An active imagination is a wonderful thing. An overactive imagination, however...
I have always been blessed (cursed?) with an overactive imagination. Occasionally, I'll get lost inside my head. Others can tell when this happens because I will just stand there, immobile, and seem to gaze directly through them. I know it creeped out a few people back in my school days. Several times my kids have walked in on me, standing still as a statue in the middle of a room, doing seemingly absolutely nothing. What I am doing, of course, is re-ordering the entire universe in my head. I may just be working out a storyline I think may be entertaining (though I'll never write it), or reworking the remodel blueprints in my head and adding further details to my internal house o'dreams. Or, as is often the case, I am working through the alternative realities that would have existed had I made various different choices throughout the course of my life instead of the path I am currently following. It is really mind blowing to think of where I might be and who I could have become, if only I had zigged instead of zagged at some critical juncture in life!
None of that is particularly harmful, however.
No, the dark side of an overactive imagination comes from thinking through all the possible outcomes of what is going on in life RIGHT NOW. Instead of being content with just the positive outcomes in life, my mind has to pursue EVERY outcome to its potentially gruesome and bitter end. I end up with some pretty morbid thoughts.
I have probably imagined every possible horror a parent could face. It is ridiculous to borrow trouble, and I'll admit that my husband laughs at me with puzzlement (and a bit of disgust) when I manage to reduce myself to tears over an imagined tragic ending to someone I hold dear. It makes it doubly hard to let go of my children and allow them to experience the world, when my mind is parading every possible end result of their adventures to my overactive and oversensitive imagination.
And don't you worry, I do not only imagine the worst for my loved ones. I do not spare myself, either. I feel rather embarrassed to admit it, but I have imagined my own death countless times.
This would seem really kind of depressing and mentally disturbing, except that my mind is not a one way street. It imagines in both directions. So, while I imagine the worst, I also imagine the best! I try to channel that positive side as much as possible, but I can't seem to let go of the dark side. Overall, I'd say that the positive far exceeds the negative in my thoughts. After all, reality sides with the positive nearly always. Have you noticed that? At least, in the little daily moments of a personal life. Don't focus on the headlines. Focus on your own life and you will find it filled with beauty and wonder.
And if you are like me, with an overactive imagination that sometimes drags you through the dark side of things, use it to your advantage! Use it as a catalyst to make you act. Remind those around you that you love them every moment of every day. Do not be afraid to reach out, smile, or touch someone else near you with love and friendship. Don't allow yourself to procrastinate on your hopes and dreams. Get out there now and chase them down until they become your reality! After all, as your imagination reminds you, there may be no tomorrow. Now is all we have.
Don't waste it.
Ironman Dreaming (Training Update)
I haven't said much lately about how my training is going for this monster race that is looming ever closer (and is really starting to make me nervous). So, here's your update!
I have been exercising nearly every day for weeks. I swim. I run. I bike. I lift weights. I even tried some Yoga (that kinked my neck... boo!). Several days of the week I do a combo of these activities.
I am not obsessive about it, so some days one or the other activity falls by the wayside. And some weeks other stuff gets in the way and I get frustrated. That's OK, because overall I am doing fairly well.
However, I haven't lost an ounce of weight.
Of course, weight loss was not the objective. But still. Man, oh man... I'd like to see those numbers go down! A great big phooey and harrumph. I know the secret is my crummy diet. I keep telling myself I need to love vegetables and hate sugars. There is no magic short cut, but I am not sure I have the willpower right now to make that happen.
But I will say that I now have muscles in places that I forgot muscles were supposed to exist. It has been a long time since I have felt this strong!
My half Ironman race is happening on August 25th. That is coming right up in just over a month!
AHHHHH!
So, here is a break down by segment:
I need to be able to swim 1.2 miles non stop in open water (yucky water, no less). So far, I can swim that distance, but not non stop. My longest non stop swim has only been 600 meters, or about 40% of the distance. I need to step it up in this segment of training. My biggest worry for the swim, though, is that the water might be too warm to allow wetsuits. I REALLY want to wear my wetsuit for the buoyancy it provides, so everybody please pray for cool weather for the month of August! (yeah, I know... very unlikely living in the desert)
Bill has been going on my long rides with me for the past couple of weeks. I am working my way up to the 56 miles I need for race day. My longest training ride so far has been 35 miles. We wander all around the lake from Provo to Saratoga Springs. For those of you who live in the PNW, that's like biking from the northern tip of Lake Washington to the southern tip and back. Kenmore to Renton and back. The weight training is hopefully strengthening my knees, because they start to twinge around mile 30 and I need them to last for the whole ride AND the run afterwards.
