The Good, The Bad, The Busy

Apologies, it's been far too long since I've posted. I've had a fair bit going on and been spending too much time in my head rather than putting what's in my head down. Lots going on lately since Lotus (and before). During the race my camel-back hydration pack rubbed my sides raw; the wounds are nearly healed, thankfully, just in time to rub them raw this coming weekend up at Gibson's! I stitched up a new pack out of fleece and bought some 2 inch wide webbing for the belt and made a fleece sleeve for that. Ok, just realized my mind is going in about 50,000 different directions at once and if I hope to get to bed at a reasonable hour I need to focus and try to reign in some order to my thoughts.

Fourth of July rocked! It was kinda more fluid in terms of planning than I had expected but it was all good. I'd hoped to go sailing with Scotty, but it was a bit too windy for my little sailboat. I ended up playing mini golf at Interbay with Diane, Dave, and his two daughters. It was lots of fun, they are always fun to hang out with, and I didn't suck nearly as badly as I expected. In fact, I got the second lowest score. Who knew! Scotty and I went up to have a wonderful supper at Mark, Nancy, and little Miriam's house. Grilled salmon, grilled and steamed asparagus, grilled and steamed corn on the cob, steamed kale with balsamic dressing, mmm mmm mmm. It was all excellent but the grilled asparagus was heavenly. They needed to get Mark's mother, Wynne, to the airport (flying back to Boston) so Scotty and I went down nearer my place, Magnuson Park, to light fireworks off. We found a very nice, large, empty parking lot and we having a lovely time when a parks guy rolled up and asked us to move along, we nodded and said sure thing. After he rolled off we proceeded to continue lighting stuff! A few minutes later he came back chastising us for disregarding his request to move on. We tried to find another part of the park where we could light stuff but he cruised by as we were packing our bags. We decided a total change of venue was in order at that point. We went over to Matthew's Beach and aside from the underage drinking that was going on and occasional fireworks lit amongst the trees it seemed like the perfect location. We went down to the water and had an excellent little show. The drunken youth even cheered! We scooted when a guy started lighting stuff behind us and it was falling over shooting firey balls in the direction of people. In all an excellent time! By the way, taking photos of fireworks is harder than you'd expect, but you can tell we had some fun!

We finally have sorted out our Gibson's crew for next weekend. Sabine from Seattle Outrigger will be stroking for us, we practiced with her last Saturday and I think it's going to be an awesome crew for the race. Anyway, following Sabine will be Lianne, Minnie, me, Chantelle, and Kristen will be steering. Our practice last Saturday was a 16 miler down nearly to the eastern span of the I-90 bridge. It was an excellent practice, a bit drizzley but perfect conditions otherwise. I need to get some sort of headband to keep the sweat out of my eyes. Sweat drips into my eyes and the burning was quite blinding. The new fleece hydration pack worked out just fine. I think it could use a few slight refinements but it should do me just fine this weekend.

Sabine and I will be carpooling up. Leaving around 9 am Friday, crossing the border (I finally get to use my new Nexus pass) and then up to the ferry at Horseshoe Bay leaving at 2:15. The boats will be on the 6:45 ferry so we will have a few hours to settle in and get some supper before we have to rig the boats. My neighbor Kyle will be looking after the dog boyz, thankfully. It's such a relief knowing she can take care of them and they will be in good hands.

The rest of Saturday was quite busy. I went down to Olympia to go through the last of the photos with Uncle Leonard and then a BBQ at Craig's house, a former co-worker. 16 miles is a very long way combined with lots of visiting and driving, I was pooped once I finally made it home.

Sunday I went for a nice easy paddle on my OC1 to try and loosen things from that long paddle. Finally got Steve out on his OC1, too. After the paddle we went down to Agua Verde for some lunch. One day I still want to try and paddle down there for lunch, it may happen.

