Second Curling

We didn't play very well last night. I think it was 12-4; whatever it was, it wasn't good. Still, I'm curling, and continuing to be welcomed back. That feels really, really good.

The game is great, but it truly is the people. Best fraternity I've ever been in, I tell you what.

My disappointment in my play was greatly lessened by the discovery that the curling club has Coffee Crisp candy bars. They're coffee nougat between crunchy wafers, covered in chocolate. I bought 4; I haven't had them in years. 

They're still great. If you can't win, take solace in coffee and chocolate, I say.

Oh The Pain

Years ago I realized that aging meant hurting myself in ways and manners I couldn't expect. Once I turned to answer someone, just a simple twist of the torso, and my back went out. Lovely.

You know how us Catholics like ritual, even quick, brief ones, right? Yesterday I approached a pew in Church and began to genuflect, exactly as I have for years. And I pulled a muscle in my leg.

The muscle on the top of my thigh popped. The pain was awful; I wasn't sure I could get up. Then, of course, I had to sit down, stand up, sit down again, stand up, kneel, blah, blah, blah as Mass went on. Being obstinate, I had to go through all the motions. Irish Catholic guilt is still a real thing, folks.

I may be using a delivery stick when curling tomorrow night. But it does feel better this morning though.

Just Wondering

Is a nuclear powered ship a fission boat?

Yeah, I like that one. Too much, probably. Happy Friday! 

That's Entertainment

I've said before that I don't always understand book reviews. One person on Amazon gave me three out of five stars for my Family Lore blog collection, saying:

There is nothing really to learn from this book other than just reading it as pure entertainment.

Um, Okay. I'm not sure that I was trying to teach anything but merely attempting to entertain as it is. In fact, teaching anything at all was nowhere near the front of my mind in putting that collection together. So, reading a book meant to entertain and admittedly 'pure entertainment' merits only 3 stars out of 5? What's wrong with mere entertainment anyway?

At times I just don't get book reviewers at all.

The Day After the Day After Curling

Today's blog may be a bit heavy on curling jargon, and I hope that non-curlers among my readership will forgive that. But this past Monday I began a new curling season with the Windsor Granite Club. It felt good.

It's subject to be a melancholy year. The Club is almost certainly closing after the 2023-2024 season, which is one of the reasons I decided to play. The Granite Club was *my* Club, so to speak, for around 25 years. When I heard the bad news I simply had to play there once more. A swan song, I guess, which, short of a minor miracle, it will be.

You want to talk about a happy homecoming? I can't tell you how many old friends offered a handshake with a hearty, "Great to have you back, Marty!" as the evening went on. It's humbling, it really is. 

I've said before, here, in fact: Just Stay Away that it's easy not to miss curling. Just don't go to a curling rink. One step onto the ice Monday, one thrown stone coming to rest exactly where I wanted it to, and all the old fire was stoked. Right now kapow.

My skip, a great old friend, wanted me to throw second and call the game. That was amazingly kind and complimentary of him. Once in the Curling House, the 12 foot circle which serves as our scoring target, I found that I was reading the ice very well and must confess that I'm far too pleased with the game I called. Me skip and I only had one serious strategic difference of opinion, but we went with his shot choice and, well, things happen.

I think I threw all right for being rusty; I've only curled two or four games a year recently but my weight (the force put into delivering the curling rock) felt good. By my count I only badly missed two shots; the other 14 were at the least useable. I pitched one pretty wide. That's been a problem of mine for most of my career.

We finished second 10-7 but won four ends. The guys around me played well. I was not and am not anywhere near as sore as I expected to be. I'm achy but that's about it. I think it helped that I made a concession to reality and bought a delivery stabilizer which allowed me to use my left arm to help hold my lard bucket self upright while throwing a stone, taking pressure and thus future pain from my legs. Of course, now all the Internet wants to show me are ads for delivery stabilizers, but that's another story.

So the verdict? I'm looking forward to next Monday. Very much indeed.

Carbonation Connoiseur

When I was drinking beer, I became familiar with many different styles and brands of that fermented beverage. But I don't drink anymore. I've adopted another drink: flavored carbonated water. Somewhat like beer, I discovered that there are many flavor options in that area.

The absolute best I've found is WalMart's Orange Cream. It tastes just like those old orange cream ice creams we ate out of toilet paper rolls as kids. Push Pops, I think they were called, because there was a plastic stick which you used to force the ice cream out. WalMart has a Red, White, and Blue mix of fruit flavors which is good too.

If Dollar General is to your liking, their house brand (Cloverdale, I think?) has a blood orange carbonated water which is outstanding. I had never heard of a blood orange, and I still haven't actually sought out and tasted one. But I like the artificial flavor of blood orange. DG's black cherry is great too.

Family Dollar's house brand, Silver Falls, has a strawberry kiwi water which is almost in a class by itself. They have a wild cherry which is great as well. Aldi's has a couple flavors of carbonated water too, but as I'm not at Aldi's very often I can't think of their flavors this minute.

Wait! Yes I can! Cranberry. They have a cranberry which is well worth the 64 cents per liter.

So there you have it. Everything is competitive and innovative these days, including carbonated waters. I'm having a good time discovering that.

Already Feeling It

Tonight I play my first regular season curling game in, I think, 6 years. I've played occasionally during that time, perhaps 2 or 4 matches a year, and I'm looking forward to it. For one, there's the anticipation of the routine of curling once a week. Two, it'll be great to see the guys again. Then there's the pain I will almost surely be in come Tuesday morning.

Okay, I'm not exactly looking forward to the oncoming aches. Yet they are oncoming and I do feel them. It's not unlike when you drop a hammer. There's that instant before impact where your toe already hurts. Similarly, both my legs feel sore right now and game time is 15 hours away as I write.

Wish me luck. We'll see what tomorrow actually brings, uh, tomorrow. Maybe it won't be too bad. Pain killers are pretty good these days.