What A Pain!

As you may recall I initiated a back tweaking on Saturday the 15th by trying to paddle at too high a stroke rate. Saturday's Sound Rower's race didn't help matters any. I was working pretty hard and I should have taken it a bit easier, ok, a lot easier. After the race a few friends were kind enough to help me empty and properly repack my 5'x15' storage unit. I had enough wits about me to realize it was a project better undertaken with assistance and it should be noted that this is a big evolutionary step for me! Anyhoo, the combination of 10 days ago tweaking, working too hard during the race, and repacking a storage unit, my back is feeling rather fried. I spent 1.5 hours on Carmen's massage table this afternoon. She found all the spots that were unhappy. And then she started working on my feet. On the bright side my right foot is feeling better. On the down side, I suspect I should take a pass on this Saturday's race down in Portland. I'm going to gauge the situation day by day and see how the back is doing. I'd really wanted to participate in all 7 of the winter series races. But better to pass on one race than be a whiny, cripple for weeks afterwards, 'cause you know I'll whine about it, in between icing and liberally applying narcotics, of course!

Oh, The Humanity

My bedroom and living room windows overlook a sidewalk to an exterior door to my apartment building. It can be troublesome during the warmer months when I have all my windows open, the dogs hear anyone walking past and feel the need to let me know there is someone out there, Gus with a low moof, Llelo with a more assertive and higher pitched WOOF! People will go out there to smoke, eww, or are talking loud and drunkenly coming home from a night out. During the colder months it's much less an issue, until Friday night. Someone was knocking on the door and calling out, it was 5 am and I still had a couple of hours before I needed to get up and ready for the race on Lake Sammamish. I get rather testy when people wake me like that, I generally have trouble falling back asleep. I stuck my head outside and politely asked him to keep his voice down. Turns out it was a kid (both in actions and age), under 25 or so, who used to live in the building. Seems he'd had 'entirely too much fun' that night and couldn't remember where he lived. I can only speculate that he was dropped off by a taxi, thankfully. He claimed he'd moved back into the building and since we were acquainted from when he lived here I tossed keys to him. When he brought them up to me I asked how he was getting into his unit only to discover he was so hammered, still, that he didn't know anything and didn't live here, he was whining about how cold he was, it was so cold outside (dufus was wearing shorts and a t-shirt). Since he was obviously no threat, he couldn't stand upright and steady at the same time, and I did kind of know him and I really wanted to get another couple hours of sleep but didn't want him wandering the halls of the building I brought him into my apartment, pointed to the couch and handed him a blanket. I could smell the stale smell of alcohol wafting off him from the other room, gag, I opened my window so as not to be knocked out by the fumes. The dogs thought this was great fun and Llelo kept jumping off my bed to go jump onto him on the couch. I finally closed the baby gate to keep the dogs in my bedroom and was able to go back to sleep. I got up around 7:30, took care of the dogs, had some breakfast and coffee. Around 8:45 I started trying to wake the kid up. It was more challenging that I anticipated and I didn't think it would be that easy. I finally pulled the blanket off him and told the dogs to jump up on him and give kisses, Gus even got into the act. Finally got him up and out of my apartment, kid was still so drunk he had no idea where he lived. I got him outside the building and headed down to SSP to load the boats for the race. I've done my mitzvah for the day.

I headed down to SSP to meet Minnie to load boats for the Lake Sammamish sound rowers race. We were there a little bit late but in plenty of time. This was my first race in the new boat. I made sure to have my protein shake before I left the house as well as my emergen-c drink. They made all the difference. I felt pretty good during the race. It was a little frustrating, they had started the pre-race meeting early so I'd missed the part detailing the course, I knew I'd be far enough behind the race leaders to see where the turns and things were, it just would have been nice to know in advance. Conditions were ideal, sunny, cool, only a hint of breeze, essentially flat water, a perfect day for racing. I started out pretty well, perhaps not as fast as I should have, I did maintain a pace over 5 mph for the entire race except the tight turns. I finished in 1:04:24 and it was 5.8 miles, took first in W OC-1, there were two of us, Minnie was behind me. I crossed the line 38 out of 47. It was neither my best nor my worst race, generally a pretty good race. Sound Rowers races are fun because there are so many different type of boats participating.

