Jack-in-the-Green Is Busy Today

When I got up this morning and popped open my roommate's laptop, the little weather beacon in the system tray said that it was -4. "Wow!" I thought, "Winter has finally arrived." As I opened a webpage, the sound of wind blowing started emanating from the laptop's speakers. At first I thought it was the page I had opened. It had never made sounds before but perhaps it was a new ad. Once I found that this wasn't the case, I noticed the weather beacon had changed color and now read -16. Colder than a well digger's ass! While the prospect of going out in the cold doesn't thrill me, at least the weather is normal. Milder winter weather has its good aspects - more comfortable and smaller heating bills - but forty some-odd days of above normal temps only serves to remind me that the globe is warming and Wisconsin is on its way to becoming Arkansas as far as average temperatures are concerned.

Stevie and Becca came downstairs and turned on the TV. For some reason, we started watching the Olympics and the event was curling. I have never curled nor even watched it on TV before but I've gotta tell ya that my eyes were glued to the screen. I don't watch much in the way of sports on TV generally and think that people who watch golf should be sent to labor camps as punishment for wasting so much time when they could be out doing good for humanity. And one would think that watching curling would be about as exciting as watching golf but it was a hoot! It was the US men's team versus Germany. There was just something hypnotic about watching the stone slowly slide across the ice and two grown men swept the path before it with all the abandon of Charlie Sheen at a whorehouse. Maybe it was the fact that I used to go to the Silver Dollar frequently where I'd indulge my affinity for shuffleboard. Both Stevie and Becca curled while in high school up in Portage so they gave me a crash course in the game and its terminology. For anyone who wants to learn about the sport, head to CurlTech's Curling School. It goes beyond the grab-a-beer-and-a-broom approach. Like any technical school, there are sections on theory and practice. And there are nice flow charts like this one for Delivery Theory.



For anyone who has a good handle on what to do with the broom, there's Advanced Sweeping.

The US women's team plays this evening and they have a local connection. Maureen Brunt is the lead and she, like my rooomies, hails from Portage, WI. (About 30 miles north of Madison.)

I was going to comment on Bryant Gumbel's stupid comments on the Games but I found that my sentiments have already been expressed by a fellow Madison blogger over at The Daily Aneurysm. Check them out.