OWS..In the element...

..water that is, for over 2 and a half hours yesterday. With my loonie friend Emi, I waded through the shellfish carcasses on an overcast Sunday morning in September, and pointed my nose in the direction of the Barcelona bluffs. With our backs to the Cedar point lighthouse, the plan was to swim to Barcelona, rest a moment or two while treading water, then swim on to Sag Harbor's Havens Beach. A 3.77 mile swim, it was going to be a fun open water passage, and having done it the prior week in ine hou and fifty minutes, I figured we were going to have a similar, if not slightly longer time.

Rubber first. Emi tucks her car keys into a doble ziplock baggie, and stuffs the bag between her wetsuit and swimsuit. A short debate about the merits of an extra front bump versus a rear bump. The rear bump wins, more hydrodynamic. Not that it would matter.

Launch time. With the breeze at our backs, we paddle, paddle, paddle, then faces down, head for the bluff, Emi on my heels, slow, log strokes, even breathing, stretching out in the green-ish slightly murky summer water. Seaweed on the floor wafting.. towards Cedar point..Crap, I forgot to check the tide times.. I do some quick mental math, and even double checking myself, can't escape that we will be swimming into a perfectly ebbing tide, hence the seaweed pointing in the wrong direction! I turn after a hundred strokes to see Emi's pink head bobbing a ways away from me..I wait a while for her to catch on, and encourage her to swim in my bubbles, drafting for an easier swim. We continue for 25 minutes or so before we stop for the first time, keeping the Grace estate on our left, and the 60' tall sandy bluffs straight ahead.

Landmarks. From years of sailing in the waters around Sag Harbor and Shelter Island, I have learned to measure progress using landmarks while caught in current. Spotting a small sailboat on a mooring at "9 0' clock", I put my head down for a hundred yards, 300 strokes, breathing long and steadily, feeling the surge as I matched the snap of my hip roll and arm reach, watching every 6-9 strokes for the pink head astern of me. Emi comes and goes from my draft, disappearing for seconds in the open waters of Northwest Harbor, then bobbing into sight on course. We continue, heads down, breathing, pulling, steady in the water, pausing only to check on each others position. 15 minutes should be about 1000 yards, so I stop to tread water, check for Emi and check the coast to my left. Same boat. Same spot.Same position. We weren't making any headway. The bluffs loomed just as large and distant as they has 45 minutes ago, and Emi seemed tired, switching from crawl to backstroke, then a breaststroke that took her backwards in the current..We re-grouped and I kept her tighter on my toes, kicking stronger to increase the draft, and pulling less strongly to minimize the seperation. Stopping for a giggle at the murky moustaches that each other was growing (summer OW swimmers will understand), we relaxed into the routine, knowing that we could always turn around and have an easy return trip to the beach at Cedar Point.

Eventually, the boat fell off to our left, we began "to make trees" in sailing parlance, as we tucked in under the bluffs and into flatter, though no less tidal water. Chest deep at Barcelona point after 1 hour and 30 minutes, we waded against the endless-pool-like current for a while, giving shoulders and brains a wee break, while I recounted the Trudy Ederle story to Emi. The first female to cross the English channel, Trudy swam for 14 hours and 32 minutes, the last 2 1/2 hours completely against the tide, in 61 degree water..at 19 years of age! We teleported to a different time, gathered some perspective and dove under again. The sun was coming out to play on the water, and as we passed the bluffs, we laughed recounting some unmentionable stories about my first summer on the east end, discovering the areas natural beauty. I am still amazed by it, and as many times as I have swam, sailed, paddled here, the shoreline and water make me breathless.

Not quite breathless, though feeling the heaviness build in my arms, I head for Havens beach, astern of the Mega-Yacht that we have pegged as our half-way buoy. Emi swims more steadily now, unimpededby the waves, though still against the current. I prepare mentally for Bermuda, feeling that as the fatigue sets in, it becomes almost easier to swim, letting go of the ego of swimming a certain speed, and stripping off the layers of effort, left finally with the bare bones of a stroke learned long ago. In different waters, on the other side of the Atlantic. Pulling right until we touch sand on the "catch", we swim to the feet of the clammers. 2 rubber-clad nymphs emerge 2 hours 35 minutes. I high five Emi, and arms around rubbery shoulders we wash off our OW beards and come ashore.

