RANTS and RAVES (not political)

Ok, time to get old again.

I've already yelled at some of you about your driving. You know who you are. Cutting off the tanker truck isn't a great idea. Volvo's aren't high-performance cars and aren't designed to out-accelerate such a vehicle, especially downhill. Clean up your driving before your parents take your cars away or worse, you get hurt and can't row.

Flooding sucks. Really sucks. It happens every year, and we still just deal with it. When you think about when we get on the water, then deal with spring floods, we really don't get a lot of time. The flow just went over 40k, so get the fanny packs back out.

Guys, it is always fun to watch you go to buffets. Even nasty ones like Quaker Steak. That food looked like cheap wedding food today. There seems to be several levels of buffet food: hotels and country clubs, then things like the old country buffet. After that, there's Eat 'n Park's breakfast buffet and the like. It's really hard to screw up sausage, after all. At the bottom, there's the China Buffet and what you all consumed today. I've suggested to Emily that we could fry up dog food, add some salt and seasonings and you would eat it. Rowers are fun that way, they eat anything.

TRRA needs to get the act together. Meetings to organize the Scholastic Sprints should have happened during the TRRA erg race. That would get parents involved earlier, before people have started making plans. We've got parents that work their tails off for you guys, and now they're working for a regatta our club has to pay to attend. We've pulled out of the Jewell Cups altogether; those weekends will now be practice weekends.

Guys: even if we don't get on the water at all the rest of the week, your reaction to my plea to stick around this spring break has really made me very happy. Thank you all so much, it means a lot to me to see you taking the season so seriously. Parents, thank you for giving up your plans for an idiot who can't predict the river flooding. With such a late spring break, sticking will have a great effect on our season.

Wow, March has been great this year. Considering how miserable everyone was after March last season, I'm in a great place this time around. We've gotten some great rowing in, selection is really coming along and everyone is in a better mood. I know that you all are under some stress and think there's a lot of interpersonal stuff flying around. Trust me, this is better. At least we're not miserable, still on the erg and watching a 80k flow shoot down the channel.

If the river is cresting, we're on the water again on Thursday, I hope. Come prepared for anything tomorrow. At least the weather will be nice.