Funny story

grateful for humor

Photo courtesy of Pixabay

I don’t know about my readers, but I could fill a book with funny predicaments I’ve found myself in over the years. Perhaps that’s why I’m such an I Love Lucy fan, because of the nature of Lucille Ball’s silly antics, a girl after my own heart. 

I have no problem laughing at myself. I’ve said it before, there’s nothing quite as therapeutic as a good laugh, even if it’s at my expense.

Our HOA has a community pool that offers lap swimming throughout the spring/summer/early fall mornings. The children’s swim team takes priority during the morning hours through July, which means that lap swimmers are restricted to one hour in the a.m. until early August.

After a prolonged start to summer this year, with rain and low temps lasting through June, this Monday was my first day back to the pool. The temps were over 100, so I was very eager to return, as were many of my fellow lap swimmers. We have five lanes, and when I arrived, eight swimmers were already in the pool, doing their best to avoid one another. After fifteen minutes, one of the swimmers signaled me that she was done.

I happily entered the pool wearing my swim hat, which covers my neck and face, a favorite for me when I’m only doing the breaststroke or swimming laps using a kick board. I wrapped my hair in a scrunchy, tucked it inside the hat, grabbed my kick board, and lowered myself happily into the cool water. 

It was lovely to be back. After paddling back and forth for ten minutes, I was halfway across the pool and noticed a woman in a bright pink bathing suit getting ready to enter the pool in the lane next to me. She stood at the edge, pointing toward the middle of the pool, asking us swimmers in a somewhat agitated voice, “What is that?”

I stopped mid-stroke, as did the woman two lanes over. We both began to search the choppy water to see what the woman in pink might be asking about. A few remaining swimmers also slowed and began to pay attention. 

At first, I didn’t see anything. But as my eyes adjusted, there it was. A small dark object was floating in the water. Can I just say… it seriously looked like poop. We swimmers all began to glance from one to another, I’m sure all thinking the same thing, “How can this be? We are all adults!”

The woman in pink remained motionless as the scene unfolded. 

That’s about when I noticed my hair floating down around my neck instead of tucked up in my hat, that’s right, with my dark gray scrunchy. 

Oh my gosh, once again (I have had plenty of these moments), I had to claim the moment, take the blame, and laugh at myself while greatly relieving all the swimmers in the pool. I waded over to grab my scrunchy.

Luckily the woman next to me had a sense of humor and laughingly said, “Wow, I thought it was….” 

I relieved her of explaining further by saying, “Oh, trust me, I know.” 

We had a good laugh, and I’ve been giggling ever since, just reminiscing about the look on everyone’s face. 

I am known to say God is a practical joker. And I believe it because humor is alive and well in our lives, and I am forever grateful. Where would we be without it?