saintly last days with the latter day saints

Feeling battered from the 6 days straight school, I catch my breath before catching my flight out of Utah. Dr. Allison (Biostatistics1) described it best, being a part of the "tag-team wrestlers" that flew into Provo, beat us up intellectually for 8-10 hours a day, then flew out, leaving just enough recovery time (6 hours sleep) before the next heavy hitter arrived. The week read like this:

Dr. Jennifer Caputo: http://www.rmuohp.edu/index.php?/faculty_staff/faculty/faculty_by_name/#Jennifer%20L.%20CaputoScientific Writing: management of electronic search, retrieval and storage. I had stumbled my own way through Endnote X2 prior to coming out west, so I was able to fine tune some aspects of storage and output modification. It is really interesting that a component of the course had to handle basic grammar errors in scientific writing. At this level of education I would have assumed that most writing hiccups had been beaten out of people, but apparently not. Hmmm.

Dr. Todd Ellenbecker PT: http://www.rmuohp.edu/index.php?/faculty_staff/faculty/faculty_by_name/#Todd%20Ellenbecker http://toddellenbecker.usptapro.com/ Scapula, shoulder and elbow: serious brain bomb, one of the two days was an 11 hour day 8a to 7p..All we were able for after this was a Polygamy Porter and an early-ish night. This was an incredible synthesis of clinical, research and conceptual work by an energizer bunny, who couldhave kept going well past the setting sun. Thank God he didn't. We had the rest of the week to get through..

Dr. Stephen Allison PhD., PT:http://www.rmuohp.edu/index.php?/faculty_staff/faculty/faculty_by_name/#Stephen%20AllisonBiostatistics1, fundamentals of data analysis, introduction to SPSS software, use of Excel for analysis and graph construction. Brain bomb. At the end, I was a blubbering mess with total confusion about variables, factors, x and y axes, needing a stiff glass of Cabernet to get me to sleep. Somehow, Dr. A has managed to retain me through the class, and actually makes statistical analysis both interesting and relevant. Verry funny, very smart.

Dr. Joseph Wilkes MD: http://www.rmuohp.edu/index.php?/faculty_staff/faculty/faculty_by_name/#Joseph%20S.%20Wilkes Hand hand hand: two solid days of wrist and hand: Having been interested in this topic as an undergrad PT (1987-91), and again while doing my masters (1993-4)I am totally intrigued all over again with the crazy wonderful hand. Dr Wilkes managed to inspire us with his surgical skills, his big brain approach to problem solving, and pure love of patient care. I gave him my copy of Neil Shubin's book: "Your Inner Fish" http://www.amazon.com/Your-Inner-Fish-Journey-3-5-Billion-Year/dp/0307277453/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251556937&sr=8-1which details the transitional phase of mammals from a marine environment to a land-based environment. The evolution of wrist joints in fish was a beautiful surprise to me, and prompts me to re-read some text books on embryology again, to better explore aspects of pathology that originate from a place deeper than the immediate presentation. I hope he enjoys it as much as I did. I hope my brain becomes even a fraction the size of his.

My classmates, all 8 of our cohort (OS4), get on incredibly well adn I look forward to developing with this smart, entertaining, diverse group.

In some of the intervening evenings, I managed to get out for some easy rides, spinning the air-conditioning out of my tissues, allowing my brain to focus on simple repetitive pedal strokes, not an easy feat after sitting for 8-10 hours.. and definitely not easy at 4000 feet above my home base of 5-50 feet above sea-level. I had a couple of spins into the canyon towards Sundance, diverting towards Bridal Veil Falls and up into the South Fork road where I got to ride with an older cyclist, 60-something year old blly goat, who told me it was his 176th time doing this climb (up to 5900 feet). I hung back on the descent, trying to prevent him catching me takeing photos as we dropped back into the vally floor...Supreme bike paths along the Provo River Valley: a solid 25+ miles of paved, off-road bike paths, away from the traffic, winding from Utah lake up into the mountains. Incredible. I will draw on this path as we try to build an equivalent on our very own South Fork, resurrecting Mike Bottini's original dream and nudging it forward. Utah lake, though grand and perfectly situated, looked funky in colour, and even the primordial fish in me couldn't get drawn in. I cycled around it instead, past the latinos fishing and beyoned the horse ranches, under roads and rail passes along the winding river back to the centre of town.

