The race went really well Saturday, but it was a very long day. I ended up leaving around 5:30 to go pick up Kristi and then Lise and then we were off to pick up Kristen in Tacoma. We got down to Portland in very good time, arriving around 8:30 or so. The first order of business was rigging the canoes only one hadn't arrived yet, we'd passed them on the highway. We off loaded the Mirage (our fastest canoe) and rigged it for the race. I turned in our forms and payment and received our race t-shirts, a much better design and color than last year. Then off to the very long line for the toilet, get changed and make ready to race. Our race crew was Minnie in stroke, then Rives, Nancy, me, Lise, and Kristen steering. A few sucks on the albuterol before we started and I was ready for the warm up. I asked Claude from our men's novice crew to shoot some snaps with my camera, he did a great job and shot some videos with narration, too! Thanks Claude! The first video is us leaving the beach to begin our warm up and the second video is our race finish.
We lined up with all the other boats, a dozen or so, if I recall, and waited for the horn to start the race. And we're off! Paddling hard all the boats stayed pretty close together in the beginning. There were lots of fishermen out hoping to catch some salmon. They were fairly decent obstacles that the experienced steersmen had no difficulty avoiding. However, there was one very green crew with an even greener steersman that had a very hard time keeping a straight line. There was some serious full contact paddling going on. They hit us on the right side of our boat, we had to switch some paddlers over to the left side to be able to keep paddling. Their crew was nearly rabid with intensity and couldn't hear their steersman telling them to stop paddling and allow us to get clear of them. We finally extricated ourselves and continued on passing around behind them only to have them come up against us again. Only this time our ama popped up onto the rail of their boat! I hiked way out as did Kristen to keep us from huli'ing, Nancy, right in front of me didn't even notice our ama was up that high. We managed to get them off us again and continue on. We ended up sprinting nearly all the remaining way to the first turn. At the turn they were technically in front of us but their steersman was sufficiently unsure of herself that she couldn't press her advantage, we made it through the turn first and made a hard push leaving that troublesome crew in our wake.
Now it was the long hard press up river past the start line to the next bouy turn. This was my first ever race last year and that section of the race was brutal last year. This year it was a long hard stretch but we all were able to keep our stroke long, good rotation, and reach, with a good hard pull. No other canoes were nearby us for the remainder of the race. The wind was to our backs for the against current run and once we made the turn to head down river again the refreshing breeze in our faces combined with the current made it feel as if we were flying down to the finish line. You can see in the video, we all still look really strong as if we could continue some distance further. Our finish time was 1:14:32 and we took second in the master women category. And I think we were 6th across the finish line. The official results are not yet posted or I would have more details. Our post race team photo is at the top. Here is the photo of the SSPO open men's crew, they took first overall in the men's race with a time of 58:17! They rock! In the photo they are Kevin, James, Geoff, Alan, Tom, and Eric. Our golden master men's crew crossed the finish line 5th, I think, and their finish time was 1:02:35. Their crew was Dave, Doug, Koko, Ed, Mike, and Clem. I have referred to them as our 50+ guys in the past. They rock, too! And then we had a third men's crew, the novice men. Their crew was Ryan, Frank, Ken, Claude, Troy, and Ernie. They finished in 1:08:16. As with all of SSPO, they rock! I think in all SSPO had a pretty darn good day. Everybody raced hard and raced well. SSPO represented with 24 club paddlers, what an awesome turnout for the first OC6 race of the season. Props to everyone! Let's keep it up. Here's one last photo of everyone in the club that paddled here at the Rusty Iron.
The race went really well and I got sunburned. Left home at 5:20 am, got home at 7 pm, really, really tired now. I'm off to bed now with plans to give the details with photos tomorrow.
Ok, it's not really a broken heart but that sounds much better than 'how do you mend a slightly kicked around and mistreated heart', now doesn't it? One of my many CL adventures was actually giving me the illusion of potentially working. Granted things were moving at glacial speeds, but still. He had all the trimmings of an acceptable partner: a wickedly irreverent sense of humor, fun, kind, easy on the eyes, taller than me, and seemingly interested in me. Ya, well, that's kinda where it all falls apart now isn't it? I got an email from him Saturday (email and IM were our primary modes of communication) stating that he's started seeing a new someone and the relationship is taking a new development and he wants to see where it goes without having to explain hanging out with me, hope you understand. OUCH!
