Swim training: week *#!^%%

Don't ask. That's all I have to say.

Saratoga's closing weekend

The last weekend of Saratoga's racing meet was, in fact, last weekend. My friend, Nick Martinez, whom I met in Saratoga last year, gave me a trip up as a much needed break. Here's Nick showing fellow artist, Greg Montgomery (who does The Travers poster every year), his work in progress of Bernardini.

It was a perfect weekend! Dogwood Stable's Aikenite was running in The Forego (my friend Bob Witham was the exercise rider for Forego when Frank Whiteley was training the horse) and The Greatest Racing Fans Ever were also there.

It was tremendous fun to meet up with that group both days!

Saturday and Sunday mornings I went to the track to watch the gallops because that's my THING. Susan Howard met me to take me to her husband Neil's barn (I interviewed Neil 20 years ago when he wintered in Camden, SC) then we had breakfast at the track kitchen.

Sleepy horse at Neil Howard's barn:

Afterwards, I went over to Shadwell Stables to check on some of the babies I saw this past spring in Camden.

This is Al Aqsa - Isn't he CUTE??

Saturday had three big races and I had an affinity for this Dynaformer filly but she didn't do much. Here trainer Billy Mott stretches her legs.

Mr. Whiteley sent all his babies to trainer Shug McGaughey, who has a horse here.

Then it was The Forego and I just love Aikenite. He finished third.

In between races, there was Derby winning trainer Nick Zito. I was teasing him about something here (actually I like my hair, which is why this pic ended up in here)

Then we had the nice picture:

Afterwards, was The Woodward. Havre de Grace was a filly facing a field of boys and she trounced them! Nick's tentmate/artist friend Frankie Flores took me into the winner's circle with trainer Larry Jones and Havre de Grace. You know - I can just die now. That put me over the top!!

Larry Jones gets congrats on his way to the winner's circle:

Just after my foray into the winner's circle, I told Chris I had pulled "a Chris Heeley" by insinuating myself into the winner's circle. Chris, back in the spring, just jumped into the winner's with the Dogwood Stable group. It was hilarious! He gave me a thumbs up!

Sean Clancy runs "The Saratoga Special," a daily racing paper. He was a champion jump jockey back when I was a reporter in Camden.

Here's my funny Sean Clancy story (well, funny to me): I was walking by The Saratoga Special's office from the track and saw the door open.

I'd just seen Joe Clancy at the track so I figured Sean was working and I wanted an old issue. I knocked on the door and walked right in. Turns out to be where they LIVE so I'm yelling,"Helloooo!" and got all freaked out that someone was going to come down the stairs in a towel or something.
I bolted out of there and texted Sean: You guys should close and/or lock your door or else any ol' person (like me) walks in hollering hello looking for old papers.
So I see Sean later and said,"Hey, that was me texting you earlier after cruising through your empty house this morning." And we had a laugh.
I made the last issue of "The Saratoga Special" with this story and saw they'd closed their door the next day as I was walking past.

Me being silly with Mark:

Mark the day after:

Hogan having a GRAND time!

Here is the canoe in the lake in the middle of the track. So I hear that it disappears every meet in a common prank. I didn't even see it last year.

Swim training: Week 8. Really?!

Yes, my 6-week training has just seen the completion of the 8th week of training. Do we add in the 4 weeks the pool was closed? That spans out to 12. I don't think I'm supposed to count those though.
And, apparently, not done yet. Yes, it's 2 a.m. and I have a bad attitude. It gets checked at the end here.

For the past two weeks, I've been videoed and asked to critique myself. I saw things that needed to be changed. I saw things I did well. I tried to adjust what I needed to this week but it was frustrating. Nadyne will either TELL me what I do (when I'm just about to do it myself) or remain completely quiet. My frustration is apparent on video when I do something wrong or she's telling me what to do.

She asked what I thought of her instructor training and I told her there were holes. She's been doing it 25 years and it's like breathing to her. Check me in a couple of years and maybe I'll be the same way.

Last week I got a long email from her about my lack of progress in training and that I was not ready to teach. I went in asserting that I was getting conflicting information and thought I was doing better on things she pointed out to me. She told me I was wrong and snarked at me for a couple of hours that day. I figured it was going to be a loooooong week.

At the end of last week, she told me I'd "had a good week" and she "should have slapped (me) around earlier." Probably the closest thing to an apology I was going to get.

Between last week and this one, I've had five kids complete the program. Kids I did myself. Total of 7 so far. I think that's a testament that I'm doing okay - I haven't drowned anyone, I haven't traumatized anyone (parents maybe, not kids).