Today was a day of emotional ups and downs. An offer was finally made on the Mother's house which has been on the market since last September. My brother made a counter offer which was accepted today! They want to fast track the deal and if all goes well the deal will close on July 25. Thank goodness. On the other hand things have been very slow at work for a lot longer than I have ever seen before, that anyone has ever seen before. The president of the company called a meeting for this afternoon which threw everyone into a dither, she never calls meetings and we have our regular staff meetings on Wednesdays. Until further notice we are having our hours (and pay) reduced by 20%. Projections are promising for September and October, but July and August are still looking very grim. I guess a 20% reduction is much better than 100% but it's going to be tough considering I pretty much live paycheck to paycheck. Well, please think good economic thoughts in my general direction and if you have any data that needs quality third party validation please let me know, we have a full staff ready to do quality validation work to suite your needs!

Lotus was long!

We took three crews up to Lotus Iron Saturday. We didn't have enough women available to field a full women's crew so we had a mixed crew of Minnie, Rives, Melissa, Will, Todd, and Lianne steered her first race. Our men's blue team was Alan, Eric, Jesse, Clem, Kevin and Tom steering, the men's white team was Frank, Ernie, Patrick, Ed, Jason, and Troy steering. It was the latest race start I've ever had before, scheduled for 2 pm. In Canada the women's crews race together and afterwards the men's and mixed crews race together.

The race course was leaving in front of the Lotus Clubhouse across the Burrard Inlet north in to the Indian Arm, turn around Raccoon Island, then south towards Cates Park, then west back into Burrard Inlet to a turn around McBarge, and then a final eastward run back towards the Clubhouse. The race distance was posted as 17 km which converts 10.56 miles. I think it was actually closer to 19 km because my GPS read 12.1 miles at the end of the race and we really didn't do that much zigging and zagging around.

Two boats huli'd within 3 minutes of the start line. The wake across Burrard Inlet was substantial, there is a lot of big (huge) boat traffic along the Inlet. We may have been a little cautious but I'd rather be cautious and not huli during a race. Will and I worked out a system where Lianne would call out "Protect the ama!" and whoever was on the right side would switch over to the ama side, I kept calling the changes so the others wouldn't become too fatigued staying on one side too long and when things had calmed down Will or I would switch to the side we should be on. Once we were further up Indian Arm it was less bad but there were still moments of some pretty big wake. As we came upon Raccoon Island I saw a couple sunbathing, I'm not sure if they were completely naked but they definitely were from the waist up! I didn't call it out to the rest of the boat, didn't want to distract the guys (lol). On the other side of Raccoon Island there was a boat full of partying youth, I didn't see them but heard afterwards there were two topless girls, I just heard the guy hollar that we were dead last; not true there was another boat behind us! However, they did pass us once we were back into Burrard Inlet. We were getting tired by this time and had nothing left to try and fend them off. On our way to McBarge one of the chase boats was hanging nearby us and the crew which had just passed us. It was both endearing and a wee bit annoying that the guy was calling out to pull and twist, general pep-talking kind of thing. One part of me just wanted him to bed quiet, while another part of me actually pulled a bit better for the encouragement!

We were finally into the home stretch, tired and needing to make it that last bit, Lianne dipped the her steering blade in for a slight correction and the current ripped it out of her hands! Todd gave her his paddle and went for the spare paddle taped to the iako. We started to turn back for the blade when the guy in the chase boat offered to get it for us! We kept on towards the finish line and he passed off the blade to Lianne. With the exception of the start of the turn to go back those of us in the front would never have known there was anything different happening! Way to go Lianne! I was (and I think most of our crew was) thinking that the finish horn would happen a minute or so before it finally went off, but we had to keep paddling until we heard the horn. So tired, so tired, but finished!

Our men's blue team finished first overall/first open men's, at 1:24:17, the men's white team finished 11th overall, eighth open men's, at 1:39:00, and our mixed crew finished 19th overall at 1:57:40. I was in line for the BBQ plate lunch when I heard one of the race officials asking around for one of the SSP mixed crew paddlers. I called him over, he wanted to confirm that we had registered master category (35 and over). Yup, we were all over 35, we were masters. He then said we'd taken first place! Seems we were the only crew to register master mixed. HA! We went from last to first in a heartbeat!

Between the late start, long race, lunch, awards, and loading the boats we weren't on our way home until 6:45 pm. Talk about a long day. I finally got home at nearly 10 pm. Thanks to my neighbors for taking the dog boyz out for a few potty breaks today and feeding supper, too.

I got it, I got it!!

