Well That Was Weird

Last Wednesday night, I was able to meet up with the Captain for a little swim session.  I normally do my swimming early in the morning, in hopes to avoid overcrowding at the small, three-lane pool, but today was not one of those days.  It just worked out that we would be meeting up at about 6:30 pm, which is prime workout time for most gym members.

As we pulled up to the gym, the parking lot was pretty full.  Already a bad sign.  However, as we walked in, we were able to catch a glimpse of the pool and saw that there was only one other brave soul using the pool!  Perfect!  So we quickly changed into our swimming attire, luckily avoiding any awkward situations in the locker room, and headed over to the pool.

The other guy that was in the pool was finished and left after we had only been in the pool for about five minutes.  So it was the Captain and me, with nobody else to race, I mean swim with.  That is, until another guy came in.  I was swimming in the first lane, the Captain in lane 2, so this fellow hopped in to lane three.  All was peachy.  As we were swimming, though, I noticed that this new guy wasn't really swimming.  He was sort of walking around in his lane, and would stop and hang out on the while for long periods of time (picture someone sitting in a hot tub with both their arms extended out on the hot tub ledge).  No big deal, to each his own.  That was just the start.

A little while later, another guy came in, fully clothed.  He proceeded to go to the end of lane 3 and sit on the storage box at the end of the lane.  I've drawn this handy dandy diagram to make things a little more clear:

So the first newbie is denoted with the black background, while the second newbie is denoted with the red background.  The Captain and myself are the super awesome looking athletes holding the Olympic torch (don't question it, just accept it and move on). 

So now we have two other dudes in the pool area, neither one of them swimming.  Mind you, the Captain and I haven't said anything about what is going on.  I'm not even sure if he's noticed.  There was a few times when our little friend with the black background came over into my lane.  He never got in my way, but he was being quite odd.  He would go over to the steps, go under water, and lay down on the bottom step.  He did this about four or five times.  He would also stop half way up a lane, at a light, and go under water and look at the light.  Very odd.  The broseph with the red background just sat on his storage box, for about twenty minutes.  I assume, since he was a bit younger, that he was the son of Mr. Black Background, but I don't know for sure.  And now we get to our final guest, Mr. Yellow Background.

This guy came in about half way through our swim workout.  He sat down on the storage box at the end of my lane, in shorts, flip flops, and dog tags.  I spotted him and assumed he was waiting for an opening so he could swim.  Being the kind gentleman that I am, I moved over in my lane so I was up against the lane line, providing Mr. Yellow with plenty of space.  He never came in.  So, after three laps, I moved back over to the middle of my lane.  Yellow then stood up and walked toward the hot tub.  A few minutes later, he returned to the end of my lane, completely dry.  I'm not sure where he went, but he did not go in the hot tub.  He sat at the end of my lane for another few minutes before leaving.  What was going on in here?

When we finished up our set, we rested for a minute or so before exiting the pool.  Mr. Black and Mr. Red were still in the positions, not really doing much.  Upon us walking out of the pool, Mr. Yellow returned!  He kicked off his flip flops as we walked by, and I assumed he was going to be getting in the pool.  Well, after a quick shower and after getting dressed, I turned around to see Mr. Yellow walking through the locker room, still sporting his trendy flip flops, shorts, and dog tags...and still dry!

The Captain and I made our exit, walking by the pool and seeing that there was now nobody in the pool.  As we were walking out to our cars, the Captain said to me, "What the heck was going on in there?"  I started laughing and told him that I had no idea, and I was glad that he noticed something weird was going on too.  At one point I thought that maybe I was just imagining things, and there was nothing odd about what was happening.  But, the Captain confirmed my observations, and there was definitely some interesting characters at the pool that night.