Phew

What a summer! I haven't posted on here for several weeks now. Apologies to my small band of regular readers who have noticed my absence and much appreciation for your kind comments. Normal service will be resumed very soon now.

My only excuses for failing to keep up my regular reports on my sailing activity are old age and exhaustion.

I've been teaching a kids sailing program 4 days a week. The kids are great (well, most of them are) and I end up giving up 110% effort to ensure that they have a good time and to help them to learn our wonderful life-long sport. Doing that through long hot humid summer days is draining enough. After a day at the yacht club I am ready to come home, chill out, enjoy a cold beer and go to sleep watching the Yankees game. Teachers deserve every cent they earn.

On top of that I am well into my marathon training program. Up to 14 miles in one run now. I do some of my runs before going to the yacht club but try to do the longer ones on my off days. Last Saturday was brutally hot so I drove up to one of my favorite trails through the woods in the hills above the town, hoping for some relative cool. Can't say it really helped a lot. As I jogged and sweated and dripped round a lake on the trail I passed an elderly couple sitting by the lake. "It's too hot to run," said the husband. "You are absolutely right," I replied. Am I nuts? Probably.

Then I've been doing my own sailing. Most Sundays I've been racing in the new Laser fleet I started at my sailing club (a different club from where I teach). We are doing well -- achieved the highest turnout of any fleet at the club for 9 years the other weekend. Plus I've been to the occasional regatta. Anyone following the continuing saga of the Laser Grandmaster rerun of the Battle of Trafalgar will be pleased to hear that I swept the series by winning my age group at the Atlantic Coast Masters against a rapidly fading challenge from my Gallic friend.

So I've been just too exhausted to write here. Perhaps as much mental exhaustion as physical tiredness.

But now the summer is winding down. One more week of the kids program. The heat is cooling off. Only in the 80s this week. Feels so much better. And there's been so much bloggable stuff happening over the summer that I have plenty to write about. If only my aging brain can remember it all.

I'm back.