Weekly Ephemera #172

I haven't been very good at writing lately.  I have skipped several Weekly Ephemera posts and I have not documented important things in my life such as the family funeral in Texas.  I have been ... out of my rhythm since the beginning of the year.  I am catching up, slowly but surely.  Hopefully I will re-find my groove sometime soon.

• March Madness (college basketball) started this week so the Wife has hidden away in the she-shed watching multiple games simultaneously.  I have putzed around upstairs, mostly watching "The Repair Shop" on the Roku channel.
• Since I last reported my walks, I have only walked seven times totalling 48.3 miles (77.8 km).  I have struggled to walk longer distances and consistently during the week.  I think I am running into a situation where my diabetic medication may be reducing my energy.  I have noticed that, when I eat more carbs, I feel better on my walks.  Perhaps the medication is finally kicking in and lowering my blood sugar.  It does seem to have lowered my weight as I've dropped five to seven pounds since I started taking it.
• This week I have to take the car in for an oil change after putting over six thousand miles on it in the last couple months.  I also have an MRI scheduled to get my prostate imaged.

Have a good day! ... Take a smile.

Weekly Ephemera #169

Last weekend was a bit busy so I missed  a weekly update so this one will include some of last week.

• Last weekend the Wife's aunt and cousins visited from Florida.  They treated us to a Creighton men's Basketball game.  Unfortunately, my sports curse which had disappeared seems to have returned and Creighton lost.

Creighton vs Saint John

• This weekend the Wife hosted Bread Camp for her niece's husband and five year old son.  She taught them how to make different types of dough with their bread machine and made homemade pizza for dinner.
• We have finalized the bones of our next three trips.  The first will be a road trip after the Winter Olympics around Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and California.  The second is just under two weeks in Cape Town, South Africa at the end of July.  The last is a month-long trip to Paris, northern France, Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Belgium.  We have quirky things planned for all three of these trips, which I will document in posts prior to our travel dates.
• Over the last two weeks I walked four times for a total of 30.7 miles (49.4 km).  I missed a couple of walking days due to the visits.

Weekly Ephemera #151

The last three weeks have been quiet, and my Weekly Ephemera posts reflect this.  This last week was just as quiet as the last.  I'm OK with this as I know there is some travel coming soon.  Anyway, this is what my week was:

• We have a vole (or possibly a mouse) living in one of our succulent pots.  Every time I water, it jumps out and nearly scares me to death.  Earlier this week, I spread some vole poison in the pot.   Yesterday, when I watered the pot, it jumped out again, and this time I swear I saw six legs.  I'm guessing it was mama vole carrying baby vole. More poison will be going into the pot.  I suspect when it's time to bring the pots in for the winter that succulent pot will be getting dumped out.
• College football has started up again so Saturdays, the Wife will be in the she-shed, enjoying some sports ball.
• My walking streak is continuing.  I walked three times this week, totaling 23.8 miles (38.3 km).  The walk on Wednesday nearly killed me.  Not sure why but I suspect it was a combination of the high humidity and the fact that the sun came out after several days of overcast.  This coming week will have much nicer weather for walking.
• This week we subscribed to Apple TV+.  I have at least five series to catch up on and a couple that I may start.  This week I watched "For All Mankind" season four.  All I can say is I wish this was the timeline I was living in.  I then watched "Severance" season two, which I also liked, though not sure I would like to live in that timeline.
• A while back I promised a Camino pictures post.  I'll try to get that done this week.

