Mooning Transamerica
The lunar eclipse this morning (last night) started around 1:30 a.m. I arose in the middle of the night, but alas! our house wore a crown of fog, and I didn't see this shot our man Frederic Larsen of the Chron snapped as the moon turned red just past the Transamerica Tower.
Makes me want to play pool. Yellow ball in the pocket corner!
Dog paddle
Today, two big labrador retreivers swam out to me and communed for a moment. One sniffed and talked, the other just seemed to want to be petted. Their fur was so warm...
Steam yields to sail
And hopefully sail yields to arm.
So, let's list the hazards of swimming up here:
* Rogue sea lions that bite, nip and chase swimmers
* Agressive elephant seals
* Lost humpback whales
* Sketchy water quality
* Undertows and rip tides that sweep surfers and swimmers away
* Enormous tankers and car carriers coming into port
* All the other watercraft, ferry boats, tour boats, sail boats, fishing boats, Bubba Gump...
And....
* all the brilliant kiteboarders and windsurfers.
Watching a kitboarder rise out of the water on an air current, spin three times and land flawlessly on a wave is amazing.
Trying to stay out of the guy's way when you're a swimmer and he's going a gazillion times faster is anxious. Lots of head-up swimming, treading water and then a sudden frog-kick away.
I love watching them, and the longer I watch the more I see myself participating. Starting with the windsurfing and then--when I master that--advancing to kiteboarding. Yowza! One of the windsurfers wears a Batman wetsuit, complete with little bat ears on the hood.
But right now, I'm the slow swimmer they dodge around as they swoop in and out of the water. No doubt thinking to themselves, yikes! Watch out for the red cap over there!
The swim training lesson was good, more info later.
Brrrrr!
I've been so high on the sheer joy of this, that I may have overlooked the one real drawback: swimming in cold water wearing a thin wetsuit.
The worst moments are just before and just starting. I kiss Richard before heading into the water, and can't help but notice how toasty warm he is in his fleece jacket. I turn towards the water and remember how cold it is. Then I step into the surf and memory becomes fierce reality.
My new ploy is the run and dive (successor to the bend and snap). Even if I'm still in two feet of surf, if I'll hurry and get in the water and start moving, the shock begins to fade more quickly.
I'm going to an "open water swim training" clinic tomorrow night. It's held at the Sports Basement, so the most difficult thing will be getting out without buying anything.
Swimming San Francisco Bay
The Straits of the Golden Gate and San Francisco Bay are part of a deep underwater canyon. 528 billion gallons of water flow through the narrow straits every six hours, creating giant underwater "sand waves." The combination of strong winds, tides, water flow and variable atmospherics (fog, etc) creates a challenging and exciting water-sports environment.
Since before we moved here, I've envisioned daily swims in this ocean. While swimming underneath the Golden Gate Bridge is some of the fiercest total-body exercise imaginable, it doesn't seem like exercise in my mind -- a key factor in my work-out success. Looking back on all the bicycle marathons and racquetball games, I'm aware that if I'm having fun with exercise, I work harder and am in better shape.
So we move here. While planning a kayaking-swminning double-threat, I break my foot running up the Baker Beach cliffs. In the long recovery, as I lose any physical edge I ever had, I still think about swimming in the ocean and bay.
Finally, action! I find a thin, cheap wetsuit. The 1-mm triathlon wetsuit is a super-thin layer of insulation between me and the cold water, but flexible! For swimming, flexibility trumps insulation, even in the chilly coastal waters.
Amidst the sailboats, windsurfers, tankers, cruise ships, and marine life, I wade into the San Francisco Bay at Chrissy Field, just east of the Golden Gate.
The sea floor is intensely ridged and drops off abruptly. The choppy waves slap my body and I submerge quickly, hoping to get the freeze over with quickly. Yikes, it's cold!
The water is brackish and the current is strong. I start swimming, glad for the silly red swim cap and amber goggles. Really glad for even this thin wetsuit. After a few minutes, the only truly uncomfortable coldness is in my hands.
This is a gorgeous day. The water is about 60 degrees, the air about 68, the sun is shining and the fog is still an hour away. I flip over on my back and look at the bridge, ready to dodge the windsurfers all around me.
Richard is on the shore, giving me a thumbs-up, while Bryn runs in the surf. She'll go out only so far, then race back onto the beach. I didn't reckon on the other dogs, though -- the Labradors who swim out to retrieve me.
The gamble has paid off -- the decision to get the 1mm suit instead of a 4mm -- I'm cold but not that cold, and as flexible as if I'm in the pool at the Y.
But I'm not inside, paddling down a lane shared with four others, the smell of chlorine and chemicals clinging to my hair, suit, skin. I'm outside in the Bay under the sun, and it doesn't feel like exercise at all.
The Bend and Snap Wetsuit Workout, part 2
Act 2, Scene 1.
