Let's Show the World We Can Dance

Barton Springs Early Morning Swim Report, 9/19

What looks like a will-o’-the-wisp is actually a pack of runners wearing headlights, emerging from the park. Yesterday there was an intimation of fall in the air, high 60s, but that’s gone, another phantom.

This morning I thought I heard, again and again, the barble and bounce of a significant leap from the diving board, followed by…nothing. No splash at all. What kind of vampire manages that? Perhaps only a talented diver so blade-like they slice into the water without the slightest ruffle. Not a stiletto—the bounce was too full-bodied—but a cleaver, cleaving. Cleave was one of the first contronyms I learned, like overlook. “You may not have studied synonyms in English class yet,” I said later to a local high school junior as I drove him to school, “but moneymaker, groove thing, and booty are all synonyms, when preceded by the words shake your.”

At the end of the pool there’s a metal barre you can grab hold of to rest or free up a hand to better goggle yourself. I often stop on my first lap. In the very hot weather, the barre is still warm even in the pre-dawn dark. These days it’s cool to the touch. So that’s some good news.