Weekly Ephemera #135

• I got back the prostate biopsy that was taken during my kidney stone removal.  Unlike my first biopsy, performed in 2022, which found no evidence of prostate cancer, this biopsy showed Gleason score 6 prostate cancer in two of the twelve samples.  The Gleason score goes from 6 to 10 with 6 meaning low/very low risk of growth/spreading of the cancer.  The suggested treatment for this is watchful waiting.  I will likely get biopsies annually from now on and my PSA will be monitored.  If the Gleason score goes up, further treatment will likely be necessary.  That said, it could take years for the cancer to progress, so I consider this just another sign of aging.
• Spring is quickly approaching and some of the first signs are making an appearance.  This week several Robins, Redwing Blackbirds, and Mourning Doves made their first appearance in our backyard.
• Pre March madness madness has arrived at the Homer's Travel's household and the Wife will be spending some quality time in the She-Shed until all this basketball craziness is over.
• I went for a walk this week.  I kept it short since only a week had passed since my kidney stone procedure.  Due to some very mild discomfort (probably because of the temporary stent inserted during the kidney stone removal) I decided to hold off on walking until I get the stent removed later this week.  I still managed to walk 5.6 miles (9.0 km).
• I hope everyone has a happy and safe Saint Patrick's Day tomorrow.

Great Britain 2024 - Part Four - Are You Ready For Some Futball!?!

Day Nine - 20 September

Today was going to be our most complex travel schedule  involving Uber, taxis, three trains, and our first tube ride.  The Uber picked us up outside Saint James Church in Cooling and dropped us at the Chatham train station.  Here the Wife did her good deed of the day by giving some money to a lady you was trying to get her son to school.  The guard at the turnstile was being a raging dickhead.  The lady got her young son on the train and was kind enough to give us the change she got back after buying the ticket.  (I admit I thought she was scamming but the return of the change proved me wrong.)

The first train took us to London.  From there we had to take the tube to another station.  It took me awhile to figure out the tube map (they really needed an information person there).  We got on the tube with our massive luggage and made the one stop trip to the next station without issue.  Our second and third trains went without a hitch and we took a taxi from the Wrexham train station to our hotel.

Wrexham Mural from TV.

While checking in we discovered that the Wrexham AFC (Association Football Club) store closed in about twenty minutes and it was a fifteen minute walk.  We dumped our bags in our room and headed out.  Google maps, ofc, steered us the wrong way - operator error most likely.  We ran into a young man - a college student I presume - and he pointed us in the right direction and walked with us most of the way.  A nice fellow.  We arrived at the store with a few minutes to spare and bought some Wrexham AFC merch.

For those who are not acquainted with Wrexham Futball, you should try to watch "Welcome to Wrexham" to catch up.  We stopped at the Turf Pub next to the Racecourse stadium for a pint and diet coke.  The Wife got a picture with the pub owner who has appeared in the show.  They seemed to be filming something for the upcoming season here.  Unfortunately the Wife or I are probably not in the background.  From the pub we walked to a mural seen in the show before returning to our hotel.

Day Ten - 21 September

Miner's lamp.

We put on our Wrexham kit and went to breakfast.  Turns out the opposing team was staying at our hotel. The Wife humorously confronted a couple in opposing colors.  We all smiled without starting a fight.

We walked to the stadium and went to the new Fan Zone that was recently added and was included with our tickets.  We got some drinks, listened to some music, and chatted with the locals.  One guy, a retired miner from Wrexham, was carrying a miners lamp.  Turns out today was the day before the ninetieth anniversary of the Gresford mining disaster.  The wife was checking out the line to the special appearances (players would show up to get pictures taken).  While she was gone I was chatting with the miner.  He asked where I was from and what was my Wife's name and stuff like that.  When the wife came back he said hello to her by name and asked about Nebraska.  The Wife was all WTF?!?  He was a funny guy and everyone we met in Wrexham were friendly.

The Futball match was fun.  The wrexham fans are a rowdy bunch and songs were sung throughout the entire match.  Wrexham won 2-1.  In the last fifteen minutes of the game it started to rain.  During the last minute or two the skies opened up.  The Wife and I had our raincoats on as we walked back to our hotel through what we would call 'a gully washer' back home.  Up until now we'd had near perfect weather.  This rain would mark a change in our weather luck.

The first goal of the day - Wrexham of course.

