None of the Above

[ body books canoe ] 2002-01-22
Oy. I don't feel so good.  I'm feeling kinda sick. I have a painful cough thing going on and my sinuses are not too pleased with me either. I'll survive I'm sure.

Oh yeah, and my back is a bit sore still from going paddling on Saturday. Which I did (and forgot to mention here) and which was fun. :)

My computer is still discombobulated. I messed it up. I was trying to get it so that I could use David's Pinnacle software to edit digital video, but the damn thing wouldn't recognize my firewire card. Various badly-thought-out and irreversible changes later (I hate it when a company goes under/gets bought out and you can no longer get updated drivers for your hardware to replace the ones you just accidentally overwrote!), my computer sits naked on the table next to me with two cards yanked out of it that I have to put back in and attempt to get the software to be willing to talk to. My hopes for success are... not so high.

I finished Uncle Tungsten by Oliver Sacks, and it was great. All I can say is: cuttlefish! Bwahahahhahahaha! Okay, sorry, I'll have to quote from it later and tell you what's so funny. It'll be a spoiler, but it's worth it. Anyway, I want to do a full reasonable book report at some point, but I lack the energy at the moment.

Yesterday, we hung up the sky chair in a test configuration. We found a good branch, and it was able to hold each of us (held up by a chain). Yippee! We still need to get a good screw-onnable link to hook the chain together (we used a padlock for our test but this is not a good idea as a permanent configuration).

That's about it for now. We're going out to dinner tonight with some of David's friends, which should be a lot of fun.

Okay, I'm tired now. I think I'll lay down and read my next book, Stephen King's Dreamcatcher.

[ body canoe mammalog ] 2001-12-09
And the misadventures continue:  So last night, my bed broke. This may have had something to do with Elena jumping up and down on it repeatedly. Okay, she's only like thirty pounds, so maybe this theory needs some work.

At any rate, I didn't feel like dealing with it last night, so I just slept on it all kind of sloping down toward the broken corner.

This morning, I fixed it first thing. It took some trial and error, but I got the futon frame put back together. I had to bash it with my hand a few times, and I got a bit of a bruise, but it's not too bad. I think it'll hold, at least for awhile. Some day I'll have to get a new futon frame, methinks. Ah, well.

Yesterday morning I headed out to outrigger canoe practice, and it was all rainy and cold out. I figured that no one would show up, that it would be cancelled, but it wasn't. There were five of us, so we headed out for a trip up to the island and back, which takes about a half hour. I sat in seat two and stroked (set the pace for the people behind me).

It was tough, and I was not wearing rain gear so I got all wet. Especially, alas, my bottom. Oh, well, I survived. It wasn't all that bad, actually.

I decided to bail when we got back to the dock - I need to take it easy as I get back into shape. I'm not as young as I once was, and I haven't paddled in about a month. It felt good to get the old muscles moving again.

Today I'm sore in my arms, back, and upper back thighs. It's not bad, really - it tells me that things are going to get stronger.

After practice, I changed into some dry pants (thank goodness that I brough some with me!) and headed to the bookstore, where I proceeded to spend... uh, too much money.

I couldn't resist two of the jigsaw puzzles they had. I'm going to start one of them in a few minutes. It's of the celestial planisphere, and has diagrams of constellations and all kinds of stuff. It's a thousand pieces, and it looks pretty tough. There's a lot of formless black void around the edge, for one thing. It'll probably take me awhile to do, and I'll probably glue it and hang it up.

The other one is of some lions stepping out of a book, then on to a table and into a picture on the wall. It's quite beautiful. They had about twenty puzzles that I'd love to have. I'll have to put them all on my xmas list. :)

Spencer called me while I was at the bookstore, and suggested that he and Elena and I all go to see Harry Potter. So we did. Elena was restless, running all around the theater. Sigh. I think she's too young for long movies. I had to take her to the potty three times, and she went two of those times. Pretty good I guess. She's doing better and better with her potty training, by the way.

We hung out here at Chris's house afterwards, watching movies and stuff. I read her some of the Terry Pratchett book that I bought, The Last Hero. I liked it so much that I even put a new quote at the top of my weblog from it. :)

She fell asleep on the way home, and a successful Sleeping Transfer was made. (That's when we move her from the car to the house or another car without waking her up. Spencer and I are getting pretty good at this, actually.)

Oy, I have so much to do! I went through my inbox and dealt with a bunch of stuff, but of course there's always more. I'll do more later. I have tons of links and stuff to write about in the log here, but it'll have to wait til later.

I've got a puzzle to work on first...

[ canoe ] 2001-09-13
Just checking in:  and saying that I get to go canoeing this evening - yippee! There's actually an OC-6 (six person outrigger canoe) in Austin now, and the other outrigger guy in Austin, Mike, called me and invited me to come down and paddle with them today. Barring any unforeseen stuff, I should be there.

Today in class, we learned to take temperatures and blood pressures. I wasn't very good at the blood pressure stuff - I'm definitely going to have to practice more. Harrumph.

Ah well. Time to go try to chill for a few minutes until it's time to do yet more driving. Sigh.

[ canoe ] 2001-07-14
Long time no canoe:  but today I finally went again, for the first time in a couple of months. Gah, I'm ashamed that it's been so long.

My boat was absolutely filthy! I used my handy dandy sponges[1] to clean it off before getting in. It's kind of fun when people come by and ask questions about it - I like telling them about it.

Getting down the ama[2] with the iakos[3] attached was a pain in the ass, though. Normally I keep the iakos in my car, with the paddle, so this was unusual. They were attached because the last time I paddled I had to walk over a mile down to the Four Seasons where my car was parked after I put it away. Anyway, I tried to get it down carefully, but the iakos were swinging hither and thither and made it impossible to control properly, but at least I didn't break anything.

I heeded the signs warning of the hazardous upstream sandbar caused by low water levels, so I headed downstream for just a bit before going back up to the dock. It wasn't a hard workout, just getting back in the groove a little bit.

I notice that I'm still wary of flipping over, so I'll have to relax on that more. Also, my changes[4] aren't doing too well, so I'll need to focus on that in the near future.

I decided that I should just force myself to go out there on a regular basis, and that it doesn't matter how hard I work out, it matters *that* I work out. It should be pleasant to go out in the early mornings, before it gets too hot (and even if I only do it on the weekends, once I get a job).

[1] I keep a sponge in each footwell to handle any excess water. They definitely came in handy today.

[2] hollow outrigger that stabilizes the canoe

[3] crossbars that hold the ama and canoe together

[4] act of switching off paddling from one side to the other. This can be tricky to do without losing your grip on the paddle. The ideal is to make it automatic and smooth every time. I'm not quite there yet - I pause and re-grip a little.

[ canoe mental ] 2001-04-29
I am tired:  and must take a nap very soon. The paddlefest went well, and today I paddled my canoe back to its home (and then walked back to my car, a rather... long yet not unpleasant walk). I went down and took video of the Texas Outrigger Canoe Club people during their practice this morning, and I'll have to edit it together later.

I'm feeling rather exhausted, and increasingly mentally agitated, trying to figure out my life and faced with too much uncertainty from too many different directions (both internal and external).

I think it will help once I finally clean up the house and all my stuff and organize it. This is a big task, and I've set myself a deadline of having it done a week from today (at least the bulk of it, that is).

I never imagined I would be so darn busy after quitting my job. Oy!

Time to go read & doze off - I imagine I'll feel better after I wake up.

[ canoe ] 2001-04-26
My canoe is far from home:  Well okay, a mile or two. I paddled it downstream so it could go have a good time with Mike's canoe, Mike being the only other person in Austin who has an outrigger canoe.

This Saturday is the Austin Paddlefest, and the Texas Outrigger Canoe Club people are coming up for the event. There will be races, and I'll participate in at least one of the races with one of the big (six-person) canoes that they're bringing up. I don't feel quite ready to race in my little OC-1, but I'm happy to let someone else borrow it.

Today was a pretty nice little jaunt, but I find I'm still a little huli-shy. That is, I'm a bit worried about flipping over, so I tend to be a little overcautious. I think to cure this, I'll need to *always* dress to be dumped in the water (this means a swimming top and nylon shorts & undies), so that I don't fear it so much.

Oh, and I finally got some spray silicone for the sleeves into which the iakos (crossbars) and rudder shaft go. This did seem to help, as assembly was easier than usual. Yea, lubricants! Lubricants are good. :)

[ body canoe ] 2001-04-19
I went canoeing today:  and I managed to huli for the first time. No, huli is not a type of hula dance. It is, in fact, the act of flipping over in an outrigger canoe.

There I was, merrily paddling away into a vastly powerful headwind, working on my form, deciding to make a slight course correction to the left (into the wind (bad idea))... the next moment, I was in the water, wondering what the hell had happened.

It was a combination of several destabilizing forces, combined with inattentiveness, that did me in: paddling on the right (non-ama) side meant I was leaning slightly that way, turning the left added centrifugal (okay, centripedal for the anal) forces pushing me to the outside of the turn, and then there was a large amount of wind that essentially grabbed the ama and lifted it upwards.

It was so sudden, I didn't realize what happened until it was all over. There I was, over my head in the river. I flailed for a moment or two, getting my head above water as I dealt with the corporeal shock of being suddenly immersed in cold water. Then I thought: grab the paddle. Once I had it in my grasp, my next task was: flip the canoe back over. I did so, relatively easily, then realized I was on the wrong side of it.

So I ducked under the canoe a bit, emerging on the ama side (otherwise known as the stable side). Then I just grabbed and held the ama and collected my thoughts, which were still reeling, not quite believing that this had actually happened. I couldn't immediately see how to get back into the canoe. I knew I would need both hands, though, so I hooked the t-handle of the paddle into my little bag that I lash on behind the seat, so it wouldn't float off.

Then I put both feet on the ama to help get myself up into the canoe. I had to extend my legs all the way out, but it worked. I leaned hard on the ama, sinking it into the water at least a foot, as I grabbed the rear iako (crossbar) with my left hand and the seat with my right. I plonked my behind into the seat, readjusted, grabbed the paddle, and went merrily on my way.

Well, I say merrily, but really I was still in shock, feeling stupid for not avoiding the huli. I was *quite* wary for the rest of the journey, especially when the wind came up.

At least, I thought, I managed to flip over on a day when I was dressed for it. I haven't always been when I've gone out. It was also a good thing that I was using the canoe seat that attaches to the boat with velcro - it would have been a hairy task to have to chase down the seat pad as well (though it can be more comfortable to use my loose one).

The weather was nice and sunny, so I dried off rather quickly. Bailing the water out of the footwells was easily accomplished with just my hands (except for that impossible last tablespoonful).

All in all, it was a nice workout, and a good huli practice. I'll definitely be more cautious in the future! I got soaked, but not harmed, and I was actually pretty proud of myself for doing such a good job of keeping my wits about me and getting the situation under control quickly. It wasn't so bad - it was just very, very shocking to suddenly find myself in the water that way.

I did get a sunburn while I was out there, which I hope doesn't end up being too bad.

I hope to canoe more often than I have been these days. It'll be fun to paddle with the Texas Outrigger Canoe Club people when they come up here for the Austin Paddlefest on the 28th of April. Not too far away...

[ canoe ] 2001-04-08
I haven't had many pix here lately:  So here's one of me in the canoe. I'm sitting in seat three, and that's Cheryl steering (in seat six) and Tom in seat four behind me. Carleton took the picture, he was in seat two.

I did a lot of work on my form today, and also tried out one of their paddles that suits me much better than my own. I think I need a paddle that is two inches shorter than my own and a blade that's an inch narrower. The difference was amazing - it was really comfortable. Then at the end, when I tried out my own paddle again, it felt like a huge clunky thing.

It was so nice to get to paddle with other people again. They are such incredibly kind and cool people, too. I really look forward to seeing them again later this month, when they come up here for the Austin Paddlefest on the 28th.

I know I'm going to be sore tomorrow - my back was already aching in the car on the (long) drive back. It's not too bad though - it's a good ache, one that tells me that the muscles are going to grow and get much stronger. I remember the feeling of having a strong back from when I paddled in Hawaii seven years ago. (That long already? Ohmygoodness, the years they do pass more quickly...)

Time to drink a little more water and try to overcome any lingering dehydration, then off to bed.

[ body canoe consume good ] 2001-04-08
I went to Houston today:  or rather, yesterday, since it's now 1:40am. It was a loooong day, but a good one. I left just before 7, and got back a bit before seven. In between were 5-6 hours of driving, an hour and a half or so of good hard paddling with some new friends (but not too hard), shopping for a plumeria tree (got a nice one), and braving the crowds at Ikea to secure some bookshelves for myself. I made it back, safe and sound and tired, and took a nap.

I had many adventures, and if I tell them all this weblog will turn into more of a diary thing than a weblog thing, which I guess it is anyway since I don't really surf the net these days. I don't even read my favorite weblogs - I've just got too much going on. I'm sure I'll get back into the groove again later, but for now I'm trying to whip this old body into shape, and spend my computer time working on thirdhand. Not to mention that I've got my life to organize, and I've gotta get going with some kind of income here before I blast through *all* of my savings. Hmm, I give myself until I get back from Seattle at the end of May, then I've gotta get the $$ coming in. Until then I get to play and get in shape and organize and code code code. I haven't been doing much if any coding lately, but it's funny because while I've been doing other things, I have thought about the project and realized that certain things are much simpler than I had previously imagined.

I'm also making tons of progress on this figuring-out-the-universe lifelong thing that I've been working on, oh, since I was born, in one form or another. I'm starting to understand that all is number, and the nature of the void that began everything. The world I live in now is a beautiful and magical one. I relish the thought of being able to watch it unfold all the days of my life, with my new perspective. I still have so much to learn, but now I also have something to teach, so I will definitely be doing lots of writing on the topic, and probably self-publishing a book at some point. Or maybe I'll publish it commercially and get all rich & famous and stuff. :) I don't have to decide right now.

I put together my bookshelves tonight, and now I've got 33 inches times fifteen shelves equals 495 inches worth of shelf space. Woo hoo! Tomorrow I'll do lots of organizing, and probably some coding too. I've gone too long without making a serious dent in the stuff I want to get implemented. I've got to make sure that I really stick to it, because this project is important to me, if only for the fact that I want a place to store all my info where it won't get bemangled.

I've got two new cd's that I really love, one is Bob Schneider's Lonelyland, and the other is Eliza Gilkyson's Hard Times In Babylon. I listened to both of them twice today. It will be nice listening more and learning all the words and letting it sink in more.

Dang, I'm tired. I suppose I should head back to bed.

Oh, that annoying obnoxious Anonymous Judger person wrote back, with typical ... obnoxiousness. I decided I want them to go away, so I'm not going to reward their snottiness by publishing it or reacting to it directly. So, doofus, take the freakin' hint already, okay? Go bug somebody else, or go figure out why you're giving me such a hard time. I'm moving on with my life in a good happy positive direction - why are you trying to drag me down? Yeesh. Go do something productive like pick at your toenails or something. Please. Me, I've got a bazillion fun things to do, I think I'll let worrying about you drop right the hell off my list.

Okay, it's definitely time to head back to sleep - it's hard to keep my eyes open now. I will just state for the record that I understand the story The Dot And The Line now, and I see it played out everywhere. One of my many jobs is to help people see it. Trust me, it's... exquisite. I see the pattern in the chaos now. It's a loose, fun, dancy pattern, but if you look right, you can see it whenever you want to. Actually... whenever you believe. It's magic like that. Really. :)

[ beauty canoe ] 2001-03-08
Bluebonnets are up:  Well, a few of them, anyway. I took a picture of them this morning on the way to work (the building I work in is just to the left of the light pole in the middle of the picture).

Elena and I went to the park the other day:

She is wearing her Buzz Lightyear t-shirt in the picture, if you must know. She *loves* Buzz Lightyear. For some reason the powers that be decided that such t-shirts should be in the "boys" section, but I don't think that kind of fun should be kept from little girls. :)

We hear rumors that snow sometimes falls this time of year, but as you can see from the picture, that's nonsense. The weather is clearly nice.

Well, it was, that day. Today we have rain. I hope it's nice on Saturday, because I hope to go canoeing then. I'm trying to see if some weblogging types from sxsw would like to join me. Could be fun!

[ beauty canoe ] 2001-02-06
Time to get wistful:  Just for a little bit. When I was looking for a pic of Waimea for the previous entry, I came across some sites with good pix of other Hawaiian beaches, so I just have to link and share a little more.

• Ali'i Beach Park - this is near where my canoe club is located. Well, it's no longer my canoe club, but it's still there.
• Ka'ena Point - I went on hikes here by myself several times, to the only corner of Oahu that can't be reached by car. I took my binoculars (huge old ones that were my grandmother's - she bought them with the money she won on a Daily Double at the horse track) and spied a few humpback whales breaching offshore, tiny in the distance. I remember how my skin was covered with salt when I came back, because the huge waves crashing on the rocks released so much salty mist into the air. The pictures above are of the other side, where there's a beach. I always made my approach from the North, so I never saw that side, except when I got to the Point itself and looked around.
• Pokai Bay - this is where we'd go bodyboarding and snorkeling, and it's where I had my first outrigger canoe ride, that changed my life forever. For the better. This place will always be special to me. I think it's my favorite beach.
• Waikiki - the outrigger race here was the only one in which my team won a medal. We weren't very good (we usually finished close to last), but on that day we managed to catch a wave at just the right time, and we came in second! I still have the little medal.
• Ma'ili - on the day of our race here, the jellyfish were out, and one of the women on my team got stung on the way out of the boat. She was all right, though. I spent the rest of the day swimming in the water during the other races, and I never got stung. And I found a dollar bill floating in the water. After verifying that it didn't belong to anyone within the sound of my voice, I kept it. I guess it was my lucky day!

There's more... I'll scan some pix of me at some beaches at some point, including a picture of myself in the Toilet Bowl! Muahahaha! It's not what you think...

[ body canoe ] 2001-02-06
It was three miles:  or rather, it still is three miles. Between the Mopac bridge and the I-35 bridge. So I paddled three miles in 46 minutes. Not bad!

This makes some sort of sense, since with my canoe club in Hawaii, it took us about an hour to go about four miles, from Haleiwa to Waimea.

Mmmmm, Waimea. Sigh.

Anyway, that was a bigger heavier slower canoe with six people and waves to contend with. Here in Austin on Sunday, I was on my own, but in a faster, lighter canoe, with no waves to speak of. But there were some mighty gusts o wind, that's for sure.

I also measured on the map to figure that I can go about six miles straight without turning around - that's the rough distance between the dams at either end of Town Lake, with a little margin added on (so I don't have to actually touch the wall of the dam with my hand, just get within a few dozens of yards or so). Eventually, I hope to be able to go that far without stopping. And then I hope to be able to do it *fast* and *strong*.

My back feels much better today - I passed the Peak Soreness Point yesterday evening while I was organizing my Stuff. (I bought 36 of these cool little storage bins on clearance at Target, so I put many things into those). As I put it, I had a case of the FLOPS, aka Feeling Like an Old Person Syndrome.

But luckily for me, I am already feeling much better, so the return of the Black Beauty Bowling Ball (bbbb) should go well today. That is, at our lunchtime bowling league today, I'm going to use the wonderful bowling ball my mother sent me, which hasn't seen a lane in 22.5 years. It should be a blast! I'll take pix...

[ body canoe good ] 2001-02-05
My back is killing me:  and it feels *great*! Yesterday I went canoeing, and I really pushed myself quite hard. I went downstream casually for about 45 minutes, stopping at the I-35 bridge. I took this picture there: (click for a bigger version, as for the other canoeing pix below)

The green pointy bit is the front of my boat, otherwise known as the manu. I also took this pic, showing some of the skyscrapers and cranes visible from down there - the big building in the middle is the Hyatt hotel, and the little white pointy thing is the front of my ama (known to non-Hawaiians as the outrigger):

After I rested, I decided to head back upstream and go all the way to the Mopac bridge. (I-35 and Mopac are the two main North-South traffic arteries in Austin). I knew it would be tough, but oh boy, it was truly grueling.

I'm proud of myself for sticking with it, though. I really needed to push myself that way. I worked hard on the form of my stroke, using my back as much as possible and twisting with my torso as I extended each shoulder forward. The wind was brutal, and I was exhausted quickly, but I just kept going. I just told myself I would go slow if I had to, but I wouldn't stop until Mopac.

My back started hurting a bit, my nose was running, and my arms were getting weak, especially the shoulder muscles that lift my arms and the paddle on each stroke. There's nothing like wind and exhaustion to make you really hone your stroking form - any extraneous movement is punished brutally. I looked down a lot, and focused on leaning down, essentially falling forward as I plunged my paddle into the water again and again.

There were some really good stretches there when I had it perfect, it seemed - the paddle sloshed gently into the water, and I pulled powerfully and quickly up to it. But then the wind would come, and it was splash city! Ah, well, I can tell I'm getting better. I do have to work on making sure I'm not steering funny when I keep my head down. I'm sure I lost a lot of momentum zigzagging back and forth to correct my course.

It was fun passing all the recreational canoers and kayakers, that's for sure. Even with two people paddling in a boat, they couldn't compete. Ha! It helped keep me going, that's for sure, even though it was sometimes tough to steer around them. The people in rental canoes from Zilker park tend to loll around and go in circles, and I have trouble figuring out which side to pass them on, but I suppose I need the practice learning to do this anyway.

I was happy to be able to push myself to go as fast as possible at the end. I was soooo tired, but I made it, and it felt *SO* good to stop! I remember how good it felt to take a plunge in the water at Waimea when I'd paddle with the club in Hawaii. Too bad the water in Austin is too cold, too dirty, and too shallow to do that.

After the bridge, I rested a little and realized it took me 46 minutes to make the journey. I'll have to see how quickly I can do it as time goes on. I found to my surprise that even a short break gave me a ton of energy - it was so incredibly easy to paddle back to the dock (just a short way). I took a picture on the way, of all the slow people I passed, and you can see the dock a little bit in this shot, too:

The dock is just to the right of the big tree a little to the left of center. Notice how you can't even see any of the skyscrapers in this shot! It was a long way (I'm not sure how long - I've got to go measure).

Back at the dock, I was so tired I managed to accidentally let go of my boat, and it started drifting away. I felt so idiotic... luckily, a very nice lady in a kayak gave it a bump to send it back to me. Phew! I was worried I'd have to go swimming after it. Anyway, I took it apart and a nice guy from the rowing club helped me put it away. I also left a nice stepladder down there that I can I use to get it down from its rack (which is about 7 feet high at least).

So today, my back hurts, but I know it means the muscles are going to grow like crazy. I remember how strong my back was when I was in the best paddling form I achieved in Hawaii. I relish how I will have that again, soon...

I can't wait to go out again! First I have to let my body make some callouses on my hands, though - my right middle finger is quite ouchy.

[ canoe ] 2001-01-20
Went down to the lake today:  For the first time in awhile. I had a nice paddle, and showed my friend Ron how to put the canoe together and take it apart. I'm letting him borrow the canoe, going forward. Here's a pic of him paddling away:

It was quite chilly, and the headwind on the way back to the dock really challenged me. There's nothing like a powerful wind to force you to focus on your form, as any inefficiency in your stroke is brutally punished. Today I focused on using my back, and on twisting my torso slightly to allow the leading shoulder to have an extra inch or two in the forward direction. This was trickier than it sounds, since I'm not naturally coordinated, so I really had to concentrate to not shift my center of gravity at the same time.

On the right side, shifting one's center of gravity is especially dangerous - you can tip yourself right over if you're not careful. So I watched the ama and tried not to make any sudden swerving turns to the left as I was leading with my right shoulder.

I did pretty well, but I still have a *long* way to go to get my form in top shape, or even to the level it was at when I was paddling with the outrigger canoe club in Hawaii (Manu O Ke Kai).

I still haven't figured out what to do with my head, though. Do I face up and forward? To the side, away from the leading shoulder? Do I point my eyes in a direction other than where I'm facing? (such as ahead of me, f'rinstance). I never had to worry about this stuff when I was in a 6-woman canoe and steering was someone else's responsibility... I guess it'll come with time, as I hone my form and slowly get rid of inefficiencies.

Ron suggested we all take a trip sometime down to Surfside (near Houston), and I agreed that would be great! My canoe hasn't ever been on the ocean, although it came *across* the ocean. Come to think of it, Elena would love the beach. Plus we'd get to meet all those nice people from the Texas Outrigger Canoe Club there, and maybe go paddling with them in one of their bigger canoes. That would be extremely cool...

[ canoe ] 2000-10-02
The one-day women's canoe team did well!  At this year's Na Wahine O Ke Kai canoe race, the team I mentioned earlier (the one with the average age of 40, with the women from all different locations who come together for just one day), Wailua Kayak & Canoe, finished third, just a little way behind the first two canoes! They did great.

On Saturday, we went canoeing with some people from work, and had a lot of fun. Well, I canoed, Spencer walked around with Elena in her stroller. For the first time, I took the canoe out of its rack and put it back all by myself, with no problem! I'm very proud of that, it's quite tricky to do it carefully and not break anything.

I met the other people from Lotus up Barton Creek at the canoe rental place, and caught a ton of water plants on my rudder, which really slowed me down. Ugh! So I cleaned them out, and got tied up again on the way back out of the creek. Don, who came along in his kayak, helped me out by cleaning off the rudder the second time, thank goodness.

I let Ron try out my canoe, and he thought it was great, but unfortunately he tipped it over. Luckily, he was only in about 2.5 feet of water, so it wasn't a problem. He just uprighted it and got back on.

I think I'm going to let my health club membership lapse (as I recall, my one-year membership is about to run out), since I can go canoeing any time by myself now.

[ canoe ] 2000-09-22
I've got lots of time to do Molokai:  I'm referring of course to the annual Outrigger Canoeing World Championship race from the island of Molokai to Oahu, 41 miles across the Kaiwi channel. The women's version is called Na Wahine O Ke Kai. It's the Big Race that outrigger people typically aspire to.

I came across this article about a team of women who train individually, since they live in all sorts of different places very far away from one another, and then come together just for one day to compete in the Molokai race.

They won last year! Wow. And get this: the average of the women on the team this year is 40. Astounding, and wonderful.

So, since I'm only 28, I've got plenty of time to get to my peak in this sport, and maybe someday do the Molokai race. Personally I'm not all that competitive, I just think it would be a blast to participate. I'm glad to know that a crew of women from various places can do so well - I imagine that would be the kind of crew I'd eventually be a part of.

I'll have to get together with the folks from the Texas Outrigger Canoe Club over near Houston, and see if one of these years they want to send a women's Molokai team...

[ canoe consume ] 2000-09-19
I need a paddle bag:  And these look pretty good. I love the wild Hawaiian print. I only need one that will hold one paddle, and then I can sew on some extra velcro/elastic and a little pocket at the bottom so I can tote my iakos and rudder as well.

[ canoe family ] 2000-09-18
Had a good weekend, almost totally:  I got a bath (yea!), got to go canoeing (and Spencer took more video), got a new TV (27", our old one was 13", and get this, it's so old, it had a KNOB for turning the channels. You know, click-click-click-click-click), rearranged the living room more pleasingly, made Elena's first box fort with the TV box and watched her enjoy it immensely, took some cute video of Elena and transferred it, cooked and enjoyed some good food (from raw ingredients, even! I must be finally becoming an adult), and generally relaxed and had a good time.

I also got a lot of reading done. I'm up past the 500-page mark in Cryptonomicon now, and still enjoying it immensely. It's fun to read a book that's so huge that even after 500 pages, you know that you've got some 400 more still left to dig in to. What a lovely feeling!

At one point the weather was sunny and perfect (i.e., not brutally hot as is typical) and we were all outside, Elena playing sweetly, sliding down her litle slide, and Spencer weeding & raking, and me giving Elena rides in her little push-car, having her help me pick up sticks and add them to the Official Stick Pile. It was just a really nice time and I smiled and felt all warm and cuddly inside, and realized that things were Just Right. Truly lovely.

On Sunday night we walked to the video store and got a couple of videos. We watched the first one, Supernova, and it was awful. Please don't waste your money or your time, unless you like making fun of bad movies. Bad script, bad dialogue, bad acting, bad story, bad pacing, bad lighting, bad bad bad bad bad. My intelligence was insulted about every thirty seconds. It was that bad. Predictable, cliche, doofy, contrived, bah! The only good part was the special effects, which were neat to look at (some of them, anyway). It makes me wonder how a movie this bad gets made. They obviously spent a lot of money on it, but it's one of these STV (straight to video) monsters.

So, talking to my mother yesterday, I learned some very bad news about Sadie. My mom said she's not doing very well at all. She's unable to get comfortable anymore, and it looks like she's retaining fluid and straining to breathe. Today she goes to the vet to get Sadie's stitches out (from the surgery), and they'll assess her then. I have a very ominous feeling - it seems Sadie's quality of life is going right down the tubes. :(

I don't know what to say, just that I'm very sad but more than that I'm just really in denial. It just doesn't seem real at this point. The last time I saw her, a little over a month ago, she seemed healthy and strong and happy and like she was doing just great. And now I know I will probably never see her again. I don't even know if she'll last a week at this rate.

I know my mother will make the best decision she can. I wish I could help her now somehow, this must be so difficult for her. All I know to do is tell her I'm thinking of her, hurting with her, and that I know she's the best mom Sadie could possibly ever have.

Bye bye, Sadie. I love you, little dog. :(

[ canoe ] 2000-09-05
Blogger Bad!  Okay, I'm really miffed. I got some lame-ass Microsoft ODBC SQL error while trying to post an exquisitely crafted blogger post. Argh! It was about me canoeing this weekend. And I don't feel like going through the whole thing again, although freakily enough I can remember it pretty well.

I went canoeing on Saturday, and again last night, and it was fun. Rudder, good! That's all you need to know. Also, no weird back pain while I'm paddling, which is good. And my back muscles were a bit sore, which means they're growing, which is good.

What else? Oh yeah I've got space to store my boat at the lake, which is good. But it's really high up and hard to reach and scary when the boat is slippery and it requires an additional person to help me, which is bad. And I lost a lock washer for my rudder, which is bad. But I have extras that I got at Home Depot, which is good. But I couldn't find extras for the nut for the rudder, which is bad. But I can hopefully find some (I think they're metric sized) before I lose the rudder nut, which would be good. And on Saturday, Spencer took some video of me canoeing, which is good. But he was really shaky with the camera, which is bad. But I managed to capture two still frames, which is good. Here they are:

I realize this post has totally degenerated, but that's okay. Oh yeah, on Saturday when I paddled, it was really hot, which was bad. But last night when I went, it was quiet and the water was like glass, which was good. And on Saturday I remembered to use sunscreen and didn't get burned, which is good.

I hope I don't get an error posting and publishing this one... or I shall be very....put....out.

[ canoe ] 2000-08-31
Shut up and paddle:  There are some impressive paddles at Gillespie's site. Once I figure out what my optimum paddle length is, I plan to get one of the double-bend ones, to see if I like that better than the single-bend Gray Owl I've got now.

[ canoe ] 2000-08-28
Outrigger Canoeing and me:  Just a little history, about me and outrigger canoeing and why it means so much to me.

[ canoe ] 2000-08-28
The Canoe is Here!!!!  Yes, that's right, it's in my living room (& dining room) as we speak! It's gorgeous, and I'm very very excited. We're going to take it down to the lake tonight. Only one little hitch - somehow, they forgot to include the rudder. No worries, though, it will function just fine without it. Traditional outrigger canoes don't have them, and in Tahiti races, even OC1's aren't allowed to use them. It just takes a bit more skill to turn using only the paddle. Since I'll just be slowly cruising around the lake, I'm not too worried about it. They can send the rudder to me in the mail. We'll take video and lots of pictures of the canoe's maiden voyage tonight. Yeeha!

[ canoe ] 2000-08-28
Today is CANOE DAY!  This is it, it arrives today, in... 10-70 minutes or so, according to the trailer guy's most recent prediction (this morning). Spencer and I have come home from work for a bit to wait, and I'm all giddy with anticipation! I can't wait! I really must write a little essay/memoir about what this canoe means to me, about my experience the only time I've ever been in a one-man canoe like this... now is not the time, but I will do it soon. I'm wearing my Texas Outrigger Canoe Club shirt today, the special saddles are on the car rack, everything's ready to go. This is a very very happy day for me indeed. More later!

[ canoe ] 2000-08-26
Still waiting for the canoe:  I'm thinking about calling the # we have for the trailer person, but it's a cell phone so I don't know if he'll be available. We readjusted the car's roof rack today so that it fits as well as possible on my car, and I added the spiffy saddles to hold the canoe. It looks great! I hope the canoe comes tomorrow. I've got to think of a name for it, something Hawaiian, something not too long. I'm still sort of in denial until it gets here. I will be bouncing around with glee when I finally have it.

[ canoe ] 2000-08-24
Bum-o-rama:  I had thought that my outrigger canoe was going to arrive yesterday, but it didn't. I sent email to the sellers today, hopefully I can figure out where it is and when it will get here. Maybe I should have bugged them more ahead of time, I don't know. I had thought that my job was to 1) Agree on the item & price 2) Get payment to them 3) Give them my address & contact info, and 4) Wait. I have the nagging feeling I should have prodded them more. Ah well, nothing to do but wait some more right now.

[ canoe ] 2000-08-21
Canoe-itude!:  Well, it turns out the canoe won't even be picked up by the trailer person until 8/24, so I don't feel so bad, and now I've got contact info for them, so I think somehow this whole thing will come together. As a bonus, my canoe hoisting system arrived today, so when the canoe gets here, we can store it in the garage adequately (well, assuming we install the hoisting thing okay!). Oh yeah, and my fabric arrived too. :)

[ canoe ] 2000-08-01
My canoe is coming!  Yesterday, we sealed the deal on the canoe, and it should be slowly making its way here starting today. It will take until (roughly) August 20th to get here. That's fine with me, since we need to get a rack for the car (and tie-downs for the front and back), and come up with a way to store it in the garage. Apparently, it's 20ft long. And the garage is about... 21.5ft long. So it might be a tight fit, but we can do it. I want to have everything totally ready so that when the canoe comes, I can take it to the water right away. I can't wait... now I have to come up with a name for it.

[ canoe ] 2000-07-28
I'm getting an outrigger canoe!!!  For my birthday, I'm going to get a one-man outrigger canoe. Oh goodie, I can hardly wait! I'm planning on buying one of these, but first I have to call the sellers and pay for it, hopefully later today. It should in theory ship off from Hawaii on Tuesday and get here maybe mid-late August. I still can't believe I'm actually going to have my own canoe. This is such an amazingly wonderful thing that I'm still sort of in denial about it.

[ canoe consume ] 2000-07-25
File under gift ideas:  Mini fiberglass outrigger canoes, made to scale! Wow, neato! Of course, no prices are listed, so I have no idea how much this would set you back. Remember my birthday's coming up soon, on August 3rd. :)