Swimming, and home improvement

Now that I have some time on my hands I've taken up swimming again. We have a public indoor pool across the street, attached to the school, and I've started in on their adult swim from 5:30 to 6:30 in the evening. I'm not a very fast or graceful swimmer but I get by. I even did a couple of surface dives in the deep end, once retrieving a ring someone had thrown in.

The fellow in the lane next to me was somewhat bearish in appearance, about my age or slightly younger. He was doing pretty well on his laps and occupying himself between laps treading water. About 6:00 he took his cue from the woman in the far right-hand lane -- his wife, I guessed -- and they both got out of the pool together. Only then did I notice he was missing half his right leg. More power to him, I'd say.

This morning I finally completed digging out the stump of the yew bush I hacked up some weeks ago so I can get started on the patio refurbishment. The area where the bushes were gets new brick pavers (actually, I'm thinking to pull them all and mix them up for a more uniform appearance) and the whole thing needs to be raised up an inch or so, so that the snow that melts doesn't pool up and freeze solid behind the step.

No shortage of things to keep me busy, I suppose.

Complications

Last night I watched The National and their in-depth report about Israel's impending withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. I was thinking about writing something at the time but decided to go to bed instead.

But then this afternoon gmjambear and I were sitting at the dining-room table and there was something in the paper about the same topic. I mentioned something one of my fellow Chorines, Rev. Darrell, had to say about Israeli-Palestinian relations, based on his personal observations while he was over there, during a performance by an Israeli youth band which preceded one we were about to give in Highland Bowl a few years ago. He said that in his experience, much of the problems Palestinians had (and still have) with Israel stem not so much from religious differences as they do with mindless, unending petty bureaucracy which prevents them from holding jobs and acquiring the bare necessities.

Rev. Darrell's observations meshed with those in last night's CBC report. A specific example that aired last night was the family whose orange trees were bulldozed by the Israeli army because rebels were using the mature trees as cover to launch missiles.

Perhaps if people could see past their religious and ideological differences they would realize that on the one hand making things less secure is merely going to ensure more petty but life-threatening bureaucracy, and on the other hand resorting to petty, life-threatening bureaucracy is a sure way of making things less secure instead of more. That latter lesson is one Western governments such as the US and the UK also need to take to heart.