Snowboarders, Canadians, Kangaroos, and the Dutch

Just a few random Olympics thoughts as I wait for the epic USA-Canada hockey rematch on Sunday...

1) I noticed that pretty much every snowboarder had a uniform that included a hood. None of them actually wore the hood - they just had it hanging loosely behind their neck. Each time they would do one of those crazy stunts with multiple twists and flips in the halfpipe I would see their hood catching air behind them. The thing was like a little parachute. That thing had to slow them down a bit in the air. If you were competing in a sport where winning ( and your safety ) depended on you completing flips or twists before you landed, why would you want to wear something that would make you a lot less aerodynamic? If I were a snowboarded competing in the halfpipe I would want to wear a skintight uniform like a skier or a speedskater. Of course, snowboarded is supposed to be a "cool" sport, and I guess the snowboarders care more about form than function. Heck, a bunch of them were listening to music on their iPods as they competed. I guess some of them need that music to get amped up, but if I was going to do flips 20 feet in the air, I would want to carry as little excess weight as possible.

2) Speaking of snowboarding, I couldn't help but be a little embarrassed when Australian Torah Bright beat out American Hannah Teter for the gold medal in the halfpipe. As I sit here in a town covered with snow, I can't help but think "How they heck does somebody from the USA lose to an Australian in a sport that involves snow?". That's kind like an Australian losing to an American in a sport that involves kangaroos.

3) I know it's a stereotype that all Canadians are nice, friendly, and polite, but I've got to give credit where credit is due. The Canadian crowd really impressed me during the medal ceremony for women's hockey. Canada has just defeated the USA 2-0 to win the gold. Winning the silver for the American women was pretty much a complete failure. The USA and Canada are far and away the two best women's hockey teams in the world. The American woman's hockey team knew they would only play one competitive game the entire tournament, and they lost that game. So as you might expect, Team USA was quite devastated. There were a lot of tears ( and not tears of joy ) when they received their silver medals. All of a sudden, during this somber scene, you started to hear a chant of "USA! USA! USA!" from the crowd. Now I'm pretty sure supporters of Team USA started the chant, but it looked like the crowd was 90% Canadian ( based on all the red shirts and Canadian flags ), and the chant was loud enough that I've got to imagine that a good number of the Canadian fans joined in. It was almost as if the Canadian fans recognized how upset the American women were, and they were trying to cheer them up.

Now, let me tell you, this would NEVER happen if the roles wear reversed. If Team USA had beaten Team Canada in the the USA, the Canadian team would have been serenaded by a chorus of chants like "Looooooooo-zerrrrrrrs! Loooooooo-zerrrrrrrrrs! Loooooooo-zerrrrrrrrs!" and "Canada sucks! Canada sucks! Canada sucks!" during the entire medal ceremony. You can say a lot of good things about the USA, but you can never say that we are gracious winners. I've got to give the Canadian crowd a lot of credit for showing lots of class.

4) The overwhelming favorite to win the gold medal in the men's 10000 meter speed-skating race was a Dutch guy named Sven Kramer. He was way ahead and on pace to set a new Olympic record when his coach directed him to change lanes on the speedskating track. As it turned out, his coach had told him skate in the wrong lane, and Sven was immediately disqualified from the race.

Let me tell you, Sven seemed REALLY pissed! I mean REALLY REALLY pissed! He took off his goggles and flung them across the ice and he ripped into his coach in the interview after the race. I know I probably shouldn't be surprised by this, but I'm just not used to seeing this from a Dutch guy. I mean, I don't think I've ever heard the expression "that fiery Dutch guy". I mean, people from that part of Europe have a reputation for being rather reserved, and with all the pot they must smoke in that country, I always pictured the Dutch as being a really mellow people. However, I now know that a Dutch guy can loose his cool if you make a stupid mistake to cost him a gold medal in the Olympics and crush his dream. Who knew?

5) About a week ago I commented on this blog post from Neil and told him the following regarding the Canadian men's hockey team:

"I really hope you guys pull it off, even if it comes at the expense of the USA hockey team"

Well Neil, I've given it a bit more thought, and I guess I've got to say that I lied. I found myself jumping in the air when Team USA scored the empty-net goal to clinch the first game against Canada. Sure, I wouldn't really be upset if Canada won on Sunday, and I'd be happy for all the Canadian fans, but I just can't look at a team in those red, white, and blue USA uniforms and root against them.

So, on Sunday, IT'S ON.

IT IS SOOOOO ON!

Rich

Snow Day

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, we had a BIG snowfall on February 10th. The bad knew was that I needed to shovel it that night. The good news was that the boys got the day off from school and got to play in the snow all day. Ruth took a bunch of photos of the boys frolicking in the snow. The pictures came out so nice ( I love how the snowflakes show up as big white circles in the photos! ) that I decided to post of few of them here. I also posted a bunch more on facebook.