This is the part of the race that scares me the most. I need to be able to run 13.1 miles AFTER the swim and the bike have worn me out. Tomorrow I'm going on my long run (this week got a bit scrambled by my volunteer work for the city art show) of 10 miles. So I'm not as worried about the distance, just my stamina after the other two segments.
I am not fast in any of the segments. Not by any stretch of the imagination. But I hope to endure. This is an endurance race, after all.
The next stage of training is to start bricking the workouts together to build that stamina. I can't do much swim/run bricking because of pool limitations, but I can bike/run and plan to do lots of it over the next 3 weeks. Starting this coming week I need to plan one day of swim/bike/run mini triathlons.
I am working hard at not getting sunburned as I do all this outdoorsy stuff. My hair is bleaching out and my skin is darkening. I think it looks weird, but I don't think I can stop it from happening. And I'm not really going to worry about it anyways, because I'm having a lot of fun this summer!
I have been exercising nearly every day for weeks. I swim. I run. I bike. I lift weights. I even tried some Yoga (that kinked my neck... boo!). Several days of the week I do a combo of these activities.
- Monday: a.m. short run and p.m. swim
- Tuesday: weights and swim
- Wednesday: a.m. long run and p.m. swim
- Thursday: weights and swim
- Friday: bike (shorter distance climbing 700 feet)
- Saturday: bike (longer distance, flat)
However, I haven't lost an ounce of weight.
Of course, weight loss was not the objective. But still. Man, oh man... I'd like to see those numbers go down! A great big phooey and harrumph. I know the secret is my crummy diet. I keep telling myself I need to love vegetables and hate sugars. There is no magic short cut, but I am not sure I have the willpower right now to make that happen.
But I will say that I now have muscles in places that I forgot muscles were supposed to exist. It has been a long time since I have felt this strong!
My half Ironman race is happening on August 25th. That is coming right up in just over a month!
AHHHHH!
So, here is a break down by segment:
Swim
I need to be able to swim 1.2 miles non stop in open water (yucky water, no less). So far, I can swim that distance, but not non stop. My longest non stop swim has only been 600 meters, or about 40% of the distance. I need to step it up in this segment of training. My biggest worry for the swim, though, is that the water might be too warm to allow wetsuits. I REALLY want to wear my wetsuit for the buoyancy it provides, so everybody please pray for cool weather for the month of August! (yeah, I know... very unlikely living in the desert)
Bike
Bill has been going on my long rides with me for the past couple of weeks. I am working my way up to the 56 miles I need for race day. My longest training ride so far has been 35 miles. We wander all around the lake from Provo to Saratoga Springs. For those of you who live in the PNW, that's like biking from the northern tip of Lake Washington to the southern tip and back. Kenmore to Renton and back. The weight training is hopefully strengthening my knees, because they start to twinge around mile 30 and I need them to last for the whole ride AND the run afterwards.
Run
This is the part of the race that scares me the most. I need to be able to run 13.1 miles AFTER the swim and the bike have worn me out. Tomorrow I'm going on my long run (this week got a bit scrambled by my volunteer work for the city art show) of 10 miles. So I'm not as worried about the distance, just my stamina after the other two segments.
I am not fast in any of the segments. Not by any stretch of the imagination. But I hope to endure. This is an endurance race, after all.
The next stage of training is to start bricking the workouts together to build that stamina. I can't do much swim/run bricking because of pool limitations, but I can bike/run and plan to do lots of it over the next 3 weeks. Starting this coming week I need to plan one day of swim/bike/run mini triathlons.
I am working hard at not getting sunburned as I do all this outdoorsy stuff. My hair is bleaching out and my skin is darkening. I think it looks weird, but I don't think I can stop it from happening. And I'm not really going to worry about it anyways, because I'm having a lot of fun this summer!
Financial Frustrations
Funny that I would write about something stressful right after posting about how worry free my summers are. I wish summer was strong enough and magical enough to prevent bad stuff from happening. Still, coming at this from a stress free place has made it easier for me to deal with it in an almost Zen like calm.
Yesterday morning, Bill woke me with breakfast in bed of eggs and orange juice. We planned to go on a bike ride together and he is always up before me. In his perfect world, we would have left on our bike ride at 5:30 a.m. while it is still cool out. In MY perfect world, we'd lazily sleep in until 9 or 10, then head out in perfectly cool weather to enjoy our ride. His perfect world coincides with reality a lot more often than mine does. However, yesterday, I got lucky. It was overcast and breezy, making our late morning bike ride very pleasant. We even enjoyed some light summer rain on the return trip.
