A breath of summer

Nice summer weather at last!  Here I am at the Oregon Gardens.  They don't allow skating in the gardens so I'm skating in the parking lot of the Moonstone Resort where I'm staying.  I'm here with two of my sisters. 
    I was half expecting some official to come up to me and command that I stop immediately on account of some regulation or insurance policy, whatever.  But no one did. 
   Spent about an hour waddling up small inclines then swivel down inclines and doing backwards toe stops.  Tried a few awkward cross overs.  There were lots of rough patches that you don't notice when you're walking or driving a car.  It's only when you have quads under you and you're whizzing by, so it feels, pulled forward by gravity, that you notice the little pebbles and uneven patches looming up.  Each time I go over them while keeping my balance I marvel, give myself a high-five.  But then I'm quickly brought back to reality when the next piece of gravel is noticed. 

Grey, greyer, greyest

Summer is here, calendar wise, but we have no sunshine.  Solid gray sky. 58 degrees F.  Good for skating and photography, no shadows in Tigard, Oregon.  Here is a photo of the back of my helmet.

Skating in mud

We've been having one of those long springs, day after day of rain.  Being an Oregon beaver/duck, I take rain in stride, but these consistent thick gray skies are starting to get me down.  Next week is summer. Experience tells me not to expect two dry days in a row. This morning, even with this sunshine, bright as it is, it's like fools gold.  I wear boots and put on winter gloves just to walk the dogs. 

Yesterday I wanted to go to the rink to skate the 3-5:30 session but it just didn't fit into my schedule.  Alternate plan, skate the Fanno Creek trail, or at least a portion of it.  I skated in the Skorps.  This is the first time I'd taken the trail solo but I wasn't concerned about that, the blue-tooth was in place so I could get in touch with my family in an instant if necessary.  The sky was solid gray, it had rained in the morning but the pavement was dry, mostly, a few puddles here and there that the Skorps could take without hesitation.  About a mile into the trail it crosses under a minor highway.  The darkness of the tunnel didn't bother me, it was the mud.  I plodded through as it slowed me to a turtle's crawl.  On the other side I resumed my usual pace until I noticed how dark the sky was growing.  Deep menacing gray, and it was getting cold.  No thunder; good. I quickly turned around and decided to hurry back to the car, I guessed it was at least 25-minutes away.  The transit back through the tunnel was awful; I got stuck in some thick mud and nearly couldn't lift my feet.  I kept sliding towards the stream of water in the center.  Fortunately it is fenced off, but only with a wimpy plastic partition.  I feared I might get tangled in it if I didn't stop sliding.  Once I came to a stop it was difficult to keep my balance and get back to the slightly less muddy part of the path.  I probably should have taken the Skorps off at that point, but I didn't.  Once out of the tunnel I looked in dismay at the mud clinging to the scooter sized wheels of the skates.  Wow!  Ugly.  I had to spend some time dragging my feet sideways through nearby grass to dislodge as much as I could.  Dove right back onto the trail, hoping to beat the rain back to the car. 

A few rain drops but no showers developed.  I was pretty warm from the exertion, no jacket; had planned to keep skating despite whatever rainfall.  Oddly it never did rain. 

Total skate time, 55 minutes.  Treat along the way: sighting a small brown rabbit dining on grass at path's edge. 

Work in progress

I've been working on an altered book that I just added some new pages to.  The page below includes snippets from a small flyer I found at the rink.  http://paperstitches.blogspot.com/  

While searching for some copyright free images of roller skating this morning I discovered the National Museum of Roller Skating. Never found any graphics but I see a road trip in the future for my skating buddy and me.  Speaking of favorite roller skating web sites do visit quad skating dot com.  I've learned so much from this site, like the anatomy of a roller skate and how to loosen your trucks, including why you'd want to do this.

Getting in gear

If you're going to skate outdoors you'd better get geared up, as in derby gear.  My daughter encouraged me to take some derby classes so that I'd learn some skills that would come in handy as well.  My rink offered a six week series of drop-in classes in derby style skating that worked perfectly in my calendar.  Didn't take all of them but from the few I took I learned some valuable stuff, like how to fall and how to stop.  I know how to stop in the rink, on my regular skates, but outdoors it's a whole different experience and takes a lot more leg strength.  For sure you're dealing with an unpredictable surface, and you might be going down hill. Snowplow works well for slowing and stopping but it is taking me a while to learn just how to do it right.

In this photo I'm wearing a mouth guard.  I hadn't painted my helmet yet, now it has eyes in the back and pointy teeth in the front so that I look like my head has been eaten by a shark.  My daughter is on the right, in black and white outfit.  She has attended the derby boot camp, so she's a real derby gal to me, even if she's not on an actual team yet.

The burden of compliments

Yesterday I got the best compliment ever. Two of the senior skaters at the Wednesday morning old timers' session said my crossovers were just like they should be and (bonus!) my timing and rhythm were perfect. I was shocked and very pleased. This came from two women, one in her 80's and the other in her 90's, both accomplished skaters.

Don't we all love to hear a positive comment about what we're doing? Yep. The downside is that I get sort of nervous when the praise sinks in; I get flustered, loose my balance, stumble. That's the usual result of a compliment, a virtual land mine. Compliments from other skaters carry a lot more weight than those from casual observers. As a defense when a fellow skater compliments me, especially if I'm just squirreling around practicing some footwork I admonish them, "Shhh! You're going to hex me." Of course I only use this response with people whom I expect to understand this sassy retort. For strangers, children and non-skaters I say thank you, smile. Ah! I love skating.