So, what do you do when that happens? First I was very sad (approx 2 hrs), then I was rather pissed off (approx 30 min), then I reposted my ad on CL and went out for game night (approx 4.5 hrs) with Diane, Dave, Kristi, and Dave's older daughter, Nikita! By the time I got home there were four responses to my ad in my inbox. One was obviously a scammer. One was 'I'd love to meet you'. Yup, I'm sure you would! I wrote back asking his name, age, and some interests. Thought I'd give him a fighting chance before I kicked him to the curb. He answered "Name is Moe, age 53, interests and desires are fun and travel and passionate love." Ya, ok, next please!
The last two were definitely interesting, articulate, and funny. John and Paul (I'm hoping George and Ringo will write soon, too!) seem quite nice. One lives in Olympia which would be very hard. To one of them I wrote "My glass half full attitude compels me to toss my hat out again and keep trying (re e-dating). At worst it's worth a laugh with my friends and a post on my blog!" He seemed to think that was an acceptable penalty. I spoke with one on the phone this evening ... for an hour and a half! There was laughter from both of us, sharing from both of us, and the conversation never felt stiff or awkward. I'm looking forward to meeting him sometime soon.
While I'm still a bit disappointed about the other guy I seem to have plenty to occupy my thoughts these days. Besides, we have our first OC6 race of the season this Saturday down in Portland.
We had a really great practice tonight. I have that good, tired, been exercised feeling. In my undying yet unsuccessful efforts to try and get to bed early I'm only posting a very short message tonight.
I was looking for outrigger videos yesterday and this morning and I found this one of Da Grind sponsored by Seattle Outrigger Canoe Club (SOCC). If you pay very close attention at time stamp 1:22 you will see me! I'm wearing a dark blue long sleeved shirt and have a neon green fanny/hydration pack on. Also at time 5:12 you can see our crew. I am in seat 4, remember seat 1 is the front and you count back.
I'm hoping to be less tired tomorrow night and plan to actually write something!
I'd hoped to write up a bit more this evening but have been distracted. Someone was asking me about outrigger and to illustrate what I was talking about I found some cool videos on YouTube. So here you go:
Some Molokai Crossing.
A women's change out crew.
Some outrigger surfing. I want to do this one day!
Have you seen the Big Lebowski before? It's all a case of mistaken identity between 'The Dude' aka Jeffrey Lebowski and a millionaire of the same name. Best viewed while drinking white russians. Jeff Bridges plays "The Dude".
I knew they dropped a lot of f*bombs in this movie but I didn't realize quite how many. I found this little film on YouTube and they said "The F count of The Big Lebowski I think is 281, this isn't all of them!" It's been cut together hilariously and about halfway through Sam Elliott pauses to ask if he 'has to use so many cuss words?' Funny!
We had a good practice yesterday, worked on starts and turns for the race. It was pretty cold, far too cold for late April! I really hope next weekend at the Rusty Iron the weather is more typical of late April. I think we are as ready as we are going to be for next weekend. Following practice Minnie and I went out for a short OC1 paddle since we hadn't gone particularly far during practice.
On our outbound leg I realized I haven't huli'd my new boat yet. I thought it might be a good idea to do that sometime, not on the outbound leg, though. I waited until I was quite near the beach and then I tried to fly the ama (paddle with the ama or outrigger out of the water), got a paddle stroke here and then another. I began to think this was pretty cool ... just as the boat started to go over! Sploosh! It then took me a while longer to climb back aboard than I expected. I was able to get back on and paddle in relatively quickly.
Back on the beach I noticed a pronounced degree of squishing and squelching with each step! I tried to drain out some while I put my boat away. Back in the apartment I managed to leave wet footprints from the entry way into the kitchen and over to the bathroom. But now I can say I've huli'd and gotten right back up again.
A Nexus pass is a must have for anyone making regular trips across the US/Canada border. If you've crossed recently you may have seen the line for Nexus card holders. Yup, it's the line with NO WAITING and easily identified while you sit counting blades of grass on the side of the road waiting for the line to move at something greater than glacial pace.
