The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper The Spokesman-Review
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
Current Temperature
21°F
Current Conditions
Overcast clouds
View complete weather report

Color Scheme

Subscribe now

EndNotes

  1. Blogs
  2. EndNotes
  3. Mind your (pool) manners, please

Mind your (pool) manners, please

Sunny workout: Steve Lester swims on his lunch hour Friday at Witter Pool, the only Spokane Parks aquatics center open for early season lap swimming. Other Spokane Parks and Recreation pools open with regular hours June 20. Most of the swimmers at Witter on Friday were triathletes gearing up for races, including the Ironman Coeur d’Alene Triathlon, but not Lester. “I'm just trying to get in shape,” he said of his one-mile workout. Witter Pool, open Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., is heated to 82 degrees. More information about pool hours and costs is available at www.spokaneparks.org. (Jesse Tinsley)
Sunny workout: Steve Lester swims on his lunch hour Friday at Witter Pool, the only Spokane Parks aquatics center open for early season lap swimming. Other Spokane Parks and Recreation pools open with regular hours June 20. Most of the swimmers at Witter on Friday were triathletes gearing up for races, including the Ironman Coeur d’Alene Triathlon, but not Lester. “I'm just trying to get in shape,” he said of his one-mile workout. Witter Pool, open Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., is heated to 82 degrees. More information about pool hours and costs is available at www.spokaneparks.org. (Jesse Tinsley)

 I thought I was in the minority. But seems my fellow swimmers get annoyed, too, at folks who misbehave in the lanes and laps of life.

Swimming offers some of us more than a bit of exercise: it is an activity that evokes creative thinking and emotional release from all the nonsense of the day.

I am not Mark Phelps or Mark Spitz, just a middle-age woman seeking some time to escape. I am an introvert by nature so I love exercise where people will not annoy me with trivial chatter. Swimming offers that preference.

Please, people. Let us Aquarius types renew our spirits at the pool in peace. Follow the rules – keep your limbs in your own lane, find the place for your pace, and follow in the right direction.

Oh, leave my towel alone, too, please...

Thanks.

(S-R archives photo)

Spokesman-Review features writer Rebecca Nappi, along with writer Catherine Johnston of Olympia, Wash., discuss here issues facing aging boomers, seniors and those experiencing serious illness, dying, death and other forms of loss.