The next day we would leave for a more Shakespearean destination.

Pictures can be found in my 2024-09 Great Britain Google Photos album.

Weekly Ephemera #113

• This week it felt good to slide into the comfort of a familiar routine.  The events of this summer had shattered my routine and the world feels like it is finally returning to 'normal'.
• I walked three times this week.  This is like the first time I've done three long hikes in a week since March.  Each walk was longer than the last.  It felt really good pushing the distance up though I may have over done it as my legs are still stiff and achy as I post this.  I walked 27.9 miles (44.9 km) this week with the last walk being over eleven miles.  Since our return from the Wife's Camino in June 2023 I have only walked double digit miles four times.  This is so unlike me.  I expect not to walk this coming week as we are leaving the country (more about this later this week).
• On Friday tickets for the Wrexham soccer game we were hoping to attend went on sale.  The Wife got up at 3:45AM to try to buy tickets.  She had joined the Wrexham Fan Club to get early access to ticket sales.  She finds out that her membership only entitles her to one ticket per game so, over the next two hours, she buys a membership for me, links the two accounts (this consisted of trying to call the office in Wales and eventually required an email to the ticket office who responded incredibly fast), and purchased two tickets for the game.  During those two hours the Wife was watching the number of available tickets shrink.  It was very nerve wracking for the Wife ... I slept through the whole thing.  Thanks to the Wife - It's going to be fun!
• I got my COVID and Flu vaccinations this weekend.  I know, the COVID shot was like closing the barn door after the horse got out but I got it anyway.  Both of my arms are sore though the COVID arm is more sore than the flu arm.
• We finally caught up on all the episodes of "Alone" and "Alone: Australia".  The Wife switched to college football and I returned to "One Piece".  I'd watched up to around episode three hundred back in February.  I've reached episode four hundred.  Only seven hundred-ish episodes to go.  It's a fun show and is nice background noise.
• While surfing the socials I came across a link to a short story by Andy Weir (the author of "The Martian").  It is very interesting, thought provoking, and worth the read.  It's only a couple pages long and you can check it out here.  You can also watch a reading with animation on YouTube.

Weekly Ephemera #100

This probably shouldn't be an ephemera post as it's pretty significant but I'm afraid if I dedicate a whole post to it, it would become a rambling 'poor me' screed.  Anyway, here is the week that was:

• My mom's back and sciatic leg pain is progressively getting worse and it is getting harder for her to get around.  She is scheduled for surgery on the 8th of July but tomorrow we are going to contact the neurosurgeon to see if it can be moved up.  The surgery may help ... or it may not.  The only way to know is to have it done.
• Due to Mom's worsening condition, I decided that I would not be going on the Wife's Camino.  After consideration she too decided to cancel the Camino for this year.  We are both, to say it mildly, a bit bummed but neither of us would have enjoyed it if we were continuously worrying about how Mom was.  I also think me being close by gives Mom a sense of comfort.  The Camino has been around over one thousand two hundred years.  It will still be around next year.  We just need to hold our aging bodies at bay a little longer.
• Before we postponed the Wife's Camino we deep cleaned the house.  The Wife's Aunt and Cousins were/are going to use our house while we were away but now we will be hosting them.  They will be going to the College World Series and visiting old friends in Omaha next week.  I have never seen the Wife clean so deeply.  Three plus hours for just one room.  I did my part but my piddly attempts at deep cleaning paled in comparison.
• One of the things I did was clean the windows.  A day or so afterwards a robin flew into the window so hard it left a splat of ... something disgusting ... before dropping dead to the patio. When I removed the carcass it left a bloodstain on the concrete.  I will have to rewash that window.
• Between cleanings I watch some more "Doctor Who" which, after a very sloppy start, has gotten better.
  
  In the evening the Wife and I have started watching "Alone".  There are ten seasons (the eleventh season starts this week).  I'm pretty sure I would tap out before I even got on the boat.