For a mere $50 you can get a pass allowing you to use this lane for 5 years. If you make 6-8 trips per year across the border this $10 per year investment can save quite bit of time. I went online in December and filled out the application. Among other things they want to know every address you've had for the past 5 years, employment history, passport number, drivers license number, and all the other information needed for a thorough background check. Then you punch in your credit card number and hurry up and wait for them to get back to you.
About 3-4 weeks later I got notification that I could now make my interview appointment. The earliest appointment was for April 16 at 11 am! A fellow paddler, Doug, had his appointment the Monday before and he sent out a message describing his experience. Sounded rather daunting, big scary people with guns asking lots of questions, took him around 1.5 hours. I brought some work along to do while I waited and my birth certificate, which wasn't on the list of things you had to bring but Doug said they asked for anyway, gave him a hard time for not having it too. I passed my documents to the not so scary guy and was told to go wait outside next to the guy who needed to learn a little dab'l do ya with regards to the cologne.
I was called in within 10 minutes to be asked a handful of questions first by the US customs agent: why do you want a Nexus pass? race outriggers monthly or so; have I ever been arrested? no; ever had a DUI? no; basically ever got caught doing anything wrong? no. I got caught up talking about outrigger with both customs agents. Then he took my photo digitally and my finger prints, also digitally. Now time for a repeat performance of all the questions with the Canadian customs agent. We went through the questions pretty quickly and then she wanted to pick my brain about outrigger. I gave her the condensed version, my contact information, and days and times of our practices. I was completely done in 25 minutes and that was including all the gabbing about outrigger and now I have my Nexus pass. Wahoo, time to go to Canada in the fast lane, except the my next race there isn't until Memorial Day weekend.
I'm watching South Park right now and as usual it is awesome. The whole episode is centered around the loss of the internet, it's done in the style of the Grapes of Wrath. Comedy Central tends to replay the latest episode a lot in the few days following it's first showing, I highly recommend catching it if you can. I love how they take things to their absurd conclusions. It all comes down to the router needing to be rebooted.
A question just popped into my head: Do you have to pay taxes for the year in which you have died? Not you personally, but rather, your estate? I wasn't the excecutor for the mother's estate, I suppose I could ask my brother. After all, there were earnings prior to her passing. If you file a tax return for the decedent do you (the estate) get all the taxes you've paid back?
I received an annuity payment from the mother's retirement fund and hoped/planned that her house would sell before now, so I did the foolish thing and didn't have any taxes withheld. D'oh! I'm generally the one who files their taxes within days of receiving my W-2. Ever notice how you file early when you expect a return and late when you owe? Monday night I went online to file for an extension. Imagine my surprise when I learned they want to know what your taxes are in order to file for the extension! Well, if I knew that I'd just file, now wouldn't I ?!? Piffle, I might as well just do the whole thing now.
I had gotten my hands on the tax papers shortly before looking for the extension info so I was already a step ahead of the game. There are plenty of online services for those of us with relatively uncomplicated lives (fiscally uncomplicated, that is!). I happened to choose the H&R Block link for no particular reason. It held my hand and stepped me through the process quite nicely. At the end I learned that I had too much income to get the preparation for free. Well, $15 isn't so very much, fine, let's get on with it. My bottom line: I owe a few thousand bucks! Bummer! The online thing can get you set up with a nice payment plan with that automatic sucking sound that comes from your bank account. I think the government is more amenable to payments than an outright refusal to pay, so I opted for this route. The online thingy is all set up with the necessary forms for all this and then they electronically submit the whole she-bang for you. I got an email this afternoon stating that my tax return had been accepted.
Not so bad for having cut it so close to the wire for the first time in my life. Now if we can only sell the house, I can pay those pesky taxes off in full.
And now for something completely different:
I was avoiding work for a while today and came across this video and thought it was hilarious and felt compelled to share it with you all. It's entitled 'An Engineer's Guide to Cats'. You may want to avoid taking a drink of your beverage while viewing and I know of one person who laughed so hard it induced an asthma attack, just so you know it's just that funny.
