Bill and Cathy McArthur Spring/Summer/Fall 2008: 17
Monday, July 21, we took the 9:30 AM ferry to Lewes, Delaware. Our friends Don and Bern Ernakovich met us and whisked us into Lewes for coffees. Afterward, we picked up another car and drove to their daughter Megan's condominium. We visited with Megan and her son Alex for a while and then Don and Bill went to the Ernakovich's home to chill out for an hour while Cathy and Bern took Alex to a doctor appointment because Megan thought that she had to work. It turned out that she had the wrong day. Bill and Don drove to Prime Hook Beach to check the conditions for a possible stopover on a round trip kayak trip later in the summer. The beach looked good and the water seemed navigable at low tide. They returned to join the rest of the crowd back at Megan's condo. Cathy and Bill were dropped off for the return trip on the 6:15 PM ferry. He did his 5th crossword puzzle of the day on the trip. Back on the NJ side, Cathy and Bill did a bit of shopping at ACME before heading home for the sunset and dinner.
Tuesday was yet another hot and humid day. Bill did 3 crossword puzzles, watered the flowers, and headed out for a run. Cathy went to the gym for aerobics. Bill walked 4 miles and jogged 4 miles. He tried to keep his heart rate in the low 130s and had a comfortable jog in uncomfortable conditions. Bill walked the last mile on the beach. After lunch on the deck, Bill noticed that we were under a severe thunderstorm watch until 4:00 PM. He went out and washed off 3 kayaks as we awaited a visit from Tom and Jean Reilly from Smithville, who we met in Naples last winter. Just before they arrived, Bill saw the floating pole that had gone up the Bay in the morning coming back down the Bay with the tide. Bill kayaked out to it and towed it to shore. When the Reilly's arrived, we all went kayaking up Bay for an hour or so. After cleaning up, we drove into Cape May and had dinner at Cucina Rosa. We walked around a while after dinner before heading home.
Wednesday morning, Bill had a urologist appointment in Galloway Township. Cathy accompanied him. Dr. Schutz ordered a renal ultrasound as a followup for Bill's kidney surgery in 2002. Something on the image made Dr. Schutz prescribe a CT-scan urogram and another consultation with his P.A. Kim next Wednesday afternoon. Bill and Cathy drove to Shore Memorial Hospital in Somers Point to get the blood work and the CT-scan done. By the time we got home, it was almost 2:30 PM. We had a light lunch. The remainder of the afternoon, we chilled out. We viewed "The Other Boleyn Girl", which Cathy liked and was only tolerable to Bill because of Scarlett Johansson.
Thursday started with some hard rain which tapered off by the time we drove to Gloria's aerobics class. Bill ran 3.5 miles home after the gym while Cathy stayed for the 11:00 AM class. It was cool and windy at noon, so we ate lunch inside. After lunch, we drove into Cape May so that Bill could work on our friend Lila Donovan's new laptop computer. Bill got her wireless adaptor working, put WEP on her router, and installed Norton Security Suite 2008. He later found that her laptop only had 128 MB of RAM, not enough to run Windows XP with Norton. He left a note for Lila, who had gone in to work at the Lobster House, and we drove home after 5:00 PM. We grilled burgers for dinner and viewed "25th Hour", a very good movie.
Friday was warm and calm. After doing 3 crossword puzzles, Bill went for a 3 hour kayak paddle to the concrete ship. He saw lots of dolphins en route. Bill ate lunch alone on the deck while Cathy met our friend Beth for lunch. We went out to ACE Hardware to pick up semi-transparent paint for the lattice work. Bill worked on a writeup for the Ultimate DoubleCross 2008 kayak trip. We viewed "The Kingdom" during and after dinner. It was a great action movie.
Saturday was a less humid day with a nice breeze. Bill worked on crossword puzzles while Cathy went to the gym. Later in the morning, Bill sprayed the driveway with herbicide. After lunch, we chilled out for a while. We headed over to North Wildwood at 5:30 PM and fought the shore traffic into town. We parked near the lifeguard headquarters at 15th street and Bill registered for the Sandblast Beach Run. An onshore breeze kept the temperature at 70 degrees for the event. Bill ran the 4 mile course barefoot. He intended to keep his heart rate at 140 bpm and kept it at that rate for the first 3 miles. At that point, he felt very comfortable with the pace and decided to step it up a bit. He ramped up to about 145 bpm and then for the last quarter of a mile he upped it to 155 bpm. He ran an average of 10 minute miles and felt good at the finish. Bill changed in the car and then we went to Alfe's for dinner. We sat out on the porch and enjoyed the usual good meal. We arrived home a bit after 10:00 PM. Bill took a late shower outdoors and then watched a couple of "South Park" episodes before heading to bed.
Sunday, Bill woke up with a very sore right Achilles tendon. We went for a 16 mile bike ride ended by the sound of thunder across the Bay. After lunch, we went to Rio Grande to see the chick flick "Mama Mia", which proved that Pierce Brosnan can't sing. Bill endured the painful movie with his usual uncomplaining manner. During and after dinner we viewed the very moving "Stop Loss."
Bill and Cathy