New England Dreams

This morning I was dreaming that I was standing in lift line at a ski area. (No, I have no idea at all where the dream came from.) The "alarm", i.e., NPR, went off this morning and they were reading a list of the places that had flood warnings out east. My brain took in the words, and turned them into a list of snow day school closings that were being read over the PA system at the ski area. It was quite amusing.

I have a ticket, so I must be going

My "to do" list is quite substantial this year, including a number of items that are not optional. The one big item that was on the list that could most easily be crossed off was the Seattle to Portland ride. It is just over 200 miles in one day, the way that the group of us planned to do it anyway. I have wavered between thinking that it was a great idea to thinking that it was completely nuts. I knew that asking advice from the friends who are also planning to do it would be useless. They would tell me of course I could do it and that no one is getting in as much training as they would like (except maybe Beth and Chris who ride more than all of us anyway). Besides, it is all downhill, just look at a map.

I came to the conclusion that I would probably never fly out from the east coast to do the ride (although Bob will be doing just that), so if I was going to do it, I needed to do it now. I bought myself a ticket last night and packed my stuff so I can get a ride in after work tonight.

I came to an interesting realization about training for riding this weekend on the ride home from climbing. A typical day of climbing is a full day event. I left the house around 7:30 AM and got back a little after 11:00 PM. This included a stop for dinner, but it was clear that I was not going to do anything on Sunday except climb. I accept this time commitment because climbing has always taken all day, regardless of my climbing ability. Riding on the other hand, used to take a few hours to thoroughly exhaust me. I would meet Sue at 9:00 AM, we would ride for a few hours, and then have plenty of day for all of the other things-- errands, laundry, napping, whatever the weekend might hold. Now, a good ride takes more than half the day and then requires some couch time afterwards. I guess that would be the thing with endurance sports, they take a long time.

Back from east coast

Boston Public Gardens

Siobhan at the party

We arrived back in San Diego Sunday night, marking the final wedding-related event. Having never adjusted completely to Eastern Standard Time, our arrival and consequent sleep patterns have been sporadic. We did get some productive work done while out there--Colleen meeting with someone who could possibly place her, and I got to know the area around the Public Gardens.

TANGENT COMING WAIT FOR IT...
Boston is laid out in a manner that reminds me of newer sections of London--curving streets and Victorian-era buildings are meant to accomodate carriages and foot traffic rather than SUV's. It felt nice and familiar, except that unlike London there are many trash cans to be found.

TANGENT THE SECOND

I love London dearly, but one of the nonobvious features is that there is a distinct lack of rubbish bins. In most US cities you'll see them on almost every corner, but you pretty much have to make a stop in the Underground just to throw away a wrapper. For this, this is a surprisingly small amount of trash wafting along the streets, and most of that is cigarette butts.

WE NOW RETURN YOU TO THE MAIN POINT
It was a great time in Boston/Springfield. The weekend went by quickly and did not feel burdensome at all, despite being a wedding event. We celebrated the end of wedding events and once again began cleaning the house daily before leaving in the morning.
-jo

The realtor's sign has arrived

I was a bit taken aback when I walked out to the car this morning. Sometime between when we went to bed last night and 6:30 AM when I left this morning, the sign company had put up the realtor's sign.

It always amazes me that I can plan something for so long, but when a physical manifestation presents itself, I realize that something is actually happening (like the day that the wedding invitations arrived). I guess we are actually leaving.

Open house (again)

Here we are at open house, week 2, with lowered expectations and house that was already cleared of clutter. If nothing else, it gives me some time to relax, blog a bit, and read a book, something I would typically feel guilty doing all Sunday afternoon, but there are only so many things that you can do without making a mess of the house. We did have a realtor come by yesterday to preview the house for one of her clients. (She lives just down the street.) When she saw the fenced in garden area in back, she got her boyfriend out of the car to show it to him so that he could make one for her. Good to know that she liked the place. We are going to start working with a realtor as of this week. She will be doing the realtor preview on Tuesday and an open house next Sunday when Jason and I are out east for the wedding celebration. Jason and I are already looking forward to the point when we have an offer so that we do not have to live in this state of hyper-cleanliness. (I do not mind cleaning the top of the stove after I have fried something, but do I want to make something fried badly enough to wash the floor afterwards?)

I did manage some play time this weekend. I went sailing yesterday in South Bay where the wind usually blows like crazy. The race committee left something to be desired and set up the course in the wrong place so that the wind was patchy due to buildings on shore. We were three for three on starts. We could not have been better. Kathy, our outstanding driver, placed us right at the edge so the starting line so that at least two boats got peeled off at the start. (The starting line is only so long, and depending on your point of sail, you have rights to stay a specific course. You can not force someone to give you space, and we gave them none despite lots of loud noise from the boats that had to turn around and make another go at the line. ) The starts for the second and third races were not nearly as exciting, but they were equally well executed. Unfortunately during the races we found ourselves in bad wind spots. We were not the only ones either. At one point, we were bobbing around near one of the turning marks with two other boats, including the fastest boat that was out yesterday. Our spinnakers were hanging like curtains. There is some small consolation to being stuck with others. The Wednesday night race this past week was even more a victim of bad choices by the race committee. Of the 105 boats that were out on Wednesday night, less than 10 were able to complete the course that they were assigned. I am sure that this coming week, the committee will hand out the shortest courses and the wind will howl. You cannot really complain too much about a day out sailing when the weather is nice, even if the wind does not blow as you would like it to.

This morning I got out for a bike ride with Sue. The 25 mile or so ride that seemed like a huge accomplishment a few months ago (at about an hour and 40 minutes) has turned into the quick ride because I have too many other things to do today at about 1 hour and 15 minutes. So nice to do a sport that is so quantifiable.

Last night Jason and I went out to dinner at Old Trieste with the friends that we visited in Italy. It is a small, old-school kind of place. (Jackets are required for dinner. When Jason removed his and put it on the back of the chair, the waiter came by to ask him to put it back on again.) Brian's family has been going there since before Brian was born. The waiter Larry, he is the only one, knew what Brian typically ordered (and what everyone else in his family typically ordered which is no small feat as Brian is one of seven children). The service was excellent but completely unhurried. We spent a couple of hours eating and getting the rundown on Chandra and Brian's favorite cities for eating in Italy. We also discussed many of the new (Modus, Vagabond) and old (Turf Supper Club) places to eat in San Diego and decided that we should go out to eat again soon.