Laid Back Sunday

          It is a laid back morning. Fall is truly in the air now with brisk cool temperatures. My sweatpants will soon be getting a work out. Stumpy is staying in the house more now. I was worried about his appetite. He has been turning away from his wet food which is the mainstay of his diet. I have to feed him in a special way. He gets thyroid medicine every 12 hours. I mix this up in his wet food… just a tiny bit of food at first so I know he takes it. Then I’ll fill up his plate when it is gone. Things seem to be on the upswing as he had two full bowls of food this morning and is now sleeping it off. Cats always sleep well on full bellies!

My Stumpy. The stories behind the items in view from the blankets, fan, Utilikilt and San Francisco fire hydrant could take up reams of paper to explain!

I’ll be working in the yard today. The steady rain we enjoyed yesterday will have softened up the ground to make it easy to weed. There are spent plants that need to be pulled up and the post hole digger should make easy work for the holes I need to dig to get the whistle signs installed into the ground.

The Lantana in my backyard is a favourite with the migrating butterflies. They are covering those bushy plants daily. I’m hoping to plant milkweed for the Monarchs next spring. They are so endangered. There are still a few hummingbirds at the feeder. It does me good to see such life in my little backyard.

Cleaning the leaves off the back patio I found a piece of cement I knew was in the back someplace. When I put my first patios in I did not have the luxury of a brick saw. To get the bricks to even out I ended up with fairly large mortar joints. Daggy was “helping” one afternoon and we played “Grauman’s Chinese Theatre” where I had her step into wet mortar mix. I tore this early patio up in the spring and replaced the plain soft bricks with fancy Nelsonville Star Sidewalk brick. I was able to salvage this pawprint of Daggy from that early installation. The piece of marble is a remnant from Billys bar installation. That marble originally saw use in the Victor Talking Machine Company. The electrical components for the original fire alarm system were mounted to marble. Billy salvaged and sold off that old system in the 1970’s. At the time nobody wanted the marble so it moved with him. I’m going to have Dagney’s name engraved upon it and fix up a little memorial. Just another example of the stories connected to my life….

My computer speakers have been acting up. They keep going into sleep mode. Troubleshooting that problem I realized the right speaker is not functioning. It seems to be some kind of connection problem in the sub woofer at the input plug. The lines are clear and both speakers are functioning. I hope it is nothing serious. I do have an extra set of speakers, but they are nowhere near the quality of the system I’m using. My set up is an ancient Boston Acoustics ensemble that came with my first Gateway computer in 1998. At that time it was top of the line.

How I wish that were the only aggravation in my life. There is so much dissention and drama happening at the rowing club. We had a board meeting at my house last Thursday and have another meeting scheduled for Wednesday. A general membership meeting is to be held next Sunday afternoon at 4:00. It is always the same personalities that stir everything up. My rowing peep Mark summed it up in an E-mail to the club:

As an aside:  All rowing clubs that I have been involved with have had one thing in common:  Individually, they are very nice people, but even though they claim to be laid-back and relaxed; as a group they are an uptight bunch.  There are no exceptions to this rule (whether it is the early hours, inability to keep a boat on keel, or fear of breaking very expensive equipment…I don’t know [maybe the common denominator is me?]).  I’m going to steal anyother group’s vernacular…"Rule #62:  Don’t take yourself so damn seriously."  I am not seen as a fun, laid-back or easy-going person (regarless of what my mother used to tell me).  But, most of the people that I get to row with are.  Let’s get back to being an organization that has fun doing something we all like to do, without all the petty nonsense that has been taking hold of our club (Cheezy?  Yes!)

I answe

red him back:

I really appreciate the last paragraph of your mail. It is so true and insightful.  When it comes to the boats I’m so anal, possessive, and uptight over the damage that can happen to them. I try to not let it show through…but….this morning was a perfect example. Normally it takes a LOT to get me as flustered as I can get in the boats over something trivial…be it equipment or trying to cox/coach a non responsive rower…. 

I’ve been in contact with past officers to try and piece together and document the core of our current problems which surfaced back in January 2010 with some behind the scenes manipulations. I have a number of E-mails in regards to this, but they get personal and I don’t want to draw attention to anyone.

As much as I love sweep rowing, this might be the straw that breaks this camels back and forces a retirement from the club.

Enough…I need to get into some sweats and get to work in the yard. Think I’ll put on a another pot of coffee first…..everything is better with coffee.