Bonspiel

Participated in an intraclub Bonspiel with the Stevens Point Curling Club this weekend. My first bonspiel! Great folks, great fun, well organized. Our team won three and lost one, putting us at the top of the "third event".

A good sport for anyone from 8 - 90. Man, woman, young, old - no one has a serious advantage. A team led by an 82-year-old woman outplayed one of our better teams to win their match. Two teams, each with one leader (skip), two sweepers, one shooter. Everyone throws two rocks. Closest scores. An hour to learn and a lifetime to master. Guards, takeouts, draws, all manner of caroms and angles. How to score 1, 2, 3... while preventing the other team from knocking you out? And yes, it's way more active than you'd think. Not a real workout, but a good blend of zen and hectic sweeping.

Try it.

Snekkevik

First ski race of the season today, a nice 12k classic at Nine-mile. Snekkevik. Great, hilly course. Three inches of light, slow, untracked freshies over a firm base. It was OK for us, the skaters that followed really paid the price.

It made for the week's longest hour. OK, 62 minutes. On the rivet for the first half, I had relatively good kick so could pass people on the uphills and try and hold on the flats. I really had to dig hard to get around some people. Once past, they didn't come back. Had to watch my technique in order to stay efficient and to not show any encouraging weakness to the vanquished. The last guy I passed held behind me by 10 or 15 seconds, and so provided constant incentive not to take the last third to slow. At the end he was closing, I had enough but I stayed steady through the finish straight got it done. Don't know how I'll do this for the four-plus times longer Birke. Yikes.

Wausau's great, excellent turnout and a strong showing by area clubs. It was also a middle and high-school meet, so lots of kids. Good to see skiing a part of the community and the school system. Lots of spirit.

We should get results sometime.

0830: -22F

Bolt the door

Jan 14, 2009 \HAYWARD, Wis. (AP) -- Severe cold blamed for a death in northern Wisconsin is only expected to get more frigid, producing wind chills down to 40 or 50 below zero in the far north, before a warmup starts this weekend.

The cold claimed a victim in Sawyer County, where a 51-year-old sleepwalker died from exposure after wandering from his rural Hayward home early Tuesday. Deputies followed tracks of his bare feet for 190 yards through the snow to find him.

Dave Anderson, 66, who lives outside the city, said his thermometer dipped to minus 22. "It's winter. What the heck? There's not much you can do about it," he said.

Glass Blowers Party

Drove to Foci, a great place to sequester during a nice winter storm. Snow covered roads demanded some creative lane finding on the crowded interstates. Good way to get the juices flowing.

Saw some excellent and fun pieces done by Nolan Prohaska, Andy Shea, Mark Hall. Nolan brought his posse but needed even a few more assistants (total of 6 people actively working the piece!). The branches were scraping around the inside of the glory hole. Go big or go home.

The kegs of Bell’s Two Hearted and Summit EPA encouraged creativity and a freewheeling atmosphere. Exactitude has left the studio. Earlier efforts set us up for a rambunctious piece by Robinson Scott. He had some early struggles making a glass sword. Dropped the hilt, recovered. Dropped again, and again. Abandoned only to have Al Honn and others jump into the breach. Eventually, Robin cooled off and returned to fashion a nice blade. It all culminated in a stunning display of vitricide. Robinson “excalibured” Todd’s sacrificial vase. * Video is BIG MB, you better have BROADband. *

Or, the finished product.

Though I and my skill set felt about six inches tall, it was great to see some top talent in some wild sessions.

New Year Ski

Ran out to Standing Rocks today. Skied there a good few times already this season, it's been a good snow year. But, my first time skating. It's sooooo much faster and funner than classic. And I inhaled about a snow cone's worth of freshies. Decrepit knee recovery is going well so far. We'll see how it feels tomorrow.