So it's three weeks into the New Year and it no longer feels new. Weeks are flying by!
In brief - training is good; a little off my (kayak) mileage this week due to weather and ice last week, and voluminous volumes of voracious work. On the other hand, I skied 10 - 15 km skate with the middle schoolers Sunday (teacupnordic.org) and felt great!
Bigger news - went paddling with Ginni, Steve and Cindy last week, just a couple days before Ginni heads off to The Baja. Why news? Because Ginni, who's my age - in other words, primed with life, get-outta-my-way-attitude, and can-do-itis - had a bout with breast cancer between Thanksgiving and Xmas. She's shared her experiences in her blog, kayaktravel.blogspot.com. As usual when cancer comes home to the family, it wakes one up a little; so I thought maybe we could do something about it as part of the attention drawn to this expedition. (Gets the focus off us a little too, which I find appealing - and I'm sure she finds obnoxious.)
Ginni has paddled in the UK with Nigel Dennis, Justine Curgenven (making it into This Is The Sea I), and my cohort Keirron Tastagh; she's a 5-Star paddler, excellent coach, and generally makes an impression.
I sent one email to Keirron and bam - like clicking the color-changer in an online auto-shopping website - our boat went safety orange or yum-yum yellow - to pink. Susan G. Komen pink.
Look for more soon - for now, if you know Ginni personally, please consider a donation in any amount to her directly using the Paypal account I set up here. If you don't know Ginni, or want to spread your generosity a little wider, please read the Komen Donation pages.
And, finally, the part of that brief tour from Cathlamet I'm de-emphasizing, I'll share Steve's "can't resist" post to Paddling.net:
Ginni and I had swapped back paddles (I was checking out her new, heavy fleet Werner in exchange for my Epic wing), and were floating there, chatting about water quality, testing, and potential links to health. I put in a little rudder stroke to slow my drift - and got a sudden, cold reminder about water quality right up my nose. Tripped over the wing! Rolled up, yes, but had quite a shock -- since I generally paddle for fitness, a mellow afternoon paddle apparently breaks my concentration, which was needed apparently more than I realized to that point.
Keeping the levity (and considering thicker fleece next time I'm on the Columbia) is what I'm all about.
Thanks for reading,
Jeff
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