CRAZY

“She really is a fish, isn’t she?”
GP grinned as she relayed her husband’s assessment of PP. Going swimming in this weather?

In the worst storm of the year? (Okay, it was the first storm of the year, but still.....)

“Or he coulda said she was the Craziest Fish, really!” PP muttered aloud to herself as she vainly tried to see the freeway in front of her through the driving gray sheets of windy rain.

What she will do for a swim!

Is the pool worth risking your life for?

Goddamn right it is.

PP hit the brake as the cars in front of her slowed to a crawl, red brake lights thankfully warning her to keep her distance. The gargantuan yellow truck at the front of the line of cars spewed a ghastly black smoke as it chugged up Hwy 80 toward Pinole.

Glancing down at her speedometer, PP saw that she was barely going 35 miles an hour.

This is for the best, she thought. Of course unless some stupid idiot rear-ends her. “Maybe you should think less about what’s behind you and concentrate on what’s in front of you instead,” DHBF had advised when she complained of yet another harrowing drive to his apartment on Fruitvale Ave.
“But I’ve been rear ended twice!” she’d exclaimed.
“So have I,” he answered. Why the hell does he always have to do that? Whatever she’s being highly sensitive about, he’s already done it. And it was nothing.





Trying now to follow his advice, PP kept a good distance between herself and the car in front of her, thinking to herself how CRAZY this was to be driving to the pool in such a storm. Esp. after her nervous breakdown earlier that morning after getting caught in the torrential downpour in the parking lot of Safeway. Couldn’t get the Geo’s door open. Had to run around to the other side of the car, spastically fitting the key into the front door, finally opening it to let the rain gush into the car. Tossing the plastic sopping wet bags all over the back seat. Her hair matted to her forehead in a pitiful clump. Slamming the door, she sat inside the car, soaking in the front seat, breathing in and out rapidly, trying to control herself.

PP tries not to have breakdowns in public places.

Was inside her car a public place? she wondered.

Damn. She breathed in again. Watching the rain hurling down from the sky through the foggy windshield.

If she were really a fish, a little rain wouldn’t really have bothered her, right?

Now, finally taking the exit for the pool, PP waited at the light, before making the left hand turn. A angry "HONK"! from behind startled her already rattled self. Had she just cut off someone behind her because of her fogged up windows? Damn!
That's what she gets for the followment of DHBF’s advice to not be so concerned with what’s behind her.

Oh, blame him! She grinned to herself as she headed down the windy hill toward the Hilltop Y.

Yet. 15 minutes later. In the pool. Only one other Crazy Fish was in the water.

Heaven!

It had all been worth it, she thought as she jumped in, streaming through the glassy water, feeling her arms stretch out and cut through the water.

Later, post swim, relaxed and satisfied, PP came out of the sauna and ran into Scraping Walker Woman, who had just done her water walking. “The weather is pretty bad today, isn’t it?” she said, giving PP her blue eyed twinkle even as she grunted toward the shower.

“Oh, yeah!” PP agreed as she turned on a shower. “The rain is Nasty. Esp. driving on the freeway.”

SWW nodded, considering PP’s plight before answering. “Yes, well I live close by. But I thought to myself that I needed to come here today. Because there were lots of days before when I wasn’t well enough to come at all.”

PP had nodded. Now here’s a person with real problems, not just Parking Lot Breakdown Disorder.

And she appreciated what she could do today. And of course, the Pool was key. Admirable to be so optimistic in the face of physical limitations, PP thought.
Oh, to hell with Optimism, she grinned as she headed back over to her locker.

She’d take Crazy any day.