A Grand Day!

Hope everyone survived St. Patrick's Day unscathed. We did the traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner here with family. We were nine for dinner and went through a ton of food. But, happily, there's still a ton left! That was just the end to a great St. Patrick's Day. No, we didn't go to the parade or anything. Maggie and I horned in on my sister and her husband as they revived an old St. Patricks' Day tradition from my family.

The day started typically enough. Maggie and I were up early just hanging around. It was still a bit dark. My sister Joni started texting me pictures. She and her husband Vince were in the middle of San Francisco Bay in a rowboat. They were piloting the Coghlan Beach Swim for the South End Rowing Club.

I've written about Coghlan Beach before, It's named after my dad, Frank Coghlan, but really only the Bay Swimmers call it that.  (check out the story Maggie World: Coghlan Beach). Joan and Vince were in a rowboat watching out for the swimmers in the water. Here's Coghlan Beach from the rowboat and a stunning picture of Ghiradelli Square

                                                                              

She also sent pictures of the two of them in the boat. 

It just looked freezing, so I sent her this picture in return.

  


Still I was impressed with their adventure and  decided Maggie and I needed to get down there for the presentation of the St. Patrick's Day Shillelagh.  This is something my dad used to do after the Coghlan Beach swim. The shillelagh was presented to the winner of the swim and my brother in law, who is also a member of the South End, was going to make the presentations. 


Maggie had been fed and was all dressed. Steve and Tim were still asleep so we just took off. By the time we got there the swim was over and the breakfast/award ceremony was beginning.Vince gave a great speech about my dad and the history of the swim. He commended the swimmers for braving the 51degree water, stating he knows his cold limit is 53 degrees. (Ay yi yi!) People were excited that two of Frank Coghlan's daughters and one granddaughter (Maggie) were there. It was cool

I hadn't been in that club in about 20 years and I forgot how cool it is. There are all these beautiful rowboats and various swimmers and rowers all around in various states of undress. They are definitely characters. Different faces than I remember, but the same type of individuals. It's also cool that there are a ton of pictures of my dad on the walls.

That gave St Patrick's day the right feel. 
 

Saturday Stroll

 Maggie and Steve and I decided to head down to Coghlan Beach for a walk this morning. The nice weather of earlier in the week is changing, and we don't want to waste any good days before the storm comes in tomorrow. Man oh Man. I would say that storm is a' comin  because the wind was howling at the end of that spit of land behind the Marina Green and harbor.  We stayed about 30 seconds because it was too much to handle. Of course I can get a picture in about 5 seconds, but I had to make sure those brakes were firmly locked in place.

Steve ran about 1/4 mile back to get the car so we could get Maggie out of the wind ASAP. All of us were having a hard time, though she had her game face on. As soon as we got home, though Maggie just started to cry. It really was overwhelming. And not just for us. It looked like a couple of sailboat were getting a little overwhelmed as well.  . 

Windy, but Beautiful. 

Maggie is happier now.

Deep Breath for Monday!

I have to admit I'm a little relieved to see Monday arrive after such a busy weekend. We have a long boring week at home now. Good for me, not good for Maggie. I have to make sure we get out every day or she will go out of her mind. It's a balance, though. We can't go out too much; Summer school starts next week and she has a ways to go before she could attend school.

Maggie's health is improving everyday. She is still needing supplemental oxygen, but the amount has decreased. She can't quite get over the hump and kick the habit, but we will continue to try. We measure her "sat" or the oxygen saturation in her blood. Normal healthy folk have a sat between 95 and 100%. If we can keep Maggie above 92, she doesn't need supplemental oxygen.

When she was her sickest last week the O2 was going full blast. If it was off for a second the numbers would drop immediately and precipitously. (like down to the 70s) Now I remove it for 20 minutes or so and she hovers in the high 80's. She's getting there. She is building her stamina but it takes a while after such a nasty infection. She just doesn't have the capacity yet.

Steve was in bed for three days last week presumably with the same bug. I was hit Friday afternoon, but on me it's just a bad head cold. I still made it to Coghlan Beach, for a drink with some friends and to two graduation parties, but I took a lot of naps and drank a ton of water. If I hadn't gone out to all of those things I'd probably be over it, but each was important to me. 

Maggie stayed in most of the weekend, but she made the trek on Sunday when we returned to Coghlan Beach to show my sister Mary the new sign. The path is newly accessible so we thought Maggie should get to come. Her grandfather would love this shot. (But looking at it made me realize how pale she still is, even though she's wearing the oxygen.)

Maggie had a great time getting out and it seemed to invigorate her a bit. We will have outings every day this week even as we launch "operation lung capacity." It will be good for both of us.

Maybe I can ditch the afternoon nap.

Weary Weekend Warrior

I am wiped out from all the extra work caring for Maggie this week. She is improving every day, but still needs supplemental oxygen. That requires extreme vigilance by us because she yanks the tube off at least 20 times an hour. At this point she is strong enough that she doesn't get into trouble immediately if it's off, but she will not improve without the extra "O's". The poor kid is bored out of her mind. I did tell her I would take her to school today to visit becasue it's the last day. She is out of her mind with excitement over that. She keeps making her talker say "mom, mom I am happy I go to school please mom." Over and over and over again. Like 30 times in the past ten minutes.