Sitting in the departure lounge, the building essentially sits in the Salt Lake Valley with a 360 degree view of the Uinta mountain range, I think it must be the most beautiful airport view in the country. The sun is coming up draping the mountains in light purples, blue-greys and glden streaks, and spreading across the valley by the minute. My only regret is that I didn't get to swim at "my" pool this morning before leaving, no worries, I will without a doubt be back.

Cleanliness being next to Godliness

..maybe only in Provo, UT, but especially after this mornings swim while sojourning out west for semester #2 Module #2. Anxious last night to get settled quickly in Provo after an exhausting delay-filled trip, I did what makes me comfy: search out the nearest bike-shop and the nearest swimming hole.. Through the magic of the internet, I found the Provo Recreation center and swimming pool, located near the business district, right behind the Provo High School. Having taken a bike spin around the 'hood after Sunday's class (scientific writing), I was not really amazed to find it shut tight on the Lord's Day, the lord weighting in pretty heavily in these parts of the world. Still head-spinning after hours spent figuring out import filters to EndNote X2, I headed towards the big "Y" painted on the hills overlooking Brigham Young University, and span my wheels. Several Mount Greylock-like climbs later, I dropped down into the valley floor, burning up my CX brakes and heading towards Mad-Dog Bicycles (also closed).. Never mind, I had dinner, drank some utah legal micro-servings of wine and hit the sack. This morning, an early start at 4:45 got me out of the Marriott King size slumberpad and onto my bike for a quick, dark spin through Provo. Whizzing past the original BYU campus, the Womens Gymnasium (honest, I HAVE to find out more about this building) and onto BullDog Ave, I hung a quick left and arrived at the unremarkable pool building. 1970's style concrete block without any windows, it looked remarkably similar to my beloved Kennedy Memorial Swimming Pool in my Irish home town of New Ross, where I spent many many chlorine filled years. Wafting a faint scent of chlorine and humming in the dark. Home. 5am had 8 or so locals lined up for open adult swimming, and I stood out amongst the septugenarians. Or at least, I hoped I did. Inside, having parted with the princly sum of $3 for a swim session, I followed the unspoken pool ettiquette and showered, lined up on the deck and surveyed the landscape; everyone assuming their position in their respective lanes. One lane empty, for me. Cool. Sliding into the water, immediately comforted by the familiar tiles, the warm water, the silky embrace of the blue water. Several thousand yards later, my attention is drawn to the large, bobbing figures to my right as I flip turn at the deep end. Aqua-aerobics is underway, and along with the ubiquitous 1980's music, a dozen extra-large ladies bob and weave while strapped into floating water-corsets, heads crowned by rubber floral swim hats, bottoms dimpled, legs larger than life underwater. Pushing off and tightly wound into a long arrow, with my ears filling with slooshing and my eyes tracking the black lane line, I am settling into Provo.

back to summer

Friday after work, Saturday afternoon after swimming 2 mile race (47', 1st female, 2nd O/A), plans to sail tomorrow after mountain biking..finally feeling that Summer is sinking in as we get Aisling wet with spray three days in a row..Ah Jaysus, summer finally rocks on..It has been late this year with school and work demands, but as I sit after dinner with salty dry skin, and uncontrollable post-swim-and-sail hair, I finally feel the heavy pace of the year fall away, at least for the moment.

Dennis and I talk not so idly of Maine, looking forward to poking around the Blue Hill region, possibly looking for a patch of rock to hang a hat on, and to launch a boat from..My brain is still rocking a bit from being on the boat all day. Next to curling up with my lover, this is my most favourite feeling. Slightly giddy, slightly off kilter, slightly drunk from constant motion, sun, waves, swimming and dreaming..

When once you have tasted flight you will always walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward; for there you have been and there you will always be. -Leonardo da Vinci 1452-1519

