Pat's Journal

Skating away on the thin ice of a new day

It's Thursday and I wish it was the weekend already. I've got a bunch of work tasks to do, none of which inspire me. Also found out today that I was signed up for a 5-day course next week, which my boss neglected to mention to me. Luckily I'm not busy, and the course subject is interesting. But it would have been nice to know sooner.

I went out to the Comcast service center at lunchtime today to pick up more cable TV equipment for home. Comcast's network is going nearly all-digital on March 31st, so without the converter boxes I received today, the kids' bedroom TV's would only receive the basic channels - local channels and community access. Comcast said the boxes were free. I hope so. I'm already paying way too much to watch TV, but I'm addicted to all those HD channels, the DVR, and On Demand movies.

Also looking forward to watching the 2010 Winter Olympics. I love the Olympics, and especially the Winter Games, although I don't actually do any of the sports. Figure skating is my favorite winter sport, followed closely by downhill skiing and the bobsled/luge. Speed skating is pretty interesting too. My hometown, West Allis, Wisconsin, near Milwaukee, for years had the only indoor Olympic-size speed skating oval in the U.S. (There are a few others now.) Because of the oval, a lot of famous speed skaters were from my area. My brother went to high school with Dan Jansen (when D.J. was in town), and I knew Dan's older sister - not the one who died. Some other speed skaters from Wisconsin included Eric and Beth Heiden, Bonnie Blair, and Chris Witty.

Now that I live in the MSP area, we have another famous local Olympic athlete to cheer on, Lindsey Vonn. I was bummed to hear yesterday that she injured her shin last week and may not be able to compete in some of the skiing events. Although I just checked the newspapers and after Lindsey took a practice run today she was encouraged that she was able to manage the pain.

We've got a lot of snow on the ground right now. Check out this photo of our house I took this morning:



It's not nearly as much as the East Coast has received this week, but all the small storms and very little melting has added up. My gauge is the crossbar on the swing set in the back yard. Usually the snow does not touch the crossbar. Today the crossbar is about half-covered.

That is all.

Labels: Olympics, snow, TV, work

posted by pat @ 4:53 PM