What a Glorious Day

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.

muscle memory is a good thing

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.

perhaps breathing isn't highly overrated

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.

The Mother, the yartzeit

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.

up a Saturday without a paddle

Saturday started out rather strangely. It was the first Saturday that I can remember where I didn't have paddling practice or an outrigger race AND I wasn't sick as a dog. I guess my back injury counts as a variety of illness, but if you aren't spiking a fever or coughing up technicolor ick it isn't really being sick. My back is feeling somewhat better, slowly, as is the cut on my thumb. I have been having difficulty finding a style of bandage that will stay on. As you may know, thumbs are extremely mobile and not easily encouraged to hold still and rest, not unlike myself. All the waterproof, seal around the entire edge style tend to pop off within 10 minutes of application regardless of the size. And if antibiotic ointment has been applied they come off even more quickly. I finally went with the knuckle style made from stretchy fabric, they look like a rounded capital H, two legs wrap around the thumb itself and the other legs extend down the wrist. They actually stay on for a few hours, longer if treated nicely.

Initially at a quandry as to how to fill a day sans paddling, my fears were quickly laid to rest. I still needed to sift through my remaining apartment building storage unit. The plan was to transfer some things to the big off site storage unit. I managed to do that solo without further damaging myself! Even got the stuff down to the other location in a single trip.

Next on the agenda was moving my little laser-type sailboat down to SSP for storage. I was not so delusional as to believe I could get the boat on top of my car by myself. Ten or more years ago and with a car having a more sloping rear window I was able to do it. My back was more healthy then than it is now and the Forester has a vertical rear window, not so good for sliding boats up. I found a neighbor who could help lift it up and I knew I'd find folks down at SSP who could help me lift it off the car. With the boat now down at SSP I suspect I'll be sailing it more frequently. Anybody want to go for a sail? And looking for a link to describe the boat I've found out the make and model, it's a Barnett 1400, I think. The good news is I know that I can get a new sail for it and it will probably be the right thing and cheaper than having one custom made by a different company.

Sunday was a good day as well. Went to breakfast with a couple of friends who then came over to my place afterwards. Llelo is such a goof when people come over. He feels that anyone sitting on the couch has extended him an open invitation to jump into their laps and cover them with hugs and kisses. One of the friends was a boy of 21 months, fun, active, curious, and having a good time with the toy VW Beetle I have. Gus was feeling some anxiety having J in his house and spent the entire visit sucking on his ducky, his equivalent of a security blanket. They tend to get rather nasty, I have a few in backup so they can go through the wash as needed. Aside from Gus, a good time was had by all. After the friends left the dog boys were overcome by naps, they were out cold almost immediately. I parked myself on the couch to watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail and woke up a few hours later. What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than napping on the couch with a dog curled up in your lap.

KERPOW

Having my thumb bandaged up blows. It makes it hard to type and it still hurts, too. Pout, pout, pout. I'm not going anywhere tomorrow. It is a difficult place to have bandaged. I've taken off the massive gauze wrap that was to help keep me from bumping it and the band aid is peeling off and not doing a good job of sealing the wound. I may need to buy another box of band-aids, a different shape, a different size, something is bound to work.

A funny thing happened Monday afternoon. I took the dog boyz to our neighborhood park for a little run around and our neighbor, Kyle, came along, too. The boys always like to have a good run after the Chuckit Flying Squirrel. Gus races for the toy and Llelo races after Gus. On our way there we saw a neighborhood dog that Llelo likes to play with so they turned around and came back to the park to play with us.

Now Gus is very, very passionate about his fetching. Corgis are fast, a passionate corgi going after his toy is very fast. Llelo was racing around like a crazy man with Riley, the yorkie on steroids (he huge for a yorkie, over 15 lbs). Neither dog is even aware of the other one. Can you see where this is going? I throw the flying squirrel and Gus takes off, Llelo is making a loop with Riley hot on his heels when WHAM Gus and Llelo collide. Both are knocked back over a foot they have hit so hard! Llelo actually looks stunned for the briefest of moments, then shakes his head and takes off again. You could almost see the little birdies and stars circling his head. Gus had already taken off for the flying squirrel. Silly dogs.

It Was A Brilliant Plan ...

I have come to really like bread pudding. It's something my mother always enjoyed but when she'd bake it I tended to think it was gross. What can I say, I was younger, much younger, and less willing to try different things. Then one day I saw a recipe on the side of a rice milk container. I thought I'd give it a try. Yum-mee! I had this epiphany at least a year before my mother passed away so I could inform her of my previous foolishness and let her know I'd finally come around to be a believer.

A consistent problem I've had with my bread puddings is the raisins, they tend to float to the top and burn or if I've poked them down they sink and burn at the bottom. A friend suggested soaking them in hot water for a while before putting them into the mixture. Ya, good idea, still ended up with burnt raisins, not quite as many but it still wasn't the solution I'd hoped for. The other day at Trader Joe's I had a flash of brilliance: I bought a couple loaves of cinnamon raisin bread! This morning it was time to test the theory. I was slicing the bread and managed to take a chunk of the fleshy part of my thumb in addition to the bread! Yowza! I could tell right away this was more than just a regular band-aid type of flesh wound. I called Diane who agreed to give me a ride to the hospital. After 45 minutes I told Diane it was ok for her to head back to work, that Mark would come collect me after they were finished. I waited in the ER for over three hours! And was still never seen. I had called Mark and asked him to try and locate an urgent care clinic, which he did. There is one on Aurora and 85th. The doctor had already started to clean the wound before I finished the first page of my paperwork, that really smarted. An injection of something-caine, followed by two sutures, then a massive hand wrap. The doctor filled out her paperwork, asked me to make sure to sign the page giving her permission to treat me, and then I finished my sign-in paperwork. Then off to sign-in and out, and then take my leave. Took all of 25 minutes enter to exit. I'm definitely going there next time I try to hack off a limb.

After Mark brought me home I was faced with a large pile of cut up bread and no bread pudding. On the plus side, such as it is, my injury occurred during the next to last cut of bread. Now all I needed to do was beat the eggs and make the custard. It's in the oven baking and my hand is starting to really hurt. I think I need to take a break. I'll post back after I've tested the new iteration of the bread pudding. Oh, and if I hadn't decided to pass on the race due to my back I'd have to for the sutures. Bummer!

The bread pudding is out of the oven now. It's pretty tasty, not quite what I'd hoped in terms of the raisin factor. Biting into a plump, juicy raisin is just yummy. I think I'll try the soaking again, someone else suggested soaking in boiling water, I'd used hot tap water last time. I'll keep you all posted on the next iteration of the bread pudding test!