Suddenly,
everything is different

It started the other evening when I gave a talk on getting started in kayaking. Actually, it began a bit before that as I loaded selected items into the Blazer, items to help illustrate the talk. Yes, there was a dry suit, but there was also a Farmer John and paddling tops. You know, stuff you don't wear when paddling in the arctic.

Then there were the folks. No one was there up to 10 minutes before the talk. Then, they just appeared, all different, all with different and equally good questions. Suddenly, I was talking about paddling and showing pics of kayaks on a "warm" Lake Michigan. The juices flowed.

[I digress: having lived with a wife for over 30 years and a good part of that with two daughters, I love to teach because people actually listen to me...back to the subject at hand.]

This weekend I will be on the water, and I have already gotten my first teaching assignment at Rutabaga in Madison. I will be going over to Michigan with Derrick to staff a symposium. I will be heading north with JB to staff two happenings one of which will include an instructor's clinic with Nigel Dennis. To put the cherry on the top, I have a job teaching nursing level students two courses, and the college is letting me do it all in one day a week. Sweat.

I have to say, with the unusual ice conditions keeping me ashore and the long hours-in-the-chair doing class work, this winter has aged me. I don't like the way I have been feeling, i.e., old. Yes, I know I am, in fact, older than most (usually all) of the folks with whom I paddle, but denial is a great art form. I have been fatigued and stiff, and I need to get my butt back in the boat.

Well, winter is more or less over, and everything is different. Let's hit the water.

Paddle safe...
DS