life updated

ok, the first time home before 6pm in aeons, a glass of vino on the table and a few minutes to take a breath..recap on the last 8 months.. 1. Semester one completed at RMU http://www.rmuohp.edu/ only many many more to go. I have finally begun to setlte my scores with biostatistics, and with my third time around, (and the very capable help of Dr. Stephen Allison) I can get my brain around the terms statistical analysis, confidence intervals and MCID without my brain thinking "blah blah Rover, blah blah blah Rover" a la Gary Larson. 2. SPOKESPEOPLE is well underway, we have finally established a firm structure, are legitimately performing as a not-for-profit organization, and are on the radar in the community as an advocacy group. http://www.spokespeopleli.org/. check it out. 3. Bike-fit analysis wth use of Retul is a serious option for use for my dissertation http://www.retul.com/ as I have already completed a mini-prospectus and gotten good feedback to date. Will need many able and not-so-able bodies to be guinea-pigs. or just pigs. They are all good research fodder I hear. 4. Swimming: oh my watery love: I plunked down the e-greenbacks for a 10k swim in Bermuda http://www.aquamoonadventures.com/ on October 19th. This was a dream prior to Dennis's gift last night of Trudy Ederle's book: " the young woman and the sea".. a play, I am assuming, on the "old man and the sea" fish tale.. 4. Work @ MSPT: work is work, one staff member giving notice yesterday to depart for the dubiously greener fields of Nepal, to work for Medicins San Frontieres: their gain, my loss. I will miss Miki and her ethereal appearances in our offices. The door will always be open, and I am sure we will cross paths again. One new staff member in the front office, welcome Emily. If you are half the woman your mother Gail is, you will be fine! 5. Back running, First time since Block Island Shad Bloom 10k in May..23rd, 46.08 gruelling inutes of beauty on the bluffs of the Block.. http://www.coolrunning.com/results/09/ma/May9_ShadBl_set1.shtml I still can't believe that I am running again, though my calf muscles definitely can.. 5 miles in the woods with Liliana, while she is recovering from a stress fracture, and getting used to running again. We are a sweaty, slow pair.. cruising switchbacks and sandy spots. avoiding the gym by pounding up the hillocks.picking ticks off. having fun before work. 6. Dennis, ever the rock for me, planning our trip to Maine following our annual adventures in Vermont in Fall http://www.vermont50.com/. Singlespeed 34x 19 for 50 miles, rising into the breaks in VT's foggy clouds for autumnal views to gasp at, even if you weren't anaerobic. Great road trip together, finally..it has been a long, (not hot) summer of hard work, and we deserve what Maine has to give us! I CAN'T WAIT!!

spokes news..

Ok, crazy time: we have had a bunch of meetings, with the chief, with the mayor, with the sag harbor village board: with reference to rescinding the ban on cycling on main street..then Christmas then a trip to Ireland to see my family (pending on Wed night, new year's eve..) Oh my GAWD, did anyone see the responses to the proposal to review the current (illegal) law baning cycling on main street? Following Marrissa Meiers article, the Sag Harbor Express reported the MOST ONLINE POSTS EVER in response to an article in the press! SURPRISE SURPRISE, some resistance to the notion that cycling is a STATE AND FEDERALLY PROTECTED method of TRANSPORTATION in this country.. and NO, we are NOT planning to take over the world.. as seemed to be the reaction to the DEVASTATING notion that we, as cyclists, be accorded safe, protected and LEGAL passage through the village. Letter to FRED THIELE (asssemblyman, who received my vote, despite being a republican {indie??}..) Dear Mr Thiele, As a consituent of yours and a founding member of SPOKESPEOPLE, (an east end cycling advocacy group), I am anxiously awaiting information about the status of the Sag Harbor-Bridgehampton turnpike Bike Lane. We will, as you know, be having a hearing on Jan 13th regarding the restriction on cycling on main street in Sag Harbor, and since the sag harbor bridgehampton turnpike is one of the main 4 feeder roads into the village, our group of 200+ east end constituents feels that it has an important bearing on the development of safe cycling routes in and around Sag Harbor village and beyond. I realize that Hank De Cillia, Reynolds Dodson, the Southampton bike lane advisory committee and many others have been pressing you to move forward on this important issue for many years, but we truly feel that now is the time to formalise such a commitment, to the environment, to alternative transportation, to congestion reduction, to the health and safety of your voters. I urge you to contact me at your earliest opportunity to discuss the matter, and inform our group of the current status of this important route.Yours Sincerely, Sinead FitzGibbon Letter to Tim Bishop (Congressman NY State) Congressman Tim Bishop Room 1133 Longworth HOB Washington, DC 20515 December 16, 2008 Dear Mr. Bishop: As a founding member of SPOKESPEOPLE, an avid cyclist, and a constituent of yours living in Wainscott, I urge you to meet with us to discuss the dearth of progress in the provision of safe cycling facilities on the east end. We have met with various members of town appointed committees (Southampton bike lane advisory committee) and Planning boards (JoAnn Pawhl EH town planning), highway planners, (Bill Masterson) Mayors (Sag Harbor’s Greg Ferraris) Village Board members ( Sag Harbor, EH, SH)and local police chiefs (Chief. Fabiano)in our efforts to come to some resolution in the lack of plans for improvement of this ongoing situation. The common theme echoed by the majority of these people, over years of meetings, is that without political will to resolve the issues, little will be achieved, and certainly little of any importance. When there is money spent on projects, it is done haphazardly and without the consultation of experts, i.e. cyclists, bike lane advisory groups, local citizens. We invite you therefore, to be part of the solution, as opposed to being part of the problem. This is the reason for the existence of our newly formed group: we hope to bring together the politicians who can be the movers and shakers, with the local cyclists and concerned road users to facilitate the legitimate use of roads by cyclists, in a way that fosters safer cycling, and more cycling. We understand that your position on the Congressional Transportation and Infrastructure Committee puts you in a strong position to both influence legislation and to assist us in procuring the funds to direct towards the many local projects that are “shelved” for lack of funding. We trust that the lack of your involvement to date may reflect tha lack of organized groups to assist in designing and using such facilities, but again, we can change this. Our group, SPOKESPEOPLE, is already 208 people strong, ALL RESIDENT ON EASTERN LONG ISLAND, and growing daily as we spread the word and our issues get more local press. We know you can provide the leadership to make the position on cycling more to the fore of your actions on Long Island, and we can assist by pressuring Ken LaValle, Fred Thiele, and Linda Kabot and their colleagues to act, following your lead. We are proposing to you as the current leaders of Spokespeople that you arrange for a meeting with us, at your earliest opportunity. Thank you for your attention to this important matter. Yours, Sinead FitzGibbon Haha we are on a ROLL: this letter accompanied at least a dozen more, possibly even more++ as we posted the letters with a template to our 200+ members.. follow the lead to this week in the Sag Harbor Express.. http://sagharborexpress.sagharborpublishing.com/shexpress/a-conversation-with/sinead-fitzgibbon/ KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN FOR CYCLISTS! BRING YOUR BIKE TO THE HEARING, Jan 13th 6pm...Sag Harbor Municipal building, 2nd floor..Be there or be quadrangular..