I got up earlier than people should have to on a Sunday morning, but thankfully later than I'd have to get up to travel to a race. The dogs and I were on the road before 8:30 and made good travel time up to the border. Going to the race the weekend before we'd gone through the Peace Arch and it was a slow go so I decided to go for the truck crossing, a bit east of the Peace Arch crossing. There was no waiting, hurrah! I made it up to Jericho Sailing Center a little before 11. Ross was still out paddling for his club practice, they'd gone 10 miles on OC1s. He was looking like he'd had a good long workout when he came in. He went to shower and change and I went to change into paddling gear for another test drive.

This Pahoa felt really good, much more responsive than Steve's Kaimana that I've been paddling all winter. The more I tooled around the more I was feeling like this was a very good decision for me. Ross was very indulgent, took some snapshots with my cell phone and digital camera for me. It took a few tries to get the correct fit on the seat. This model doesn't have an adjustable seat, it's a foam block cut with a butt print with a varied span behind the seat, the broader the span the closer you sit to the steering pedals.

We brought the boat back up to take it apart and bag it up. It came with sturdy bags for the hull and for the ama. We loaded the boat on top of the car and tucked the ama inside, much to Gus' dismay. An OC1 ama will fit inside my car but it extends from the dashboard all the way back to the rear window and as far as Gus is concerned that's no ok, not the way it's supposed to be. I asked Ross about where I could grab a bite to eat before driving home. We went to Milestone's on 4th. It was rather crowded but nothing too bad. We placed our order and chatted while we waited for our meal to arrive. After 45 minutes or so I asked a staff member, our waiter couldn't be found, when our food might be arriving. Turns our our waiter never placed our order with the kitchen! D'oh! She put a rush on the food and then comped our entire meal. Not a bad deal.

I was finally on my way around 3:30, I think. I got a little turned around trying to get back to 99 south, I missed Oak St, good thing I've got that AAA map, I had gone a few blocks beyond and there is a big construction project that made going back the way I came not an option. I often use 'the force' when driving in an unfamiliar region. It took half an hour or so to get back to where I wanted to be and I was on my way towards the border. I went back to the truck crossing only this time there was a line, it took me 50 minutes to get up to the agent's window. It took me less than two minutes to get through and continue back to Seattle. I got down to Sail Sand Point around 6-6:30 and then needed to rinse the salt water off the boat before I could put it away. I walked the hull down to the lake and dunked it in the water to clean the salt residue off and then tucked it into it's storage rack inside the container. Then back home for some supper for the dogs and me, and a little relaxation from the long drive. Time to wrap my brain around the idea that I now have my own OC1!

been a good week, but Gus doesn't think so

It's been a pretty good week. Late Monday night I received an email from Ross at Open Ocean Outriggers wishing me happy birthday. Once I moved beyond being a little weirded out (how did he know it was my birthday? ah, from a form I filled out on a demo day in December) we started chatting about the race last weekend, he'd raced OC2 and done much better than I did, for that matter everybody did much better than I did except for that one person behind me! Then I mentioned to him I was on the verge of getting and OC1, a dealer was willing to work out a payment deal for me. I decided to ask if he would consider such a deal, never hurts to ask, the worst they can do is say no, which is totally ok. You just never know how often they might say yes if you never ask. And from personal experience yes happens a whole lot more often than you'd expect! Anyway, Ross and I chatted, he spoke with his business partner, and came back with terms we were both happy with and much better than the other deal. I'm getting my new boat this Sunday, it's a Hypr Pahoa. I could wait until mid-April when Ross is planning to come down for a race and pick up a boat he's buying, but I am totally down with immediate gratification! I think it may have something to do with being an inaugural member of the MTV/80's generation! Anybody want to drive to Vancouver Canada with me Sunday?

