Edgework....

Road home after school on Thursday, February 18, 2010. The trip took over an hour. Still not much fun with all the ice on city streets. A few close calls, and to the guy in the white BMW, who raced around the corner, on 54th and Irving - "You are a dink." But, even with all the nerves, it is great to be on a bicycle.

I am going to wait until the ice is off the streets a little more.

Yeah, Baby...

Well, well, well. What do we have here? This would be the finals of the Section 5, Class 1A girls hockey game. Breck, in the white jerseys, is beginning to beat our arch-rivals, Blake, like a red-headed step child.

This year we beat Blake earlier in the year on our ice, 4-2. Earlier this month we played at their rink, and we were down 3-1 in the third period, but we rallied for a 3-3. And, like every good story, when we met them in the section finals we won, 3-1. We were just faster, as time and time again Blake defenders had to take down our forwards who were on break aways. It just doesn't get any better than this.

To the 2009-2010 team, I have to say, "THANK YOU". It has been a long time for us to get over this hump. I am looking forward to riding this wave as far as it goes.....

Yahooo

Red Shoulders, Red Tails, Kestrels, and No Camera....

This is your standard red shouldered hawk (Google photo - more on that later).  Yesterday I had the privilege of riding around with my mother and her friend, Elizabeth, and looking at red tails, red shoulders, and even some kestrels, acorn woodpeckers, some yellow-rumped warblers, and heavens only knows what all.

You would think that I would have brought a camera to record some of this goodness, and I did.  Regrettably, the camera I brought is great for wide angle views and is less than zero on bird shots.  Sigh.  What a dope.  I keep wishing my lovely wife, Karyl, was here, as she as the uber lens and she would have really gotten some great shots of all this birds.  

We ended our day with a great meal at the Fremont Cafe.  I had a wonderful sandwich - of barbecue pork in origin and some great bacon and beans.  This was a very popular rest stop.  Good stuff.

Dreams of Spokes and the Back Country

Here is a 1993 2100 Trek.  This is an aluminum frame road bike that a man wants $250 for.  Everyday he runs new ads, so I know he is anxious to part ways with the bike.  I don't really have that flex in my budget, but it would give me a chance to ride around here, which would be a big plus.  My mom, the fiscal conservative, thinks this is a bad move, and it doesn't make a  to of sense.  Stewing over this kept me away a bit longer than I wanted last night.

These are the tough decisions that drive me gork.

Super Bowl, Terrorizing Cessnas & More Snow

So here it is, February 7, Super Bowl Sunday. A pick of who is going to win would be the natural entry at this point. I did read an interesting article about a guy who is using football statistics and math to predict the winners of games. I don't quite know which statistics about defensive backs or weak-side linebackers one would plug in to get useful information. But I like the idea. The guy had his computers play the Super Bowl 10,000 times and it came up with a 51.4% chance that the Colts would win 28-27. That seems closed than I think most people are expecting the game to be.

I noticed this morning's paper was speculating about whether the Saints would try and pound Peyton Manning the way they did Kurt Warner (St. Louis) and Bret Farve (Minnesota). It makes sense. The paper also hinted that some consider the Saints to be dirty. They did take some late shots at Brett, but we still win the game if we don't turn the ball over six thousand times....You can tell I am over it....

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Dreamed last night that I was in a Cessna with Jonathan Chein. He was flying and it where we're in an area that looked like a flooded city. I am a nervous flier, but then Jonathan has to see how slow the plane will go and still make forward progress. I am not amused. Next he tries to see if he can touch the water with the wheels (and not have the whole plan go nose first into the drink).

Fortunately, I think one of my pets rescued me for this amusing side show. I like hanging out with Jonathan, but it was torturous to endure his test of faith.

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I am growing very tired of snow covered streets. I miss my bicycle. Now that it is a bit warmer,

maybe I should just, "buck up Buttercup" and ride around anyways. Hmmm.

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This week Maura found out that she is a National Merit Scholar Finalist. Wow. This is so far from my experience as a student that it is hard to believe that we are related. Winston is a great student and Karyl is a great student - so I guess it is in the genes here and there, but wow. Way to go Maura.

*******

In the twilight between dreams and actually moving it seems like there are a million thoughts to get done. When I finally get to the laptop it is as if my mind is in western South Dakota. Nothing for miles. Too bad to, because it is fun to get things down on paper when they come across the frontier.