Red is the color of many things. Roses. A number of my shirts. Blood. Watermelon. Fruit Punch. And, the whites of my eyes after spending an hour in the pool. Or, more specifically, an hour swimming laps in the pool in the backyard, sans goggles, chasing the dog through the water. I've long believed that a healthy amount of chlorine does the body good. After all, nothing dries your pores better. And since we're going for a theme here, nothing irritates your eyes better, either.

While outside studying by the pool in the evening (in other words, after the 103-degree heat had subsided a bit), Dylan wandered outside and joined me. He watched me reading my charts and notes, and immediately got bored after all of three seconds. He grabbed his tennis ball and plopped himself five feet away. While he waited, he started dropping the ball and watching it roll away before tearing after it. Then he got bored with that and dropped the ball in the pool. And, after pacing around trying to snatch from the side, he realized (after five minutes of this) that he would have to jump in to get it. Jump he did. I noticed it not only thanks to the loud "kersplash" I heard, but also the spraying of water droplets in the general direction of me and my papers.

It was after the third jump or so that I finally looked over, and the water beckoned. Pleaded with me to jump in. So I relented, and in a few minutes' time, I climbed onto the diving board and dove into the pool. What followed was an hour-long game of fetch, which consisted of me throwing the ball into the pool, watching Dylan leap in and grab it, and then both of us would swim to the shallow end. I ended up trying to race Dylan back to the other side of the pool by sprinting the length of the pool back to the other side.

It's amazing how motivating a dog can be. Dylan's ceaseless energy is contagious, and I was happy to sprint back and forth for the better part of that hour. If I had to peg it, I'd say it was the best workout I've had in ages. At this rate, I figure if I keep this up for a few weeks non-stop, I'll be ready to take on Michael Phelps.