rebeccmeister | Spring Will [rowing, status]

In the midafternoon, as I came out of the grocery co-op with groceries for the week, I noticed something in the co-op's gardens:

I don't actually have any crocuses planted at the house, and maybe I should, just to help extend the spring fireworks show. I am seeing more signs of strawberry plants returning to life, and the very tips of the daffodils. Still, signs that winter WILL end eventually.

Another sign: we put what we call our "bubble dock" back in the water this morning.

That was not completely without adventure. I was originally planning on going to morning rowing practice with the team, but had the complication that I'd brought along a bike trailer so as to bike to the farmer's market later on. With people messing with the stuff in my bike basket when my bike's parked downtown, I was leery about leaving the trailer and storage bin outside the fitness center. Eventually I realized I should just change my plans: I just headed straight over to the boathouse, dropped off my trailer there, and used most of practice time to get a head start on pinning the bubble dock pieces together.

Ultimately I think this was a wise decision. Our coach had everyone do a "Pi Day" workout, and if I'd participated I could easily have overdone it and prolonged the issues I've been having with my hips and lower back (Old Punks Never Die Ow My Back). I did join them for coffee after practice, where everyone was really busy doing a lot of post-practice math:

Then, to the river!

Even with the more involved reassembly, the bubble dock went in much more easily and far faster than the main dock will.

Each of the pieces has labeled tabs at each corner that are supposed to stack in a particular sequence to create a fully interlocked surface. Most of the pieces were assembled correctly, but we did discover a row with a fairly major assembly issue, so we had to take it completely apart after having floated the dock out into the river. This was basically fine, except for some moments where the two sections started drifting apart. At one point I told a teammate, "Grab my foot!" to pull the sections back together, heh. One individual piece also tried to go on some sort of side quest, but was quickly recovered.

It looks so good now!

Even the seagull flock agreed.

With that finished, I biked to the Troy Farmer's Market and picked up the maple syrup bottle prizes for our 5k run/walk event in 2 weeks, along with some of the usual farmer's market staples. After dropping off the maple syrup at the boathouse, I headed home and then back out on the aforementioned grocery trip.

Now I am baking a couple of quiches (pi-adjacent, at least? Except they're square?), roasting some beets, and cooking up some black lentils. Foods for the week are mushroom-asparagus quiche and roasted beet, lentil, and arugula salad (with toasted hazelnuts and cheese, too).

Tomorrow will be really busy with an entomology conference in the town north of here, where two of my students will be presenting their research posters and I'll be running a table at a Bug Expo. So hopefully I can manage to squeeze in laundry, litterboxes, and the cooking of breakfasts for the week in there somewhere.