We followed the contour of the east side of the lake, passing by both American Fork and Lindon boat harbors before reaching our turn around point at the Provo boat harbor. There is a lot of farm land around the lake, so it is a very pretty ride. We ended up going 36 miles.
On our way home, Bill casually mentioned that we needed to stop by the bank, presumably to explain why he was choosing more high traffic roads. When I asked why we needed the bank on a Saturday morning, he told me that he got a phone call this morning from Visa telling us that our debit card had been compromised, unless we had purchased lunch in Great Britain that morning. Definitely not. There were a couple of other unauthorized charges, including the incorporation of a business. Weird. Bill wanted to wait until after our bike ride to tell me so it didn't ruin our ride. Probably a good idea, because I might have felt like I had to cancel the ride to deal with it. Instead, I was in a very good, relaxed mood when he told me.
Can I tell you how fun it was to go through the bank drive through on our bicycles? No, really. It was a hoot! Cars in front and behind us. I felt like one of those people. The crazy athletic healthy ones.
Anyways, there wasn't much to be done about the debit card. Other than spend the afternoon pouring over receipts and comparing them to my account online to see which ones processed before the block hit the account, and which ones were going to hit the block. Ugh. There were NINE transactions that didn't make it. Why do these things always seem to happen on the weekend that you go shopping? I called all 9 companies and explained the situation. They were all very sympathetic and appreciative of the call. Hopefully, on Monday I can get it all straightened out.
The other financial frustration came in the mail on Friday. A big fat bill from the physical therapist office for over $1,000.00. A bill that was supposed to be paid by the car insurance. So now I have to call the P/T and the insurance to get this straightened out. One more thing to deal with because someone else was a bad driver.
And all of this hits right as the Steel Days Art Show is about to kick off. I'll have to squeeze in visits to the bank and phone calls to insurance and the P/T into the small parts of my day not already taken up by set up, registration, and hanging the show.
At least it is still summer, right?
Yesterday morning, Bill woke me with breakfast in bed of eggs and orange juice. We planned to go on a bike ride together and he is always up before me. In his perfect world, we would have left on our bike ride at 5:30 a.m. while it is still cool out. In MY perfect world, we'd lazily sleep in until 9 or 10, then head out in perfectly cool weather to enjoy our ride. His perfect world coincides with reality a lot more often than mine does. However, yesterday, I got lucky. It was overcast and breezy, making our late morning bike ride very pleasant. We even enjoyed some light summer rain on the return trip.
We followed the contour of the east side of the lake, passing by both American Fork and Lindon boat harbors before reaching our turn around point at the Provo boat harbor. There is a lot of farm land around the lake, so it is a very pretty ride. We ended up going 36 miles.
On our way home, Bill casually mentioned that we needed to stop by the bank, presumably to explain why he was choosing more high traffic roads. When I asked why we needed the bank on a Saturday morning, he told me that he got a phone call this morning from Visa telling us that our debit card had been compromised, unless we had purchased lunch in Great Britain that morning. Definitely not. There were a couple of other unauthorized charges, including the incorporation of a business. Weird. Bill wanted to wait until after our bike ride to tell me so it didn't ruin our ride. Probably a good idea, because I might have felt like I had to cancel the ride to deal with it. Instead, I was in a very good, relaxed mood when he told me.
Can I tell you how fun it was to go through the bank drive through on our bicycles? No, really. It was a hoot! Cars in front and behind us. I felt like one of those people. The crazy athletic healthy ones.
Anyways, there wasn't much to be done about the debit card. Other than spend the afternoon pouring over receipts and comparing them to my account online to see which ones processed before the block hit the account, and which ones were going to hit the block. Ugh. There were NINE transactions that didn't make it. Why do these things always seem to happen on the weekend that you go shopping? I called all 9 companies and explained the situation. They were all very sympathetic and appreciative of the call. Hopefully, on Monday I can get it all straightened out.
The other financial frustration came in the mail on Friday. A big fat bill from the physical therapist office for over $1,000.00. A bill that was supposed to be paid by the car insurance. So now I have to call the P/T and the insurance to get this straightened out. One more thing to deal with because someone else was a bad driver.