Next week I'm off to Portland for another PNW-ORCA winter series race.

A Semi-Public Flaming

Only semi-public because I won't post the name or photos of the person I'm about tell you about. You may recall that I posted a personal ad on Craigslist the end of January. I've gotten a number of nice responses and entirely too many offers to 'frost my cake' (my posting title was cake seeks icing), if you know what I mean. Really now, if I'd been looking for a casual encounter don't you think I'd have posted it there?!? Anyway, there was a fireman, we'll call him 'J', who answered my ad, seemed a little intense, but I was curious. Along with photos in 'normal' situations he included a photo from the neck down completely nekkid and completely, um, at attention! I should have listened to my spidey senses which were tingling in a big way. I replied to his response and he telephoned me, I was caught completely off guard because it was during work hours and days after I'd sent my reply; I figured he'd moved on. I was very busy and asked if we could talk after I got off work, then I never heard from him again. Ok, fine, no problem, moving on with my life, there were other guys who had responded to talk to and have bad first dates with.

Fast forward to last Monday, St Patrick's Day, after work I went to Westlake Center to See's Candies to get myself a Rocky Road Easter Egg, my only homage to Easter. Then I was meeting a friend, Kyle, in the bus tunnel to head home. Down in the tunnel we were chatting about the butter cream eggs I was given every year and the fact that I have NEVER liked butter cream eggs when a guy walks up and asks if my name is Melissa. Yes, I say hesitantly, wondering who the heck this guy is. He says his name is 'J' and hands me a card with his number and email, it was the guy who'd answered my ad. It finally clicked just before he walked away. Kyle was wondering what the heck is going on so, during the bus ride home I filled her in on the details.

That night I sat down and composed an email to 'J' asking how the heck he'd picked me out of a crowd like that, never having met me and only having seen a couple of photos. We exchanged a couple of emails, including another photo of his 'unit', and made plans to meet for lunch on Wednesday. Now along with the regular conversation in the emails he would often proclaim that I was hot. Ok, once is flattering, twice is a little cute, more than that makes me wonder what's your angle, what's going on here. I mean, come on, Heidi Klum is hot, Naomi Campbell is hot, Nicole Kidman is hot; me, not so hot. I'll accept cute, attractive, athletic, there was a guy who wrote that I was adorable, I really liked that one! Not so much hot, though, the wobbly bits rather cancel out any potential hotness, know what I mean? And there were also a fair number of comments made regarding what he'd like to do to/with me in the bedroom. While I'm not necessarily against this type of conversation it seemed a bit premature and again, the spidey senses were tingling.

Wednesday rolls around and we meet for lunch. It was a good lunch, we went to Jimmy's On First, there was conversation and laughter, it was generally a good time. When it was time I got back to the office he drove me back and as he was dropping me off he leaned in for a kiss. That was fine, but the next thing I knew there was a tongue trying to tickle my tonsils and I felt as though my lips had gotten caught in a vacuum cleaner hose! Oh, and two words for you 'J': chap stick! Once I was able to extricate myself from the vacuum I made my way back into the office my mind a whir, what the heck had just happened and did I like it?

A few hours later I left for the day to meet Fran, Lillian, and Robin at Collin's Pub for belated birthday dessert and they wanted the lowdown on my date. On my way to meet them 'J' called and left me a voice mail thanking me for a lovely lunch and I'm such a great kisser and XXX things he wanted to do with/to me and again how hot I am. Fran and Lillian are so in love, it's a delight to see them together. I was able to be there for their wedding last summer, such a wonderful celebration of love and happiness. I aspire to find something like that. Lillian commented that if you have to ask if this is love, it probably isn't. I had lots of fun with the ladies, laughter is cathartic.

