I’m just trying to pull my gloves on as the door swings wide, not easy in the tropical heat. I waddle a little bit letting my flippers poke out the door and hear some laughs. Just as I pull on my second glove Indy Cindy pokes her head in and I get the kind of response I’m hoping for. Now if only I can move. I shuffle out the door and there’s some big laughs. I try to put on my Caesar’s Triumphant Entrance face, I think it’s more commonly known as a smirk. Instead of a slave at my side there’s an idiot in my head that keeps repeating, “All glory is fleeting.” For the next few moments only a few things run through my mind – Lift Your Feet, Swing Your Arms (more important than you might think) and Look Triumphant. Lift, Swing, Smirk… Hey I think I’m going to make it all the way around! I stop for a monster slam of my competitors card on the judges table, the reception is good. I continue around the pool making a good save from disaster as I wheel around to the launch point. I try to continue my exaggerated motions through my launch, first cartoon running in place then slowly stepping to the edge, swinging my arms, launching and, well, floating actually…
The crowd is pretty amped so no matter what, I’m happy. Primary mission achieved. Big smile on my face and I’m pretty much laughing for a while. They give me 4’s across the board for style, 4’s for splash (SEE the bribery DID pay off!) and dis me on impact. That’s OK, I mean I basically bounced off the surface of the water… Acceptable. And better yet, I exceed perfection, pulling in a total score of 37!
I’m laughing in the pool as Gonjon steps up to the edge. He moves things around to get the longest runway he can. He takes a sprint with a big launch and lays out a huge brain hanging flying cross. And he lands a classic, massive Willy Whacker, a Crotch Crusher, a Fertility Fixer… I cringe when he lands. It is the most painful flop off the day, I’m certain. He is rewarded with a 37 as well, but that is really beside the point. Jon had temporarily lost focus and allowed the spirit of competition to take over. His focus on possible fleeting glory had blurred his understanding of achieved fleeting glory and put at risk his future certain fleeting glory. He made a correction…
Hoping that Daisy and Markus would make it back from Mandeville we had kept the competition open until the end of the first round. With them still absent and no other takers from the crowd the competitive field is closed, all markers are on the table. Whatcha gonna do now?
