Swimming, SSL Certificates and Gate Gargoyles

It's Thursday, time for my final swim of the week. My hands will be happy to be out of the chlorine for four days starting tomorrow, but I always miss the water even though I have the treadmill to keep me occupied. I have quite a lot to do at the shop today, so I expect the time will move quickly. 

I'm wearing my Kelp skinsuit for swimming today. I've been 
wearing skin suits for swimming for several years now, and 
DH just noticed my style of swimsuit yesterday when he 
happened to be awake while I got changed for the pool. *sigh* 
NOT a very observant guy when they hang in the laundry room 
to dry every day and he's in and out of that room quite often 
grabbing this tool or that. 

I've been getting requests regarding my SSL certificate for my company website. I allowed the website itself to die during COVID when the host went out of business. It wasn't generating a lot of income by then (when I started it, we were getting a LOT of mail orders every week). There are too many players in that pond now, and I'm trying to wrap things up, not expand them. DH is in a similar situation, but with a few different parameters. He got caught in problems when his previous host company got purchased by a different firm. Everything needed to be shifted over to the new host, and it didn't transfer well. 

Apparently there are several different types of SSL 
certificates these days. For our purposes, however, 
we only need the one on the bottom right - General 
Purpose SSL Certificate.

So I'll have to deal with that over the next few days. I can at least keep my own website name active and my property. I'll have to delve a bit deeper for DH's. 

I've called our YMCA staff members behind the 
desk, the ones who carry the keys, "Gate Gargoyles" 
for years now. We've had some pretty awesome 
people doing that for us, Sabrina is just the 
latest in the long line. I'm still in touch with some of 
them, including my very first gargoyle, Brian, who 
recently moved back to Minnesota after living 
near Atlanta for a few years. 

Our "Gate Gargoyle" at the YMCA had a rush opening yesterday. She wasn't even dressed in her YMCA uniform. The guy she was having take her place hadn't done opening before, so she had to drive over, get everything opened properly (lights turned on, etc), and then, as soon as the doors were unlocked, she handed him the keys and headed out to her car. She apparently had an appointment with her mother-in-law (who is fighting breast cancer), and had to be at X place at Y time with her. I'll find out the deets today when I see her after my swim. 

I hope you have a lovely day today and I'll be 
back tomorrow after my treadmill run. 

So I'm out of here. I hope you have a wonderful Thursday. Mine will probably be a bit of this and that since DH is in a "mood" yet again. *sigh* Are you sure men don't have menopause? LOL I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

An Extra Hour Was Well Spent - But I Would Rather Have Been Swimming

Yesterday's swim never happened. I found my way to the YMCA, which - with the current road reconstruction is always an adventure - and was there in plenty of time. I noticed bright lights at the boundary of the Y's parking lot, with several men looking into a pit in the roadway with rather concerned looks on their face. There were trucks driving to and from (and this is at 4:45 am, so VERY early). We gathered in the entryway as we always do, and waiting for Ed, our Gate Gargoyle to turn on the lights - our signal that we can enter the building, scan in, and head to the locker rooms. 

Ed is our "Gate Gargoyle" and he's a great guy. He's 
been doing this for several years now, and we've 
all learned to work together to stretch the rules, 
but not break them. Ed allows us to wait in the 
entryway until it's time to open the Y, other gargoyles 
we've had in the past have not been as kind. 

Ed, however, came to the exterior door shortly before 5:00 am. He must have been one of those concerned men looking into the pit, but I hadn't noticed. However, when he started with "I wish I had better news for you", I knew we wouldn't be swimming. While the road has been getting reconstructed, the utility company for the county has been doing new pipes and utility layouts under the roadway. The schedules haven't coordinated very well, and here we are, at the end of summer, with problems. This time it was water. The water to the gym was cut off, and the Y couldn't open without water for their bathrooms. 

It's not that we desperately needed running water, but 
there's no functional bathroom facilities when the water 
is cut off, and that's against the regulations of the gym. 