Quilting aches

Oh my aged aching body. I have arthritis in nearly every joint. Haven't noticed it in my spine, thank goodness, but everywhere else I have experienced swelling and stiffness. A lot of pain. I'm not on a prescription; my doctor wants me to put that off as long as I can. She says that once I get on one I have to stay on it the rest of my life. I agree, that is something I want to put off as long as possible.



I do machine quilting on an industrial machine. It's just a regular industrial machine that I've had for years. Got it before they came out with package set-up of long-neck on tracks for moving the machine about and bars for rolling the quilt around. With my machine I do it all by hand. I wear rubber glove, sometime spandex ones, for grip. It takes me two days to quilt an entire queen sized quilt. I don't do this very often, about three or four times a year. While I’m quilting, my shoulders, elbows and wrists don't hurt; it's afterwards, when I'm resting that they throb with pain. I take ibuprofen or Tylenol to ease the pain. I have included glucosamine, chondroitin and MSM in my daily nutritional supplement for years.


Before I started skating I always took a some ibuprofen before starting any kind of long term exercise, such as hiking, so I could at least make it to the end of the trail on my own, rather than calling for a stretcher, as I’d often felt I needed. Never did, but I have walked so slowly toward the end of a day's hike that slugs, in their slimy glide, could have beat me to the trail's end.


Oddly enough, now that I'm skating eight or more hours a week, I have no more pain from arthritis in my legs or hips. The only place I still have arthritic pain is in my left arm. Doctor says I should go for acupuncture, but I haven't yet. I've been trying to give that arm more of a workout, hoping instead for exercise and regular use to do the trick. For the past few weeks I have noticed that I'm not waking up as much in the middle of the night, due to pains in the arm, as I have previously. My left shoulder and elbow still throbs when it gets hit but that doesn't happen very often.

Newest wheels

New wheels yesterday. Heartless Stalker (88's), narrow, black. Auditioned more than four different kinds before I settled on this one. Delighted with the reliable grip in a narrow profile.

Skorpians

Saturday. After what seem like endless weeks of rain we got one pretty day, actually just a few hours of sunshine that day, but I'm glad I spent them wisely. After finding parking which took a lot longer than we figured it would, DD1 and I put on our derby gear and started down the trail. I thought I'd try my regular boots and outdoor wheels (78's) since the trail is reportedly flat. But after skating just one block I returned to the car to switch to my Skorps. I should have known better; I just don't have the skill to skate outdoors in regular wheels. The Skorpians may look dorky but they are exactly what I need. Each wheel has it's own suspension so it feels cozy --like jumping on a mattress, it's just that comfortable a glide. The down side is their wide profile, which makes me feel as if I'm waddling rather than skating. I got a good work out; we skated four miles that day. I had to stop frequently to rest, which is something I never have to do when I'm skating in the rink because it takes a lot more strength to stoke against blacktop pavement than a smooth floor. When skating outdoors just having to monitor the unknown surface for subtle changes in slope or roughness, puts additional stress on the workout.

Bottom line: I need to skate outdoors more often; it would strengthen my legs. And I'm not sure just how, but I think the tension regarding balance keeping would ease up as well.

My first skates

One Sunday afternoon session, I think it was my 3rd week of skating, the rental counter didn't have any skates in my size. What to do, get a size larger? Heck no. I sat down to think for about 4 seconds, then walked into the tiny skate shop to check out skates and prices, thinking of it more as a diversion till I would check back at the rental counter to see if my size was available. To my surprise DD1 was in the shop trying on skates. She hadn't quite decided on which model to get and btw [by-the-way] she and DDF were going to sign up for roller derby.

The declaration about derby didn't register at the time but I recall feeling the excitement in the girls. It didn't take long before I decide to participate in this shopping fever and buy a pair of skates too. Logic: even if I only skated occasionally I'd never again have to face the "out of your size" answer at the rental counter. At that point in time (June of 2009) I had no idea how much skating would change my life.

Wobbly legs

I wasn't sure if this was from lack of strength or nervousness. Probably both. Despite feeling like a rickety wooden doll I truly enjoyed my first time around the rink. In the process of moving forward without falling, time seemed to stand still. The only weariness I experienced was an aching sensation in the lower legs, in particular the front part just below the knees, but it soon dissipated.

The experience of being so totally absorbed felt like a mini-vacation from my day and all it's problems, demands, whatever. I was totally refreshed upon leaving the rink. I looked forward to coming back.

How this started

Today I observe my one year anniversary of roller skating. I never expected to like it so much, in fact I thought I would just do it, once, to satisfy the invitation my sister had sent me months earlier. She wrote in March of 2009, "please come skate with me sometime. I skate the 2nd and 4th Sunday of each month." As the weeks went by the ignored invite gnawed at my conscience till I mentioned it to DD1 [dearest daughter one]. In return she urged me to go, she said it would be fun and even offered to go with me.

DD1 and DDF [dearest daughter's friend] met me at the rink. My sister was elated, waved me through to the rental counter with a pre-paid admission. I hadn't been to a roller rink since I was a single digit. My sister is in her seventies and I'd just turned fifty-nine. This was going to be the dumbest thing I'd ever done. "Let's get it over," I thought.