I finally got out for a paddle on Friday evening. Nothing special - it was cool and overcast and I just paddled 9-10km. I went up the river a bit and only saw a lonely scull out there. I was drifting under the bridge not really paying attention (ipod on) when I realized the rower was talking to me. It was Eve's dad! I can't remember the last time I saw him out there rowing. He looks FAST!
After a brief hello, I paddled back to the beach, changed into some warm clothes, picked up a bottle of wine and some groceries. I was pleasantly tired.

Saturday morning turned out to be beautiful and warm. Well, warm in the sun. There was still a chill in the air. I was meeting Chrissy and Eve at 9:30 to ride down to Sunnyside. Apparently the site is a mess so we're going to help Blake & Ian clean up. I was sorry to miss out on such primo time on the water but figured I'd get out there in the afternoon.

I was meeting Chrissy by the lighthouse at 9:30 so I went a half hour early to grab a Starbucks. Marisha, Frits and some of the rowers were there post-workout. I hung with them until we saw Chrissy across the street. She has one sweet 70s era 12-speed bike. She picked it up on C-list. It has those great 70s graphics - so awesome! Eve didn't think she'd be able to come with us but, after a few texts and a phone call, she joined us. Her dad decided to come too and went home to get his bike. That gave us time to catch up with Marisha. Eventually (10:45) we were on our way. It's a fairly quick ride to Sunnyside - about 40 minutes. When we got there, Drew and Billy K. were already on-site and had moved a bunch of stuff into piles. The city will come next week to haul away the tree trunks and larger debris. The Dock was a mess. We grabbed shovels, brooms and rakes and started into moving the carnage around.
I was surprised that Footie-guy was down there. He's a mentally handicapped guy who shows up with a soccer ball, sets up some goal posts and acts as player, commentator, coach and fans of his own one-man beautiful game. I've seen him there in the evening, it just hadn't occured to me that he's there most of the day too. He looks between 35-45 years old but who can tell.
The boardwalk was buried under sand and the docks had all manner of garbage on them and stuck between the planks. Eve and I couldn't believe the number of tampax applicators. It was ridiculous and we speculated briefly on where they came from. We decided that they somehow got through the sewage treatment plant although I have heard stories that there are still original OPEN sewers that empty household waste straight into the Humber. I went into the office to get gloves.
Eve found a whole, ripe lime buried in some sludge. We figured either a bottle of gin or a coconut would turn up eventually. We did our best with the docks then moved onto the boardwalk. I shovelled the sand back onto the beach and Chrissy followed behind sweeping the boards clean with a broom. A lot of people stopped to offer help but we didn't have any more equipment. Plus, there wasn't much else we could do. Several of the boats had sunk, a couple were folded in half (like fortune cookies, as Marisha put it) and some had disappeared. Blake and Ian were fixing the broken parts of the couple salvagable boats.
After an hour or so, we took a break and Blake bought us pizza and drinks at Sunnyside.
We left shortly after. Blake and Ian went back to fixing seats.

It was after 3pm by the time I got home and I was suddenly really tired. I jumped in the jacuzzi and read for awhile. Latter called Jackie to confirm plans for the night. We were meeting at the Pump at 8pm. Tammy called a little early so we headed up there in time to grab a table at the window.

We thought it would be difficult getting a table on a Saturday but the Pump was quieter than usual. We decided it was probably because they were broadcasting the hockey game and not the pay-per-view UFC fight (George St. Pierre vs Jake Sheilds). Earlier in the day, Ian mentioned he was meeting Juice and a couple of other guys at the Loose Moose. Rob Smith is manager there now so I'm sure they had a good night. Because we asked for a table for 6, we actually jumped the line. There's only one and it had just become vacant. It's right between the front door and the fireplace. They had the fireplace whaling away so I sat on the opposite side of the table. Jackie, Carrie, Steph and Katy weren't far behind us and most expressed relief that the fireplace was on because they were cold. Eventually though, they asked the server to turn it off.

You always get a mix of people at the Pump. Tonight, as we were chatting, there would be this really loud belch every once in awhile. Really loud. Carrie and I looked around but the only person within possible range was a Tan-Jay wearing middle-aged woman, typical Lorne Park type. She had been sitting with 3 other people who'd left the table briefly. She was looking over her bill and didn't seem like someone who'd just let one rip. We shrugged and went back to our conversation until a few minutes later it happened again. Now that her friends were back and she was chatting we could see she was pretty drunk. One of her companions was expressing shock that she'd just belched like that and she said, "you think THAT was loud?", as though she'd been challenged.

Carrie was the first to leave - her phone rang and we could hear Noah crying in the background. Mike R. turned up a few minutes later - he had been sitting in the back with a couple of buddies (who he ditched to come and hang out with us).  After about 20 minutes, his friends came looking for him and were noticeably surprised to find him sitting with a tableful of attractive women. They made a move to sit down and Mike said, "no these are all my married buddies wives" and dragged them away. It was almost 1am by the time we left.

Sunday morning was a non-starter. I had that greasy food and red wine kind of gross feeling and, since the weather wasn't anything special, I lay around reading until 9:00am. Around 1pm I met Laurie for coffee at Starbucks - more catching up since we haven't seen each other since February. Lots going on with them since Krista, who has suffered some minor seizures, had a grande mal seizure and had to be taken to emergency. She has epilepsy but they'll know more after further tests on wednesday. So far she's only had seizures in the early morning.

Tonight, Andrew (gears/lululemon) is hosting the premier of his Wipeout appearance at the crooked cue. I was going to go but just not feeling it. I watched a bit on tv though. I kept missing the parts with Andrew but at least saw im make it past the sweeper and into the final six! (when I went to work on Monday, one of my co-workers was all excited that someone I knew had been on the show. Or, more to the point, had met the female host, Jessica. He asked me to find out from Andrew what she smelled like. Men are weird.