When I got home I tapped out a well thought out email to 'J' saying I enjoyed lunch and meeting him, but that I was rather taken aback my his sexual intensity, that I'm looking to get to know someone, develop a solid friendship with them and when sex is the next logical progression in our relationship, then go there. That I understood his need to present the entire 'package', so to speak, for matters of full disclosure, but I felt it's really about more than the size of his penis.

I didn't hear anything from him on Thursday, no emails, no phone calls. Hmm, perhaps he didn't like my email. Oh well, decision made. Then as I'm loading the car from a Costco trip he calls; I let it go to voice mail, it was cold and I wanted to get into the car. Once in the car I listen to the message he left. Holy crap, what a pretentious, entirely too full of himself ass! He told me that I needed to get off my high horse and ride the wave, the tsunami, and if I am cap-a-ble of enjoying myself we should get together. Ya right! Insulting me is really the way to bring me around! Well, decision made, not that I wasn't already leaning towards giving him the boot anyway. For some misguided reason I was thinking about sending him a final email telling him off, but Kyle, after listening to the message, pointed out he didn't even deserve that much.

Sigh. Dating is hard, not that I ever expected it to be easy, but dang! What ever happened to decency and civility? Am I that old fashioned? Thankfully I've had some nice dates and met a few pleasant guys so I'm not ready to give up entirely. But 'J' makes me really glad that I have my dog boys. Everyone should have *some* unconditional love in their lives.

A new race on the schedule

There is an organization called Sound Rowers, they sponsor races of human powered craft. I did the Mercer-Medina Sausage Pull last October on OC2 with Ed. The conditions were aggressive, windy and got more windy during over the course of the race and there was some chop, too. It was my first small boat race and I was pleased to be able to do it with Ed, who has quite a lot of experience. Since then I've done most of the PNW-ORCA winter series, I've purchased my own OC1, and I have gained a tremendous amount of experience in the small boats.

I just found out they have a race scheduled this Saturday in Lake Sammamish. Guess who's racing this weekend! How could I pass up a race so nearby? And with such a reasonable start time? The short course (6 miles) starts at 11 am, with a pre-race meeting at 10:30 am. I am so there. If you'd like to come out and see what small boat racing is like the weather sounds like it will be cooperative, too.

Then the following weekend is another race in Portland, the next to last winter series race.

mid-week post

I'd hoped to post Tuesday night but never quite got to it. We ended up having seven people plan to come down, a little challenging in a six person boat. I used it as a weak excuse to take out my spiffy new boat. I'd planned to take it easy, my back was still acting twingey from last Saturday, it's not always an easy thing to do, either. I still need to get the technique down for assembling the boat, Tuesday was the first time I'd done it completely myself. Soon it will be easier, quicker, and more smooth. I got down to the water just as the OC6 was being put in. I figured I'd have to work to try and keep up with them, but they took their time figuring out what they wanted to do for their workout. I decided not to wait and headed off to the north, thinking they would catch me in fairly short order. I was trying to settle into a nice pace, kept it around 5 mph. Looking at my gps I could see I'd made it about 1.7 miles when the gps pooped out, I think it needs new batteries. I looked back and the OC6 was a bit north of Matthew's Beach. I continued north until I passed around a no wake bouy and headed back towards SSP. I paused for a moment to try hitting the power button on the gps, it came back to life and seemed to work properly the rest of the way back to the beach. Round trip I went about 3.5 miles, maybe a bit further and maintained that 5 mph pace for the bulk of my paddling time. It was good without over taxing my back. I was able to take apart the boat more easily than it went together and came back home for a quick supper and a bit more work I had to finish up. In all a good afternoon/evening.

