Dog Days

The dog days of summer are already upon us as the heat index reached 99 yesterday. It wasn't quite as bad on Tuesday when we had practice, but it was close. A front is due through today to lower the temperature and provide relief for the weekend.

For Tuesday's practice we were short a rower to make up two Men's 8+s. We were also short a coxswain necessitating one of the rowers coxing one of the 8+s. Hence making us two rowers short. I got to row 2 seat on the 8+ with only 6 rowers. The advantage of rowing with 6 rowers is it makes the boat lighter. This made it possible to hang with the other 8+ at least for most of the time. The disadvantage is without the extra weight, the shell rides higher in the water and makes it that much more difficult to set or keep level. The shell flopped a lot from side to side so the run of the boat was compromised to some degree. We did three 12 minute pieces against the other 8+. Overall we did ok with having just 6 rowers. We tended to fall behind on the corners as the other 8+ usually managed to turn tighter while we went wide. This is ok for practice, but a killer during head races. With the heat and humidity we were all soaked through by the end of practice and our water bottles close to empty. Should be more of the same this evening unless the thunder storms roll in early and effects practice.

Our house is almost 30 years old although how that is possible is beyond me. We need to replace the windows. They're still the original ones from when the house was built. Almost all of them no longer open and you can really feel the draft through them during the colder months. We had the first contractor drop by last evening. I'm not sure all what he was expecting, but he definitely wasn't prepared to give us a quote. There was a lot of talk of the windows they use (Heartland) and what great work they do and he did a quick look at some of the windows, but he gave the impression he was sort of the second team guy. He originally thought we wanted just a few windows (like 4) replaced and not all of them (we have 24) plus two sliding doors. I'm sure the owners themselves would have shown up if the signals hadn't gotten crossed somewhere. Anyway, a return visit is schedule for Saturday afternoon to give us some hard numbers. We also asked for a quote on replacing the siding. We'll see how it goes. Plus we need to get a few more quotes from other contractors. I hate this part of it.

With the 4th of July falling on a Wednesday, I've decided to use some of my vacation time and take the Monday, Tuesday and Thursday off. With this Friday being my regular Friday off, that will give me a week off. Works for me. Now if I can just avoid Ann making me a To Do List.

Happy Birthday To Our First Born

Yesterday Daughter#1 turned 27. It hardly seems possible at times. She was our first and, hence, was our practice baby. The twins (aka The Son and Daughter#2) had it much easier since we sort of had the feeding and caring of a baby down by the time they came along. We had no idea what to do when the Doctors handed over Daughter#1 to us in the Birthing Room. All in all though, she seems to have turned out pretty well.

When Ann and I decided we were ready to start having kids, things moved right along. Apparently Ann was quite the fertile woman. After waiting the appropriate 9 months and a few days, Daughter#1 (which we didn't know was Daughter#1 at the time) announced she was ready to come into the world. Sort of. Ann's water didn't quite break as sort of started leaking. I remember it was on a Thursday because Thursday was softball night. Our workplace had a softball league and all the younger types and some of the older types all played. When I picked Ann up, she announced that she thought her water might have broken, but she wasn't sure. This would turn into a recurring theme through out the whole birthing process. In what turned out to be a stroke of good planning, Ann's OB/GYN was right on the way to the softball field. We owned a Triumph Spitfire at the time so we rolled down Shirley Highway to Seminary Road, top down and no clue what lay before us, and whipped into the Doctor's office. They confirmed that indeed her water had broken or was leaking and stand-by to have a baby. We were naturally excited, but seeing as Ann hadn't starting having contractions, I saw no reason to pass on the softball game so off we went. Now as important as the game was and having a baby is, what really mattered was the pizza and beer after the game. Its tradition you understand. So after getting a few laser eye looks and a few "You better watch your drinking Mister" from Ann, we hustled on over to Angie's for pizza and beer with the rest of the team. I think some of this was lost on Ann since she couldn't drink and she didn't want to fill up on pizza before birthing a child. I ate and drank her share so as not to be rude to the owners. Contractions began about 10:00 that night - sort of. Ann had back labor and she had a hard time telling when contractions would start and stop. We had a stop watch and it was my job to time the contractions and how far apart they were. Now after a day of work, a game of softball and much pizza and beer, I was pretty tired and wanted to sleep. So most of the night went like this:

Ann: I think I'm having a contraction!
Me: (Starting watch) Are you sure?
Ann: I think so.
Me: Ok. Let me know when it stops.
Ann: Ok
Me: (Falling asleep)
Me: (Waking up several to many many many minutes later) Has it stopped yet?
Ann: I not sure. I can't tell, Were you asleep?
Me: Of course not. (falling back asleep)

Repeat for several hours. At about 3:30 in the morning Ann decided it was time to call the Doctor. I asked her if her contractions were getting close enough to warrant the call. They weren't, but Ann was all in a panic about getting caught during rush hour traffic on I-95/I-395 as we made our way to Alexandria Hospital and having to give birth on the side of the highway. The last thing she wanted to hear were traffic reports over the radio about some woman giving birth on Shirley Highway and traffic was backed up to Quantico. I told her it was too early to call. She was a crazy pregnant lady in labor so she made sure I made the call. So I lied to the Doctor about how far along things were. He said come on in and so we did. We checked in at the hospital and made our way to the maternity floor. The Doctor took one look (a look - not an exam) at Ann and said "No way you're close to being ready to have your baby." But I guess he was use to dealing with first time parents to be and crazy pregnant ladies and didn't send us home, but rather sent us off to walk the halls. Ann had previously decided to go the natural childbirth route, no drugs and they put us in a nice birthing room. Not that we used it very much those first hours as we were busy walking the halls. The contractions really started to kick in around 7:00 or 8:00 as I remember and Ann took to her bed with a fetal monitor attached. It was kind of freaky watching the strip of paper print out the ups and downs of her contractions. I don't think Ann was that fascinated by it. Go figure. As the intensity of the contractions picked up, Ann started rethinking the whole no drug thing. However, her doctor wasn't at the hospital. Rather he was over at their office about a mile away doing normal appointments. He would drop by from time to time though to see how things were coming along. Around 10:00 Ann decided to heck with this natural childbirth stuff, just bring drugs and lots of them. No Doctor though. The nurses told us they would tell him as soon as he made a return visit. When he arrived, he did an exam and told Ann she was progressing nicely and drugs? Heck she didn't need any drugs, besides she was too far along now. The scream that echoed down the hallway was not from a contraction. I think she wanted to strangle him, but I'm not sure. Anyway, Daughter#1 came along at 11:30AM. Blonde haired and blue eyed and we welcomed her into the world. Its been an interesting first 27 years. I just wish she would learn to balance her checkbook. Happy Birthday Kid!

Special Treats

Some days it pays to come into work. Not often, but it does happen. This morning we were surprised by one of our co-workers bringing in a blueberry cobbler. Mmmmmmm...yummy. That should hold me till lunch. Of course between the cobbler and my Coke, I'll probably go into a sugar coma around 9:00. I hope I don't end up drooling all over my keyboard.

Mystery Solved

So it turned out the reason Sandy Run and the lower Occoquan was closed was so that the local police could run a training exercise. Or so we were told. Maybe they did practice dragging for bodies.

Friday was a work day for me, but I slipped out for a lunchtime row. I rowed up to Fountainhead and back, a total of seven miles, but it wasn't fun. It turned out to be much windier than I thought. I checked our local Weatherbug before I left the house and the wind was well below 10 mph. Out on the water it was an entirely different matter all together. At Fountainhead, it was so windy, I thought I might flip turning the shell around as I came sideways to the wind.

For Saturday's practice I was put in a Quad with two other experienced rowers and one that had never sculled. It didn't go well. We did four two thousand meter pieces. The idea was for us to race a Men's 8+ plus a mixed 4+ consisting of two men and two female college rowers. The 4+ would go first, followed by the Quad and then the 8+. After two of the pieces, it was obvious with our inexperienced sculler (he has rowed sweep for years though), we weren't in a position to keep up with the 4+ or the 8+. A Quad with decent rowers should be able to beat a 4+ and be somewhat competitive with an 8+. We just rowed on our own for the last two pieces. On the final piece is slowly started to come together and you could feel the boat jump with each stroke. I hope I get a chance to row in the Quad again since its a fun boat to row - usually.