Weekly Ephemera #91

• The Wife got me on April Fools day.  She said she was having second thoughts about redoing the bathroom and she wanted me to cancel the job with the contractor.  I totally fell for it as you could tell by the hybrid confused and panicked face I made.
• We went to our local home improvement store and bought the tile, toilet mechanisms, lights, and mirrors for our bathroom remodel - the one we are not canceling.
• Mom had several doctors appointments ... most of them not really necessary but required by a doctor or insurance company policy.
• We went to see Peter Frampton on Wednesday as I posted about here.
• On Thursday night we went to see the Omaha Supernovas, our local women's pro volleyball team.  We got tickets from one of the Wife's friends and we had a good time seeing them win against the Columbus, OH Fury three sets to one.  A few crappy pictures can be seen in my 2024-04-04 Supernovas Volleyball Google Photos album.
  
  

  

  The Supernovas are in white and blue.

• I did not walk this week due to all the appointments this week.  I had an opportunity to walk on Wednesday but instead I went down to the she-shed and took a nap.  I expected it to last an hour but I woke up nearly three hours later.  I guess I was tired.

Weekly Ephemera #89

• On Tuesday the Wife and I met with our travel agent to go over our fall trip to England and Wales.  Originally we were going to include Scotland but after going over the transportation options our agent pointed out Scotland could be three to four weeks on its own.  Since we wanted to limit it to only three to four weeks for the whole trip we decided to postpone Scotland, possibly combining it with Ireland.
  
  For those who are curious, the only thing we are interested in doing in Wales is going to see a Wrexham Match.  If you are asking why take some time to watch "Welcome to Wrexham".
• I walked three times this week which was what I was hoping to do.  I managed a respectable 20.3 miles (32.7 km).  My individual hikes are still too short and increasing the distance is my new goal.
• I watched "Harley Quinn" this week.  It's a raunchy, irreverent, and very funny animated series centered on a Batman Villain. Not recommended for young children.  I'm enjoying it.  I have one more season to go.
• The Wife, after returning from the Big East basketball tournament on Sunday has been submerged fully in the Madness of March.  It's been quiet upstairs ... and intermittently noisy in the She-Shed.

Weekly Ephemera #87

• On Monday we met with our tile guy who took measurements and gave us an estimate.  It will be up to us to buy the tile.  This guy did the stone on our fireplace while I was hiking the Appalachian trail.  He did a great job then (even though I had reservations about doing this job but the Wife won that one) and I expect he will go another great job in our bathroom.
• I hiked twice this week.  I was hoping for three times but the will petered out by the end of the week.  In total I hiked 16 miles (25.9 km).  I think the brief snow we had overnight Friday just made me want to hunker down even though it was all gone by the end of the day.
• While I hunkered I decided to start watching stuff on HBO/MAX.  The Wife had been binging shows for a week or so already and I figured I needed to watch my stuff before the month ended.  I started with "The Last of Us".  I liked this post-apocalyptic series but I didn't like it as much as I expected.  I think this is because I watcher thirteen seasons of The Walking Dead (and several seasons of one of its spinoffs).  As I watched "The Last of Us" I couldn't help to notice the parallels between the two shows.  This made "The Last of Us" feel less original and more like a copy.
  
  Next I started on seasons three and four of "Doom Patrol".  I look forward to these.
  
  Now a minor rant.  I was going to watch "Titans", a live action version of the Teen Titans comics.  It is an HBO/MAX exclusive.  When I looked it up it said it had four seasons.  When I dug deeper I realized that only season one was available on HBO/MAX.  WTF?!?!  Either you show all four seasons of the show that you own and created or you do not show any of it.  I do not understand what HBO/MAX is thinking.  This continued with "Westworld".  I wanted to watch season four but the entire show was gone.  Another show, only available to HBO/MAX, taken away from us.  (Both of these series can be purchased on DVD or Digital but they really should be included in the relatively expense HBO/MAX subscription.)
• If you live in the United States (or other daylight saving time followers) I hope you've turned you clocks ahead an hour.  Can't wait when this crappy practice ends ... hopefully in my lifetime.
• This coming week is an exciting one for the Wife.  She is flying to New York with some of her ex-students' family to attend the Big East Men's basketball tournament.  She is soooo excited.  I am so happy for her.  She will have a fun time.  Having Saint Patrick's day happen when she's there is the cherry on the sundae.

