The Head of the Charles Regatta seemed like ages ago this afternoon as we took a leisurely boat ride upstream from the Galleria Mall aboard the Henry Longfellow.  It’s the type of tourist thing a local would seldom enjoy, so I’m grateful to our Wyoming guest, Tom Atkinson, who found the Charles Riverboat Co. on the web and suggested we go.  What fun!  The Longfellow is a handsome wooden boat, 20 years old, and it just barely fits beneath the low bridges of the Charles.

The river was quiet and uneventful, of course, compared with the frenzy of activity a week ago when 7,000 rowers were competing during weather that offered everything except hail and lightning.  Snow? You bet – click here for my video shot from the River Street Bridge. High winds? Of course.  Still, the regatta went on with the full course, despite talk Sunday of shortening it to avoid singles getting swamped in The Basin as they lined up to start.

I’ve had a chance to return to the river in a Cambridge Boat Club single since the regatta, during some sparkling fall days.  Tom’s wife, Tish, took a photo of me near the Hawthorn umpire station, close to our house.  My rowing is still tentative, but I’m feeling more and more at home in the boat and look forward to more lessons in the spring to improve my form.  One of these years I would love to compete in the Head of the Charles myself, in one of those categories for incredibly fit old guys who laugh at snow and stop at nothing.

When I haven’t posted to the blog for a while, I feel a nearly physical pressure to check in here, even when I should be doing something else.  Today is an excellent example, because I have lots to do in my role as umpire transportation guy for the Head of the Charles Regatta. This is the largest two-day rowing event in the world, and there will be more than 100 umpires to transport various places.  So rather that blather on about the beauty and power of trained crews, or the awesome ability of bad weather to change everything, or how cool it is to be able to load info on 100 umpires into my iPhone system, I will bend my attention back to what needs to be done today.  To wit:

1. Revise route map for Umpires’ van for Saturday delivery to the 15 umpire stations.

2. Practice 5-minute explanation of transportation plan for tonight’s all-ump planning meeting at Buckingham, Browne & Nichols School.

3. Doublecheck list of umps in my Address Book on Mac and sync to iPhone.

4. Take 156 copies of “2009 Umpire Transportation Details” handout to Cambridge Boat Club this morning at 9:45 am to meet with fellow Ump Team volunteers Pete Peterson and Polly Whiteside.

5. Get the 15-seat UMP-Van at 11 a.m. at Peter Fuller Rentals and Pre-Owned Car Sales, at 160 Arsenal Street, Watertown.  (Thanks, Jim Cubeta, for great service!)

6. Check the regatta’s Twitter feed regularly. (Search for HOCR here.)

7. Take out-of-state umps from La Quinta at 23 Cummings St., Somerville, to the BB&N meeting.  Don’t forget to bring footstool for easy accessibility to van.

8. When unexpected requests for help arise, always say yes.