Mixed bag

I was all hot to trot got get into the pool this morning and try swimming again. My buddy Katie had encouraged me to show up, then she decided to do a bike workout instead. So there I was, wandering disconsolately around the pool deck, looking for her. The problem is that I'm really shortsighted, and have to peer carefully. I've goofed a couple times. Oops.

It only took 300 m to lose my form. Sigh. Take a few weeks off and the swim fitness goes to hell. Swam another 200 m anyways, thrashing, watching the kids in the next lane swoosh by. Then water ran for 20 minutes, feeling pretty good.

During the swim I had a bit of an insight. There's one chunk of the novel that I now realize could work set quite a bit earlier than it is now, with very minor changes. One of my readers had commented that she would love to have a doctor as nice as the ones in the book. It occurred to me that it would be a good (if minor) story arc to see the medical system being a bit of a jerk during Hardisty's bike crash follow up, and showing how that changes along with some other changes. The thought of "what would happen if doctors were rated by follow up surveys?" came to mind. After all, every time I get any service work done on the car, Honda sends me a survey. When I give blood, a survey. Lots of other occasions. How would doctors behave if some fraction of their pay were dependent on customer satisfaction about their manner? Hmmmm. In other news, I'm still revising. Still hoping to have it ready to pitch by August.

On the way into work I got some nice photos. There's a story with one of them. I was just loving the colour of Banker's Hall as I was walking along, and had to stop for a photo. These are just as the iPhone saw them.

Many office buildings hang art on the walls. I noticed this one for the first time, and it's not more than 15 feet from my office. I have to pass it to get to my office, and to go almost anywhere. This morning I was standing there looking at it, wondering if I'd ever seen it before. I didn't think so, but wasn't going to be astonished if one of my co-workers said, no, it's been there since we got here.

This is almost exactly what you'd see coming out of the woman's washroom. I was standing in the doorway (it was shut!) to take this shot. I wonder what they think of it? Maybe if I ask one of them I'll find out how long it's been there.

One of my blog buddies mentioned that I needed to update my blog a bit. That photo up at the top was just a bit overwhelming. On almost any screen you have to scroll down to get to the real content. So I tried resizing it at work, and it went away. That was a bit of a surprise. So I fixed that when I got home, and started looking at some of the other templates.

Now, I'm not particularly an adventurous guy. I don't get out much. Good enough is good enough for me. If it works, I tend to leave it alone. Even things that don't really work any more, like slippers with a hole in the bottom, tend to be used well past their best before date. So that picture has been up since September 2010, so 3.5 years, and that's enough, I guess. Upon being prodded. Now that I think of it, I don't have the faintest idea what picture was there before, or even if there was a picture.

So, if you have any comments on the revised photo, or the template, feel free to comment. Even if you don't have a comment on that, you can leave a comment about the brilliant content of my blog.