Place and Time: Sunny Sausalito Saturday morning.
Location: The Harbor Dive shop.
Specific Location: The small, airless, hot dressing room.
Richard is propping the door open, letting in a breeze but blocking the view, as she inches the fourth wetsuit of the day (8 total in two days) up her body. There are products that help wetsuits go on quickly and easily, but you can't use them until you buy the suit.
His foot still against the door, he helps with the final "ootching" and zips her up. "Well," he says, "what do you think?"
Robin reaches for the ceiling, makes a windmill, then touches her toes. She looks back at the first of the day's herculean efforts, the super-thin triathlon wetsuit. It's the Xcel Xpedition 1.5/1.0/0.5 TriDensity suit. The arms and legs are 0.5 millimeters, between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick, 0.0196850394 inches priecisely. Over the torso, the neoprene and titanium increases to 1.5 mm, just over a 1/2 inch thick, helping reflect heat back towards internal organs.
Most wetsuits range from 1.0 to 9.5 or 10-mm, so the Xcel is one of the thinnest suits on the market, suitable for tropical scubadiving or triathlete swimming. Janine scubadives in a 3mm and 7mm, and Justin swims in a 4/3 (4 torso, 3 arms and legs).
She points to the thin one: "I like that one best, it's the most comfortable, has the most flexibility, and is the cheapest. But the guy helping me says I'll freeze in these waters."
Richard puts the point on it: "But you're the one who has to wear it; what do you think?"
Robin thinks she'll be okay, but then she's an optimist. They put the 1-mm suit on hold and return the next day, leading us to:
Act 2, Scene 2: Sunny Sausalito Sunday, the dive shop.
Robin has talked to Richard, Janine the scuba-diver, and others. She's ready to gamble that constant swimming in the thin suit will keep her just warm enough.
Suit and booties in hand, Robin returns to the Pathfinder, man and dog waiting inside. It's off to the beach! With a stop for lunch.
The Bend and Snap Wetsuit Workout
(grinding disco music pumping in the background)
Bend pinch pull snap!
Bend pinch pull snap!
Ever tried on four wetsuits in a single evening?
Oh, the horror.
"Does the crotch fit? Push it waaay up into the crouch. Make a smiley face down there, that's right! We'll get your husband to help you for a while."
"What about your arm pits? Pull the sleeves up, I need full motion for her pits. All the body grooves should be filled. How are your breasts? Supported, feel good?"
"How's your rear, you're not saggy in the rear are you?"
I've lived here almost 2 years and keep meaning to buy a wetsuit and swim in the Bay or Ocean every day. I think this is why I keep putting it off for hiking, biking, swimming at the Y, sleeping late, etc. The agony of all the wetsuits.
My favorite from tonight was an "O'Neill" surf suit -- not as heavy as a wet suit. Like the model here except for a woman. He's not so much sporting the smiley face, but I damned sure was.
It's on hold at the Sports Basement. I'm going to try some more on tomorrow, God help us all.
Bend pinch pull snap! Works every time...
First fruits
The tomato plants are ripening -- much of the fruit is small, but some of them are getting big. This is our first experience growing "Fog City" tomatoes in the foggy city. We put three seedlings in a large bucket-pot a couple of months ago, and the plants have grown larger and broader than we expected. The plant is intensely aromatic. Not sure what the fruit will actually taste like (Richard's concerned the first crop will be tough and sour), but this first little one is beautiful.
Bryn likes the way it smells.
Seminary to teach women - only - to cook and sew
If only the Apostle Paul had known how to sew, he could have worked as a tent-maker and helped spread the gospel in marketplaces and market-oriented cities all across the ancient world. If only Paul had known how to sew, he could have written about the importance of everybody contributing to their own upkeep, and then demonstrated how to live that out by preaching and teaching about Jesus while making tents. But alas, Paul was a man and therefore banned from learning to sew, and was never able to spread the gospel while he worked, or even to spawn the term "tent-making" to describe the way missionaries can use practical job skills as a way to spread the good news about Jesus. Why? Because men are barred from a seminary course on textile design. His kingdom, lost for the lack of an awl.
If only Jesus had known how to cook, he could have made a meal for his disciples after his resurrection, helping them understand important truths such as serving others and that fact that he had a corporeal body. If only Jesus had understood "meal preparation," he might have been able to multiply loaves and fish to feed thousands. If only Jesus had understood "the value of a child," he might have been able to welcome children, call them to him, and embrace them. If only Jesus had understood "the value of a child," his disciple Matthew might have been able to write something like: Jesus said, "Don't stop children from coming to me! Children like these are part of the kingdom of God." But alas and alack! Jesus was not allowed to take a three-hour seminary course of "the value of a child," nor the seven hours of "nutrition and meal preparation," and so the children went unvalued in his kingdom, and the hungry went unfed.
