Weather You Like It or Not

Couple of crazy days of weather out here.

On Tuesday I finally started to feel like a real human again after a really bad couple of days being sick. It was a nice dry, sunny day, probably in the 90s, and I lay out by the pool and swam some, which was refreshing and added to my feelings of revitalization post-catatonia. The sun and dry heat was replaced with dark clouds and thunder showers the next morning. We went out on the water through intermittent rain and thunder, waiting and staying out until we saw lightning. The lightning came partway through practice, so we hightailed it to the dock, with lightning striking almost directly overhead as we went in. That was the end of rowing for the day, and we went back to the hotel for long naps before a barbecue for everyone at the Dwyers’ house. The barbecue was fun, an amalgam of mens’ and womens’ teams, with Brian Volpenhein cooking up a feast for everyone. He made everything from scratch, ranging from gourmet macaroni and cheese to hand-made brats, which were probably the best sausages I’ve ever tasted. The rain came and came, seeming to only gain strength with time, and eventually everyone gave in to the weather and jumped in the pool. That got cold, so we dried off and came home. Today, the weather threw another curve ball and hit us with some of the densest fog I’ve seen. We still went out on the water, struggling to see boats in the lane next to us, but doing some 45 stroke pieces with the senior team. The pieces went fairly well, we’re still locking down our stroke but things aren’t going badly. Definite progress all the time, we’re just looking for those last few percentage points that will make the difference. After practice, the fog started to burn off and all of a sudden it was in the high 80s again. Magical.

I think everyone’s getting pretty excited to leave, though the weather is a factor in our minds for the trip too, as it is supposed to be very different from what we’ve had all summer. Calm heat will probably be replaced by cold, rain, and wind in Scotland. I have some longer clothes, luckily, but a lot of people are worried as they only really have summer clothes. Last year we got some nice JL longsleeve rowing shirts, but this year the gear package was a little more modest and some people are lamenting the absence of warmer rowing kit. I’m sure there will be some rowing clothes stands there, but that will probably be pretty pricey… perhaps we’ll follow the girls’ team’s lead and go to a sports store here and get some longsleeves.

That’s pretty much all that’s goin on… we’ve been told we can reroute our return flight once we get to Scotland, so I might be able to fly directly home (well, probably not direct, but at least not stopping back on the east coast) and get there closer to when my dad gets home. Then the big question is what I do once I’m home… I want to go down to Woodside for a bit before the looming Florence trip makes it infinitely more difficult to see Caroline. There’s also talk of the possibility of training in Princeton, but I’m not sure the legitimacy/desirability of that option at this moment. Primetime for me would be going home, getting some time to decompress, getting a job that’s interesting and fun (read: coaching), and getting to mellow out in the NW for a while. How it will all fit together will have to wait to be seen; as has been the norm for the past few months, I just have to take it step by step and see what options open up with each progression. T-Minus 2 days until we leave… crazy that it’s actually here, the days have all blended together and flown by in this monotonous lifestyle, and now the wish that was so far off this spring (I didn’t think I was going to get invited, let alone make the boat…) is upon us.