And all of this hits right as the Steel Days Art Show is about to kick off. I'll have to squeeze in visits to the bank and phone calls to insurance and the P/T into the small parts of my day not already taken up by set up, registration, and hanging the show.
At least it is still summer, right?
Summer
There are two versions of me. For most of the year, I keep to a fairly strict schedule. I do my hair and makeup. I even dress well. You know, making an effort to look like a professional, grown up, well put together person. That version of me gets up to an alarm every morning, works hard all day, and falls into bed at night exhausted, but pleased with the many things that were accomplished during the day.
The other version of me only exists during the summer months. June, July, and most of August. For nearly 12 weeks each year, I transform into someone else.
In the summer, there are no alarm clocks. I will get up early if I feel like it, but most of the time, I sleep in. Before I go any farther, I feel I need to throw in a caveat... This is where I am in my life now. This has been a long time coming, however. For many years, my sleep patterns and schedules were dictated by the needs of my children. I know I have friends and family who automatically roll their eyes when I say I sleep in as late as I want to. You who are still in the young children phase are saying, "yeah, right! As if my children would LET me sleep in!"
I hear you. I have been there. Done that. And I am here now telling you that there is an end in sight! There will come a day when your children no longer jolt you awake at 6 a.m. (or earlier) by pouncing on you and asking, "what's for breakfast?" In fact, someday, your children will grumble if you dare to try and wake them before noon.
So. Back to summer!
Most summers I do have a loose resolution list. Things I hope to accomplish. One summer I stripped the paint and stain off several of the old doors in this house and re-stained, varnished, and hung them. (There are still more to do.) Another summer I sanded and painted the outside window trim and painted the exterior doors red. (Again, still more to do.) You get the picture. This year is no exception. However, this summer, my resolution list is all about me. Get in shape. Train for a triathlon. That's it... So, other than my workout(s) for the day, I have no other ambitions or goals.
Nope.
None. Nada. Zip.
I wear a lot of exercise clothes. And swim suits. And just lounge around clothes. I don't care if they match or even look attractive on me. I wear makeup about once a week, if that. More often than not, my hair is piled up on my head and clamped down with a great big claw clip, or yanked back in a pony tail. Half the time it is wet from the pool, the lake, or the shower. My summer time perfume is a combo of chlorine and sunscreen. My skin is darkening despite the 50 SPF I wear daily. My hair is bleaching out.
And I am very happy.
As I said, I have no definite schedules. I have the time to soak in all the sights, sounds, and smells of summer.
I love the sound of lawn mowers and sprinklers. The sound of a little league game at the nearby park. Children's laughter drifting through the neighborhood. The sound of a train whistle in the distance on a summer evening. I love to listen to the crickets at night.
I love the smell of fresh cut grass, chlorine from the pool, and fresh summer rain on hot pavement.
I love going to the lake and watching my son windsurf, or lounging at the pool with my daughter and catching up on all her news. I love sitting in my back yard and watching the dragonflies dance. I love falling into a trance as I watch the birch wood slowly burn to glowing embers in the fire pit. I love pondering a midnight blue sky full of stars while a gentle summer breeze caresses me.
I love that I can spend an entire afternoon buried in a book and not feel the least bit guilty about it.
No cares. No worries.
Or, at least, all cares and worries put on hold. Time seems to stand still for just a little bit and the days run together into a blaze of sunshine and glory. Just for a little while, I feel young again.
And that is a very good thing.
The other version of me only exists during the summer months. June, July, and most of August. For nearly 12 weeks each year, I transform into someone else.
In the summer, there are no alarm clocks. I will get up early if I feel like it, but most of the time, I sleep in. Before I go any farther, I feel I need to throw in a caveat... This is where I am in my life now. This has been a long time coming, however. For many years, my sleep patterns and schedules were dictated by the needs of my children. I know I have friends and family who automatically roll their eyes when I say I sleep in as late as I want to. You who are still in the young children phase are saying, "yeah, right! As if my children would LET me sleep in!"
I hear you. I have been there. Done that. And I am here now telling you that there is an end in sight! There will come a day when your children no longer jolt you awake at 6 a.m. (or earlier) by pouncing on you and asking, "what's for breakfast?" In fact, someday, your children will grumble if you dare to try and wake them before noon.
So. Back to summer!
Most summers I do have a loose resolution list. Things I hope to accomplish. One summer I stripped the paint and stain off several of the old doors in this house and re-stained, varnished, and hung them. (There are still more to do.) Another summer I sanded and painted the outside window trim and painted the exterior doors red. (Again, still more to do.) You get the picture. This year is no exception. However, this summer, my resolution list is all about me. Get in shape. Train for a triathlon. That's it... So, other than my workout(s) for the day, I have no other ambitions or goals.
