I went to the pool last night, all by myself. So, being without anyone to talk to or hang out with, I mostly did a lot of standing in one place, exercise/dancing to the music on the loudspeakers. It's a fairly decent workout, I guess. But it's hard to work up a sweat with the water level at your neck.While standing there, virtually in line with the high dive, I had a lot of time to think. Jumping, dancing, and thinking. One thing I always think about is the lifeguards. If I see an especially bad dive, cannonball, or bellyflop, I look over to see what the lifeguard thinks. Usually they're non-responsive. If I am on the diving board, I'm thinking of the lifeguards. Because there are rules. You're supposed to wait till the previous person is all the way out of the pool before climbing up (hardly anyone does). You're allowed one bounce. You're supposed to make a beeline for the ladder after you've gone off. And so forth. So it's hard to think of anything else except whether the lifeguard thinks there's a problem with you keeping the rules.
But standing there as I was, examining the situation with every person who dove or jumped off, I noticed the lifeguards aren't thinking of the rules unless there would be something very egregious. One guy did such a wild jump that he ended up over where you'd end up if you were jumping off the lower board. I glanced at the lifeguard and he said nothing. There was one kid who apparently couldn't swim, but she jumped toward the edge and friends were there to pull her out. The lifeguard didn't say a word about it, and this happened several times. So it's a little hard to get in trouble.
Plus, I'm seeing people running, which isn't allowed. No one said anything about that.
I saw two infractions of the rules that were addressed. One, a lady maybe in her early '50s was in the deeper water, very far from the diving boards, yet within that area, leaning against the side of the pool, at the edge. The lifeguard motioned her to move over to the shallower (nearly 5 foot) area. She's all like, 'Who me?' Yes, you. She saw me looking at her, I turned away. She came by me madder than a wet hen, certainly wetter than most wet hens are. "I hate it here, I'm not coming back. Spent $15 in gas to get here. There's no place to swim. I hate it," etc. I'm looking like I'm commisserating with her, and I said a couple things by way of commiseration, mostly just not to start something. Plus, I'm a sympathetic guy by nature. But when she got near the edge, still complaining about hating the place, I'm moving farther the other direction. Then when I turned again I didn't see her.
The other infraction of the rules went on for quite a while. It was 5 or 6 or 7 boys horseplaying, pushing each other off, pushing their heads so they'd fall back in the pool, just generally roughhousing with no sense that what they were doing might be wrong or dangerous. The lifeguard, way over there, is yelling at them, but they can't hear him. So they keep it up. I'm wondering why he doesn't blow his whistle but he didn't. There they are, still doing it. Still doing it. Still doing it. Still going at it. Finally, he gets in a huff and walks around the pool quite quickly. I move in a little closer, and still can't quite hear his reprimand, but he looks upset. He's flashing a "one more time" sign, probably then you'll be tossed out. And as far as I kept track, which was somewhat, they quit doing it.
I myself don't get entangled with the lifeguards. But I did once or twice last year. There's a section where you have innertubes and I jumped on the innertube butt first and plopped right in the middle of it. That turned out to be against a rule, probably not a written rule but just common sense. I've behaved ever since. I said "twice," but I can't think what the other one was. Oh, wait, I climbed up and got out of the water via the wall and not the stairs at this one place. I haven't seen anyone else get in trouble for that, and can't believe it's against the rules. Probably isn't. Just a Barney Fife lifeguard, overeager, that time.