Sunday after getting the laundry started, I headed out to the W&OD Trail for a bike ride. I did my Rt 28 to Leesburg ride today (Mile marker 24 to 34). 43 minutes out and 40 minutes back. It was a beautiful day to ride. It was sunny with moderate temperatures and no wind. I lucked out in getting one of two remaining parking spots as I got there about 30 minutes later than I wanted. The rest of the day was spent watching the Nationals beat the Cleveland Indians, walking the furry children, bbqing some steaks, sipping a few Coronas and starting a new book. Well new to me "Up Country" by Nelson DeMille. Tomorrow its back to the grind.

Strange Goings On

So practice last night as a bit of an ordeal. Not so much that practice was challenging, although it was. More that the air was so thick with humidity that it was tough catching one's breath. We finally had enough guys to take out two 8s. We did our warm-ups coming out of our cove and headed down river toward Sandy Run and the race course. About half a mile upstream from Sandy Run a string of red buoys had been strung across the river. Our coach and coxswains didn't understand the meaning of those and we rowed past them. Not 30 seconds later here comes a police boat heading right toward us blue lights flashing. Now the Occoquan has a size limit on outboard motors - 9.9 hp so you'll see mostly small boats an occasional bass boat, but to see this big as boat with two huge outboards on it was quite a sight. We quickly turned around and headed the other way. They followed us for a short time to make sure we didn't' return. I'm not sure what is going on down there that requires a police presence. We got a notice about two weeks ago that Sandy Run would be closed on Tuesday and Wednesday. There looked like two small tents had been set up outside the George Mason boathouse at Sandy Run but it was hard to see. Since the notice was out out in advance, its not like they're dragging for a body. Someone suggested they were pulling up the water quality survey buoys. If that were true, they wouldn't need to block access to the race course and need a police presence to keep people away. All very mysterious.

Anyway practice. We did three 10 minute pieces at a low rate 24 strokes per minute. For the first piece, my boat was given a 15 second lead and even with that we lost. On the first turn we got taken on the inside and they made up the lead we had almost immediately. By the end of the ten minutes they had us by about 4 seats. After a 5 minute race we started out again. This time we kept our lead. The second piece, from my view in the #2 seat, looked much smoother and the set was better. The third piece was much the same as the second. We started with the 15 sec lead and held it. During the last 2 minutes our coach let them bump up the rate to a 26 and made us drop to a 20. Even with that stroke differential we maintained our lead. Of course that was the point he was trying to make. It maters more to stay long, row strong, don't rush and let the boat run. I'm sure he'll try to build on that lesson over the next several practices. Needless to say with the heat (low 90s) and the humidity (same), we all came out of the boat dripping wet. How I love rowing in the summer.

Father's Day

I hope all fathers had a wonderful Father's day and a good time was had by all. My day was excellent and I was able to do some fun things. Because I had rowed on Friday and Saturday, I decided to take a day off and go for a bike ride. I tried to entice Ann into going with me, but she seems to have developed an attitude that she'll only go riding if the temperature is between 69 and 71 degrees. Virginia, in the summer, is rarely so accommodating. So I headed off to the W&OD Trail for a ride by myself. Normally when I ride on the W&OD, I'll start at Rt28 and ride to Leesburg and back a round trip distance of 20 miles (W&OD mile markers 24 to 34). Since I was by myself, I decided to go in the opposite direction and see what that part of the trial was like. The first 3.5 miles was not much different then had I headed west. Then I hit the town of Herndon and Reston and things got a lot less rural and a lot more parkways to ride over (Reston Parkway, Town Center Parkway, Fairfax County Parkway, etc.). The trail is buffered by a heavy amount of foliage on either side though and it gives the impression that its more out in the country than it really is. I rode slightly past the 14 mile mark before turning around and taking a water break. I passed a group of about 15 in-line skaters out for a morning skate. I assume they're a part of some club or group. On the way back I knew I was out of water, so I rode past where I had parked my car and rode out to Smiths Station where I knew there was a water fountain. I took a short break and filled up my water bottle. Overall I rode 25 miles in just under 2 hours. my legs felt a bit rubbery, but in a good way.

