Catching Up

Warning : Those looking for sailing content will probably be disappointed. There is very little sailing content here.

When I last wrote, I had just returned from Whidbey Island Race Week.

The next day I got up early(tired) and met my friend Jim to go to the drag races at Pacific Raceways in Kent. It was a hot day and the sun beat down. More than watching the races, the pits are open and the vendors have booths displaying their merchandise. I was a bit disappointed in the quality of the racing in the Top Fuel Dragster and Top Fuel Funny car classes. The quantity of cars was down(could be the economy) but it also seemed that a lot of cars had trouble pulling off a complete run. The first two dragsters did not even get off the line without launching their chutes. Strange.

Most of last week I was pretty lazy. I felt tired and weak and the weather was cold and overcast. I finally spent part of a day cleaning the motorcycle of all the bug splatter and another part of a day rebuilding the drive train of one of my bicycles. After working on the bicycle, I decided that I should ride some. So for the last three days I rode for about 22 miles each day. It was very hot yesterday and today.

A side benefit of feeling tired this week was that I got to fulfill one of my retirement goals. I got to stay home and watch the Tour de France bicycle race coverage. It was pretty exciting and the outcome was not determined until the climb of Mont Ventoux yesterday. I would rise each morning very early and catch the first coverage of the day live.

Also this week I spent some time planning out some excursions. A short list follows:

Climb Mt Rainer to Camp Muir(10000 feet)(maybe late this week)
Climb Mt St Helens
Climb Mt Ellinor
Hike Mt Jupiter
Hike the High Divide in the Olympics
Travel to Stehekin(far end of Lake Chelan) and camp and mountain bike

I also have two sailboat races in August. The most notable is the Vashon Challenge, a single handed/double handed race around Vashon Island.

Also in my plans may be another motorcycle ride to Eastern Washington over Chinook Pass and the Old Blewett Pass highway.

I have been planning a cruise this fall and then got word that the chief Handicapper has called for a meeting around the later part of September at a club up north. At first I was bummed that it might not fit into my plans. But then I thought, "the club has reciprocal moorage. Why not go on the cruise and fit the meeting in as one of my stops?" So I can probably pull that off.

Now I have to figure out if I can fit in a SW United States road trip yet this year.

I have not figured out this retirement thing yet. I still feel uncomfortable about wasting so much time and yet when I start travelling and planning for trips, I start thinking that I don't have enough time. I still have yard work and boat work to do before the weather turns this fall. I sure don't feel like working in the yard or on the boat when it is so hot.

One of the top fuel funny cars performing a burn out to clean and warm up the slicks(may be Ashley Force).
Another burn out.

John Force, 60 years old and still racing and winning in top fuel funny cars.

With the hot weather, the yard has turned into a beautiful golden brown that does not need mowing. Do need to kill the weeds.