Nope.
None. Nada. Zip.
I wear a lot of exercise clothes. And swim suits. And just lounge around clothes. I don't care if they match or even look attractive on me. I wear makeup about once a week, if that. More often than not, my hair is piled up on my head and clamped down with a great big claw clip, or yanked back in a pony tail. Half the time it is wet from the pool, the lake, or the shower. My summer time perfume is a combo of chlorine and sunscreen. My skin is darkening despite the 50 SPF I wear daily. My hair is bleaching out.
And I am very happy.
As I said, I have no definite schedules. I have the time to soak in all the sights, sounds, and smells of summer.
I love the sound of lawn mowers and sprinklers. The sound of a little league game at the nearby park. Children's laughter drifting through the neighborhood. The sound of a train whistle in the distance on a summer evening. I love to listen to the crickets at night.
I love the smell of fresh cut grass, chlorine from the pool, and fresh summer rain on hot pavement.
I love going to the lake and watching my son windsurf, or lounging at the pool with my daughter and catching up on all her news. I love sitting in my back yard and watching the dragonflies dance. I love falling into a trance as I watch the birch wood slowly burn to glowing embers in the fire pit. I love pondering a midnight blue sky full of stars while a gentle summer breeze caresses me.
I love that I can spend an entire afternoon buried in a book and not feel the least bit guilty about it.
No cares. No worries.
Or, at least, all cares and worries put on hold. Time seems to stand still for just a little bit and the days run together into a blaze of sunshine and glory. Just for a little while, I feel young again.
And that is a very good thing.
Windsurfing
My Dad is a sailor. All my childhood there was a sailboat in the driveway and summers on the water. As a kid, all the lines (what sailors call all those ropes on the boat) were confusing and scary to me. The fact that a sailboat tips with the wind always left me a bit unsettled, too. Once when I was a teen, Dad took my best friend, Natalie, and me out for a sail. A puff of wind got a bit too strong at just the wrong moment, tipping us a bit too much and causing water to come rushing into the cockpit on the starboard side, soaking me to my waist. Dad hollered to "get to the top!" (Meaning, climb up to the port side and add my weight to theirs in order to prevent us from capsizing) It was a stressful moment...
... it was Natalie's first and last sailing trip. She decided that sailing is just too stressful, and I tend to agree.
Except when the wind is calm. Then it is just plain boring.
At least, it was for me, the kid. I might just enjoy a calm wind sail these days.
Anyways, Dad was always trying to get one or several of his kids to come out and learn to sail with him. None of us took him up on that, and I think he was always disappointed that he didn't have anyone to share his love of sailing with.
That is, until Will came along. One summer, oh, about 4 or 5 years ago, we all went sailing with Dad during one of our family vacations to the Pacific Northwest. Will LOVED it. He was interested. He wanted to learn. We finally had another sailor in the family. I really think the Nordic blood runs strong in my red headed son. He loves to sail. He loves to ski. He loves anything to do with Norway.
Once I realized that Will wanted to learn, we started sending him up to visit his grandparents every summer in order to take sailing lessons from my Dad. I also wanted to give him a chance to know his grandparents and Nordic heritage better. I couldn't afford for all of us to go, so I just sent him. After several summers, my Dad pointed out that we should use the money it cost to send him up there to find him his own small sailboat, because he was ready. Of course, I still want to send him up there, but I think this isn't the summer for a PNW trip.
So, we've been on the lookout for a small sailboat for Will.
That is a hard thing to find in the desert.
Every time something that looks like a perfect match crops up in the classifieds, it is snapped up before we have a chance to try for it.
But then, we started to notice the windsurf boards that would crop up in the search along with the sailboats. They were much more affordable. And seemed like a potentially fun time.
This past Saturday afternoon, I stumbled across a GREAT deal. A board with complete rigging (mast, boom, sail, harness, etc.). Actually, it came with THREE sails and two harnesses. And the boom is adjustable to the sizes of all three sails. The whole package was only $100. HOLY COW! The three sails are worth more than that! So I called immediately.
The ad had only been up for 9 hours. We drove right out and bought it on the spot (after inspecting it, of course). The couple selling it were very nice and we found that we had a lot in common with them.
We didn't tell Will what we were doing. We just brought home a sailboard.
