Obviously, what I should have been doing today instead of sailing is prep work. It is beyond me how I am going to manage to teach five classes whilst taking two this fall semester.
9:30 PM


Ice on the knee again. I crashed into a pulley on the boom when we were out sailing today, and now I have a nice pulley-shaped cut decorating a rather impressive lump on my right knee cap. That poor knee, I am feeling sorry for it.

Ah...the woman arrives with ibuprofen. We're completely tired, partly because we got up early to run in an attempt to beat the heat. It's so difficult to do in oppressive weather like this. During the summer, Bloomington turns into a swamp. The path is wet, the trees are dripping, and the air is stagnant, heavy, and hot. We run in a steamy fog; the path in front of us is always shrouded in a heated mist. Every breath is a drink of tepid water. I'm amazed we managed to keep going on no oxygen for 45 minutes. I feel a bit like I'm straddling this danger zone--one foot is in Dedication, and one foot is in Obsession, and I'm not quite sure in which direction I'm ultimately going to be headed.

We got back with just enough time to take a shower before we headed off for our final day of sailing lessons. The first half was fun, two hours of being out on the E-scow with the instructor, with him mostly telling us what to do and when to do it. It was the last two hours that almost killed us. I was fine sailing a Sunfish by myself, but today he put us out on a Harpoon (quite a bit bigger) and made us run a test course. Catherine worked the jib and I did the main sail and tiller, and boy, were we stressed out. I about killed us on an intentional jibe, I hate to see what's going to happen when I do an accidental one. Well, we passed (the second jibe was much better) but it's obvious we need a lot of practice.

We received a pass for ten free sailing sessions with our lesson package, so I think I'm going to bail on work a bit early next week and go out and practice tacking and jibing on a Sunfish. Then move up to a Laser class. Then take Catherine back out on the Harpoon we had today. Although our session was fraught with profanity, I must not have hated it because I want to go back and do it again.