Grimby’s Gratitude – A Shift in the Day
the E-Newsletter of Goldeen Ogawa • Issue 15, February 2019
Originally posted for Patrons on February 1 on Patreon
What have I done?
- Cleanups for “Eyes in the Deep” (Odd 3.5) and “Lightning Does Strike Twice” (Arcana 3.1)
- Edits for “Critical Magic” and “On the Surface Die” (Arcana 2.4 and 2.5).
- Read-through of Lucena in the House of Madgrin.
- Interior illustrations for The Aubergine Spellbook (Felpz Volume III).
What am I doing?
- Cleanups on “The Last Voyage of the Odyssean” (Odd 3.6).
- Edits for “Free Man Running” (Arcana 3.6).
- Final read-through revisions for Lucena.
- Interior illustrations for The Aubergine Spellbook and a personal piece.
Where am I going?
My next convention appearance won’t be until March: I’m helping Kikidoodle sell Purrmaids at Emerald City ComicCon!
A Shift in the Day
There is currently a banner poster in the lobby of my gym (where I am writing this) announcing in bright blue letters that they are now hiring for lifeguards. It advertises training and certification, flexible schedules, free gym membership, and to top it off it’s decorated by a picture of a lifeguard, rescue tube clasped firmly at her side, standing protectively over a pool with a few smiling patrons bobbing in the water at her feet. This guard is me.
The poster has been up since before Christmas, and I was first made aware of it when random swimmers began popping their heads up by the 50-meter pool bulkhead to tell me they saw my picture on the front door. I could do nothing, however, but smile in surprise. Because I was on a zone, and that zone was the pool, and the only way I could leave was if there was an emergency I had to respond to, or I was relieved by another guard. I had to way another forty minutes for my in-duty to go out into the lobby and see the poster for the first time.
Lifeguarding is not, as the manual I received about this time last year quickly informed me, “sitting around the pool, getting a tan.” Lifeguards as they are trained and licensed by the Starfish Aquatics Institute take a proactive approach to guarding, continuously monitoring their zone of protection for any sign of distress or drowning or even rule-breaking. We are not allowed to compromise our zone of protection except in response to an emergency—and even then one of our first actions is to signal that we are leaving our zone and that the pool is closed. We are trained to scan our zone in 10 seconds, and to guard from a position where we could reach a person in our zone within 20 seconds. We are further trained to modify this position every five minutes, to help us stay focused.
If all this sounds like a lot to keep up, that’s because it is, and so every twenty minutes we get a rotation: a new guard comes on the zone and takes over, at which point the outgoing guard gets to verify the zone, and move on to another—or to in-duty, which is the precious fifteen minutes when we can use the bathroom, refill our water bottles, or take our break. But we need to get back on the first zone in good time, in order to get the rotation chain started all over again.
While lifeguard training focuses mainly on rescue scenarios and emergency care, in practice it’s a lot more about rule-enforcing and daily chores. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve responded to an emergency or potential emergency, and that’s more than some guards. Far more often I’ve had to shout “Walk, please!” at running children, or ask lap swimmers to circle swim. (For the record, children are far more agreeable and compliant; the older a patron is, the more likely they are to chew you out for asking them to follow rules that are clearly posted on signs right in front of them.)
But it’s good, solid work. I’ve heard other guards complain that it’s boring (which it is until you’re called to administer an epi-pen to a toddler in Child Care), but for me it’s just boring enough to provide a welcome respite from my mentally intensive job of writing stories and creating art. I’ve gotten a lot of quality thinking done on the 50-meter bulkhead, watching lap swimmers swim back and forth (hopefully in a counter-clockwise circle around the black line on the bottom of their lane). It’s also just enough socialization to make me feel like a part of the world—before I go home and cocoon myself in my studio with only my made-up worlds and my dog for company. It’s a good balance.
Sometimes I’m scheduled for an on-call shift. That is what happened this morning. I get paid for an hour, but at any time during my on-call period I could be called in to guard—at which point I also get to clock in for time actually spent guarding. So I’ve come for morning swim practice, and for the last couple hours I’ve been sitting in the south lobby, by the big bay windows where I spent many hours in 2017 writing fiction between my morning Pilates class and the midday swim practice, under the banner with the picture of me guarding. But as I’m not in uniform (and I’m also wearing a hat!) so far no one has recognized me.
*
What’s coming in February?
Patrons can look forward to:
- Saturday updates to the Sparks Gallery
- Sunday updates to “Travels in Valdelluna”
- AND exclusive sneak peeks at upcoming projects!
ProTip
If you do a lot of pencil work, be it colored or graphite, consider investing in a good boxcutter or exacto knife. Use it to sharpen your pencils by whittling away at the tip. You’ll break fewer leads and get a better point. Also, a soft rubber eraser is great for lifting pigment dust so you don’t accidentally smudge your drawing while wiping it away with your finger!
This post has been generously sponsored by my Fellow Traveler patrons.