This week, as a representative of SPOKESPEOPLE, our newly formed east end cycling advocacy group, I attended the Sag Harbor Village trustee meeting, with the intent of presenting them with a proposal to rescind the current ban on cycling on main street in the village.

This proposal was initiated by the chief of police, Det. Fabiano, and was wholeheartedly endorsed by the mayor, Greg Ferraris, at a meeting the prior month. On proposing the change to the village ordinance, trustee Tifany Scarlatto and trustee Ed Deyermond roundly condemned the proposal, refusing to give the mayor a vote for consideration to come before a public hearing. This, despite the voicing from the floor, of the chief, to "give it a try, at least on a trial basis". By a slight margin, the board, with the support of a few villagers on the floor, agreed to put forth the proposal for a review at a public hearing, Jan 13th, 2009.

WE NEED THE SUPPORT OF LOCAL PEOPLE to make this work.

We are proposing this change to the village law, as a component of making the village more cycle friendly, to make cycling into town a viable alternative to driving, and to follow in tandem with the vision of the mayor to promote a "green" sag harbor. He after all, was the initiator of the 725Green committee, the group charged with doing its utmost to improve the transport, air, water and general life choices with a vision of making the village a beacon of green-ness on the east end.

Now comes the hard part: many of the village trustees, and many of the villagers, have some weird notion that RE-introducing cyclists onto main streeet is going to wreak havoc on the village, causing mayhem, death and destruction, with likely theft of properrty..

It is our job to present the rescinding of this ordinance, as part of a proposal to improve cycling access to the whole village as a reasonable idea, complete with proposals for other bike routes in the village, safe locking sites for bicycles and introduction of SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOLS with a bicycle component.

PLEASE ATTEND OUR MEETING, tomorrow, at ZIGGYS, 3pm, to brainstorm ideas and to develop a strategy to convince the village that we, as reasonable TAX-PAYING, VOTING residents, believe that retraction of this (in the chief's words, "unenforcable out of date law") is a good idea, and one that will contribute to a better quality of life in our town, on our beloved east end.

PLEASE CUT and PASTE into an email for anyone you know who rides bikes!!

Oh Yes, and to the wierdo who stormed my office today, yelling at my staff about this being "a stupid idea" and "trying to get people killed".. get a life.. and don't you dare invade my place of business again....