I really like Sundays. I typically don't have any plans, I've raced on Saturday or at least gone paddling, and generally stayed up far later than I intended to. Sunday mornings allow me the leisure of sleeping late and having a cuddle with the boyz before I get up. This morning I rolled out around 10 am, let the boys out and back in for breakfast, followed by a nice cuppa coffee for myself.
Friday I had received a very large box of things I'd shipped out from Colorado, among other things there were three sets of sheets for my king sized bed. The mother had quite a fondness for clean sheets, she would have changed them daily if she had the same fondness for doing laundry. As it was she settled for changing them twice a week. So, along with the bed I have gotten two sets of flannel sheets and seven sets of percale sheets! Friday was spent laundering sheets, but not folding them, and other laundry as well. There was quite a mountain waiting for folding. After watching the movie Alex & Emma I figured it was time to attack the pile. It was a cute movie.
The grey drizzly weather is ideal for having a relaxing low stress day at home. Even the dogs are spending the day napping. Hope your day is pleasant and relaxed.
What perfect weather for the last winter series race. I got down early to help set things up and bring the food and coffee. We had a lot of helping hands so I could duck away a little early to rig my boat and make sure I had everything together and situated for the race. I even asked the mother of a club member to take some snaps with my camera. We had our pre-race meeting and then I made my way down to the water for a little bit of warm up. On my way over to the start line I got lots of complements on my new boat. Most of these folks didn't race the Sound Rowers race a couple of weeks ago so they hadn't seen it yet. Ross, from Open Ocean Outriggers, said I looked very comfortable on it. I was feeling pretty comfortable on it as well.
Everybody got lined up for the start of the race, the horn went of and so did we. I tried to paddle hard for that first bit as Doug had taught me a while back, but it just didn't feel right. I settled into my pace and tried to keep up with the back of the pack but realized I was feeling very tight in the chest, my breathing wasn't coming as easily as it should have. About 1.5 miles in I was really wondering whether I should just turn back, call it a day. Then I saw a boat huli (flip over), I wasn't too far away so I pushed myself to get up to him, he looked like he was having a little trouble getting back on board, the water is still pretty cold. As I got there I saw he'd let go of his paddle, I scooped it up and held his ama (the outrigger) while he climbed on, waited for him to adjust his seat and then passed him his paddle. The chase boat had arrived shortly after I did and since we seemed to have things under control they stayed off a little ways. Then we were off again, I got moving a little quicker than he did but he soon overtook me. That breathing thing was becoming rather problematic, fortunately I'd packed my inhaler in my hydration pack before I left. It occurred to me this was precisely the situation for which it was intended so I stopped and took a couple pulls.
I kept going nice and steady and shortly my breathing came a little easier. By this time I had fallen so far behind I started to think of the race as just a regular cruising paddle on a bright sunny day. I made it to the turn around and headed back. I was keeping a pace slightly over 5 miles per hour, which, since I wasn't working too hard, seemed pretty respectable. I saw Alice was still heading towards the turn point which made me feel pretty good, it meant I'd meet all three of my minimum goals, don't huli, finish, and don't finish last! I think the goals should be slightly modified for Alice, she paddles in the 70+ category so instead of not finishing last we can call it finishing strong, because she always does. I want to grow up to be just like her, paddling for many, many years to come. I finished in 1 hour 21 minutes, not my best time ever but not so bad considering I stopped to help someone and couldn't really breath. Also, I had wanted to go easy to preserve my back, it would be a real drag to tweak that again.
We waited for the season results to be tallied and for the cumulative season I came in third overall in the master women category, the master category is 35 and over. It was a pretty good day over all. I then went home to let the dog boyz out and decided it would be perfect a day to take them out for a swim. Back down to SSP and they did some swimmin' and fetchin'. I think a good time was had by all. Note: The photo of me with Mt Rainier in the background and of Alice looking strong were taken by club member Ryan Parfait, who rode along in the chase boat.
I went paddling tonight for the first time since I tweaked my back at the Lake Sammamish race on March 22. And looking at the calendar I have only paddled three times since March 15, between my back and slicing my hand open, dreaming about paddling is as close as I've gotten. My back seems to be doing much better and my hand is completely healed.
