Counting Down

I have a friend who is always counting down. She has count down calendars for everything including, I think, her retirement which is still a few years away.

As a general rule I don’t count down. It isn’t usually productive for me and often serves to reinforce just how much longer I have to go making me that much more depressed. So, I am not counting down to retirement. At least not actively. As of this writing it is a little over 10 months away. That’s as close to a count down as I am getting right now. A lot can happen in 10 months, including a shortening or even lengthening of this timeline. So, not counting down.

I am, however, counting toward other goals. 

After each rowing session I estimate how many more sessions I will need to get to 600,000, 750,000 and 1,000,000 meters. As of today the counts stand at 2, 23 and 59.  All of these counts will shrink as I get closer and … might even shrink more than one session at a time depending on how many meters I row each class. (Counts estimated based on a minimum of 7,000 meters per class.)

I am also kind of, sort of, counting down (up) to my 500th class at Bar Method Noho. For all the years I have been doing Bar Method, this is the closest I have come to 500 classes at a single studio. My count as of today is 431. A rough, in my head, calculation has me taking my 500th class sometime this summer.

These are positive goals. They are measuring my pleasure. My strength. My aspirations. They are goals that can be reached sooner rather than later and can be sped up if I so desire.

Here’s to counting the positive and (trying to) ignoring the negative.

Now to accomplish some sewing goals!

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

gently across the Hudson River!Early this morning, Mike and Squidette rode to the Village Community boathouse on Pier 40 to take a day long coxswain certification course. They have both been involved with the Stuyvesant H.S. rowing club -- Mike as a faculty adviser and Squidette as a novice club member. Today was the day that they got certified to Cox a boat on their own. That means that both of them can essential captain one of these craft.

These craft are 25" Whitehall Skiffs which are crewed by 4 rowers and a coxswain. They are, according to Mike, capable of going about 3 knots. No, I really do not understand what I just typed but know it has something to do with speed.

Not-So-Little (aka Preteen) Squid and I went out on a public row while Mike and Squidette split their time between the water and the classroom as they earned their certifications.

It was a lot of fun and I learned the following:

• Even the best sunblock, properly applied, cannot combat 3 hours on the water at midday.
• I have no padding on my sitbones.
• My biking callouses are mostly sufficient for rowing -- I only have one blister on my right hand and none on my left.
• The Hudson River really is salty!

None of us are seriously sunburned -- just some light redness, so no real worries there.

We all had fun and are all now pretty tired. I fully expect Preteen Squid to fall asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow despite his being rather perky right now.

This may turn into a weekly activity once school ends.