First Race and Other Topics

It appears that I've been absent for some time now. Nothing posted at all for June. That's embarrassing. I'd like to say I've been super busy and couldn't get around to it, but that's so not the case. Just a case of laziness. With this post hopefully I can get back on the wagon.

The rowing season is off and running. I've been sculling a single since early April and my other rowing club began practice in early June. Our first race is this Sunday on the Occoquan. The Occoquan Boat Club (OBC) is sponsoring the Occoquan Masters Sprints. I'll be racing in a Quad in the "E" age category. "E" = Avg age is 55-59. My main rowing club is primarily a sweep rowing club. We race in 8+s and 4+s. We only dabble in sculling boats like the Quad. So of course, I'm in the Quad. I'm in the bow seat and responsible for steering the boat while I row. Fun times that. We haven't had much practice time in the Quad(see statement about the club being a sweep rowing club). So far there is only one other boat in the Quad category. They're from Pittsburgh and Three Rivers Rowing. They are an "A" age category boat. I have no illusion of keeping up with guys 20 years my junior. I would just like to keep close enough that the race is respectable once the time handicap is taken into account. (The younger the average, the less time handicap you are awarded). Racing against us old guys, Three Rivers will have to give us a significant handicap. I just have no idea how much - 15 or 20 seconds? We'll see.

On to other topics. Daughter#1 has moved back in. The family got together and painted the basement room for her. Less you think she is living in some small, dank, dark basement be advised that the room is huge, fully carpeted, has its own full bath, a fireplace and sliding glass doors to the backyard. The room has 4 windows in addition to the glass doors. She's hooked up with cable and Internet so she's all set. She is also coaching the women in my rowing club who are in the competitive category. Its neat having her out on the water with me. In other even better news, she has landed a job with Georgetown University. Things are looking up. We just need to get her husband a decent job down here.

In other news, hell must have frozen over here because The Son has also joined our rowing club. Something I thought I would never see. I've been asking him for years and he's always said "No". I think the combination of his sister now being involved with the club, his old high school coach also joining this year and his utter boredom with running and using his Elliptical for exercise finally got to him. We've already rowed several times together in the same boat. It helps that he rows starboard and I row port. He rowed in high school so its not a new endeavor for him. I actually think he's getting excited about racing tomorrow. It will be his first race in over 10 years. I hope his boat does well.

So as not to make this overly long and use up all the news in one post (plus it's time for lunch - priorities people!), I'll get this posted. Hopefully it won't be another month and a half before the next post.