Bill and Cathy McArthur Spring/Summer/Fall 2009: 15
Monday, August 17 , was a very hot, summery day. Cathy left for the gym at the same time as Bill headed down to the beach with his kayak. His leg muscles were very sore from the Half-Wit Half trail race of the day before. Bill packed a cooler with a half gallon of Cytomax and carried two 20 ounce bottles and two quart bottles of Cytomax on deck. Bill launched at 9:10 AM and headed around Cape Island. He saw lots of dolphins on the ocean before entering the inlet. Bill took a 20 minute break on the Coast Guard beach and drank a quart of cold Cytomax and ate two powerbars. Bill headed into the creek at Harbor View Marina and did the old 10 mile race course. As he paddled, Bill drank 10 ounces of Cytomax for each 3 miles traveled. The low tide was very low, so Bill had to take care not to go aground in the back bays and to avoid breaking wakes from the many big boats passing by. Bill passed by the Lobster House twice, once in each direction. Bill landed at 4:30 PM from the journey:
Bill washed his gear, took the trash out to the curb, and took a very refreshing outside shower. We grilled chicken and portobello mushrooms for dinner. We viewed "Entourage" and "True Blood" before Bill headed off to bed.
Tuesday was another hot, humid day. Cathy went to the gym. Bill did a couple of crossword puzzles, called Jim Sosna, and then went for a bike ride to Cape May Point. He took his time on the ride over to the lighthouse, but on the way back, a couple of young guys on road bikes passed him without any acknowledgement. Bill chased them down and drafter them all the way to the West Cape May bridge. Bill kept up the high pace all the way home. So much for a break for his legs. We had lunch on the deck and enjoyed the south wind. After lunch, we sat on the beach for a while. We only lasted an hour or so until the burning sun forced us to find shade on our deck. Cathy went to another aerobics class at 5:30 PM. We grilled burgers for dinner. We viewed another B movie, too bad to name. Before going to bed, we closed the house and turned on the air. The storms rolled through between 3:00 and 5:00 AM.
Wednesday was yet another hot, humid day. We started out with a walk/run where Bill ran for 5K and walked for 2 miles. Cathy walked for 4 miles. When we go back and reorganized ourselves, we picked up Cathy's former colleagues Margaret and Jenn and headed to Shelly's house in Margate. We had no traffic issues on the way in to Absecon Island. We all went in Shelly's car to her friend Joe's house at the south end of Atlantic City. We all went down to the beach and set up to watch the air show. The sights and sounds were spectacular. After a while, we went to Joe's to enjoy a take-out lunch. Then we went back to the beach to enjoy the USAF Thunderbirds and their awesome performance. We ran into very slow moving traffic when we tried to exit the island in the late afternoon. After dropping off Margaret and Jenn and doing a bit of shopping at ACME, we arrived home just in time for sunset. We had a good tortellini dinner and watched a couple of episodes of " The Daily Show". It was still pretty hot when we got to bed, but a nice south breeze kept it tolerable.
Thursday morning, Bill went for a hard 30 mile bike ride to Cape May Point:
Meanwhile, Cathy went to the gym. We ate lunch on the deck. It was very hot and humid, so we hid out indoors until late afternoon and then went for a 4 mile walk to Harpoon Henry's. We went to dinner at Panico's. We ran the air overnight because of the threat of storms. Bill read the first two chapters of "Born to Run" on his iPhone and was hooked on the book.
Friday was hot and humid with a strong south wind. There was also a soutwest swell from Hurricane Bill out on the Bay and astronomically extreme tides and currents. Not the best day for kayaking, but Bill and Joe Link had already decided to try to get in a 36 mile training day. They launched at 7:30 AM and met halfway between their beaches. The going was tough, but they managed to do 18 miles (3 laps to the canal and back) before stopping at our house for lunch. The statistics from the morning's work were bleak:
After a lunch of PowerBars (and a couple of Gu packs) for Bill, they launched again for 6 more miles. The wind was even stronger, but they managed a 3.8 mph average for that last lap. Bill took a long outdoor shower and then made himself a cappuccino. We had pasta with chick peas, sweet onions, and sun-dried tomatoes for dinner. Bill was planning to run a 5K race on Saturday morning, so he turned in early. It stormed overnight.
Saturday morning started with very heavy rain, so Bill decided not to do the Animal House 5K. Cathy went to the gym. When the rain stopped, it became very hot and humid. Bill went out for a sweaty 5 mile run:
He really dragged himself through the last mile. Cathy walked for 4 miles. After lunch, we drove over to Cape May to see the waves from Hurricane Bill, but weren't impressed. Bill got a cappuccino at Coffee Time. We grilled chicken and portobello mushrooms for dinner. We viewed the thriller "Deception", which we liked a lot.
Sunday morning started out with heavy rain again. Bill had decided to take a day off from all exercise, so he worked on the Sunday "Times" puzzle and got it done with Cathy's help with the word "objet". Bill worked on his kayak, sealing the front hatch. Then he drove to Ace Hardware to get some Gorilla Glue and a bag of conditioner salt. He glued his compass to the forward hatch cover. After lunch, Bill drove to Starbucks and then to Cape Regional hospital to visit Jim Sosna. Jim's wife Linda was also there. Bill was able to get Jim's laptop onto the hospital's wifi network by removing its hard-wired IP address. Bill had very good luck with Shore traffic on the trips to and from the hospital. Bill got an outdoor shower and then we drove into Cape May. We ate dinner at Gecko's and enjoyed our outdoor meal.
Bill and Cathy