Weekly Ephemera #83

• The highlight of last week was a concert at the CHI Health Center.  It was an awesome performance of two great bands.  I will be posting about this tomorrow.

The John Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge from the CHI Health Center parking lot.
The bridge crosses the Missouri River.

• I walked twice this week. I ended up doing 11.4 miles (18.3 km) which is less than I want but I am having a hard time getting started this year.
• We are watching the Super Bowl tonight.  The Wife will watch the game and I will watch the commercials ... And the Taylor Swift sightings.  This assumes that I pay attention.
• In health news, next week I will be going to the oral surgeon to see if they can remove this unwanted tooth.  Not sure they will do it during this visit or if the procedure will be scheduled for later.  We shall see.
  
  I will also have an ultrasound follow up of my kidney stone situation.  Hopefully they will say that there is no longer a kidney stone situation.

Weekly Ephemera #68

I used to enjoy writing posts.  It wasn't always easy to come up with something to write about.  Back in the early years of Homer's Travels I think it was easier for some reason.  I liked what I wrote and I had a small audience of semi-loyal readers (primarily family).  Over the years  my audience has moved on to other things and at times it feels like I am talking to the void.  I wonder why I still do this.  I think these Weekly Ephemera posts have become my excuse not to write more while at the same time they keep me writing ... something.

With that said, here is what I've been up to the past week:

• 

  A temporary statue
  at Memorial Park.

  On Monday the Wife and I took my Mom to Nebraska Furniture Mart and picked out a lift chair.  It will be delivered this week.  Mom got a good deal on a close out chair that will make it easier for her to get into and out of her chair.  It will be delivered this coming week.
• I went to the dentist this week to get a crown fitted on the root canaled tooth.  I left the office with a temporary crown which lasted a whopping twenty-four hours before it cracked in half.  Fortunately the root canal completely deadens the tooth so it is totally pain free.  I could go back and get another temporary but I don't think it's worth it.  The permanent crown will be put in on 11 September.  I think I'll just wait for that.
• I went for four walks this week for a total distance of 24.8 miles (39.9 km).  After a week of not walking it felt good to get out.
  
  On one of the walks I explored the newly reopened Heartland of America Park and Lewis and Clark Landing.  The small lake/large pond that was there has been reduced in size opening up space for more green space, a bocce ball field, sand volleyball courts, playgrounds, and a roller skate rink.  This last one is a mystery for me.  There are only one or two roller rinks in the Omaha area.  It really isn't that popular of an activity here so I don't understand who this is for?  If it had an attached skate board park it would make sense since these are popular in Omaha but a roller skate park?  Not sure about that.
  
  

  

  A heron and some ducks in the smaller Heartland of America lake/pond.

  The playgrounds are beyond description.  If I were a kid I would be in paradise.  I didn't take any pictures which I should have done since they are hard to describe and I won't even attempt to.  They are just really cool.
  
  On a longer walk later in the week I walked around Memorial Park where the 'sailor kissing a nurse' statue is being displayed.  It is a temporary installation that will be in Omaha for six months.  It's pretty cool and fits in with all the war monuments in Memorial Park.
  
• This week Nebraska broke a record for the highest attendance at a women's sporting event.  92,003 spectators went to Lincoln, Nebraska to watch a volleyball match between University of Nebraska - Lincoln and University of Nebraska - Omaha.  The Wife taught two of the players - one on each team.  One of them will be playing on the US team at the Paris Olympics.  For a brief period we considered attending the Olympics to watch her play (along with a bronze medal wrestler who is also a graduate of the Wife's school).  The planning ended when we saw the hotel prices ($500 to well over $1,000 a day).  Talk about price gouging.
  