To say he was excited would be putting it mildly. He was over the moon, and that was before he realized that we bought it solely for him and that it now belonged to him, not the family. He was also more than a little nervous. I can pretty much guarantee he spent most of Saturday night on YouTube, watching every windsurfing instructional video on there. He did have the advantage of his sailing knowledge, so the terminology was an easy crossover.
We spent four hours on the lake on Sunday afternoon letting him try it out for the first time. I gave it a try, too. Man! It is hard to pull that mast up out of the water and even harder to keep your balance once you have it up! But Will has a lot of determination and by the end of the four hours he had the balance thing down and was able to hold the sail up for about a minute before dropping it again. I took him to the lake again today for a few hours, and by the end, he was able to sail it the length of the beach and even successfully tacked around 180 degrees a couple of times.
He is completely hooked. And I am very happy! The windsurf board will refine his sailing skills and help him to know the wind on a very personal level. Once we do find him a sailboat, the windsurfing experience will have been invaluable in getting him ready for big sails!
He was dismayed to find out that we wouldn't be going to the lake tomorrow. My house needs a cleaning, so I can't go. I think we'll be spending a part of the fourth out there, though. And as many summer days as he can finagle out of me, I am sure!
... it was Natalie's first and last sailing trip. She decided that sailing is just too stressful, and I tend to agree.
Except when the wind is calm. Then it is just plain boring.
At least, it was for me, the kid. I might just enjoy a calm wind sail these days.
Anyways, Dad was always trying to get one or several of his kids to come out and learn to sail with him. None of us took him up on that, and I think he was always disappointed that he didn't have anyone to share his love of sailing with.
That is, until Will came along. One summer, oh, about 4 or 5 years ago, we all went sailing with Dad during one of our family vacations to the Pacific Northwest. Will LOVED it. He was interested. He wanted to learn. We finally had another sailor in the family. I really think the Nordic blood runs strong in my red headed son. He loves to sail. He loves to ski. He loves anything to do with Norway.
Once I realized that Will wanted to learn, we started sending him up to visit his grandparents every summer in order to take sailing lessons from my Dad. I also wanted to give him a chance to know his grandparents and Nordic heritage better. I couldn't afford for all of us to go, so I just sent him. After several summers, my Dad pointed out that we should use the money it cost to send him up there to find him his own small sailboat, because he was ready. Of course, I still want to send him up there, but I think this isn't the summer for a PNW trip.
So, we've been on the lookout for a small sailboat for Will.
That is a hard thing to find in the desert.
Every time something that looks like a perfect match crops up in the classifieds, it is snapped up before we have a chance to try for it.
But then, we started to notice the windsurf boards that would crop up in the search along with the sailboats. They were much more affordable. And seemed like a potentially fun time.
This past Saturday afternoon, I stumbled across a GREAT deal. A board with complete rigging (mast, boom, sail, harness, etc.). Actually, it came with THREE sails and two harnesses. And the boom is adjustable to the sizes of all three sails. The whole package was only $100. HOLY COW! The three sails are worth more than that! So I called immediately.
The ad had only been up for 9 hours. We drove right out and bought it on the spot (after inspecting it, of course). The couple selling it were very nice and we found that we had a lot in common with them.
We didn't tell Will what we were doing. We just brought home a sailboard.
To say he was excited would be putting it mildly. He was over the moon, and that was before he realized that we bought it solely for him and that it now belonged to him, not the family. He was also more than a little nervous. I can pretty much guarantee he spent most of Saturday night on YouTube, watching every windsurfing instructional video on there. He did have the advantage of his sailing knowledge, so the terminology was an easy crossover.
We spent four hours on the lake on Sunday afternoon letting him try it out for the first time. I gave it a try, too. Man! It is hard to pull that mast up out of the water and even harder to keep your balance once you have it up! But Will has a lot of determination and by the end of the four hours he had the balance thing down and was able to hold the sail up for about a minute before dropping it again. I took him to the lake again today for a few hours, and by the end, he was able to sail it the length of the beach and even successfully tacked around 180 degrees a couple of times.
He is completely hooked. And I am very happy! The windsurf board will refine his sailing skills and help him to know the wind on a very personal level. Once we do find him a sailboat, the windsurfing experience will have been invaluable in getting him ready for big sails!
He was dismayed to find out that we wouldn't be going to the lake tomorrow. My house needs a cleaning, so I can't go. I think we'll be spending a part of the fourth out there, though. And as many summer days as he can finagle out of me, I am sure!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)