I haven’t been swiming much for the past two months. The chlorine was turning my hair a weird bronze/orange color. Vanity! But yeah, I could use a swimming cap, but rubber, particularly tight rubber, should not be worn on the head if one can at all help it. I can swim without earplugs though, just apparently not when I’m doing flip turns. I am doing freestyle laps, and I did want to, as you say, streamlime my swimming. The pool where I swim is half Olympic and requires a lot of turns. But now, I’m thinking, nah. I love to swim though, and I miss it, so I think I’m just gonna apply black hair dye every month and hope I don’t have a reaction. BTW, we like the same books (Mockingbird, Of Human Bondage, and I just borrowed Fountainhead from a neighbor). Cheers!