So there I went, starting a pleasant little meander down Memory Lane, made it maybe a block & a half & then The Present intefered. Must be summertime!
Wednesday night I did a pre-solstice paddle with Sebago's own Paddling Chef, instigator of many marvelous culinary club events. We went to the Wharf Bar & Grill in Rockaway - good basic grill food, outside in the fresh air, overlooking Jamaica Bay - good stuff. They have brunch, too - now for that, I'd get up early! Nice crescent moon, maybe about a 15 knot wind, tailwind going over, headwind going back, but we'd had a good dinner & had plenty of energy for getting home. This was a fun paddle, I think it'll be a nice fill-in for the Tubby Hook lunch paddle I used to really love doing on the Hudson.
Last night, solstice, my umpteenth running of the 3.5 mile Corporate Challenge. Did better than I thought. Ran most of it, which was more than I was expecting, I just have not been doing any running lately. I have been doing a LOT of walking though - getting to the club involves at least a mile & frequently more, as I have little patience with waiting for buses on the Flatbush-to-my-place leg. That seemed to give me more stamina for the run than I expected. Nice surprise! I think I did better than last year, when I got all wrapped up in taking pictures of the annual New York cubicle-oid stampede.
Tonight I was going to go on a post-solstice paddle with sun gods Prof. M & "I.M." Pei and their merry band of post-solsticians. but tomorrow & Sunday I am delivering myself into the merciless hands of the Sailing Committee, see if they can make a Laser sailor out of me, and I was POOPED last night - in addition to the 3.5 mile race, there's like another half-mile of being funnelled along tables where you collect your post-race schwag, then there was another mile or more walking in search of post-race beer - I finally gave up at the 2nd jam-packed bar, went home beerless. And damp, a huge thunderstorm broke out after the race.
I've decided maybe a nice quiet night at home is in order tonight, even though it means missing out on a really nice evening. My plan is to pack up for the sailing course & get a good night's sleep so I'm fresh & ready for tomorrow's fun & sogginess. One really can only pack so much fun into a 5-day period, especially active-type fun, ESPECIALLY during a work week.
I will probably take a little time to descend back into coach weekend musings too, less rustbucket reminiscing though, I want to get back to my original point. To steal a quote from Derrick, if we're really lucky, it might even be interesting!
In the meantime, may I recommend a visit to MarcusDemuth.com? His kayak got to Ireland on June 8th - Hand Delivered by Nigel Dennis, no less! - and he's maintaining a really excellent trip journal. Concise but vivid. There's a shark, there's beer, there's some pretty hairy-sounding conditions - vintage Marcus.
No sturgeon yet. I hope he knows to beware of the sturgeon.
Random thoughts from yesterday in closing...
1. Self-appointed motivators at races involving large numbers of amateurs should try not to lie. I was just a little ways past the one-mile marker when this guy came sprinting by proclaiming "Halfway there! We're halfway there!" I was glad that I knew better or I might have listened, picked up the pace & ended up running out of steam by the end of the 3rd mile.
2. I'm not one of these people who gets all lathered up over the Central Park carriage horses in general. No, it's not the perfect life for a horse, but there are worse things people do to horses. There are definitely some who look like they could be cared for better, but there are also some big stout healthy-looking draft horses who look fairly healthy & content. Last night, though, during the beer quest, we walked past the Central Park South carriage horse line - the rain was absolutely bucketing down, the drivers were all sitting inside the carriages with the tops up. But out of the 15 or so horses in the queue - how many do you think had even a rudimentary rain sheet thrown over them?
One. One lucky horse had a driver thoughtful enough to throw a tarp over his back. The rest of 'em just stood there and got soggy. That just seems wrong. Claire, wouldn't a horse rather have a rainsheet?
This just bothers me.
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