Public Pools...uck

I have ALL these health reasons to implement more exercise into my daily routine.  A need to lose weight, widespread joint pain, degenerative arthritis in my feet, MENTAL "stuff", a bit of diabetes, oh and the latest to join the bandwagon, HIGH CHOLESTEROL (that one sort of jumped in and moved to the front of the line).
I have a rowing machine, walk the dog and have fun with our JUST DANCE workouts.  None of these have been enough to have made much of a difference in my overall health and achievement of my fitness goals.
So, I have added twice a week swimming to my fitness smorgasbord.  Which is kind of tough since I really do not care for swimming and/or public pools. At All.  Some of the reasons for my dislike are:
Men in speedos.
Water being splashed in my eyes.
The fact that the pool we, (my daughter is accompanying me for moral support) go to is NOT heated.
Locker rooms.
Waking up at 4:30 a.m. to go to lap swim.
The smell of chlorine.
The feel of chlorine on my body and in my hair.
Wondering if anyone has chosen to not get OUT of the pool to go to the bathroom.
I DO like the hot tub with all of the jets...(except when a group of men in speedos are in it)
You get the idea.
But swim I will since the alternative of NOT working out is having a counter full of pills to take in hopes that some of them will help the symptoms and not cause irreparable damage with side effects.
It seems hard for me to believe that I actually participated in a (half?) of a triathlon when I was a mere child of 36. 
(I did not care for swimming back then either) however I DO recall the feeling I had when my body was pushed to perform and it did so without too much grumbling! 
We'll see how this goes.  I just want to feel that I can make it through a day on my own steam and WITHOUT the use of extra pain medication.  That (the pain meds) have been a bit more of a challenge to cut back on then I thought they would be! 
As of today's post I swam 12 "laps".  I will update in a month to see how much I have improved and by doing so hold myself accountable to not quit.  :)