Monday, March 9, 2009

Making the Dance and a Test Ride

It was a slow week, which equals no new blog entries. The most excitement was doing some bookkeeping for the Rowing Club so we could figure out a budget for next year. Fun times.

As documented in my last entry from this past Monday, we got about 8 inches of snow and the temperature never got out of the 20s. Yesterday, Sunday, a week later, the temperature hit 80 and the snow was long gone. We opened windows long closed for the winter. I debated long and hard about how to spend my day - go to erg class or go biking. Given that it's a new to me bike where I actually clip my feet into the pedals, something I've never tried before I've been a bit intimidated by the bike. Rather than get out on the bike trail miles from home, I decided that perhaps it would be prudent to practice riding the bike around the neighborhood and getting my feet in and out of the pedals without falling and doing a face plant on the asphalt. That being the case, I headed off to erg class to get my exercise. As erg classes go, It wasn't too bad and I got 10, 500 meters in. After class I came home and made Taylor Ham and egg sandwiches for Ann and I. At that point I decided it was time to break out the bike. I needed to put some air in the small tires that are on a road bike. I had to play around with a valve adapter for about 10 minutes before I could get the air pump locked on properly and fill the tires. After that I hopped on the bike and headed off. I'm happy to report that the bike rode like a dream (it's a Felt F75) and I was able to get my feet in and out of the pedals without losing my balance. It took some advance planning on my part to make sure that I had plenty of time to think about what I needed to do and then do it. I haven't come across an emergency stop yet so I'm not ready to say that I'm totally comfortable with it yet. I also found out that my legs didn't have much left in them after going to the erg class so I kept the test ride short, about 4 miles. I'm looking forward to more rides as the weather heats up.

Friday, my day off, I had a dentist appointment. No new news there, which is always good news. The rest of the day was spent getting the Rowing Club's books in order in preparation for a meeting of the Board on Saturday morning.

Saturday started off with the Board meeting. I do have to say, the President has some tasty goodies for us. The meeting was long, but we did approve a budget and we were able to hold the line on our membership fees and keep them the same as last year. Hopefully that will meet the needs of our membership during these tough economic times. After the meeting I did the grocery shopping. Always a fun time. I wanted to get that out of the way before the big event of the day, which to us was the final of the Big South Basketball Tournament. The Son's school (Radford) was in the final and playing for a berth in the NCAA Tournament. We missed the first 5 minutes or so as the game before, which was totally meaningless, ran long. It was probably just as well as VMI jumped out 13-0 before Radford scored their first basket. In the end, Radford won going away although not without a few nail biting moments as VMI kept it close throughout. So The Son is very excited about his school going to the Dance although they will probably be a 16 seed and draw Connecticut or UNC in the first round.

All in all, the weekend seemed to fly by and here it is Monday again and I'm back at work. I need longer weekends. I am excited though about having Daylight Savings Time. I need more sunlight in the evening and not so much in the morning seeing I'm at my desk by 630 AM. Morning sunlight doesn't benefit me a lot. One benny this week - my boss is on travel all week.

No comments: