News from the Secko family - baby number 3 has arrived.

Robert Bruce Roland Secko was born at 3:30 am on November 18

5 lbs 11 oz.

I don't have a photo of the baby yet but here's how he looked last Sunday at Jackie's baby shower...

OMG, Porn star? Serial killer? Hockey player during playoffs? However you look at it, I bet Lisa can't wait for the end of the current campaign to raise funds for prostate cancer research. You can support Doug and the Port Credit Secondary School team by clicking this link and the the DONATE button, top right. Seriously, it was worth $10 just to get this pic for future photoshops!

OK no joke, this photo is freaking me out! I had to reopen this post so I could make the picture smaller but it doesn't help. It's like the eyes follow you....

Hey hey, Simon Whitfield will be at spin class on Friday November 27th! I'll probably buy the book there and get him to sign it.




oh my gosh...how cute is he?

I went to see the movie Pirate Radio tonight. I really looked forward to this one because I remember hearing about these ships when I was a kid. There always seemed to be these quasi-legends associated with broadcasting back in the day but I definitely remember the older teenagers on our street talking about how our rock radio djs were broadcasting from ships on the lake.

As I got older and found out stuff like, oh you know, the legendary Riverboat wasn't actually an old steamboat anchored at the mouth of the Don River but a Yorkville coffee house, I assumed that the Pirate Radio ships never actually existed. This movie provides some kind of satisfaction or even retribution. So what if they weren't broadcasting in Toronto? It's like finding out that unicorns are real.

The movie is a patchwork of stories from several of the boats broadcasting 'fab 40' (or top 40 in america) from the North Sea during the '60s. One of the better known was Wonderful Radio London (above), commonly known as Radio London or the Big L. Between December 1964 and August 1967, djs beamed their shows live from the hold of a World War II minesweeper anchored 5 Km from Essex.

The general name for this type of broadcasting was Radio Caroline. At left is the M.V. Mi Amigo, home of Radio Caroline south, which also broadcast from '64-'67.

You can read more about Pirate Radio and the Marine Offenses Act here but seriously, go see the movie. It's a feel-good flick with a fantastic sound track and great actors. Aside from the obvious cast members, I love that it features Chris O'Dowd and Katherine Parkinson from "IT Crowd"and Rhys Darby from "Flight of the Conchords".

oh and this cracked me up - the character of Gavin totally reminded me of Stringer.

I've been so happy since I started training again. Content, more balanced, motivated.

For the past couple of years I've been at a loose end because I wasn't racing or part of a training group. Then an opportunity to buy an outrigger came up and I had access to all the things I love about paddling - the elemental, physical, mental - but I was missing something important. Even though I was around the club, I didn't feel a part of it. I almost quit paddling altogether!

Then an opportunity to join my old training group came up. Because I'd kept paddling, I didn't need to think twice about it. And now everything feels ... normal.

This morning Chrissy and I were in the paddle pool and she commented on how amazing it is that our muscles 'remember'. We both took the same amount of time off after racing in Australia - about 2 years - and have had the same experience: when we've joined a gym or taken up a different sport, it's a workout and it's fun but it never quite feels natural. The return to our old weight room and paddle pool workouts is seamless - it feels like we never left.

I was really glad she brought this up because I've been having a strange experience. I'll be doing the workout, whatever it might be, and will catch sight of myself in the mirror and am shocked by my appearance. Seriously, I catch a look and think " who is that...wait, what? When did I get so old? gain so much weight? Get that awesome lululemon shirt...? I should point out that when I look in the mirror anywhere else, I see what I expect to see - 50 year old me. It's all about the context - wherever it is I go when I'm in that environment.

I'm not kidding myself that I'll be racing sprint canoe anytime soon but I sure feel like I could - and that's half the battle.

Remember all the noise about Y2K? Well if you've been living in a bunker for the past ten years because you thought the world was going to end, here's what you missed...

Wow. I am so together. Saturday I woke up on time, collected all my camera equipment and clothes for training, (I even remembered to pack Karen's souvenir from Amsterdam - an ashtray that says "Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go to Amsterdam" ) and went to the club. Time for fall training photos!
Beautiful day! Sunny and warm. Every fall we have one of these - that rare day that combines perfect weather with stunning fall leaves, while the water's still deep enough (barely) and the workout is long. The kids are too tired to pay attention to the camera so I get some good shots.
Karen L. is bringing some kids to the club on Saturdays so she ran to Starbucks to get coffee for us. One of the coaches said he heard a person was killed at Starbucks last night - nothing in google so can't confirm it. Don't know if there was anything in the paper. I pitch my miss. news into recycling almost as soon as I get it -there's about 3 pages of actual information, the rest is junk mail flyers.
Stayed out in the motorboat for an hour and then couldn't take it anymore - I wanted to get on the water!

The lake was PERFECT! So fun! I stayed out for an hour but had made the fundamental error of not eating breakfast before leaving the house. As much as I wanted to stay out and play in the waves, I bonked hard around 9 km. I even considered eating the grotty granola bar I keep in my dry bag on the deck but I came to my senses.

I went home for an hour to eat lunch and then headed back to the club to meet Chanda. We're starting winter training on Saturdays - paddle pool and weights.

Since it was such a beautiful day, one of the coaches had offered his outrigger for use but I forogt to call Chanda when I got off the water. Too bad. She hadn't brought warm clothes but, as it turns out, said she wouldn't have gone on the lake anyway. The waves and water temp. were a concern for her. Anyway, it was good to get in the p-pool and do a workout in front of the mirror.

Ian came in when we were about half an hour into it, he was setting up for Blake's program. It's awesome that he's running it because he kept the dbers out until we were completely done our workout. You never know with other coaches - groups often swarm into the pool talking, setting up seats, saying hello and asking you questions or whatever and your last 15-20 minutes are kind of shot.

We went up to the lounge to set up our circuit but when we went downstairs to get some equipment, Chrissy said they were missing some people and could use us to round out a group. Marisha was there and another woman I know so we did the circuit, finished early so went upstairs to do 8 minute abs.

what an end to the week that was...

Army psychiatrist loses it and kills 13, injures 30 more at Fort Hood military base in Texas. And the entire U.S. population goes "A-HAH!" when they hear he's a muslim who had just found out he was being shipped to Iraq, then confided to a store clerk that he was horrified at the thought of having to shoot fellow muslims. I'm not including his name because I don't want the google trolls landing here. IN-sane.


Toronto wins the bid for the Pan Am Games 2015! wicked. I wonder where canoe-kayak events will run.

You know what I hate? I hate when your doctor's office leaves a voicemail message, stressing about 10 times that it's not urgent, but if you could call the office about some test results (for cancer cells), nothing to be alarmed about mind you, they'd like to talk to you. And then they say, we won't be in the office until Friday, but if you could call us then, we'd really like to talk to you. But it's not urgent.

It just started to hail - so depressing. I have a day off today so went to visit my dad. It was his 84th birthday yesterday. Laurel and Ryan were there yesterday so I went up this morning. Afterwards I went down to Yorkville for a wander. It didn't perk me up the way I thought it would so I came home.

Everyone in Toronto is freaking out about the H1N1 flu shots. There's so much media hype, they're doing an awesome job of whipping up flu-frenzy. There's rationing and a pecking order for innoculation. For awhile they talked about how jealous the US were of our stockpile (hoping to fire up some twisted sense of national pride maybe?) then reports of people being turned away from clinics giving a cachet to anyone who did get it. I'm glad Ryan's grown and I don't have to make a decision on innoculation of a toddler. I wouldn't do it - partly having been in high school during the last so-called swine flu epidemic but also because of a long history of medical blunders - thalidomide comes to mind.

An article in one of the US papers today indicates, "Swine flu vaccine safety will be monitored for side effects and deaths by a U.S. panel using data from federal health plans for the military, the poor and the elderly, and from clinical trials, health officials said Monday." Well, that's reassuring.

Other items in the news; as of October 26th 2009, no more talking on cell phones while driving for Ontarians unless it's hands-free and using speed-dial. Of course, there are still a lot of people doing it, but that won't ever change. California imposed a cell phone ban as of Jan1 2009 and TMZ has caught the governator's wife, Maria Shriver, driving around in her Arnold-sized SUV, talking on a hand-held phone numerous times. More recently she was filmed putting on make-up. Now that's a law they need to impose!

Thursday night I had a great workout - it was only an hour and conditions were mostly flat but I put in some solid km and came off the water feeling good. After I changed, I stopped by the lounge.There were a bunch of kids playing foosball and watching tv, and, since kids in the 15-17 range all kind of look the same, it took me a second to realize I didn't know any of them. But then, there was one face I recognized and he was unfolding himself from the couch to give me a hug. It was Ian Ross, the US athlete I billeted during this same weekend last year. He was tall then but geez, he's grown - now, he's at least 6'5" (in case you haven't figured it out, he's the paddler on the left).

Mac H. is the development coach and brings the kids up here for a training camp at least once a year. The kids are billeted with athlete's families but we have so few junior athletes right now, some are in houses with no kids. It may not be as sociable for them but perfect for a training camp.
Since I look at results and watch youtube vids of the bigger events (typical armchair athlete - love the sport in which I can't compete), I knew that Ian went to Junior Worlds in Moscow this year and did really well. Not a huge surprise since he's a natural athlete - plus his dad is a former U.S. national team C1 paddler and mom did whitewater C1 and flatwater C1 and K1.

After chatting with Ian for a bit, I left the club and ran into Mac out front talking to Derek (our new head coach, by the way) and some guy buried under a hoodie. I stopped to say hi to Mac and congratulate him on his juniors' results when I suddenly realized the gangbanger was Nathan! Lots of stuff going on in his and Lea's lives. He's still coaching the US national team and was leaving soon for Chula Vista. I suspect he misses the family a ton when he's away. The boys are at an age that makes travelling tough. It was great to see him and I hope he'll be around the club more in the future.

Friday night and it's the Awards Banquet. I've paddled the past couple of nights so didn't mind missing a workout. Instead, I went home and made sure my camera batteries were charged (somehow, I always forget to replace the AAs in my flash which means I carry an unusable piece of equipment around for nothing. Tonight was no different.). The past few years we've had the banquet upstairs at the Crooked Cue. It works out perfectly - holds lots of people, has good food and a stage-dance floor where Erics band, H.O.D., is able to set up and entertain the adults after the kids go home.

When I got there, I didn't see any of my 'group' so, with the option of sitting with the masters or the kids, I pulled up a chair with the midget girls along with Tamlyn & Danielle. (one of the coaches said something during his speech that made me laugh. He called the masters "bantams with credit cards" - too true. He coached them for a number of years and said it with humour). Much later, I saw Jess & Del with Karen & Kevin. They must have come in after the tables had filled up since they were seated in the bar area.

I took photos of each of the award-winners ( when they get to Uncle Lou's trophy it still makes me cry a little bit) and spent some time socializing afterwards. I would have liked to hang out longer but it was one of those nights - either I stay, committing to endless drinks topped off by a dozen tequila shots (plus a raging hangover & regrets the morning after) or go home now. I'm boring these days so walked back to my car where I'd left it at the club. I hear it was quite the after-party and I kind of wish I'd stuck around.

I woke up a little later than planned on Saturday morning, did a quick paddle and then headed down to Mitzi's to meet Jenn. She's in town for Tat's wedding and I was so pleased when she said she'd be free for brunch. I was late - screwed up and drove right past Mitzi's - but there was Jenn, patiently sitting in the window when I finally got there. Her life in Deline (pronounced Deh-li-nay) sounds a lot like the old tv show, Northern Exposure and I commented she should be writing a book. Every small community has it's eccentric characters and creatures but the far north just seems to attract more of the fringe than other places.

After an amazing feast of an oatmeal-buttermilk pancake with baked apple topping and a side of curried, home fried potatoes, I rolled back to Port Credit. As I drove down Mississauga Road, I realized the AGM was just about to start and decided to drop in. I'm glad I did just because I'm really out of touch with what's been going on at the club. I mean, I'm there but I don't really hang around or know what's going on. What an eye-opener. It's good that Derek's the new head coach. Dray did an amazing job and the club is really building so we need someone who can carry on with that.

At the AGM it becomes even more obvious how important it is to have people who are confident in their position and can't be bulldozed by opinionated master or parents (who are the only people to attend the AGM). We've got a solid board and several parents who actually understand what's important or necessary for the club at this point. In case you were wondering, the club is in great hands and will continue to move forward.

There was only one contested position for the board - athletes rep had both K.C. and Dustin up for election. K.C. won by one vote. One parent believes that boys/girls aren't comfortable talking to a rep of the opposite sex and kept pushing for co-athletes reps so they ended up voting on it. Since there's no downside, most were in favour and the motion was passed. I'm not able to vote but it's interesting just being an observer.

After the AGM I was at a loose end. I needed some Hallowe'en candy and hit up Shopper's and stopped by Blockbuster which was totally tricked out for the holiday. The art-school guy from Bruno's is working there now so we chatted for a bit.

Is it bad that some days the only reason (aside from the obvious) that I wish I had a regular manfriend is for going out somewhere when I'm bored? It was that kind of night. When I got home, I realized what a cliché I've become of an older, single woman, living alone. My dinner was popcorn and red wine.

I gave out candy to exactly 5 children. For the amount I spent on mini-packs of various candies, I could have given out cheeseburgers or giant-sized chocolate bars to each kid. Around 9 pm I decided I could turn off the upstairs lights and go watch the vids I'd rented. I got through Coraline, a really entertaining Tim Burton animation, before I went to bed.

I woke up late again and was ranging around the house, making coffee, cooking breakfast, beating myself up for not getting outside and DOING something when I realized that my clocks were different from my iPhone and computer. Hah! Daylights Savings time. I get an extra hour of EVERYTHING!

I finally went for a walk around the 'hood and here are some observations;

My neighbour on the north side has put their house up for sale. I wish one of my friends would buy it. I'm used to the current neighbour who is very quiet and wonderful. Not like Boris and Natasha on the south side who spend all their time trying to move their property line over - inch by inch.

Construction of the townhouses on Kentucky Hill seems to have stalled but it may be because of the city digging up Lakeshore (again) between Southdown and Lorne Pk Rd.

Laura's old house has DISAPPEARED - there's an empty building lot where it used to be.

The beer store in the Battaglia's plaza on Lorne Pk Rd has been closed - since October 1st. I don't buy beer often so didn't know about it until now.

Ahhh. Nothing like an evening of shopping with a friend to help shake off the crap of the day. After a super-shitty day and a decent workout on the lake, I met Tamlyn in the weight room so we could head up to Sq. One.

First stop was the food court of course, for a smoothie and some hot and greasy NY fries. I was looking for boots and/or shoes and Tamlyn was "just looking".

We went EVERYWHERE and tried on EVERYTHING. Tamlyn lived up to her marathoner rep. At one point she looked like she might be ready to pack it in but when I asked if she wanted to head home she looked shocked and said, "Why? Are you tired out already??" (She was polite enough not to add "old woman").

It wasn't until the last couple of stores that we each actually bought anything. I got some loafers in Geox and Tamlyn got a really hot dress in, oh what's that store? It's like Dynamite but not Dynamite. Anyway, they were already locking up when Tamlyn went into the changeroom loaded up with clothes. When she came out in the dress, I took a pic with my iPhone and got in trouble from the salesgirl, who was like 12. Something about fashion espionage, covert operations. Like we were going to get our grannies to sew up a line of frocks based on my iphone pics!! She didn't really get the irony of that accusation considering their entire stock is made up of designs pilfered from the prêt-à-porter of last year's runways. But she was keeping the store open for us, so she was cool.

Tamlyn looked ohsome (again, that's what it sounds like when she says it) in everything but she ended up with a super hot dress for the awards banquet on Friday night. And it was on SALE. Even though I did get away with one photo, I'm not going to post it. Don't want to blow her look. So Megan Fox.

And it went so well with the lobster toque.

The Richard Dalton Fall Classic made it into the Globe & Mail’s best photos from the last 24 hours.

But Sir, this will always be the real Richard Dalton Fall Classic.

I don't understand how my mother is still alive. Curled into herself, not an ounce of flesh on her, fetal, she looks like a newly hatched, bird-creature. My sister has been keeping up this front that she's cognizant and comfortable, claiming she sings along with long-forgotten hymns but while I was there she kept her knees pulled tight into her chest and sucked in her cheeks with the pain. The only sounds she made were a steady stream of whispered nonsense or humming; definitely hymn-like but nothing recognizable. Is it over-dramatic to say funereal? That's exactly the sound of humming & moaning combined. When I pointed out her posture and obvious distress, the nurse ran to get her Tylenol 3s. They know.

I sat there while her caregiver went on about how my mom only responds to her voice, how close their relationship has become in just a few weeks. I've heard this from every caregiver, every time my dad or mom is diagnosed as having only a few days to live. Job security. They know there's a time limit on the position and are looking for the big tip while the family are vulnerable. I don't blame them. Day to day care for a senior is a shitty job that families don't want/aren't capable to take on.

After that I visited my dad who has improved quite a bit since we hired a professional nurse to augment the care provided by his psw. We have not told him about Graham dying or mom's illness. It would be too much.

I came home and, in spite of the beautiful weather, couldn't find a way to lift myself off the couch. I wanted to go for a paddle but the club is locked. Sunday afternoon polo has moved indoors and I didn't have the foresight to car-top my boat home. I raked my front lawn and then fell asleep for 3 hours.

Anyway, not to say I didn't have some happy distractions this weekend. On Friday night, I went to Katy's new condo with Carrie. Katy was babysitting Hailey and Brady. Of course she put out her usual, tasty spread of food and poured endless martinis. We had Tom Sellick as Magnum P.I. playing in the background while we checked out her great new place. Anita came by later. I think we're all wiped out a bit by our "lives" but it was a nice chance to catch up. Katy's new place has me thinking about a condo again. She is looking directly over High Park and has a beautiful view of the skyline which includes the CN Tower and Lakeshore. She can watch the airshow and fireworks right from her living room or balcony! Not to mention access to Bloor West Village, amazing restaurants and the subway. Really, it's an ideal location.

On Saturday, I went to a Hallowe'en party. I didn't have a costume in mind, just bits and pieces. Eventually, I decided I was a can-can dancer and it worked out OK. It was one of those parties where I didn't know anyone except the host and hostess and everyone's married. understandably, it was really difficult to get conversations going so I ended up in the kitchen with a bunch of young mothers, listening to recounts of pregnancy/labour and kids-not-sleeping-teething-husband-not-helping-can't-lose-weight-maybe-just-one-more-pumpkin-cupcake. Still nice to get out and be pulled out of my life. I was wearing false eyelashes made out of feathers. I was sceptical about them staying on all night but learned that false-eyelash glue really does hold if you get the right kind (but always bring the tube along for touch-ups)!

So my mom was taken to hospital again yesterday morning - fever & abdominal pain. I spent the entire day worrying that it was her appendix because it would be inoperable given her condition. My sister stayed at the hospital to ensure they admitted her. They generally try to ship geriatrics back to their nursing homes. This is the downside of socialized medicine. They want to keep turning the beds over and they definitely don't want to be doing the paperwork on somebody who has just reached their time to go. You can be sure if we were paying for it, they'd be falling all over themselves offering procedures and treatments.

My sister and I texted back and forth all day and around 3:30 she sent one saying "mom doesn't even have her appendix anymore! Who knew?". She twigged to it after an orderly who was assisting in the room commented, "Wow, you don't see appendix scars that big anymore."

Anyway, Laurel called late last night and they finally had a diagnosis - abdominal aortic aneurysm - add to that inoperable. It's caused by breakdown of the aortic wall and just keeps getting worse until it ruptures.
You know, every time one of my parents goes into the hospital, the staff says "there's nothing we can do, your father/mother only has hours/days/weeks left" and every time, they've responded to antibiotics and fluids and bounced back. Anyway, this time they advise us there is no bouncing back. And then right after, they say "it could be tonight, it could be 6 months from now." The one thing they're sure of is it's painful. Poor mom. The only possible blessing is, since she's so far gone with dementia, maybe she isn't aware. She appears to be comfortable and only shows pain when the doctor presses on her abdomen but who knows, it's not like she can tell us anything. I guess we'll know more in the next few days.
On the plus side, she's in Scarborough General where my brother-in-law built the emergency wing and is on the board of directors. My sister just had to go in and say her name for mom to get the VIP treatment.

Canoe Kayak Canada's new boss

Lorraine Lafrenière named as new head of Canoe-Kayak Canada .

Anne Merklinger is moving on to become director of summer sports for the Own the Podium program.

In this photo Lorraine (second from your right) & Anne tee off at a "Drive for the Podium" event.

I don't know if there's a connection between full moons and lost items but after this last turn of the cycle I was practically tripping over things I thought were lost and gone forever.

I've been searching for my neoprene pants, vest and boots since the lake temperature dropped. After turning the house upside down, I found the boots but gave up on the other stuff. Then, in one of those epiphanies that only happen when you're mostly asleep at 4am (I was awakened by the full moon shining in on my face), I realized that they were right were I left them after the last cold paddle in April - under the flipped down backseat in my car. When I got up in the morning, I checked and there they were. And right next to them was the 8gig flash card I thought I'd lost at an airport security check. Okay, my car may not seem like a dark, forgotten, cubby hole were single socks go to die but I never, NEVER, raise the back seats.

That evening as I pulled in the driveway I was looking at the giant moon, wondering how you tell if it's waxing or waning. I mean, was last night the full moon? Tonight? I was still mulling it over as I got my dinner ready and came across several hundred dollars worth of euros and US $$ that I'd tucked in the cutlery drawer when I got home from Amsterdam. That one had almost made me crazy! I knew I'd put the cash somewhere but because of my jet-lagged condition, it was somewhere totally uncharacteristic.

I just googled 'full moon lost items" and there is a connection - in wicca, where the spell for finding lost items should be cast under a full moon. Hmmm, my belief system falls somewhere between patron saints and charms and hexes so....whatever, yay me!

Such a good feeling to be home for 7 days in a row. I wasn't 100% going into the weekend but by Friday night, I needed to get out of the house. I met up with Andrea Paiement, the original princess. I haven't seen her since the end of May, just after her 2nd little girl was born, so it was long overdue. We went to a movie (Couples Retreat) and then had a drink/dessert at Jack Astor's. She cracks me up! I'm so glad we've stayed in touch over the years. She's become such a good friend.

On Saturday morning, a bunch of us met up in Oakville and went out in outrigger. It was beautiful and sunny but chilly. Neoprene boots, toques, Lifa's, Crafts and jackets. There were nine of us - Nancy, Terri, Karen S., Eve, Chrissy, Jess, Chanda, Kara and me. Since there were so many of us, we took out the double-hull. They've rigged 2 OC-6s together, no amas, and it's a great way to get a larger group out training together. The boat is way more stable than the single-hull and really gets some speed.

We paddled down Sixteen Mile creek to the mouth of the harbour and everyone cheered! There were pretty big rollers coming in. We paddled on the lake for a little more than an hour and it was awesome (still no other word to express that feeling). I've been really bored with my same old routine in PC, but this was the proverbial breath of fresh air. Training with a group of people and working hard, not just for yourself but to make the boat go better as a whole. I still haven't quite got the feel of riding waves in the big boat but it'll come with time. I guess it'll have to wait until next year since it's unlikely we'll get out again before it snows. The club is planning to put the boats in storage some time this week. Too bad since we're going to get a reprieve with temps in the double-digits.

Back at the dock we did a quick change at our cars and separated, with the C4 planning to meet up at Port Credit GO at 2:43. We're going to the TFC game - last home game for the season.

Oh my god, such a great time. It was sunny enough to be pleasant but only Eve was smart enough to bring mittens (for the beer holding hand). Chrissy brought a giant backpack that contained her clothes for the evening and one...GIANT...electric blue...SNUGGIE. It was hilarious and she endured some good-natured ribbing from the other fans in our section. And proving once again that hot girls can do/wear anything and still get positive attention! Oh yeah, that reminds me - when we came through the gate, there was no giveaway which kind of surprised me since we were early. We were sharing a table with some random guys in the beer garden and Chrissy asked one guy where he got the toque - he said they were giving it away at the gate. Eve and I offered to watch the beer if Jess & Chrissy went to beg some with our tickets. They were gone a really long time but came back after successfully scoring 4 TFC toques!

We hung out with the guys in the beer garden until it was time for the train. Jon Loek met us on the platform with his bike. He's going to be working Toronto Fashion Week for BlogTO which is pretty exciting news and means his career in photography is really taking off.

Attila, Pete and Jess got off at Mimico - they were going on a triple date to see Couples Retreat - Eve and I got off at Port Credit and Schro and Dylan went on to Clarkson. Eve and I had to walk back down the length of the train in order to disembark. Because of construction, they're only opening the doors on the last five cars at the PC stop.

I'll write about Sunday and the photos below a little later. I'm heating up my Thai takeout leftovers and they smell fantastic! I'm starving.

I've still been going out to paddle on the lake but boy did the water temperature drop fast. I finally got out the neoprene boots on Wednesday. Last night I decided I should probably be wearing the neoprene pants too or stay within the harbour/river. I hear the river is really shallow though. One of the rowers said they don't even go above the thousand because it's too shallow beyond that. But I think the paddlers are still going up to the QEW.

No matter where you paddle though, it's difficult to stay motivated in this weather. There are constant distractions "my hands are cold, wow that last wave was really cold, now my pants are wet and cold, what do those seagulls want? Do I look like I have food?" (several times this year a single seagull has flown alongside me for long stretches. I know they equate humans with food but they've always ignored me in the past - becauuuuse, that's right, I'm paddling, not eating.)

After about an hour I headed into the river. As I passed under the Lakeshore, I could see some unprecedented activity at the rowers dock. Some of them are heading down to Boston this weekend for the Head of the Charles (Marisha will be racing in an 8 for Toronto Sculling Club) so I thought maybe that would account for the numbers of people and vehicles but as I cleared the bushes, I could see that all of the cars were Peel Regional Police. Three cars in total... and a boat... 8 officers. I was briefly concerned that someone had called in about me being out on the lake (people can be weird sometimes) but they were all looking up the river.

When I got into the dock, the kids filled me in. Someone driving by on the QEW had made a 911 call saying they'd seen a paddler fall in by the bridge. The coaches were able to elaborate further. Apparently the driver had waited until they got home before making the call and told the dispatcher they'd seen someone fall in and become separated from their boat. Forget that it's so shallow up there that you can stand up in the middle and there's no current, none of our paddlers had gone in, nor any of the rowers and no one had a seen any randoms in recreational boats. There was a fisherman up there who confirmed for the police that there'd been no such incident in the 2 hours he'd been there. Whatever this person saw is a mystery, maybe a deer or coyote crossing the river? Either way, I'm impressed by the response from the police. They were still there when I left the club, so maybe there actually was some reason for them to be there.

Hey, Jessie's getting married this weekend - have an amazing day, Jessie!

Susan's husband Philip put together this short video tribute to Graham. In some of the later photos you can see the distinct line down his chin where it was split open to remove a tumour from his throat. He came home from Hong Kong to have the surgery in Toronto and I remember him showing it to me before they took it out. It was the size of a baseball and looked disturbingly like a baby was about to be born through his mouth.
In spite of a political career that took him far from the prairies, Graham was a cowboy in every sense. He and Isabel had only recently sold their farm (a heartbreaking decision but a necessary one considering his heart condition) and the day he died, had just finalized the sale of his last few horses.

I got up at 4am to catch a 6am flight to Regina to attend Graham's funeral (cousin, not brother). There was no question that I'd attend but being thanksgiving weekend and all, the cost of flights were grossly inflated. My cousin is a ticket agent and found me one which, even with her discount, was almost $600. It had a stopover in Winnipeg which worked out since my uncle and 3 cousins live there. The plan was to meet up with them and we'd fly to Regina together. From there we'd rent a car for the hour long drive to Wolesley. The rest of the family knew we'd be getting to the funeral just as it started.
Well, doesn't our flight from Winnipeg to Regina get cancelled. They said it was because the floor strip lighting wasn't working which, although it doesn't seem important, is considered a "no go" technical issue. I suspect it had more to do with the fact there were less than 10 people on the flight.
There were only a couple of options available; take a later flight to Regina at 2:45 or fly to Calgary around noon for a 2 hour layover before flying to Regina. Either choice would put me in Regina just in time to catch my 6:30 flight home and no time to pay my respects to Graham.
My ticket-agent cousin was able to get me on a flight home to Toronto in the afternoon so we had brunch and a mini-memorial at the airport Sheraton before they left me on my own at the airport.
I'm home now and I really do feel like a big bag of poo. I said this just last week but seriously, no more airports...please!

I was hoping to get down to the club this morning but I had to wait for the dishwasher installation guy to come. He actually showed up around the time he said he would. The appliances in my house are gradually breaking so I'm replacing them one by one. By the time he was finished, I didn't have much time to do anything so just ran errands until it was time to catch the Go down to the TFC game.
The game started at 4:00 so I opted for the later train at 3:38. It meant I missed the start of the game but I'm never too worried about that. Ryan was already down there and I had just texted him that I'd be there soon and to pick me up a beer when there was a loud bang and the window of the seat in front of me shattered - not inward, it stayed intact as they're intended but it was wrecked. The guy beside me said it had been a huge rock. Crazy.
To be honest, the game wasn't anything special. We scored early on but then let in a goal at the 90 minute mark (esquire added time). What a waste.
Danielle called me while we were hanging around waiting for the stands to clear. She was down in the beer garden. We headed over and the guys couldn't decide what they wanted to do, have a beer or leave immediately. Roche settled it by going up and ordering for everyone. I had just gotten the high sign that my ride was leaving when I finally saw Danielle and her cute boy. She's only been away at school for 6 weeks but already she looks older - and so pretty! Actually, she and the boy made a really attractive couple (which, for the record, they're not).
The boys taking the GO back to Clarkson were well-oiled and I was just as happy to catch the ride offered by Jeff. He dropped me at my car and I decided to pick up some last minute items for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. Ryan's coming over early.
I have to be at the airport Monday morning for a 6am flight so want to be in bed fairly early.

Last weekend I flew to Saskatchewan for the 50th wedding anniversary of my (mom's) cousin Graham Taylor and his wife, Isabel. This side of the family is awesome fun and we've gotten really close in the last few years. Graham and Isabel have filled the void unintentionally left by my parents through their respective disabilities. The Taylors call and sing happy birthday in two part harmony on my birthday and have added me to the bi-monthly phone chain along with their daughters, sons, nieces and nephews.
The party had to be held at the opera house to accommodate the some 250+ guests with a full meal and dance afterwards. We had a great time! The immediate family got together an hour early and toasted the couple with champagne and lots of speeches about our luck in still having Graham with us for this milestone event. Back in March he was in hospital having his 2nd multi-bypass surgery (he had his first heart attack at 26 years old).
After he was discharged from the hospital, I called Graham and laughed when he told me, in the most humorous way, that he was going to have a party for every event from now on because he'd rather have a party while he's alive than a wake after he's gone. I told him that would be awesome and I would come out west for every party he cared to throw.
It was so great to see Graham back to his old self on Saturday night - wearing his kilt, dancing with all of his grand-daughters and random single ladies. There were lots of wonderful speeches about, and by, the couple, their family and friends. Graham had called earlier in the week and asked me to take photos of the event and I have a couple thousand on my flash card.
When I woke up this morning and saw a missed, late-night call from my cousin, Susan, I knew without picking up the message that Graham was gone. I don't know the details except that it happened suddenly last night.
I'm heading back to Saskatchewan early Monday morning for his funeral but I don't feel as sad as I might. All of the loving, respectful words about his wonderful (charmed) life have already been spoken in the best possible way - with him there to hear them. He had the right attitude to life and I'm glad that he spent his last weekend celebrating a milestone with his wife, laughing and dancing, surrounded by family, friends and his community.

I already try to make it to every event for my family and friends but don't be surprised if you start getting evites from me every month!

A lot of us watch the film Without Limits, about Steve Prefontaine, before a big race or when we need inspiration in training. The thing that stuck with me most (and almost defeated me) was a comment made by Oregon track coach, Bill Bowerman. It was something to the effect that the only way an athlete can get through the day to day workouts, season after season is to figure out a personal reason why it's so important to be the fastest to go between A and B.
I struggled with this because really, why was I, at 40+ years, trying to compete with sub-25 year olds. Anyone who saw me trying to balance in a C1 must have wondered that too.
In the end, the reason was supplied by the question - the fact that I could compete was reason enough. Does that make sense? I guess it can be summed up by a quote from Pre, "To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift".
I was lucky that everyone at Missy was encouraging and supportive. Eventually, I was able to remove age from the equation and learn to work through fatigue and disappointment during a workout or race. I would take inspiration where I found it - if I was struggling during a running workout, passing a senior with a walker presented the reality that I wouldn't always be able to just throw on some gear and head out for a run. Grateful for my 'two feet and a heartbeat', I always found a second wind. Suddenly, I was no longer doing a workout - I'd remember that I actually LOVE running.
Anyway, a lot of friends are racing in the Moloka'i hoe this coming weekend so I was checking out the outrigger forum on ocpaddler and came across this post from Kekoa under "Who are you racing for?" At first I rolled my eyes as it appeared to be just another bleeding heart, count-your-blessings speech. But reading to the end brought me face-to-face with that familiar struggle to stay motivated. Seriously, for all of us there are days when just getting out of bed is a challenge. These guys are about to race the 42 miles from Molokai to Oahu. I'm sure many who read Kekoa's words will think of them somewhere in the middle of the race and instead of pain and fatigue will think only of the gift; the will, the strength, the kinship, the ocean.

I racing for my family, friends and loved ones. I racing for the children and adults with disease and handicaps. I racing for all the people starving and suffering, especially the children, in the world. I racing for the homeless who not because of being lazy or drugs just cannot afford to live in a home. I racing for those who are no longer with us (unfortunately too many to name). I racing for the child who’s parents don’t give a shit about them. I racing for the person who feels like an outcast and that they have nobody. I racing for whoever doesn’t feel loved. Does me racing for them change anything? Probably not. I no care. They are who I think about when I get tired or my body gets sore or I start feeling sorry for myself. And they are the ones that make me feel so lucky to be able to go out and compete in this endeavor. that’s all that matters. Might sound like bullshit and I getting too deep, but it is exactly what I think about everytime I go paddle. Because who really gives a rip who wins the Molokai? Gotta be more than winning cause there are over a hundred crews who not going win. So I ask, who are you racing for?

Congratulations/Félicitations

to

Stéphanie and Tamas jr

I'm home now. And in spite of jetlag and lack of sleep from the previous 36 hours - marathon excursion through Athens, sleeping (actually, not sleeping) in the airport to catch our 5:00am flight to Amsterdam and then hiking through their city centre all day before an 8 hour flight home - this has been one of my best trips ever (I know - I say that every time. I'm so lucky!).
Here are just a few pics ...

Our first look at our digs for the week...travel fatigue disappeared in a second!


The view from my bedroom balcony on the first morning....overlooking the outdoor dining room (brown roof), overlooking the pool, overlooking the ocean.

Night number two...

taking a break from drinking wine....

St. Nicholas port...where we launched our boats.


no tans yet....

loving it.

I woke up this morning intending to visit my parents in their respective nursing homes but never even got out of the house until 1:00pm. I was able to accomplish some stuff though - paying bills, laundry, that sort of thing. I couldn't paddle anyway so I guess it was worth it.

In the afternoon I headed over to Chrissy's MBA graduation barbecue. I picked up some flowers for her at my favourite shop on Lorne Park Rd. There were a dozen friends already there when I arrived. Oh man, I couldn't believe the amount of food her mom had prepared. Chrissy brought me a glass of sangria and I sat down to catch up with everyone. Jeff and Del were in charge of grilling and there was nothing to do but socialize.

After the amazing meal her nephew, Savaun, circulated with trays of champagne and we toasted Chrissy's success. Then there was ice cream cake.

Then there was another cake.

It was a fun afternoon and I hope to see more of Chrissy now that she's not in school.

Big congrats to the athletes and coaches for the club's performance at nationals! MCC may not have the numbers to populate every division but what we put on the water is quality!
I think the biggest bringer of points had to be our midget boys canoers. They did an amazing job, filling boats, lanes and the podium in midget, juvi and even senior (war) divisions! Nice work . Of course every other division had it's superstars - check the results for Friday and Saturday on padtrac.com

I was a bit of a waste-oid this weekend. Did quite a bit of paddling - well, until Sunday. Sometime during my Saturday afternoon paddle, I pulled something deep under my shoulderblade - it hurts to breath.

I should have known better, it's never a great paddle at that time of day on a sunny Saturday. There are so many big cruisers entering/leaving the harbour or cutting a line straight between Toronto and Port Dover that it's a constant bathtub wash no matter how far out you go. I didn't notice I had strained something until I woke up Sunday morning. I thought the strain would ease as I moved around so headed off to Memorial Park to meet up with some Barclay-Boyds and Budays.

I arrived a couple of minutes early and, as I made an uncomfortable loop around the playground, realized how out of place I looked without a child in tow. (Louise and I were laughing about it later - how I should have pulled out my camera and given mono-syllabic descriptions into my cell phone, just to complete the playground lurker image.) I was just about to go find a distant vantage point when I saw Louise and Jonathon lifting Mia and then Tristan out of the family SUV. Mia had been under the impression that the "Lynne" they were going to meet, was a new playmate.When she saw me crossing the playground, she said "Mummy, is she older than me?" Poor kid...play date let-down! Fortunately, Attila and Charlie found us a few minutes later. The guys took the girls out into the playground and that's the last we saw of them until they tired out.
Louise and I took Tristan in his stroller to a bench and got caught up. Tristan is such a sweetheart! I got a big smile right away and he's an equal mix between Louise & Jonathon - blonde haired and blue-eyed he looks more like Jonathon than Mia did as a baby.

Later that night, Carrie, Louise and I headed into Port Credit to check out the newly renovated Roc 'n Docs. It's nice and so great to finally have a rooftop patio in town. They have to shut down at 10pm because the area is residential but hopefully that will change.

So here's the scoop...Michael Bryant has hired a slick P.R. firm called Navigator to SPIN this incident. I'm picturing Ari Gold without the endearing qualities...
They're the ones digging up (irrelevent) dirt on the cyclist and dropping (irrelevent) information in news articles (social visits to Stornaway, that kind of thing).

Okay, I know it sounds old fashioned but... shame on Michael Bryant. Less than 48 hours after he killed a bike courier in a Yorkville, Saab vs bike altercation, the political spin machine is in action. But, as Christie Blatchford’s article pioints out "Details that suggest cyclist had been drinking may help former Ontario Attorney-General muster a solid legal defence – but is there room for a moral one?"

POP CULTURE

Disney buys Marvel Comics

I'm sad not being at CCA. The club is a ghost town.
Last year I was too involved with other stuff to even notice but this year, I'm feeling it. I paddled tonight and it was so weird with not even one paddler there. It was nice to see Tamlyn and Rory when I came in off the water though.
There was a straight south wind on the lake. Bathtub wash around the harbour but good once I got 3km out. I think the sailing club was doing big-boat lessons. There were three 20-30 foot sailboats doing big loops between Lakefront Promenade and the Ridgetown. I saw some collapsing sails and one looked like it was going to keel right over before it slowly righted itself. Everyone talked about how cold it is but I was wearing my same tank and shorts as always. The water definitely felt warmer so the air must have been cooler but it was comfortable.
All the fisherman were way out - in fact I didn't even catch sight of them until I crested the horizon line at 2.5 km. A beautiful night for a paddle.
When I got back to the club there was a group of boys and their parents waiting to go out in dragonboat. Well, the boys were waiting to go out in dragon boat. The parents were having happy hour up in the lounge. I'm not sure what the group was but there were some familiar faces running the program.
Wishing you guys great races and lots of fun at nationals. I'm going to try and make it up there for finals but it'll be tough. Even though Sherbrooke has an airport, there are no charters flying into it. I hear the course is pretty amazing - good viewpoints and deep lanes all the way across. I don't think we've ever had nationals ther (maybe just Trillium or Cloverleaf?). I heard as many strategies for junior and senior party as I did for race plans. I want to hear all the stories when you come home!

I was cleaning out various drawers and cubby holes around the house - it's ridiculous the amount of useless stuff I've accumulated - and came across some rhymes pencilled on a small notepad. Because some of it dated from when the band, Victims of Circumstance, was still getting together to jam every Sunday, I thought it was stuff I'd been working on.I usually kept that in my guitar case or with my other tabs.
One particular page had me wondering, "Did I write this? It's not terrible and with the right music could be quite good."
While I was typing this, I did a google search on a portion of the lyrics. Balls, it came up on a greeting card site. Oh well. I'll let you know if the one I actually did write, Gasoline Rainbows, ever gets picked up.

results for 200s

K1 Geoff Clarke - silver
K2 Geoff & Chris Mehak - silver
C1 Jared Trafford - silver
WK1 Tessa Oldershaw - bronze
C2 BenTardioli & Roland Varga -silver
wC2 Nina Doherty & Kaitlin Findlay -silver
WK2 Lizzy Bates & Tessa - bronze


Results for 1000s
K1 Chris Mehak - bronze
C1 Roland - silver
WC1 Rachel - gold
K2 - Rob Clarke & Jacob Sosna - silver
C2 - Chris & Dustin - silver
WC2 Nina & Kaitlin - bronze
K4 Nathan Barton, Geoff, Mehak & Jacob - bronze
IC4 Chris, Roland, Jared & Ben - silver

2 ks at Canada Games!

WC1 - Rachel Marcuson - gold
C2 - Dustin & Chris - silver
K1 Chris Mehak - silver
WK1 Lizzy Bates - bronze
K2 - Geoff Clarke & Nathan Barton - silver

Ontario has a good start at Canada Games. They're in first place so far with 93 medals - 36 gold, 29 silver and 28 bronze.
They're just heading into day two of the canoe/kayak events.

Day One - 500m
C1 Dustin Shaw - bronze
C2 Dustin & Chris Abbott - silver
WC2 Rachel Marcuson & Taylor Potts - silver
W IC4 Rachel, Taylor, Nina Doherty & Nicole Wong - bronze
K1 Chris Mehak - silver
WK1 Lizzy Bates - silver
K2 Rob Clarke & Jacob Sosna - silver
WK4 Lizzy, Cheyenne Farquharson, Mariane Fraser, Tessa Oldershaw - bronze

Ugh. Back to the awful cycle of plunking my big butt in my car to drive across the city to Centenary, just to plunk it down in a visitors chair in my mom's hospital room for the day and then drive back across the city to the liquor store so I can plunk my ass down in front of the television and self-medicate with Carmenere and pizza. I wish I were a better person but I'm not.

Got called to the hospital at 1:00pm - my mom this time. Difficulty breathing, non-responsive. I headed east since the ambulance hadn't arrived at the home yet but they'd call as soon as they knew where they were taking her. They called about 15 minutes later and said Scarborough General. Traffic from the west end was brutal - it took me over an hour to get there. When I went into the emergency and stood lost for a minute, I had a surreal moment - the wing is named after my brother-in-law. For a brief second, I thought I was losing it. (my sister later told me, yeah, Randall had the new wing built).

An amazing paramedic (didn't get his name, I should have) who was waiting with another patient asked if he could help me. I gave him my mom's name and he went looking for her. He looked all over emergency then came back and said she wasn't there but he'd call in to find out if anyone had picked her up and where they'd gone. Honestly, it has been my experience that the paramedics are the most compassionate, helpful people when you're in the hospital. He came back a few minutes later and told me someone had taken a resident from her nursing home to Centenary. As I sprinted back to the parking garage, I called Centenary (in my phone book since my dad's chemo there) and they confirmed that she had just been brought into emergency.
When I got there, I was relieved to see that she had good colour behind the oxygen mask. She was unconscious and struggling to breath though and the duty nurse was too busy to come talk right away. While Scarborough General had been fairly quiet, Centenary's emergency was full.
Finally she came over and explained that the nursing home said she had aspirated some food. No big surprise considering her parkinsons and the low level of care provided by nursing homes. The big concern now was rotting food in her lungs and the subsequent infection and/or pneumonia.
I had called my sister at the cottage and told her not to bother coming home right now. She had driven up to Muskoka last night, hitting Vaughan just about the same time as the tornado. She was already a ball of stress and there was nothing she could accomplish by jumping into her car and fighting cottage traffic for 3 hours just to watch my mom gulp air.
Okay, I'm not going to lie. The acute care wing was nasty. It smelled like poo and decay and there was some crazy guy who was clearly well known to the staff. He had driven himself in, and was claiming he didn't know who he was and that he was having hallucinations. He stared at me the entire time I was there - 6 hours. I was too worried about my mom to really notice but every once in awhile, as I got up to adjust her pillow or IV, I'd catch a glimpse of his glowering, mouth-breathing stare as he sat hunched, gripping the sides of his stretcher. It certainly added to my level of agitation. The staff just kept saying to him, " and you had your last drink when?" and he would say, "I haven't had a drink for 3 years.....okay, well I had one 3 weeks ago... no, it might have a been a few days ago." (rule of threes? Sooo, three hours? Three minutes??). I just couldn't deal, you know? So after I was sure my mom was living, I got back in my car and drove away. I just drove around the block - 401 to Markham south, east on Ellesmere to Neilson and back into another parking spot - but it made me feel better, more in control. I went back to the chair in Acute Care, pulled it close enough to hold my mom's hand in one of mine and got Explore magazine out of my purse to read with the other hand.

The doctor finally came around 7:00pm. As usual (I've been through this before with my dad) she tried to convince me that we shouldn't provide my mom with medical care, that she won't recover from this, quality of life, blah blah. Look, neither of them is actually conscious of the world around them. My mom hasn't recognized me since 2005 and has dementia. My dad is not mobile and we don't know his level of consciousness because he can't communicate. Four times they've told us my dad won't live more than a few hours and he's always recovered. If you ever have an aging parent who goes in the hospital, call me and I'll come provide support. They're (understandably) brutal but you don't have to buy what they're selling. They actually want you to withhold fluids and antiobiotics - basic care.
So, tests show my mom's blood is severely oxygen deprived, she can't breath without assistance and blood tests show there's an infection. I believe, and the doctor confirmed, that she must have had the infection before today. Again, she advised that the prognosis was not good and I should call my brother and sister home. After that, I tried to call my sister but I'm glad to say she didn't answer the phone. (my guess is she's already on her way back without knowing the above info).
Driving back to Port Credit, I couldn't face going home to an empty house and parked at the canoe club with an idea of checking out Buskerfest. I walked across the bridge but everything just felt like sawdust. I couldn't even force myself to hit up Burrito Boyz for some dinner. I went back to my car, drove to Schlockbuster and rented the most trivial movie I could find - St. Trinian's (indicator of my state of mind that I rented a movie intended for tweens).
I'm just about to drain my second glass of wine and fire up the dvd. I'm glad I have people to care about but caring about people can really f* you up.

So my car has been making a funny noise and the service light has been on for the past four days. It needs new tires and takes two quarts of oil every couple of weeks. I'm dropping it off at Riverside this afternoon but just for the sake of discussion, I dropped by the Volkswagon dealership to help myself decide whether I should end my relationship with the Nissan or stick it out. The fact that I've been divorced twice should give you an idea of how good I am at working on broken down relationships.

I had been thinking that a Mazda 3 would be the way to go but last week, I saw a VW convertible parked outside the rowing club. It wasn't a Cabriolet - something different - so I checked out the website. It's an EOS hardtop convertible. This was a good trip actually. My fear was I'd yield to the frustration of constant maintenance costs and make an impulse buy. Instead, I came away seeing the value of "a bird in the hand...".
The EOS, above, would run about $39K list or $650/mo lease. I even took a look at the Beetle convertible which is supercute (for a university student) and rolls in at 32k or $515./mo lease.
I was mulling all this over on my drive back to the garage for the report on my truck. It was completely possible that I'll save so much on gas it'll be worthwhile getting a dependable car. However, that's a lot of money for 4 tires and a couple of doors!
As it turns out, the noises I hear are a cracked manifold and a loose heat shield. Since the crack in the manifold seals itself up as the car warms up, it's not a dire issue and the mechanic feels it can wait until next year. The loose heat shield is, well, just a rattle. I can live with it. I did decide to put new tires on it but that's a minor cash output compared to a new car. So, I'm stuck with the Pathfinder for another year at least. Can't complain. It can carry my boat, store my junk and transport 5 adults on it's leather seats. Might as well get my money's worth!

Great crew, great shoot, great shot!

In other news, Duke chose worlds as the venue to propose marriage to his kayaker girlfriend from Hungary! For those who don't know her, here's her results from worlds.

The writing was on the wall for this one what with all the 200m races at trials but the IOC made the official announcement with a few lines on their website yesterday:

More women and fewer men will paddle at the 2012 London Olympics.
All men's 500-metre races will be switched to 200 metres; a women's 200-metre K1 race will be added, and the men's 500-metre canoe doubles (C2) race will be cut. Women will compete in five canoe and kayak events and men will compete in 11.
Peter Giles says the ICF has final say on which men's race will be dropped from the Olympic program. He insisted the federation will not decide the issue until December and besides, the IOC could reverse its decision. Men will certainly lose one Olympic event, Giles said, but it may not be the C2 500-metre race.
Giles said the IOC shortened the men's races to make them more explosive and exciting for television. He said Canada supports both the drive to create exciting television and the drive to include more women in elite sport, but not necessarily the move to eliminate a canoe race and to replace a team event with an individual event.
Scott Oldershaw refused to comment directly on the changes.
"We want to focus on this competition and what is happening here," he said, "so we are pretending we don't know what has happened."

Canada's doing great at World Championships in Halifax. Tamlyn's through to her semi - in fact, I think the whole team has gone through. GO Canada!

I had my first sleepless night in a long time. It was definitely one of those wide-awake and worried nights but not for anything specific. I woke up around 2am and was still lying there reading The Beckham Experiment at 5:45 so I got up and went to the club to paddle. I felt pretty good all morning, propped up by coffee, I supposed, but it's hellish now and I have to go into a meeting.
I had my doctor's appointment. His diagnosis - Dupuytren's contracture. While paddling has nothing to do with the cause, he's suggested wearing a glove when I paddle might cut down on aggravation. Hmmm. Yeah, I don't know about that. Anyway, I'm not thrilled about it but he said it probably won't affect me much for a few more years. Most commomly, the ring and baby fingers curl in toward the palm so it shouldn't interfere with my paddling or playing the guitar. At the worst, I may have to opt for surgery in a decade or so.
On my way back to work, I returned Karen's call. She said she's coming down to paddle K1 this afternoon so we're going out for dinner after practice. I guess I'll find out what's up with her and chief.

So...those of us stuck in Ontario have decided we've just hit that point in the year where it's difficult to stay motivated in training. Add to that what's happening out in Halifax - without us!!! Anyway, in spite of nice weather, it was pretty quiet at the club. Oh, except for the exchange students from Spain and France. They were sure having a good time out in the dbs!
Last night, the women's team practice for 90 minutes out on the lake. I couldn't believe that Jessica actually flew in from New York! Doug was her coach for the junior national team back in the day (when Blake was also on it). She sat with us at Jenn & Trent's wedding and Blake and I took turns telling her what a great crew we were and how we'd love to have her come out.
After practice we went out for a team building drink. Not all of us know each other but honestly, I mostly sat with people I already know. I heard some funny shit like Sheila K. thinks this team, which includes many former national team paddlers, was put together to challenge the current national team. Baahhaaaha. For sure Gavin thinks it too. Dumb bitches. I stayed at the bar later than I wanted to but it was a really fun time.
I've got an appointment tomorrow morning for Dr. McL. to look at this lump that's growing in the palm of my left hand. If not for Mark O. I might not even notice it. Naw, I would. I've had problems with my middle finger for several months and then the past couple of weeks a lump appeared and just started getting bigger. More than anything, I just want confirmation that it's nothing to worry about. It's on my top hand so I'm hoping it's just something caused by paddling but considering I'm finally changing sides after 15 years of paddling right, does that makes sense? The worry for me is it's not on a bony part of my hand, otherwise I'd just think it was a bone spur. Fingers crossed that's what it turns out to be.

Oh balls. I couldn't make a decision on what to do today;

A) drive to Welland to watch WODs
B) go for a paddle
C) go to the gym

so I ended up...

D) lying in bed, reading and drinking coffee.

Just now, when I decided that a paddle is what I really need, there was a loud bang of thunder and the sky has turned completely black! Even a squirrel who was in mid-scamper has frozen on a branch outside the stairway skylight. Now the rain is pelting down, there's continuous thunder and lightning and I guess I should be glad that I didn't leave 20 minutes earlier. Being caught out on the lake in a thunderstorm of this magnitude is heart-stopping. Worse than going to the beach after watching shark week.
I can't even catch up on computer stuff. I've too many photos stored on my harddrive to risk frying it so I'm shutting down for now.
ciao.

So I went down to the end of the road. No lightning but I did get this interesting shot of a cloud formation. The lights in the bottom right corner are on the pier at the Petro-Canada plant.



Immediately after this, a pure blue sky emerged from the clouds. I went for a paddle and just played in the waves. Lots of fun, especially since there were very few Sunday boaters.
Earlier in the day, I'd gotten a call from the gym I just joined. They wanted to know when I could come in for my "personal fitness assessment" so I said today! Now in my experience, personal fitness assessment really means, " when can we do our sales pitch for personal training" but I have to say - this one took 90 minutes and they made me work HARD. Needless to say, it's the first time I've actually pushed myself since I stopped training and, good god, I've really let myself go! If they had actually tried to sell a personal trainer at that moment, I might have signed up. However, it also reminded me of how much I love training so I am suitably motivated.
The reason for joining a new gym is simple. I've been at Revolution in Oakville which has been awesome. On the plus side, Larry, Chanda and Eve have also been there and we trained together. However, Eve broke her wrist, Chanda and Larry were coaching sports at school so by the end of last winter, I was mostly there on my own anyway. On the minus side, it's in the opposite direction from work so if I don't get there by 6:00am, it's barely time to do a proper workout, no one else in the group needs to get up that early (teachers bah!) and I stress about traffic on the QEW. Especially in the winter.
The new gym is about 3 minutes from my work, is bigger (more cardio equipment), has a pool and a ton of classes (cardio, pilates, yoga, spin, kick-boxing). Oh yeah and it's a 24 hour gym! And, the other thing I forgot, school board employees get a huge discount so I get all that for about $350 per year. I am so looking forward to missing rush hour traffic every morning and being able to run at lunch all winter long (on a treadmill). No shame there.

I am holding back posts on a lot of fun, exciting, important events recently - mainly because I want to write about them with the appropriate attention and consideration. So. I keep waiting for a rainy day or quiet time where I can be properly engaged and it's just not happening.
Even little things, like the sparrow that smashed into my screen door on Sunday and spent the better part of the day sitting on my front porch with the upper and lower parts of his beak pointing in different directions. I instantly turned into my 8 year old self, trying to save the poor thing. I crumbed up goldfish crackers (other crackers are available) which he couldn't possibly eat - although that was actually before I noticed his beak issue. Anyway I was frustrated at not being able to DO SOMETHING when I noticed around 12:30pm that his beak was normal again. He pooped on my front porch and then flew away.

Last night was off for everyone so when I got to the club it was empty except for the summer camp kids waiting for their parents. I was just dropping my stuff on the ground when someone came up behind me. Expecting it to be Helen telling me she would be locking the club, I was completely floored to turn around and find DUKE! I guess I shouldn't be so surprised considering worlds are coming up. He looks great, relaxed and happy. He and his girlfriend flew in Tuesday night and they'll be heading to the coast in a couple of days. After a quick catch-up (fb has made it unnecessary for a hardcore dish when someone has been away), we jumped into our respective boats and paddled away.
It was quiet on the lake after the long weekend. Only a few sailboats out and that guy who lives by Imperial Oil cruising around on his seadoo. Kind of a boring paddle actually. My GPS died as I was leaving the dock so I couldn't even use it for motivation.
Talked to Attila for a couple of minutes when I got back, he's covering Pete's outrigger groups while he's away. I may dog-sit Lola while they're at worlds. After he left the dock, I had to avoid that annoying french dber who was dragging Pete's boat trailer around the road so he could make a better parking spot for himself. He was already parked and had already unloaded his oc-1, he just wanted to leapfrog up the curb by 6 feet. Such a crétin.
I had a quick shower and then headed over to Rachel's for dinner. Kaylynne was already there when I arrived. She filled me in on what's new and I was fascinated by her dad's new project - bee-keeping. They actually have a hive in their backyard which will start producing honey next summer. Plus she knows all kinds of fun facts about bees, like.... honey made from rhododendrons can be toxic and might make you stoned and/or sick. There's documentation that so called "madness honey" was used to poison, then kill off invading armies a couple of times in the Black Sea area, once in 401 B.C. & again in Pompey in 69 B.C. Interesting!
Ryan and Corry from Burloak arrived shortly after I got there and then Jess after coaching db and K.C. after she finished training.
Rachel must have spent the entire day cooking! There were 3 or 4 different types of salads, seasoned meatballs in a peanut sauce (these were especially amazing and, note to Rache, I need the recipe), chicken in a cream sauce and for dessert, toffee bars and zucchini bread. She is a fantastic cook and could easily switch from Stevens to culinary school. Agh, we were so stuffed! Anyway, it was a great dinner party and we laughed a ton! When I left around 10:30, Rachel was putting together care packages of leftovers for the guys to take home.
I want to do this again at my place before everyone leaves for CCA. Hopefully we can fit it in.

Eve turned up on BlogTO's Street Style which is a Toronto version of the Sartorialist. You may recognize the photographer as well.

Real Turf for Real Madrid

Too bad it won’t last. The natural turf will be pulled up and discarded by Sunday. Only the TFC, Real Madrid and a couple of pro lacrosse teams will get to enjoy it. And of course the fans will enjoy watching a game where the ball that doesn't make freakish skids and bounces across the field.

Thursday - wind from the south-west. My expectations were pretty high for good waves but as I paddled out in bathtub chop around the harbour, I started to wonder. I could see Stringer way out in the distance, coming towards me and we passed when I was about 2km out. As he went by, he yelled "keep going another 2km - it gets a lot better". He was right.

Friday, more of the same. I noticed a wedding party having photos taken in Memorial Park. 4:30pm seems so early for a weekday wedding but I guess this is what couples are forced into by the overloaded wedding industry.
The police were out in their zodiac and they waved as they headed towards the harbour, intent on chasing down one of the fishing boats. I had some fun in the waves and after about 10 km, headed in. I could see the marine unit pulled up along the pier wall, surround by people. There were no boats around - what were they doing? I could make out the wedding party I'd seen earlier. Those bass-turds, I thought, they're giving them grief for taking photos without a permit...but no, as I got closer it became apparent that they were having their photos taken with the wedding party. The groomsmen were posed in the zodiac as I went by. Ah, such nice guys!

Saturday morning and the lake was like glass. I haven't done a steady paddle for a few days so did 14 km. On my way back in, I passed a couple groups in OC-4s. One of them was having serious steering issues but as I changed my trajectory to avoid them, they'd adjust theirs to match mine. I recognized a couple of dbers in the boat but not the steersman who insisted I admire their new OC-4. I was just like yeah, nice boat and kept paddling. Still don't know if he was just that bad at steering or if he confused me for one of their members.

After that I packed up the car and headed to Sutton where I spent a fantastic day with a friend.

Sunday. Kind of overcast and not nice. Marisha, Karen and I were trying to get together but Karen couldn't work it out. Marisha and I decided to go to Sherway instead. Four hours and a couple hundred dollars later and I was home with some new shorts. While we'd been in the mall/bunker, the weather had turned beautiful! I was going to go for a paddle but I didn't have my gear with me and it was already 6:30. I convinced myself that it would be too late by the time I ate something and ended up staying in watching the season one finale of True Blood.

Oh yeah, because of the recent implementation of the law to ban talking on a cell-phone while driving, there's been a lot of media focus on the dangers of texting while driving. Here's a situation where a text message diverted a potential tragedy (neither of us was driving at the time but that's beside the point).
On Saturday, I texted Marisha to find out if she'd heard back from Karen about getting together on Sunday. She texted back that she had not but was up for brunch. We decided to talk in the morning. The next day, she told me that if I hadn't texted, the house she was in may very well have gone up in flames.
Here's how it happened. She and Carmen had gone to some friends' for a bbq. She'd dropped her purse in the kitchen and they were sitting outside talking when she heard the text message beep of her phone. Apologizing for not turning it off, she went into the kitchen where she responded to my text.
"Guys", she said, "something's burning in the kitchen."
The host responded that the bbq was right outside the kitchen window and she was just smelling the smoke coming through the open window.
"No", she insisted, "this is definitely not food and it's really burning."
They couldn't see any smoke but as they moved around the kitchen, the smell got stronger. Suddenly the frame of a painting propped on top of some cupboards burst into flames. They had recently put the picture up there to see how it looked, directly under some halogen lights. They put out the fire and moved it away from the lights, exclaiming they had to invite the person who texted her over for dinner sometime. I feel completely removed from any responsibility (but will take the dinner invitation!).