Holiday Wrap-Up

Is the weekend over already? The most disturbing aspect of the holiday weekend being over is the realization that the next holiday isn't until Memorial Day. The end of May. 3 1/2 months away. At least it will be warm.

Sunday dawned bright and sunny and just as cold. After having my morning Pepsi and surfing the Internet for a bit, I got the laundry started and headed off to my Sunday erg class. There were not as many people as the week before, perhaps 17 or 18. I manged about 10,000 meters during the one hour class. I track my times and distances here. The instructor, who also rows for our club, had us do 3 minutes at half pressure, 2 minutes at 3/4 pressure and a final minute as hard as we could pull. Then a blessed 2 minute rest before starting over again. Repeat a total of six times. About the fourth time through I was really beginning to feel it. And number 6? The final two minutes all but wiped me out. The fact that 17 others are sharing your misery makes it a bit easier and will bring me back next week.

After the gym and a shower, we let the son take us out to lunch at our favorite Tex-Mex place, the Bar J restaurant. Its just a small, bordering on divey, place, but the food is good, particularly the chili. Ann and I had chili while the son indulged in his personal favorite, Texas Devil Steak. It comes out sizzling much like a fajita would. Its really good, but really spicy hot. I tried it once and liked it, but I can't handle the burn and I usually love that kind of thing. Hope its not another sign I'm getting old. After lunch, I built a fire in our fireplace and we (Ann and I) watched the "The Guardian" while the son retired to his dungeon to play World of Warcraft. Something about advancing his Shaman. We enjoyed the movie. I like to think of it as "Top Gun" Coast Guard style. I was surprised by Ashton Kuchner's performance. I'm not inclined to like him based on some other roles he's been in, but he pulled it off. Guess that's what acting is all about. I didn't care for the ending though. I liked the alternate ending that was provided in the Bonus material better. The Director made a point about saying how everyone associated with the film preferred the original ending and the alternate ending wasn't even screened for test audiences.

Monday was almost like a work day for me. Besides being a member of my rowing club, I'm also the Treasurer. I had managed to avoid any type of volunteer work for the club for the first several years of participation, but eventually my number came up. This will be my fifth season doing the bookkeeping. So Monday was spent tying up loose ends from the previous season. Getting some tax paperwork off to the IRS and paying the rental fees to the high school booster clubs from whom we rent the shells we row in. Pretty boring stuff, but it has to get done. I also tweaked the budget for the upcoming season and set up the spreadsheets I'll need to track things. Of course doing this work for the club is giving me the urge to get out on the water. If it ever warms up and the ice melts.