Gus is having a bit of a rough time, though. Last May he got a slab fracture on an upper premolar from chewing on a cow knee cap bone. It took a few months for it be be painful to him. Last October it was effecting his chewing so in we go for extraction and while he was under had the remaining teeth cleaned. The crater left by the tooth removal took a good long while to heal up. This began our weekly vet visits because shortly thereafter Llelo had his infamous goose poop incident. Around New Year's both guys were finally feeling pretty fit. Then in mid-February I noticed Gus wasn't eating his chewy things I left for him when I went to work. Open up and sure enough there is another chipped tooth, same tooth other side. He went in for that extraction yesterday. It was otherwise a very healthy tooth because it took Dr Reeves 45 minutes to remove it and I hear he was sweating up a storm because he was working so hard. When I went to pick Gus up last night as soon as he saw me he started whining, really pathetic, prolonged whines, too. It was truly heartbreaking. The technician said while back in the kennel he was perfectly fine and this could just be a special for mom performance. Probably true, but still pulls at the heartstrings.

The whole ride home, whiiiiine, whiiiiinnnnne, wwwwhhhinnne! And he was still a bit woozy from the drugs, too. We get home, more whining. Llelo is thrilled to have his big bruddah home again, let's play now, ok, let's play! To his credit Gus didn't even snap at him, I did that! Supper was tough, I had soaked some kibble in hot water to soften it and added extra canned, not interested. Had to go to straight canned food and even that was hard. I got him up on the bed and he made all kinds of cute wookie sounds mixed with the occasional whine. This morning we skipped the softened dry food and went straight to canned only, gave him his pain meds and antibiotics. Watching him eat the canned food was so sad, even that was painful. Fran, misery loves company, when is your next dental appointment? Gus certainly can feel your pain. Llelo was hovering in the background, waiting for his turn to lick out the dish. Gus seems to be napping right now. Hopefully he will heal more quickly this time. We started the antibiotics straight away this time rather than waiting a week like last time. Poor Gus.

Lotus Icebreaker

Gawd, what a long day it's been. Up early, early, head out to collect Kristi here in Seattle, then up to South Everett to get Ed, then North Everett to get Rocky, had to leave the dog boyz home. We were all part of a V12 crew for the Lotus Icebreaker outrigger race. For V12 they take two OC6 hulls and lash them together, very stable, very heavy, potentially very fast. They ran 5 heats of 6-V12, do you realize how many people that is??? That's 72 paddlers per heat!!! That means there were over 300 lunatics paddling out in the bitter cold and snowy, rainy conditions! I'm pretty sure we all had a great time, too. The venue was beautiful, the race was about 6 km, and Sail Sand Point took first in our heat, we were challenged by another crew for the entire race, we beat them by only 6 seconds. We didn't take first overall, but I'm still happy with our results. A full third of our crew hadn't raced before. And one of our crew never made it to the race, got lost on their way and thankfully we were able to pick up someone who had steered a boat in the previous heat.

After the race 8 of the crew (& their entrouages) went out to Dim Sum in Richmond for lunch. Mahalos to Ernie and everyone who ordered the food. It was all good, although I wasn't compelled to try the tripe or the chicken legs. I was particularly fond of the red bean pancakes for dessert, but then sweets are my favorite. Fed, dry, and warm (mostly) it was time to head south again. The boarder crossing was quite painless, only 6-8 cars in front of us. Dropped Rocky at his house, went to Costco to fuel up, dropped Ed at his car, and Kristi moved into the front seat for the last leg of the trip. We were just chatting when she said 'wouldn't it be great to go to Olympus Spa right now?' The idea of those hot tubs, steams rooms, and hot dry rooms sounded excellent to me as well and since we were still north of the spa it wouldn't even be out of our way! I had a neighbor to take the boyz out for a potty break so I had a little flexibility in my return time.

We got to Olympus a few minutes later, paid our way and headed in to hit the hot relaxation. We moved from the different temperature baths to the steam room and dry sauna, I went off to the salt room and the elvan stone room and then back to the hot tubs. Ladies, I highly recommend going, it's free on your birthday! Guys, a gift certificate here for that special woman in your life would be an excellent idea. I've had the Korean Body Scrub, it's wonderful, refreshing, invigorating, and your skin is so soft afterwards. We spent a couple of hours warming up and soaking away the tired muscles, it was great.

I got home a little before 8 pm to be greeted by the dog boyz, so utterly relieved that I had not forsaken them, that I had come home again. They worry so, well, Gus does anyway. They have been extra clingy all evening, having been neglected all day they feel they are deserving of extra loves, which they are. So enough for now, gotta go love on da boyz.