Real Love

Today's was Valentine's Day. We'll it's 12:25 AM on Feb 15th right now, but the day I just lived through was Valentine's Day. I'm on vacation with my family this holiday weekend ( Monday is a holiday - President's Day in the USA ). We ran into a really rude kid today and some really inconsiderate people tonight. I was going to tell you all about this and call this post "Rude People", but I decided that writing about that kind of stuff really wouldn't be in the spirit of Valentine's Day. It wouldn't really be in the spirit of love. When I say "love", I mean REAL LOVE, not the sappy kind of romantic love that dominates Valentine's Day. How do I define "Real Love"? Well, to explain this, I'm going to do something I've never done in a blog post before - I'm going to quote from the Bible. I'm not trying to be preachy or anything - I just think the words below describe love ( in a rather universal non-denominational way ) better than anything that was every written.
Anyway, the words in red below are from the 1st letter of Paul to the Corinthians:

If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.

And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.

If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated,

it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing.

For we know partially and we prophesy partially,

but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things.

At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.

So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Ouch

This hasn't been a good week to live on the east coast of the USA. Two blizzards have hit since Friday night. Of course, I guess I shouldn't complain too much. My town got off pretty easy on Friday night. We only got 3 inches of snow while Philadelphia ( just a 67.8 mile drive from us according to Google Maps ) got 28 inches. Washington DC also got more that 2 feet of snow on Friday and one town in Maryland got 39 inches. Today's storm dropped 15-20 inches on a whole bunch of places from Washington D.C. to Boston, and my town was no exception this time. I don't know the official number, but I think we got between 15 and 18 inches. You know that really fluffy light snow that doesn't pack and is easy to shovel? Well, we didn't get that kind of snow. This snow was real HEAVY. I know this because I just finished clearing out our driveway, steps, and the path that leads from the driveway to the steps. The worst part of the job was dealing with the place were the driveway meets the street. When the snowplow goes down the street it pushes all the snow to the side. By the time the snowplow was done, it had left about 4 feet of densely packed snow in from of everybody's driveway. Anyway, I've been dealing with this snow since I got home from work today. It's actually still snowing now, but hopefully the rest of the snow that falls overnight won't stick too much. I put an OBSCENE amount of salt down on the driveway/steps/walkway after I cleared the snow, so hopefully it will all be relatively clear of snow in the morning ( Note: I walk to the train station each day, so I didn't have to worry about driving in this stuff today. However, I wanted to make sure Ruth and the kids could get the car out of the driveway and on to the road if they needed to drive anywhere tomorrow. Ruth is staying home with the boys tomorrow because school is canceled for tomorrow ( It was also canceled today )).
Anyway, I feel extremely sore right now and I'm sure it will feel worse tomorrow. It will sure be nice in about 10 years or so when I'll have 2 strapping teenage sons to help out with snow cleanup. I don't think I'm the type of Dad who would actually force his kids to do that kind of work, but hey, I'll be 50 by then. Assuming I raise my kids to be good people, I would hope they would want to help out their 50-year old Dad. Actually, Michael actually did try to help with the snow shoveling on Saturday morning ( after the 3 inches that fell on Friday ). It was sooooo cute. He had this little shovel, and as I worked on the driveway, he worked on the walkway and steps. Of course, he didn't really get much accomplished ( he is 6, after all ), and he kinda wound up walking on most of the snow and packing it down, which ultimately made it harder for me to get the walkway and the steps completely cleared. But hey, it's the thought that counts, and it was so sweet of him to try and help me out.

OK, enough complaining. I think it's bedtime now.

Rich

We're number 25!

Click on this link and BEHOLD!!!

Cornell University's basketball team is ranked in the top 25.

For the first time in my life I can say that my alma mater has a nationally ranked basketball team.

Did I go to any Cornell basketball games when I was a student there? Well one, but that was only because they were playing against the school one of my friends was going to.

Have I followed any Cornell games on radio or TV this year? Well no, they are never on TV, but I did listen to about 15 minutes of their last game on the internet.

Could I pick any of their players out of a line-up? Nope.

Do I even know any of the player's names? Not Really. I vaguely recall a guy with the last name "Dale"mentioned on the internet broadcast ( or was that the name of the coach in the basketball movie Hoosiers? ).

So, am I being a bandwagon fan of the basketball team? Yes, I am quite shamelessly jumping on the Cornell basketball bandwagon.

Go Big Red! ( Whoever the hell you guys are! )

Hey, it's probably only going to last a week, so I might as well enjoy it while it lasts. :)

Rich