Several of the swimmers were rather ungraceful in their disappointment, it wasn't Ed's fault, he was just the messenger. I went to him. patted him on the shoulder, said "Don't worry, It's not your fault, Ed. We'll just have to deal and I'll see you tomorrow morning." So, I got home REALLY early, took my shower, had my breakfast, and left for the shop at 6:15 am, an hour earlier than usual. I had a shipment to check in, which actually took me the majority of the day to do. That extra hour was helpful. 

The lack of water basically gave me an extra hour 
at the shop. I was able to get everything checked 
in and tagged by the end of the day. SCORE! 

I'm hoping that today will be a bit better than yesterday. I only have two days of the outdoor pool left, and I didn't get any appreciable exercise yesterday - sitting at my desk, checking in a shipment does NOT constitute exercise. Tomorrow afternoon, I pick Sharon up, so tomorrow will be my final daily post for a while, but until then, Slava Ukraini and have an excellent day. 

A Swimming Day, and a Day Off - I'll Get to Use My New Blender Again. Yippee!

It'll be a busy "day off" today, but that's no problem. I rather like having a full schedule, it keeps me out of trouble and away from daydreaming. In an hour, I'll be in the parking lot at the YMCA waiting for the doors to be unlocked. We have a regular early morning crew - Jack, our "Fearless Leader"; Rosemary, my fellow swimmer and good friend for many years now; myself; and sometimes Sherry. On Wednesdays we are joined by the "Three Amigos" fellow swimmers who've been swimming together for years. They're excellent at pushing each other, helping time each other, and working on strokes. They're also much better swimmers than I am, and they can do butterfly, a stroke I've never gotten the hang of. Sometimes we're also joined by a couple of other early birds, but usually it's at least the first three, Jack, Rosemary and myself. 

We call the three guys who swim in Lane 
3, the "Three Amigos". It's not always all 
three of them - one of them travels a lot 
for his job - but when possible, it's all three. 
We remember the "Three Amigos" movie from 
1986 with the nickname. Those three were 
Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short. 

Ed is our "Gate Gargoyle", and Beth is our lifeguard. Ed is very kind, allowing us to wait indoors in the ante-chamber , a small room between the exterior door and the door leading to the main check-in room. When it's cold outside, we're very grateful for that kindness. It's not so cold now, but we know the rules and he's OK with our waiting inside. When he turns on the full interior lights at 5:00 am, we're allowed to open the final door and get checked in for our workouts. 

Ed is our gate gargoyle - we must pass the gargoyle and 
show our appropriate identification before being allowed 
into the castle (or in this case, the YMCA). LOL He's a 
great guy and knows and greets us by name. 

Beth is in charge of the lifeguards and is also a teacher. She enjoys lifeguarding, however, and has done it for years - maybe decades. When I first started swimming years ago, we had Rachel for our lifeguard. She was a delight as well. She knew all of us by name and if the pool was closed for any reason, she had the regulars on her phone and would call us to let us know. Beth doesn't go quite that far, but she's great. She also knows us by name, and she always has music playing for the water exercise people. She'll come over and chat before we're in the water, but understands that when we're in the water, we're focused on our workouts. 

Without a lifeguard, there's no swimming. We have some 
great lifeguards, but Beth is wonderful. She turns music on 
for the water aerobics people, and knows all of the regulars 
by name. She wears a beautiful opal pendant that she 
designed and had made for her, and is a teacher when 
the schools are actually in session. 

So it's a good crew I get first thing in the morning. I feel very fortunate in the people I meet in the wee hours of the morning. Nobody's abrasive or overly loud. We all know each other and exchange small talk when we feel like talking. If someone regular doesn't show up and hasn't warned us they're out of town, we worry a bit. We're there for each other, if not in each other's back pockets. It's a good feeling, and was wonderful to resume these friendships when I started swimming again late last year. 

On that note, I'm off to the pool. I hope you have a great day. It's my "day off" which, of course, means that it's a very busy day for me. That's OK, I'll get to relax with a nice chat with Aearwen late this afternoon. Huzzah! Enjoy your day, be kind and I'll be back tomorrow.