Ok, before I end this rant - and it is just that: a rant - Nadyne told me yesterday that she's giving my training fee back. When her pools open (sometime between October and January)  and I go to work for her, she'll pay me an hourly wage and figure out how she'll return my training fee: whether it's a lump $10,000 if her pool build outs come under budget or spread out over 10 months.

I cried.

On that note I leave you with ... my only baby I've finished came up with hoof and mouth disease today. I had my fingers stuck in her mouth yesterday to burp her after her final test out. I kissed her. And it's a highly contagious disease - one that put Nadyne in the hospital some years ago. So we wait.

Swim training: it goes on, and on, and on

Officially, I'm in week 6 - what is usually the final week of training. But here's how it's going:

The good news: two of my kids finished this week. One is 6-year-old Harper, who liked to have a panic attack the first two weeks of lessons. She cried. She fought. She said,"I can't" every time we tried something. When she finished this week? She was sidebreathing. Sidebreathing! I even raced her across the pool in backstroke, giving her a good head start and she beat me!

You can see a video of Harper here: http://www.vimeo.com/26988767

Her sister Margot is two months shy of 4. Again, for almost three weeks straight, she'd fall apart before getting in the pool. She tested out perfectly this week.

This is a video of her test out (note: This is NOT how I teach aquatic survival. This is a child fully equipped with the skills to survive in the water i n case she's pushed in or disoriented, which is what I'm testing.) http://www.vimeo.com/27009433

Every time a child gets these skills, I'm amazed. These are my first two and, given how they came into the program, it's even more amazing to me.

(Yes, I know I look like a troll here - I spend the day getting splashed in the face, plus I'm sick. Cut me some slack.)

At least two other of my kids finish this coming week. I'd have my first baby finishing if she weren't teething, which is throwing off her roll over to float. Pbbth.

Now the bad news. Nadyne told me when we started back after our unnecessary 3-week break from the pool because of heater issues that I would probably be done in three weeks. That will be next week. Last Saturday, she told me she wanted six weeks straight with me. I told her I couldn't financially do it. I thought I would be teaching now and earning money but six weeks more?? I can't. I CAN'T.

Tuesday we rode into work together and I told her I'd gotten a job. When I lived here before, I taught dancing for a company that asked me to come back now and teach again. The original plan was I would teach swimming in the morning (thinking I would be done by now) and have a dance class in the afternoon. Now the dance class is smack in the middle of swimming kids and Nadyne, feeling blindsided, was mad.
She told me I could just start my training all over again in January when the pool opens here. I thought I would be sick. All this time wasted.
Granted, she offered me gas money that afternoon.
And she told me yesterday that she intended to tear up everything I was doing. As I was in the water with kids, she was asking me questions and getting frustrated that I wasn't answering fast enough. I told her I was trying to concentrate on what I was doing with this child - why's he doing that? how do I fix it? what did I just do to get that? - and could not listen and answer her at the same time. We had an episode of swimming a kid and she's giving me one direction, then another, then telling me something else. I picked up the kid, looked at her and said,"I'm totally confused as to what you want." She said just go with it, there's a method to what I'm asking. And there was but I was so frustrated in the process.
She fussed at me for being too close to the baby I was floating. I said,"I was going to back up but knew you'd yell at me for moving so I just stayed put until I got what I wanted from her!"
We're a little at odds. I want to be finished. She needs me to be proficient. I need to earn a living. She has to see that one of her instructors is trained to the best of her ability before allowing me to teach on my own.

4th of July

My friend Bernadette and her husband Larry put on quite the shindig for July 4th. They buy an enormous assortment of fireworks and put on a really good show!

She looks like she's laughing but she's really saying,"Ow, ow, ow!"

A thunderstorm chased everyone out of the pool and I was trying to get a smile out of Mr. Grumpy.

Goofball.

Remember when fireworks were this exciting? I don't.

In which we see a deer

A couple of weeks ago, I waked to hear ReSet barking. The kind of there's-something-out-here bark. So I looked out my bedroom window and ReSet was bouncing around about 5 feet from a doe!Then my neighbor comes out of her house and approaches the field and the doe approaches her and my neighbor ends up petting it.
The Daisy got some blueberries and ran outside, approaching the doe slowly. It took the blueberry and licked her arm.

The Boo and I sat in the yard, taking pictures. We tried getting close to her but she took off. Boo said the entire experience was not cool because he didn't get to pet it.

Cigar store cowboy & Indian

These wood sculptures are outside the feed store near my house. The Boo insisted I take his picture. Insisted!