We had a good crew tonight, Lianne, Nancy, me, Kyle, Matt, and Neil steering. This was Kyle's second time paddling and Matt's first time, combined with my lack of paddling the last few weeks, I was hoping for a gentle workout. We headed out past the dog park and then south towards the 520 Bridge. It was a good workout, not too hard, and at our turn around point we saw a boat from Seattle Outrigger Canoe Club so we paused to say our hellos and talk about upcoming races.
Enough chatting, time to get head back to SSP. Neil did an excellent job giving tips to Matt and Kyle and guiding our workout. He was able to get us to step up our efforts in a positive manner that encouraged us (me anyway) to work harder. I was a little worried that I'd be so out of shape and have forgotten quite how to paddle. It seems muscle memory is stronger than my memory and it's, as they say, like riding a bike.
It was great to be back on the water after such a long time away, especially since the last winter series race is this Saturday. I plan to race, but I think I would best off cruising the race and trying to keep my back fit and healthy. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to be a slacker, I just don't want a repeat of what happened on Lake Sammamish.
Do you recall a time not so very long ago when I said breathing was overrated and had had an allergic reaction to my allergy shots? That event started the ball rolling to try to determine the cause of the cough keeping me awake at night. Last Wednesday, a week ago, I went in for a test to determine whether or not I have asthma. It was loads of fun.
I got to do the spirometry or spiro test many, many times; that's the test to determine the volume of air your lungs are able to move during inhale and exhale. It involves taking a very deep breath in and then exhaling until you cough and/or fall over, then you exhale a little more just to make sure they got it all, at least that's what happens every time I do it. I generally have really good lung function. Between each spiro I had a nebulizer treatment of something designed to effect my breathing and lung capacity if I did indeed have asthma. By the third treatment my volume had dropped by 20%, indicating that I do, in fact, have asthma. I didn't have to do any more of the negative nebulizer treatments, the doctor had all the information he needed.
Then off to a different room. A new nebulizer chemical, this one to reverse the effects of the last. In addition to restoring my ability to breath normally it had the unpleasant side effect of making me jittery. Followed by yet another spiro test and some hurry up and wait for the doctor to come in. He's worth the wait; he listens really well and is very compassionate. His attention to details generally causes him to fall behind schedule and subsequently they book him with fewer patients throughout the day. He's put me on a low dose steriod inhaler as a long(er) term treatment and albuterol for when things become exiting and I need help breathing now.
I think it's too soon to tell if there is any improvement, but I am hopeful. You can believe I'll keep you posted.
Not sure how to include everything that's been happening keeping me from posting. It's been a busy week. It was all leading up to my trip to Colorado this past weekend. Finishing all the work I'd had stacked up involved working far past my bedtime too many nights last week. My flight to Colorado was Friday at 7:20 am, who booked this flight and what were they on when they did it?!? I had to be to the bus stop at 4:45 am to catch the Metro bus into downtown Seattle where I transferred to another bus to SEA-TAC airport, got there around 6 am. All for $1.50, which was a heck of a lot better than the $40 or so it would cost for the shuttle service and I figure I'd have left at about the same time.
I got the suitcase checked in, didn't have much in it, a few clothes and empty bags for bringing things back from Colorado. Once through security I made my way over to the Ivar's for a breakfast sandwich (the one with the smoked salmon is awesome) and then to Dilettante Chocolates for a mocha (did you know they offer sweet or dark chocolate for your mocha?!?) before heading down to my gate. I had only 20 minutes or so before they began boarding. I pretty much fell asleep immediately until after we touched ground in Denver, coming in and out of awareness only occasionally during the flight. Landed in Denver around 11 am. Rachel, my sister-in-law, picked me up and we went into Denver to buy kosher wine for Passover and then to the East Side Kosher Deli for some kosher for Passover foods. I may not have mentioned this before, but my family is Jewish. With our shopping completed, Rachel and I headed back to Boulder.