Darling.

Steve is also sick and has been for three or four days. We assume it's the same virus that put Maggie in the ICU, but we cannot be sure, so I'm keeping him away from her. That means all the extra work falls to me, which is fine, but tiring. Now I feel the tell tale signs of an oncoming headcold. Blargg. Steve was supposed to take his dad out of town for the weekend to celebrate my father in laws' birthday, but Steve's illness postponed that trip. He can barely get out of bed; a road trip is out of the question. He seems to be improving, so if I DO get this, he can take over with Maggie. (We still have to figure out something for my fil's birthday on Sunday).

I can't get sick because there is so much going on this weekend, which will involve alot of family togetherness. It started last night with a a dinner for my mom's birthday. My sisters Kate and Ellen, my brother Pat and I took her to dinner. Then it's graduation parties. My brother's daughter Emma and my sister's son Vinnie both graduated from high school and there are two separate parties, one Saturday and one Sunday. (Emma will attend my alma mater, UCLA, and part of her gift is a vintage UCLA sweatshirt that I have been saving low these 32 years. It even has a small hole near the shoulder. I'm sure she will be thrilled. )

The coolest thing, though is set for later today. There is an officiall/unofficial dedication of "Coghlan Beach"" in honor of my late father, Frank Coghlan. (I wrote about that here http://sfmaggie.blogspot.com/2009/07/coghlan-beach.html#links)  I  say officially/unofficially, because the swimmers form the South End Rowing club are donig this, but they don't own the beach. The sign may be down in a week. Apparently they have contracted the city and officials are interested in the story, but I'm pretty sure that's federal land, so the city doesn't have authority. Even if it does, nothing has been done to get this approved. Sometimes, though, you have to create a reality so that the government can accept it as such. If there's a sign called Coghlan Beach, then that's the name.

This was a last minute thing, but we will head down there for the ceremony. Twenty five bay swimmers will stand around in their speedos, we will affix the plaque and they will all jump in the bay and swim back to the South End Rowing club - a distance of maybe 1.5 miles.

The Coghlan family will wave at them from the shore. My father's prowess as a Bay swimmer apparently skips a generation.

Coghlan Beach

Tuesday was 80 degrees in San Francisco. I was in the house almost the entire day. Wednesday the fog rolled in and it was about 50. I went down to the Bay to take a walk with my son Tim and the dog. Tim laughed when I told him I missed the beautiful weather and was out in the fog. He told me I was very San Franciscan. Maybe I am, but it would have been nice to actually SEE the Bay while we were walking.

We went to Crissy Field, which is a great walking spot and is dog friendly. Much of is it wheel chair friendly, so I go there with Maggie frequently. She was at school today so we went off the trail a bit. The Golden Gate Bridge towers over Crissy field and you feel like you are walking in a postcard. Not today, of course. It was so fogged in you could not even see the bridge. We headed in the direction away from the Bridge. When we hit the yacht club, I said, “Let’s go to Coghlan Beach.” We just looked at each other and grinned.

Coghlan Beach is a small sandy beach at the end of a spit of land that forms the outer edge of the harbor behind Marina Green in San Francisco. I am told that at high tide it disappears completely, but every time I have been there, it is visible. There are probably fewer than 300 people in the world that know it is called Coghlan Beach and 250 of those people are past and present bay swimmers. The rest are members of my family. Now all of you know too.

Coghlan Beach is (unofficially) named after my father, Frank Coghlan. (pictured) He was a very well respected bay swimmer. He belonged to the South End Rowing Club (www.south-end.org) for nearly 40 years and swam in the San Francisco Bay almost every day until he was about 80. This includes over 50 swims in from Alcatraz and dozens of swims across the Golden Gate in the tricky and dangerous tides. You have to be a certain type of person to do that. Not just a strong swimmer (that goes without saying) but also an adventurer. A warm-blooded adventurer. Being a little crazy is also helpful.

The beach was named for him after he was pulled in there by the tides during a long swim. He was over a mile from his destination and had to be picked up by one of the pilots. It was so foggy that day he had no idea where he was – he could not see the entrance to the harbor only a few yards away. He stood there in his Speedos and bright orange cap until one of the rowers came to get him. That may be the only time he was every picked up by a pilot boat. He was a VERY strong swimmer and finished what he started.

Needless to say, he received a lot of good-natured ribbing from the other members of the club, especially those much younger than he was. They named the beach in his honor. Though it started out as something of a joke, the name stuck. Every year since then the South End holds the “Coghlan Beach” swim as one of its official swims. I checked the schedule and this year they did it twice, January 11 (brrrr) and the evening of June 5. My dad would have loved both, but especially the January swim.

He was very proud that this beach was named for him. Other than my mom and his family, the two things my father loved most were San Francisco and swimming in the bay. To have a piece of the city – especially a beach - named for him was the best possible honor. My sister Joan went out to Coghlan Beach and gathered some sand, put it in a baggie and brought it to him in the hospital just before he died in early 2007. That made him very happy. Remembering all of that today made me very happy too.

I wonder how we would go about making that name official. My husband has already made the sign and we are ready to go put it up – but it might be better left as it is.

He is a legend.