Monday, Jan. 14

Up at 6:30 to get ready to go to water aerobics. After being away from the pool for several weeks, I had trouble launching this morning. Couldn't seem to get organized. So I was out the door a few minutes later than I usually am on aerobics days.

Egad, it was cold outside! I was bundled up very well, but until the car heated, I was still shivery. A deluge rain last Saturday, and freezing temps this morning, created ice on patches of water in low lying fields and in ditches.

There were icy patches here and there on the road, too, with one particular troublesome one on the hilly turn to the street leading to the college. Fortunately, it was not on the right side of the street going up, but later, when I returned home, I had to be very careful navigating it.

Note: While stopped at that spot, waiting for traffic to clear, I almost saw two collisions. One was when an elderly man, with a passenger, failed to check for oncoming cars to his right, and made the turn with inches to spare before a car almost rammed him broadside. I held my breath, as a second vehicle, with a distracted male driver, occupied with his cell phone, also narrowly missed being broadsided.

I feared I'd have a problem finding a parking space this morning, since I was so late arriving, but I had no problem. But br-r-r, the walk to the gym was chilly.

At the gym, I was met just inside the door by the aerobics leader, who said only two ladies had arrived, and they were in the pool. But the pool was pretty cool, at 81 degrees. I had a choice of staying or returning home. I opted to stay in the dressing room for a while, in case other ladies arrived, and we had aerobics.

Presently, two other ladies did arrive, and then we debated for a few minutes whether we wanted to brave the water. We finally decided to go ahead with it. But, oh, the water felt cold. Once I was used to it, though, it was okay.

I was only able to swim in the deep end for about ten minutes before aerobics began. And then the leader shortened the session to about 30 minutes. There were only six of us in attendance.

Funny: When I got back to the shallow end of the pool after my swim, a lady who was jumping around trying to stay warm said, "I haven't even gone into the deep end this morning."

No sooner were the words out of her mouth than she accidently stepped backward from the five foot level into the twelve foot level. I couldn't help laughing as she splashed back to the five foot level. "I can swim," she smiled, "but I panic when my face gets wet."

I apologized for laughing, and assured her I'd grab her if she stepped off that ledge again. I had to wonder, though, why she chose to jump around so close to that ledge if she was afraid of going under.

Back home, once I had warmed up with a couple of cups of coffee and had gotten ready for the day, I did several things, including calling the scrapbook club members to remind them of a Thursday meeting; writing thank you notes to my student and her friend for the gifts they gave me on my birthday, and gathering a couple of gifts to give my student as an exchange Christmas gift (decided on a small jar of chai tea, and a tube of hand cream from a popular intimate apparel store); and e-mailing a note of condolence to a lady at one of the banks, whose mother-in-law died recently.

In the meantime, Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house, where she finished her jigsaw puzzle. I located a couple of more for her to work on.

After a chicken soup lunch, Mother started a new puzzle, Hubbie got ready to attend the memorial service for a Master Gardener who died over the weekend, and I reviewed the lesson plan for my student.

Met the student at 2:30, as usual. She was very pleased with her card and gifts. I asked her to deliver the other thank you card, along with a tube of hand cream, to her friend, and she agreed.

Today's lesson included verbs about the five senses, as well as past tenses of those verbs, as well as sentence structure with "be, plus able, plus infinitive." "I am able to hear you very well." "I am not able to see the blackboard."

The lesson also included the past tense of able, "Carla was not able to finish her homework last night," and the future tense of able, "I will be able to help you tomorrow."

We spent quite a bit of time in conversation today, mainly about cancer-stricken Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is in Cuba. Rumors are flying among Venezuelan people as to Chavez's condition, including that he is on his deathbed, or may have already died. No one knows for sure. What is known is that he has not been seen or heard from in a month, and he missed his fourth-term inauguration last Thursday.

The student thinks it's possible the Venezuelan government is beginning to impose communication censorship, because her daughter has not been able to reach her by phone. The reason she thinks this is because the daughter said, via e-mail, that no matter how many times she has tried to call, she has gotten a busy signal. The student's phone has not been occupied, indicating that the calls might be being blocked.

She also pointed to the fact that university students have been engaging in protests against the Venezuelan election. The opposition party does not condone the demonstrations, saying they are counterproductive.