First Dunk 2025

 

The pool was opened on April 28th and I got in up to my knees on the 30th (the water was 65 degrees), but the actual First Dunk took place on Saturday May 3rd (with the water at 72 degrees). Here comes summer!

Swimsover 2024

 

My mother-in-law used to say, "It always get hot around the Jewish holidays" and that proved true when the temperature reached 75 degrees on Yom Kippur. I made my last swim two days later, on Monday the 14th, with the water down to 64 degrees. Though it's been sunny and the pool won't be closed until tomorrow, the overnight temps in the 40s (and daytime highs in the 50s) mean I am done for the season.

How many weeks till next May?

First Dunk 2024

 

Lots of petals from the neighbor's flowering tree, but the pool is open!

Swimsover 2023

Well, the pool is not closed yet, but the forecast for the coming week is highs in the 60s and overnight lows in the 40s, so it would seem that yesterday was my last time in the water. I did get a full week of October swims, though, so I'm happy the original date for closing (this past Tuesday) was rescheduled.

Only about 30 weeks to First Dunk 2024!

Where Does a Blood Donation Go?

 

  The young woman in the center of this photo is alive today thanks to twenty-four transfusions of whole blood, platelets, and red cells she received while fighting leukemia. People who receive transfusions rarely, if ever, know from whom they come nor do the donors ever learn who receives their donations.
  On May 3rd, however, at a New York Blood Center dinner, she got to meet six of the two dozen strangers whose donations saved her life. It was an amazing and emotional event for all.
  Only 2% of the population of this country donates blood and blood products. The need is constant and there is no substitute. Please consider becoming a donor; you may never know who you will save, but someone out there will benefit.
  By the way, the six donors in this picture, who were also strangers to one another, have together made more than 1,100 lifetime donations! (Four hundred and fifteen of them were by that familiar-looking guy third from
the left.)