After driving home, I got calls from Daughters#1 and 2 wishing me a happy Father's Day. Daughter#2 was headed out for a picnic lunch with the In Law clan somewhere in the Shenandoah National Park. Daughter#1 was headed to dinner at the boyfriends parent's house. We ate an early dinner during which Ann gave me a new windbreaker and The Son gave me a new pair of Concept 2 rowing shorts. The reason for the early dinner was so we could head out to for the last part of my Father's Day, which was a trip to Wolf Trap to see Riverdance. It was my third time to see Riverdance live at Wolf Trap and we were able to score really good seats - third row center. It was amazing being so close to the stage. Almost too close. When the dancers would move toward the back of the stage, it was difficult to see their feet. I've seen the tape of Riverdance so many times with Michael Flatley and Jean Butler, it takes me a while to get use to other lead dancers. It took a dance or two, but I quickly warmed up to the performance. I love when the whole troupe is out dancing. The only thing that bothered me was that the female lead dancer didn't look at all Irish and for some reason that bothered me. A minor complaint at best as she danced really well. Another surprise was the performance wasn't sold out. I realize it was the last performance and it was on a Sunday evening and it was Father's Day, but I don't think I've ever been to Wolf Trap for any performance that it wasn't sold out. The lawn was packed, but the reserved seating was only about 3/4 full. The upside of that was we got out of the parking lot pretty quickly and we were home by 11:15 - only 45 minutes. Because we knew we would be out late, Ann and I decided to take Monday off and just relax. We couldn't have made a better decision.

Seat Racing Sucks

Saturday the men took out two 4+ and one 8+ in order to seat race. The way our coach runs it is that a pair from each 4+ will race a pair in the other 4+ (i.e., bow pair vs, bow pair or stern pair vs bow pair, etc.). The 8+ was along just to be able to furnish fresh rowers and a rest area for those that already had rowed. I was stroking the 8+ so I didn't race till the very end of practice. Everyone raced at least twice, one a 2 minute piece, the second piece lasted for as long as it took one boat to get open water on the second. They could last 30 seconds or run forever if the pairs were evenly matched. This is about as physical as we get. Rowing by pairs in a 4+ is gruelling. Besides racing the other 4+, you're trying to move, in most cases, 500 lbs (not counting the boat and rigging itself) of dead weight - the pair not rowing plus the coxswain. You're straining with each stroke. Being the lightest of all the men, our pair was at a distinct disadvantage and we lost the open water piece after about a minute of racing. As we headed back to our boathouse, our coach decided a race into the cove where our boathouse is located would be a fine idea. As in the first race, we fell behind early, but then held our own and even made up a little. About that time I caught a small crab from which I recovered fairly quickly, but by then the other 4+ was well ahead and our coach called an end to it. I don't know how long that piece was, but certainly longer than out first race piece. I was gasping for air and came close to puking over the side. Luckily for me and especially for our female high school coxswain, I was able to hold it at bay. After docking, we did our usual Saturday check over the boat and clean it up to make sure everything is in good working order. After putting the shell away, we indulged in what our club calls a social Saturday. Once a month, one of the crew groups bring breakfast type items for the club members to enjoy. This time it was the Competitive Women's turn. Its a chance to mingle with our fellow members, which is something we often don't get to do in the rush to get into boats and out on the water. After sampling my fair share of goodies, I decided I liked the cinnamon buns the best.

Since it was a special weekend, we headed out to Tim's for lunch and steamed mussels and crab legs. After lunch, Saturday turned into a lazy summer day and I hung out on our deck reading a book and taking a nap. There are worse ways to spend a day.