Why oh why must the rigid Baptist seminaries give only women the tools to make the keys of the kingdom? Men are consigned to the degrading role of preaching, which scripture tells us is a snare, while women only are taught the skills and values that make it possible to show the love of God. When will these feminazis relinquish their stranglehold on the Southern Baptist seminaries of America and allow men to begin to practice publicly the things that Jesus and Paul taught?
Let those who have ears to hear, hear my irony. Actual news story follows. Google it if you don't believe me.
Baptist seminary to offer homemaking for women only
By Rose French, Associated Press
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2007-08-11-homemaking_N.htm
NASHVILLE — The Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary offers coursework in Greek and Hebrew, in archaeology, in the philosophy of religion and — starting this fall — in how to cook and sew.
Southwestern Baptist, one of the nation's largest Southern Baptist seminaries, is introducing a new academic program in homemaking as part of an effort to establish what its president calls biblical family and gender roles.
It will offer a bachelor of arts in humanities degree with a 23-hour concentration in homemaking. The program is only open to women.
Coursework will include seven hours of nutrition and meal preparation, seven hours of textile design and "clothing construction," three hours of general homemaking, three hours on "the value of a child," and three hours on the "biblical model for the home and family."
Seminary officials say the main focus of the courses is on hospitality in the home — teaching women interior design as well as how to sew and cook. Women also study children's spiritual, physical and emotional development.
Yet the program is raising eyebrows among some Southern Baptists, who say a degree concentration in how to be a Christian housewife is not useful, and a waste of seminary resources.
Seminary President Paige Patterson, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, which has its executive committee headquarters in Nashville, said wives of seminary students asked for the homemaking courses. The program was approved by seminary trustees in the fall.
"We are moving against the tide in order to establish family and gender roles as described in God's word for the home and the family," Patterson said at the denomination's annual meeting in June. "If we do not do something to salvage the future of the home, both our denomination and our nation will be destroyed."
Terri Stovall, dean of women's programs at Southwestern, which has its main campus in Fort Worth, said the purpose of the program is to strengthen families.
"Whether a woman works outside or strictly in the home, her first priority is her family and home," she said. "We just really want to step up and provide some of these skills."
Stovall said the homemaking degree is one of 10 women's programs at the seminary and is "only targeted to women whose heart and calling is the home."
A description of the homemaking program on the seminary's website says it "endeavors to prepare women to model the characteristics of the godly woman as outlined in Scripture.
"This is accomplished through instruction in homemaking skills, developing insights into home and family while continuing to equip women to understand and engage the culture of today."
The Rev. Benjamin Cole, pastor of Parkview Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, and a frequent Southern Baptist critic, wrote about the homemaking program on his blog.
"At first it was almost incredible to me," Cole said. "I thought this is not happening. It's quite superfluous to the mission of theological education in Southern Baptist life. It's insulting I would say to many young women training in vital ministry roles.
"It's yet another example of the ridiculous and silly degree to which some Southern Baptists, Southwestern in particular, are trying to return to what they perceive to be biblical gender roles."
Patterson took a leading role in the 1980s in a successful campaign to oust moderates from leadership posts in the Southern Baptist convention. While he was president of the convention from 1998 to 2000, Southern Baptists issued a statement that women should not be pastors and that wives should "graciously submit" to their husbands.
In 2003, when Patterson left his post as president of North Carolina's Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary to serve as Southwestern's president, he was asked whether women would teach in the seminary's theology school under his leadership.
"The New Testament is crystal clear that pastors are to be men," he said.
In March, a former Southwestern professor filed a federal lawsuit against the school and Patterson, alleging she was fired from her tenure-track position because she was a woman.
Professor Sheri Klouda was hired in 2002 and was the only woman to teach at the School of Theology. But last spring, school officials informed Klouda that her contract was terminated because she was "a mistake that the trustees needed to fix," the lawsuit states.
Patterson's wife, Dorothy Patterson, is the only woman faculty member now teaching in Southwestern's theology school.
David Key, director of Baptist studies at Emory University's Candler School of Theology, said part of the reason why the seminary may be introducing the new homemaking program is in reaction to the Klouda lawsuit.
"Women continue to make more inroads into traditional male bastions, which could be provoking Patterson to do this," Key said. Patterson is "trying to draw the line in the sand of where women need to be."
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, also offers programs for women, including a 13-hour certificate of ministry studies. Required courses cover child-rearing, "God's plan for marriage," and managing a budget.
Key said neither seminary will allow women to be pastors, but notes that Southern hasn't "articulated homemaking like Patterson."
"Southern at least appears to realize the realities of modern day life — that often times husbands and wives must both work outside the home to support the family," said Key.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Soccer dog
Franklin-Simpson High's Austin Perkins has the ball taken away by a black Lab during a soccer scrimmage in Franklin, Ky.
Lucie Aubrac
It's a must see.
