Well, I just completed my first half-marathon: the Eastern Oregon Half in Spray Oregon. My time was 2 hours and 12 minutes, and I finished with some kind of injury to my middle toe that no one seems to have ever seen before. I hurt it two and half weeks ago and stopped running in the meantime in the hope it would heal, but it came back while I ( Read more... )

Today I ran the Cherry Festival 10K--6.2 miles over some pretty good hills. I came in at 52:47, which is an 8:31 pace, not bad for the first 10K I have run in 19 years, and more or less what I wanted to do. If I could keep that pace up through an entire marathon, I would qualify for the Boston Marathon, and that is a worthy goal to shoot for ( Read more... )

Today, Wasco County held its first hearing on whether to adopt a nondiscrimination ordinance. About 24 people spoke in favor, and two spoke against. Here is what I said ( Read more... )

Yesterday, I broke my records for running as an adult. In other words, not counting my teen years, I have never run this fast ( Read more... )

Do you live in a place that has intermittent streams? Some places have them and some don't, depending on the climate. This is the first place I have ever lived that has a lot of them. Even major waterways in my territory, they start out strong at their birthplace, burbling happily downstream to their destination, but then they weaken and die ( Read more... )

Check out the new wheels! It's a Townie 21.

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Yesterday, I was folding clothes from the laundry and I found a bunch of seine twine in a pocket. YAY! I made a new Turk's Head. YAY!

I feel better now.

I believe I am planning on coming back to the Lady next summer, but this time for about two months, instead of two weeks.

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Friar wrote down these lyrics for me, along with the chord changes. Yesterday, I ordered a book of sea shanties from the internet. It is my intention to learn lots of them before the next time I sail with the Lady ( Read more... )

Well, it was great to get away for two weeks, but it sucks to be back.

Standing on the dock watching the Lady leave me behind made me cry.

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We left La Conner at 1PM on the 22nd. As soon as we were clear of the Swinomish Channel, Esther and Friar and several other crewmembers went aloft to begin putting our masts back up. We had the main mast back up by the time we reached Cornet Bay. I worked on bending the sails onto the yards. I learned to splice line and put the sails on and the ( Read more... )