell that I don\u2019t know how to describe. It\u2019s not a bad smell, but it\u2019s also not a lovely smell. I will have to try harder to figure it out. It\u2019s strange to swim in water that is so clean, yet I can\u2019t see anything. It\u2019s hazy and sage greenish on the top, fading into brown at the bottom. I never see fish or seaweed or anything, and I like it like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stockholm is both small and vast. On the bike I can get from one island to another relatively quickly. In the water, things seem bigger and farther apart. Also, there are so many things to see and do. So it\u2019s a little bit confusing for me. I\u2019m not sure how to visualize it yet. London is massive and sprawling, and I\u2019ve spend so much time there that I have a way of finding my way on the winding streets. But here I haven\u2019t spend enough time to get a solid map in my head. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biking is helping me learn my way. And cognitively it\u2019s actually helpful to think of the city in several separate pieces, each with its own highlights and attractions. For me the city is a series of bike paths and swimming beaches. The jellyfish are long gone. It\u2019s getting cold. I could have been in a 3:2 suit today and been fine, and I didn\u2019t wear my gloves today. I wonder how cold it will be when I swim in London in three weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Very happy to have found a like-minded swim buddy here. Also, after two months of only speaking with Swedish people, it\u2019s nice to talk to someone who speaks the same language. Swedes speak English really well, but it varies from generation, from small town to city. There\u2019s an ease with another English-as-first-language speaker that I haven\u2019t had. Subtle, but noticeable. And there are loads of cultural differences that I\u2019m missing that H has had to live with here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t get tons of time in the water today, but if felt so good to be in it. I remembered to float for a minute, like that\u2019s the time to be thankful. Not worry so much about if I\u2019m getting in my 30 minutes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

OK. Now I need to eat. Tomorrow is a big day. I might not get to swim again until Friday! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tues, Oct 3, 2023. Stockholm. Today at the lake, it was pouring rain.  I made plans to meet my new swim buddy, H, at her beach, but I was late getting up, so we pushed the time out a bit. Even with that, I was late because Google Maps said it would take me 13 READ MORE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[112,151,161,186],"class_list":["post-2588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ducks-wildlife","tag-openwaterswimming","tag-stockholm","tag-sweden","tag-wildswimming"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/todayatthelake.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/9BE229D9-6769-4E81-B206-6209A7BBECD7_4_5005_c.jpeg?fit=480%2C360&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/todayatthelake.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/todayatthelake.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/todayatthelake.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todayatthelake.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todayatthelake.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/todayatthelake.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todayatthelake.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/todayatthelake.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todayatthelake.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todayatthelake.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}