Erging and A Christmas Carol

The storm that was forecast for us turned out to be a big nothing. At least around here. We got some rain, but nothing major. No major torrents. Even to the west of us, in the Shenandoah Valley, where Daughter#2 worked through the night, where they were suppose to get 3 to 6 inches of snow, nothing. It appears the worst of it past well to the north of us.

As the weather turned out to be no big deal, I did make it to the erg class along with about 20 others. There is something magical about watching so many people erg at the same time. All in unison keying off the instructor as the stroke. I didn't get to the class quite as early as I would have liked in order to erg a little before class and then class seem to end a little early, but maybe I was imagining things through the pain. I only did 8,500 meters during the class so after the class ended, I stayed and rowed another 1,600 meters to get me over 10,000 meters and then a bit extra. For me, 10,000 meters is a lot and I usually feel the effects the rest of the day. I feel tired and run down, but I know in the long run its good for me.

I spent the bulk of my afternoon doing the laundry. I hate doing it that late. I like to get it going early and get it over with. Blah. After the laundry I settled in to watch "A Christmas Carol". It's one of my favorite holiday movies. I'll watch almost any version of it I can find. Today it was the 1938 MGM version starring Reginald Owen as Scrooge. I love this version maybe second only to the version with George C. Scott. One of the highlights of this version is that the Cratchits are played by the Lockhart family. Gene Lockhart and his wife Kathleen play Bob Cratchit and Mrs. Cratchit. Their then 13 year old daughter June played daughter Belinda. For those of you old enough to remember the TV show Lassie remember June as Timmy's Mom and later she played the Mom on the TV show "Lost is Space". There is nothing like this movie to get me feeling its really Christmas.

The Son cooked as a tasty salmon dinner before he disappeared down into his dungeon to play his shaman or tree dwarf or whatever he plays on World of Warcraft. Ann and I plopped our butts in front of the TV to watch the Redskins play the Giants. We both promptly fell asleep. Not that we're old or anything. I recovered enough to watch the last quarter, but lord I hate the Sunday night games. I just can't stay awake to watch them. Tomorrow is another day off. Hallelujah for long weekends.