• Speaking of travel, we finally finalized our Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia trip.  We had to convert the Vietnam portion into a private tour when our travel company canceled the small group tour (due to lack of interest I guess).  I prefer the small group tours as you have people to share experiences with and you always get different perspectives.  On the other hand private tours are more flexible and you can often fit in a few more things that can't be done with a group.
• My first retirement annuity payment (i.e. government pension) was deposited on Friday.  It's nice to have some steady, though modest, income again.
• This weekend, while the Wife reveled in the return of college football, I caught up on "Doctor Who" specials.  Apparently I missed several from fifteen years ago.

Happy Labor Day everyone!!!

Weekly Ephemera #35

• The Earth's population crossed over the eight billion mark this week.  Haven't decided if this is good or bad.
• On Monday we replaced our water heater.  I'd thought it was new when we moved in (2008) but, reading the tag a bit closer, I think it was manufactured in 1996 (This makes sense since our house was built in 1997).  So the heater was over twenty-five years old or over fifteen years over the usual ten year lifespan of a gas water heater.  This may explain why the first person to take a shower in the morning always had a lukewarm shower.  The new one heats up quick, is very hot, and we love it.  I'm just kicking myself for not replacing it sooner.
• I hung a shelf over my computer desk to hold a few of our travel treasures.  I used command strips to hang it.  They should have easily held the weight but I think I had one of the sticky strips slightly wrinkled when I put it up and not long after it came crashing down.  It broke the bezel of the computer flat screen.  It still works ... it just has a hole in the plastic.  I rehung the shelf, this time with screws and anchors.  D'Oh.
• I was supposed to go to see Wakanda Forever on Thursday but I apparently got the time wrong.  So I tried again on Friday and managed to see it.  I thought it was good.  It had its faults and I wouldn't call it great but it was good enough.
• I was planning to walk twice this week but the movie mistake changed those plans.  I only walked once this week for a total of 7.2 miles (11.6 km).  I am creeping longer and longer but I am not anywhere close to where I was last spring.  My endurance is not what it used to be.  I'm not sure if it's just a consequence of my age or I am not trying hard enough.
• The Wife went to a Notre Dame game with her brother and cousin this weekend.  It was snowing and one of the coldest weekends so far this year and Notre Dame won in a blow out ... and the Wife had a great time.
• Sunday was a warmer day so I trimmed a few branches off a fur tree in the backyard.  Without those branches more ground will be exposed under the tree so I can plant more under it in the Spring.
• This week I intend to put up all the Christmas stuff.  This week is going to be warmer than last week.  My rule is usually not to put up decorations until after Thanksgiving but I think that rule will be bent this year.

Watching The Irish At The College World Series

On Sunday we went down to the newly minted Charles Schwab Field to watch Notre Dame Fighting Irish battle the Oklahoma Sooners at the College World Series (CWS).   This was Notre Dame's third appearance at the CWS, the last time being twenty years ago.  They beat the number one seed Tennessee to get to Omaha.

A packed stadium in downtown Omaha.
(Most hotels in Omaha make their profits during CWS.)

It was a hot evening with the heat index hovering around 100℉ (37.8℃) but there was a breeze that helped and the broiling ended once the sun went down.  The Wife indulged with peanuts in the shell while I went for the Cookie Dough Dippin' Dots.  While I was hot and sweaty it was not nearly as bad as i expected it to be.

We had a good time even tho, in the end, Notre Dame didn't come through.  This was their second game during the CWS and their first loss.  It is a double elimination series so they have a chance of continuing.  Their next game, against Texas A&M, is today.

Weekly Ephemera #10

• 

  Ralston shows solidarity with Ukraine.

