"It's hard to dance with the devil on your back"

I remember a little boy with great determination. Maybe I never knew how much but there were glimpses.  One night when he was 7 years old (7 or 8) I went in to check on him, way after bedtime. He was wide awake working on something on a legal pad. Numbers were everywhere. Before I could get out the parental fuss about needing sleep he was asking with a most serious face why he couldn't find the answer, or get it to check. It was suddenly obvious he wasn't going to rest until it was figured out. It turned out to be a long division problem. He was trying to divide a four digit number into a string of numbers.

Parent class had not prepared me for this. When a child violates a rule, in this case bedtime, take a way the toy he's using and put him in timeout. At nearly midnite??? I could just see it... "Alright kid, give me the math!" So I asked if he wanted help but he didn't. He wanted to understand and solve it. And eventually did an hour later. And was asleep within minutes.

So when I read his blog about the St. Catharines, the determination I saw wasn't a surprise. Neither was the result.

 Props, WAC. Your Hudson is faster than a 773. I did stop by the boathouse this evening and joined your race vicariously. From powerlines to dock, full out, 3 minutes. I stayed right with you until the starting flag fell.