I am, um, Sparta?

I know. I dropped off the face of the Earth. But I'm back, now, with stories to tell!
I've been working on books, books and more books. I've been gardening. I've been reading. I've been cooking. And, I've begun training.
We're talking some seriously wussy training, here. What am I training for? The Washougal Spartan Race. We just had one, and my friend J. has talked me and my DH into going for it next year.
So what's a Spartan Race? It's a medium (3-6 mile, depending on the course) length run sprinkled liberally with obstacles like a transverse wall, a rope to climb where you have to ring the bell at the top, moats, crawls under barbed wire over a steep, muddy hill, and so on. The idea is to crush the spirit challenge the participants to the limit, and the main goal is to finish the race, although there are folks who are super serious about this and race to win. Those people are in crazy-awesome shape. They are the cross fittest of the fit.
That would not be me. Hence, my training in a pitiful way, though I intend to increase the difficulty of my training days as the year wears on.
My training-thing for today was walking a few miles (I really don't know how many. Let's call it some miles) up a hill to scope out potential trails upon which to train. There's water, steep climb/crawls, bridges, and all kinds of other things where I can attempt to prepare myself for a race that can take up to two hours (or more) to complete. Best time on a recent course in Washougal: 35 minutes.
I've also trotted a few hundred yards through knee-deep water, and I'm taking my attempted chin-ups more seriously.
363 days to go.
I'm so doomed. But it'll be fun!

Things that go bump

It took me several hours, but I finally developed a raw document that will eventually be shaped into what I hope will be a decent resume.  Yep, that time in my life has come again where I'll be looking for work.  I don't know what yet, but I'll know it when I see it, or maybe they'll know me when they see me.  

In the meantime, I'll be writing as per usual.  

Settling back into home life has been weird.  Even though I was in Ireland only a short time, I think because it was so intense and there's so much going on with family and the future, I won't settle back to 'normal'.  Developing the new normal will be interesting.  I remember when I was working part time at the crazy fun place, establishing a new routine helped me step up, and then when I actually achieved routine, my productivity overall sank a bit.  I think this will be the same thing again.  I'll step up to meet the challenges, and as soon as things are settled (aka, in a rut) I'll start missing those opportunities to write for fifteen minutes here or read for a half hour there and I might only glance idly at the latest community college classes.  

That right there is a good reason to stir things up every once in a while.  I think right now most of the country is stirred up, due to the change in presidency, and the economy, and everything.  If the country is anything like me, that could be a good thing.

In the meantime, it can be stressful.  Thankfully, every time I sit down, Carey finds me and sits in my lap.  I think she missed us while we were away.

Good luck job hunting to all of us!

Flash! Bang!

First, a reminder to read Flash Fiction Online.  The new edition is out, and there's a great article by Bruce Holland Rogers.  It's the first of a series, and I can't wait for the next installment.  He has a livejournal you can link to from the wikipedia article.  No excuses, people.  Writers have got to read, and reading a flash is going to take less time than it will to go to the fridge, figure out what you want to eat, and bring it back to the computer.  

Argh!  We're under attack!  Please stand by ...

Yes, we finally reached the day when we went on our battle cruise on the glorious Lady Washington with the graceful Hawaiian Chieftain.  

I wish I had a deeper way than photographs and movies to record what we experienced.  Oh, wait, hey, I'm a writer!  Woot!  

I'd say it fulfilled a lifelong dream, but since I never imagined it would be possible to sail on a ship with cannons firing, well, I guess I can say it fulfilled a lifelong dream I never knew I could have.  

See the sail folded up neatly along the mast and angling into the boom below the sailors in the rigging?  That's the spanker (first definition on the link), and my job was to manage the brails--the lines that keep the spanker out of the wind until it's needed. Ten people to a side are ideal to manage the brails when we're hauling it in, about half that when we haul it back out again.   During the battle we hauled that baby out and tucked her back tight several times.  Sometimes the spanker sail helped, and sometimes it actually slowed us down depending on the situation with the tight, variable conditions on the river.  The captain made the call, and we'd haul the outhaul or haul the brails.  I had to sling my camera back right quick every time I heard the captain say spanker.  In a different context, I guess that could be considered kinky ...

When they asked for volunteers I thought for certain that every passenger on board would leap up and cry me me me!  But only about a baker's dozen of us, almost a quarter of them kids, ran back to help.  I got to manage the brails on the port side, but then I lost my job to Brandon for a while when he asked if he could take my place.  Later he got promoted to the helm and, with a whole bunch of other kids, ran the rudder back and forth at the captain's command, so I got the brails again.  Yay brails!

It got cold, but we didn't have rain so it wasn't miserable by any means.  The capricious winds made for an interesting fight.  The Lady Washington is amazingly nimble, and I mean really incredible. 

The crew was very welcoming, informative, and patient with their guests.  I highly recommend touring the ship, sailing with it on a sunset or battle sail if you can, or best of all (a personal goal of mine) signing up for one of the family adventures they offer in the San Juan islands.  I probably won't go this year (watch me change my mind as longing for sailing and the sea keep eating at me) but next year I hope to be a passenger on their nature and historic tour of beautiful coastal Washington State.  They do it right.  

BTW, the kid in the lifeguard shirt?  Yep, that's Brandon at the brails.  He was a real shark for the fun posts.  I wonder if he'll become a sailor one day.  I know someday when I grow up, I'd like to be a sailor, even if it's on a wee river sailboat, lazy rigged so I can run her all by my lonely if I have to.  Judging by how the family reacted to the experience, though, I won't be alone unless I beg for it.