It’s been that sort of week eh? Seems everyone is in rush mode right now. Of course right when you need to fly at a million miles an hour something else falls apart. It’s life. Glorious and full of adventure! But on the other hand it can be a right pain in the a** as well!

Well, I can’t fixed it or slow time. . so the best I can do at the moment is this sad little digital rose. I cropped it just for you!

It’s a good thing to know that while we’re all getting a bit edgy and frustrated, Andrew is still out there getting kicked around a very turbulent sea and still moving toward his goal. I’ll be thinking of that when the heat is on.

* new post on the CTA blog

I woke up this morning to one of those bone chilling colds that no number of blankets can hold back. Lying there in the dark and deeply frozen I was dreaming of ghosts. I may tell you more about that later in the week. But for the moment, we have this other sleek white wraith tearing up the seas. . . Of course this is Aled Williams of Rockpool Kayaks test paddling the new “Underground” we’ve been hearing a lot about lately. Justine Curgenven was on hand to film the madness and has posted the new clip here and written about it as well on her blog so check it out. Nothing like putting a Greenland design through the British kayak paces. And of course as all you traditional paddlers know, the Greenland design does just fine.

Out of the corner of my eye I keep seeing a flicker of white. . . an apparition!??

* screen clip courtesy of Justine Curgenven. Thank you!

Have you ever noticed how tough people can be? It’s inspiring. All you need do is follow along with the seemingly regular, (at least recently) mountain lion attacks on the west coast. I can’t believe how hard these guys are fighting and in the end, most getting away with years of surgeries ahead. Those experiences always remind me that when it comes to that moment, when “flight” is not an option you fight or surrender. Something I think we practice every day but in such tiny ways we may never notice. In the end though I think the practice pays off when it has to.

Speaking of tough it’s nice to see Andrew McAuley’s little red blip has moved past the halfway mark. I’m sure you’ve been following along so I won’t repeat his wife’s reports here. Amazing guy. I smile every time I think about how he solved the problem from last time and went right back at it. No quit. I can only dream of being that tough.

On element of being tough is determination. Hanging in there when something seems impossible or for the lack of a better word, “tough”. I’ve had the honor of watching our CTA Research Goddess (and I hear possibly land support. .) Nydia Kien as she’s worked her way back into sea kayaking over the last couple years. She is now an instructor at Rutabaga in Madison. I’ve not sat in on one her classes yet but imagine she has to be a good instructor. People are when they remember they are just people and not “Copper Gods in Raybans”. Nydia has her feet well on the ground. So the last 3 weeks she’s been making pilgrimages over to Baraboo for some rolling assistance. When someone repeatedly drives 2 hours each way just to have you work with them it’s a humbling experience. Especially after last week when she drove through a snow storm only to get her and have the pool closed!! Yikes. Hopefully yesterday was worth the drive. We’re soooo close!!!

oh, yeah and I forgot to add while Nydia was taking a break I finally got my first offside hand rolls. Yippie!!

Regardless of what you may have heard, you don’t need a kayak to practice your kayak skills. You may have heard rumors of me standing on the shore of lakes having students stirring water with their paddles. This is true by the way and I find it does wonders to help student understand how their blades move through the water. Sometimes there is a method to my madness. . . Really. I’m always looking for new ways to help students isolate skills so they can focus on one thing without the added noise of worrying about going over, or keeping their boats in one spot or all the other little bits that can often be a distraction.

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Well, we’ve spent a good amount of time on the tropics this last week. Hey, anything to brighten up our deep winter moods. Of course my brain is immersed in the tropics as it is right now. I’ve posted a new entry on the “Chasing The Ana” blog about that. Of course here I am planning a trip to Puerto Rico for August!?? I must be bloody stupid!

So while Puerto Rico is my summer goal, Belize has become my winter fantasy. Less planning for a fantasy you know. You can just “be there”. No plane tickets, no boats to ship. No hotels to pay for. You just arrive, right there, under those palms, and already happily toxic without touching a drop! No hangovers, no sun burns, jelly fish stings. Perfect.