Tomorrow should be a good paddle. We've got 6 already lined up for practice. I'll go in the OC6 this time. We have gotten some workouts from Kristen so we will have some good training exercises to work on. I'm looking forward to it.

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!

It started out well enough

This morning I went down for another team practice for the Rusty Iron, the first OC6 race we plan to do down in Portland on April 26. Our crew will be, in seating order, Minnie, Rives, Nancy, me, Lise, and Kristen steering. We had a nice ten minute warm up, gradually ramping up our intensity and pace, a quick break to adjust clothing and get water before we were off for the big part of the workout. We headed south towards the 520 bridge keeping pretty close to a race pace. Minnie is really coming along as a good stroke person. She is setting a good pace and keeping it very steady. We got all the way to the western high rise, passed under, went along the bridge to the eastern high rise, and back under again in about 45-50 minutes. The water on the south side of the bridge was messy and slowed our pace somewhat. The wind was blowing the water towards the bridge and then it bounced back towards us creating a little bit of chaos.

Once we were back on the north side of the bridge we took another short break and got ready for 3-10 minute pieces, the first was to be at a higher stroke rate, around 62+ per minute, then back down to 58-60, and the final piece back up to 62+ again. Well, 2-3 minutes into the first piece my back up and rebelled. The message was clear, you want to race on 3/29, 4/12, and/or 4/26 you better stop this nonsense right quick! I pulled up and told Kristen that I couldn't do the fast pace so we backed down to the slower pace and my back was still rather pissed off. I asked Kristen if I could steer back. You know things aren't going well if I want to steer, my hind parts don't fit in those seats, I have to sit up on one hip to be back there. Kristen moved up to seat 3 and Nancy moved to 4. I discovered there is enough space behind seat 6 for my legs and feet so I could sit on the tail section of the boat! I didn't have to wedge myself in, huzzah!!! They kept a decent pace and I tried to keep a straight line, I think they did better than I did, but I didn't do too badly. I tried to paddle a couple of times, bad idea on two counts, our course became rather erratic and my back said no. So, I just poked and sat, sat and poked, poked and sat, and got cold, I'd worked up a decent sweat during the first half of the workout and now wasn't really working so hard. I thought I did bring us in rather nicely, right up along the shore followed by a quick turn and a couple of back paddles and there we were.

My neighbor, a nice young woman named Kyle, came down for her first time paddling. She went out with John, Meilee, Marth, Neil, and Judy. Sounds like she really enjoyed it and plans to come out again. Her boyfriend has expressed interest as well. Since her boat came in earlier she was able to let the dog boyz out of the car. By the way, Gus is feeling much better, he started perking up last night. Gus could recognize me in the boat coming in and raced over to the ramp to meet us, or rather me. Llelo followed in short order and I could tell he'd been rolling in goose poop. Dumb dog! I dragged him into the water for a rinse and somehow he managed to roll in more between the rinse and time to go home, got another rinse and then into the car. During the ride home I could make out 'ew de goose poop and made the snap decision to give the both baths! I have a friend with 2 corgis down in California and her boy dog, Redd, has made the connection that if he gets skunked he gets a bath, he HATES baths, he takes pains to not get skunked, the girl dog, Cosmo, ya, not so much. I can only hope that Llelo will make the connection that when he rolls in goose poop he gets a bath, but I think he's going to be more like Cosmo, sigh.

I wanted to extend a big public (as big an audience I my blog has, anyway) mahalo to Steve E for letting me use his Kaimana OC1 this winter! It has been wonderful to have a boat to use for training (wish I'd done more!) and to take to races! I still think he should have sold it to me, but since I actually saw him down at the club going out for a paddle this morning perhaps he really does intend to get back into paddling! ;-) And since I'm getting my own boat tomorrow maybe we can go for paddles together on our OC1s. So, Steve "Mahalo ā nui loa (thanks very, very, very much)". And now it's time to go ice my back.