When I was a little girl and our non-air-conditioned house got too hot, I'd go down in the basement, fill up the big laundry sink, hop in and spend hours in there reading a book.

When I was a bigger girl (a few years ago) and rehabbing, I adapted this memory for the back yard with a series of large children's splashing pools. The first turned out to be the one I liked best, in retrospect: 24" deep, inflatable sides and large enough to stretch out in, for lounging or for fast-kick horizontal workouts. I put up a large screen room over it for shade and the illusion of privacy. It held enough water to stay cool for weeks, but not so much I couldn't dump it for fresh water a couple of times over the summer. The breezes through the shaded screen room, and the cool water, were damn fine. One year I popped up our little tent-camper next to this and had a very nice cabana/supplies/changing room.... I'd come home from a stressful work day and just not even go in the house, but immediately soak my head.

Now that my basic rehab phase is done and my fitness is coming along, I've replaced that backyard puddle with several local swimming lakes-- I'm just back from today's workout where I spent a delightful hour with my waterproof MP3 player pacing my zippy kick, aqua-jogging. The surface water is a comfy temp and the deeper water by my toes is quite cool.

~Susan