Sunday was the mother's yartzeit, the anniversary (as measured by the Hebrew calendar) of her passing. Among other things it involves the recitation of the mourner's kaddish with a minyan (a group of 10 or more Jewish men) and my brother is now allowed to visit the mother's grave site whenever he chooses. It is challenging to get a minyan together in Boulder so we went in to Denver where one would be gathering. Then back to Boulder to visit, first, my grandmother's grave site, she passed away May 2, 2004, right around the time the mother had decided to move to Boulder. The mother thought long and hard and finally decided she wanted gram's ashes interred in Boulder. The mother is buried in the Jewish section of the same cemetery. This was my first visit to her grave site since her marker has been put in place. It looks really good. My brother remarked how peaceful it felt there now. He'd been there three months after her passing for the burial of a friend who had passed unexpectedly, and felt it was very unsettled at that time. It was a lovely day, but the wind was biting. To get warmed up we went to the Celestial Seasonings tea room for a hot cuppa tea, only a five minute drive away.
Later in the afternoon my brother and I went through all the family photos to choose a few to scan before I left Boulder, the rest could wait until after I'd come home. Revisiting all those memories was both fun and draining. And there were stacks of photos of people we didn't know, some of which may be identified by my grandmother's brother, Leonard, who lives in Olympia, others we'll likely never know who they are. I had to smile when I saw this photo of my brother with his batman belt and airplane. And he had the nerve to ask who was in this photo!?! In order to post the batman belt photo I had to agree to post the photo of the 'unknown person' with the tennis racquet. Done. In all it was a really good trip. It had the potential to be really unpleasant, there were many emotional land mines strewn liberally about and my brother and I managed to avoid them. There was some sadness, we would both have preferred to have visited gram's grave with the mother, instead of visiting both graves, but there were good memories shared and laughter recalling some goofy things.
We called her 'the mother', kinda cute how she got the nickname, actually. I think I was 15 or 16 and it was Mother's Day. Gram, the mother, the bro, his wife, and I went out to brunch, the waitress came around to take drink orders and asked "Who's the mother here?" It stuck, even her AIM login was ThemotherC. And it seemed the most appropriate thing to include on her marker. I think she'd like it that way.
I love to paddle outrigger canoes. I feel like a postal worker, neither rain nor snow, nor sleet will keep this paddler from her practice!
I have two corgi dogs, they are the best dogs ever. Gus and Llelo love long walks, fetching, going to the dog park and swimming.
The race went really well Saturday, but it was a very long day. I ended up leaving around 5:30 to go pick up Kristi and then Lise and then we were off to pick up Kristen in Tacoma. We got down to Portland in very good time, arriving around 8:30 or so. The first order of business was rigging the canoes only one hadn't arrived yet, we'd passed them on the highway. We off loaded the Mirage (our fastest canoe) and rigged it for the race. I turned in our forms and payment and received our race t-shirts, a much better design and color than last year. Then off to the very long line for the toilet, get changed and make ready to race. Our race crew was Minnie in stroke, then Rives, Nancy, me, Lise, and Kristen steering. A few sucks on the albuterol before we started and I was ready for the warm up. I asked Claude from our men's novice crew to shoot some snaps with my camera, he did a great job and shot some videos with narration, too! Thanks Claude! The first video is us leaving the beach to begin our warm up and the second video is our race finish.
but we all were able to keep our stroke long, good rotation, and reach, with a good hard pull. No other canoes were nearby us for the remainder of the race. The wind was to our backs for the against current run and once we made the turn to head down river again the refreshing breeze in our faces combined with the current made it feel as if we were flying down to the finish line. You can see in the video, we all still look really strong as if we could continue some distance further.
finish line. The official results are not yet posted or I would have more details. Our post race team photo is at the top. Here is the photo of the SSPO open men's crew, they took first overall in the men's race with a time of 58:17! They rock! In the photo they are Kevin, James, Geoff, Alan, Tom, and Eric. Our golden master men's crew crossed the finish line 5th, I think, and their finish time was 1:02:35. Their crew was Dave, Doug, Koko, Ed, Mike, and Clem. I have referred to them as our 50+ guys in the past. They rock, too! And then we had a third men's crew, the novice men. Their crew was Ryan, Frank, 
Ken, Claude, Troy, and Ernie. They finished in 1:08:16. As with all of SSPO, they rock!