  This week I walked twice.  I skipped walking Monday just because.   On wednesday I did 14 miles (22.5 km), the longest I've done since November of last year.  In total I met my weekly goal and walked 22.8 miles (36.7 km).  These walks may be the last cold walks as Spring temps seem to be finally settling in.
• This week was a bit lossy too.  I lost my left glove during my Wednesday walk.  I lost the extra key fob to the Wife's car sometime probably on Tuesday.  The rest of the week I was waiting for the third shoe to drop but I managed to keep everything else found.  I will be checking a few lost and founds next week looking for the key fob.  If I don't find it it will be $200 to replace.
• The Wife's school's basketball teams went to the championships this week.  For the past six days the Wife rode the bus down to Lincoln to watch the teams play.  The Men's team sadly came up short on Friday as did the Women's team on Saturday. 
• Also on Friday the Wife's student won the Poetry Out Loud state competition.  Sadly the state and national events are being done online this year again (thanks COVID) so there will be no trip to Washington D.C. for the Wife's last year of Poetry Out Loud.
• Verified and finished our taxes.  We are going to owe a small amount.  Easy Peasy.
• Hope you remembered to spring forward today.  If not, you are going to be off an hour all day.  (Wish they would just get rid of all these clock shenanigans.)

How To Fix The Olympic Games

Every two years, more or less, I plant myself in front of the television and watch the best of world athletic competition.  The Olympics is one of the few sporting events I watch.  I guess I enjoy the individual triumphs more than the team successes more commonly seen in sports.  But the Olympics have problems.  The primary problem is they are so expensive to host.

Hosting the Olympic games is expensive.  Billions of dollars are spent building venues, housing the athletes and the spectators.  Infrastructure has to be improved and the area around the games are often beautified at the expense of the local residents.  The cost is getting so high that some bids to host have been withdrawn after public outcry.  The games are becoming an economic superpowers only club in terms of hosting the events.  I think this hurts the spirit of the games.

This is just my two cents and I doubt it will be seen by more than a handful of people but here is my solution: Divide up the games  amongst several nations.  The Olympic games are already sort of divided up: Swimming, gymnastics, track & field, field games like soccer.  I propose dividing up the games by these event categories and have nations bid to host a category.  This would make it much more affordable to smaller countries to host part of the games.  An example, South Africa could never host the entire Olympic games without going into massive soul crushing debt but they could host the soccer portion since they already successfully hosted a World Cup in 2010.

Dividing the games up over several nations would bring more internationalism back into the game.  More nations would be invested in seeing a successful Olympic games and they would do it without incurring much hardship.  Also, in the age of COVID, if the games were divided up the chance of the entire Olympic games having to be cancelled due to disease or disaster would be reduced and the risk more spread out.

The only downside would be the lack of opening and closing ceremonies involving all the athletes.  Perhaps another way to open and close the games that would include all participating nations could be worked out.

What do you think?

Omaha ... Curling Capitol?!?

Last year Omaha hosted both Curling Night in America and the Olympic Curling Trials.  This year Omaha is co-hosting (with legs in Suzhou, China and Jonkoping, Sweden and a grand finale in Beijing, China) the Curling World Cup.  This year the world cup includes ten nations - USA, Canada, Russia, South Korea, China, Japan, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, and Scotland.

The Curling sheets in Ralston Arena.

This leg is being held in Ralston Arena which is like five minutes from where I live.  I went to the opening session on Wednesday, another one on Friday, and, with the Wife, the last session on Sunday which showcased the men's team final.  The women teams and mix doubles were earlier on Sunday.  Team Schuster, the American team, won the the Men's event, Japan won the Women's event, and Norway won the mixed doubles' event.

My souvenir from the Curling World Cup: a tiny curling stone only an inch and a half across.

Last year I bought a T-Shirt as a souvenir.  This year I bought a scale model of a curling stone made with authentic granite (from Scotland) and a metal handle.