Today, on my not so real, but almost sort of real vacation to Belize I walked out onto this long pier with a little white shack planted right on the end of it. Painted in vertical letters along it’s side were the words, “Gift Shop” and below that horizontally it said “Dive Center”. While my mind was trying to contemplate why you would put a Gift shop and Dive Center in a hut on the end of a pier, the momentary distraction caused me to catch a sandal in one of the boards beneath my feet.

I woke up sometime later back in the hotel room (and I said fantasy had no hotels). At the same moment I realized I was in the hotel, I was slammed by a pounding headache. I crunched my eyes closed and cursed. Then I remembered the fall. I reached up to touch the massive lump on my forehead and was met with more pain. This was worse than a hangover! I forced my eyes open just a bit and though my watering eyes saw a note lying under the lamp beside the table. Slowly I reached out to grab it and hold it in front of my eyes. Each movement causing a new pain. I tried to wipe my eyes clear as I read: “Hey, hope you’re feeling ok. You were out a long time and I got board. Went out for a bit. You’ve got my cell. . .”

“Great” I thought. Here I am dying of massive head injuries and she’s out dancing!! “Great! Just bloody Great!!” I repeated in my mind and rolled over on the hard hotel mattress. “Ouch!!”, I must have bruised a rib as well” I thought, “Great, just great!!”.

And that’s the thing about my fantasies. . . I usually end up bruising a rib.

And with that thought I’m off to the pool. . .

* Today’s picture of Belize from here.

My hands are about 8 inches long wrist to finger tip and a bit over 3 1/2 inches wide. My index finger is just under 4 inches. There’s nothing particularly wrong with my hands. I have a scare on one thumb from where it deflected and errant knife, but other than that they seem like fine hands. Their flexible and strong. They’re certainly not a workman’s hands. Sure I’ve pounded my share of fence posts but the scars and slivers soon went. I suppose I’m lucky that the skin is still smooth and pliable. The tips of my fingers are still a bit callous from years of playing guitar but I’d never notice other than I can do a fun party trick with a lighter. My nail beds are a bit deep from years of chewing away when back when my nerves were a bit frayed, a habit I return to now and again. But then our hands in many ways are our physical connection with the outside world. Touch after all, is the foundation of sensuality and connection. It’s good to have hands. Great to have hands. Flippin’ fantastic to have them in fact.

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So while I’ve been buried under the cold, white winter, it seems just to rub it in, I can’t stop seeing green! Canoe and Kayak Magazine’s new issue is on recycled paper. In fact the whole issue has gone green in some sort or another. The folks at Canoecopia have worked out this thing with the Chicago Climate Exchange to trade off the amount of Green House Gas emissions they use to put on the show. And of course there’s my personal hero Justine Curgenven taking suggestions on her blog for more ecologically responsible packaging. Now if that all were not enough to start turning my skin green, my new friend in Puerto Rico put up a whole bunch of pictures from the beaches around the island just to give me a taste of what we had to look forward to on our “Chasing The Ana” trip in August. . . I’m sure she meant well. .

So all this Greengage had me a bit flustered. I suddenly found myself considering running to Wal-mart to buy miles of extension cord. I couldn’t imagine it would take more than a week to melt all the snow in my yard with a blow drier. But that sure seemed like a lot of work. Especially when the grass would all be brown anyway.

Lastly I thought I would just drop everything I was doing and book an emergency flight to Belize. I’d find a special palm on a beach somewhere and just sit. There I’d be just sitting on a beach with white sand sneaking between my toes. I’d stare out into the deep blue sea while drinking cheap wine right from the bottle and daydream about a beach scene in “From Here To Eternity” (the 1953 version of course). There was only one problem with that plan. . .

I couldn’t find a guide. . .

images under license of the creative commons