After checking out of the rental house in Dunellon last Sunday, I drove a couple of hours south to Tampa, where I visited my friend Jonathan who moved there from Memphis last summer. Jonathan has taken up sailing and we hoped to get out on his boat, but the weather didn't cooperate. We had a good visit just the same.
I began the trip home Tuesday morning. As I departed the Tampa Bay area, violent thunderstorms were moving across Alabama and into the Florida panhandle. By the time I had turned west on Interstate 10, the wind was making driving difficult: I was afraid my boat would blow off the car and take the roof racks and bicycle with it. So I got off at an exit and waited for the worst of the storm to pass through. Having checked the radar that morning, I knew the squall line was narrow and wouldn't stick around for long, but I also knew it would be accompanied by heavy rain and stronger winds. It didn't disappoint. Once I was back on the road moving west toward Tallahassee, I saw two overturned semi trucks and quite a few billboards whose ads had been torn off.
I spent Tuesday night in central Alabama, and arrived home a little after noon on Wednesday. I found myself dealing with a ceiling-high stack of chores that had accumulated while I was away. On Thursday morning I was feeling swamped with work, not to mention tired from my travels, and going out paddling was the last thing I felt like doing. But the weather outside was lovely, and a look at the forecast revealed that Thursday would be the last pleasant day for quite a while. So I dragged myself down to the riverfront for a 60-minute paddle in the harbor.
I sprayed some protectant wax in my seat bucket to provide some lubrication for my hip rotation, and off I went. I tried hard to use my legs to generate the rotation, and I felt about as awkward as I'd felt down in Florida. I also felt slow. It was somewhat breezy and hard to get an accurate idea of how fast I should be moving the boat, and I also had a feeling I shouldn't even worry about speed while making a technical adjustment. But it was hard not to notice that my speed was down a bit.
By the time I finished I was glad I'd paddled just the same. I think by encouraging my body to relax, I also relaxed my brain a bit and felt less stressed over all the things I have to do.
Heavy rain moved across the area Friday, and strong wind came behind that front bringing colder air with it. It was definitely a day to stay inside. I got online and looked at some yoga exercises that are supposed to "open up" one's hips; when I tried them myself I couldn't do them nearly as well as the people demonstrating them in the online videos, but there's no reason I can't incorporate them into my stretching routine and see if I can get more comfortable with them. With miserably cold weather expected to settle into this area for most of next week, I'm hoping to come up with a gym routine that includes some kind of hip-rotation drills.
The temperature dropped to around 25 degrees Fahrenheit overnight, but by the time I got up yesterday morning the sun was out and the wind had died down. Even though it was some 20 degrees colder than when I'd paddled on Thursday, I decided it was tolerable enough to get one more paddle in before the much worse weather that's expected to pay us a visit.
All the rain that's fallen here in the last week has also fallen higher up in the watershed, and the Mississippi River is on a big rise. When I got down there yesterday morning the level was at 3.6 feet on the Memphis gauge--the first above-zero level I've seen since I can't remember when. And it's coming up fast: it was a foot higher by yesterday afternoon, and the current forecast says it'll be up to almost 16 feet by next weekend.
I paddled for another 60 minutes yesterday, doing more hip-rotation work. Waxing my seat bucket definitely makes it a bit easier than it felt down in Florida. There were moments when I felt myself getting more comfortable with it, but much of the time it still felt awkward.
I'm glad I got it in, at least, because I doubt much paddling will take place for the next week. As I write this on Sunday afternoon, it's snowing and 14 degrees Fahrenheit (-10 degrees Celsius) in Memphis. According to the current forecast, Thursday is the only day this week that will have a high temperature above freezing, and that'll be 36 degrees with rain and freezing rain. I've paddled in worse conditions, but at this point in my life I kind of feel like I've paid my dues in that department.
Mostly, I'll be looking to do some indoor exercise. Like I said, I hope to draw up a gym routine that includes some hip rotation. Today I just did some full-body stretching, including those "hip-opening" yoga movements.
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