A few photos (taken with my cell phone) can be found in my 2018-12 Curling World Cup Google Photos album.

I am always surprised what events pop up in Omaha.  My hat is off to the people who book all these events.

A Golden Gloves Night

Last Tuesday during my bike ride I'd passed several boxers jogging and shadow boxing on the Keystone trail.  Last night I went to my first boxing match.  Actually, there were several matches as it was the semi-finals for the Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions.  The Wife and I were joining the Brother-in-Law who invited us to go with him.

A right to the noggin.

The matches were held at the Ralston Arena and, for the semi-finals, there were three boxing ring set up.  On Friday there were twelve matches per ring.  There was a good mixture of amateur male and female boxers.  Suited up it was hard to tell the men from the women.

A panorama of the three boxing rings.

With three rings going at once it was a bit difficult to follow the activity.  The Wife had the best idea - pick a ring and concentrate on it.  I learned this lesson late in the evening.

Iowa woman losing to a Hawaiian woman.

The boxing was a lot more disorderly than I expected.  I expected a more methodical pummeling instead of the apparently chaotic flurry of blows.  This may be due to the fact they were amateurs and not professional boxers.  Amateurs or not I would not want to get on their bad side.

It was an interesting evening. Not sure boxing is my thing but I did enjoy my first boxing experience.

Olympic Withdrawal

For the past two weeks I have had the Olympic games on the TV nearly every day.  Now, I have always been a fan of the Olympics and I have always watched some of the games, but this year for some reason I watched a whole lot more than usual.

I really enjoyed the snowboarding, skeleton, luge, and just about any sports that involved whipping out.  I also enjoyed the heck out of the curling - it helps when you actually saw the team qualify for the Olympics.

To be honest, I did not devote 100% of my attention to the games at all times.  I often surfed Twitter while the games were on.  Even while they were often just in the background, they provided a comforting, mostly non-political, backdrop to my life these past two weeks.  The games officially end tonight and I will miss them. 

It's time now to catch up on some of my streaming that I put off while I watched the competitions.  Time for some "Altered Carbon", "The Expanse", "The Tick", among others.  Netflix and Amazon Prime Video ... here I come.

Congratulations To Teams Roth And Schuster!

While I'm not a sports fan I have to admit that Omaha has been very good at bringing sporting events to the city.  Omaha has been the home of the College Baseball World Series for decades.  The city has hosted the Olympic Swimming Trials for the past three Olympic cycles and, last week, it hosted the Olympic Team Curling Trials for the first time.

We have been interested in curling since at least the 2010 Winter Olympics.  A year later the Wife and I participated in an ameteur curling competition.  We participated four times over the next few years but we never really got any better at curling and I lost interest in participating in 2015.

In August we attended a few of the Curling Night in America sessions which were fun.  But the main event was the Olympic Curling Trials last week.  We had tickets for seventeen sessions.  After going to three sessions I realized my limit per session was around two hours.  After my third session I decided to skip the next few days.  We ended up using only six of those tickets.  We did spread around the fun by giving some of our unused tickets to friends.  I still like to watch curling, especially now that I understand the game strategy better, but I think me not being a sports fan all my life has limited how much sport I can watch at any one time.  

The best of three finals finished on Saturday with Team Schuster beating Team McCormick (Men's teams) and Team Roth beating Team Sinclair (Women's teams).  The fact that they both needed to go all three games of the best of three finals tells you that the teams were well matched.  The Wife and I didn't even go to the final games but we did watch the Men's team on TV.  (Hey NBCSN!!!  Why didn't you show the Women's final live like you did the Men's?)

Team Roth sweeping in a rock.

Omaha came through with record attendance for an Olympic Curling Trials.  Omaha always seems to deliver the crowds.  Hope this means we can go see some curling again in four years ... at least the amount I can tolerate.

Kids left messages for the curlers.

It will be nice watching the teams compete in next February's Olympic Games.  It always helps when you've seen the competitors in action.