Wednesday

The blog is on the road tonight, in Augustana's entourage visiting Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. The host Thunder are undefeated coming into this game, and are ranked #1 in D-III this week. If the Augie boys don't come ready to play, it could be over early.

I grabbed a ride with my pal Pete, which is the only way that I would have made the trip. Surprisingly, the roads weren't too bad, and we made the trip easily in under three hours. With the help of a little Garmin device. Although we did have to over ride the instruction on exit from the freeway. They had changed the off ramp configuration and the GPS hadn't quite caught up with the new pattern.

Wheaton is a very competitive D-III school in several sports. Their girls soccer team has won three recent National championships. This facility is very contemporary, with an Olympic pool down the hall and a fully-equipped fitness center in an adjacent section. Very well-presented.

We had another 5-6 inches of snow last night. I broke out the snow blower after spin class this AM, and did the front walks for myself and both my adjoining neighbors, and the driveway for my Perfect Neighbor. By that time, I was too cold to finish my own driveway, and it's still a bit clogged even after clearing the access to the street before heading to the game.

The surgically repaired thumb remains a tender spot in the cold. The circulation just isn't quite there. Then when I went inside and jumped into the shower, the thumbs and fingers had that stinging sensation when exposed to the hot water. It's heck gett'n old.

My friend Rick who joined 2 and I for my Biaggi's birthday party on January 2nd called me from the bar on Friday the 9th when I was in Scottsdale to report that the Biaggi's bartenders were not honoring his request to use "Charlie's glasses". I gave him my sincere regrets, but policy is policy. (In fairness, I don't think that he realized that I had actually purchased the glasses myself.) After the fact, he such a good friend that I probably should have given the bartender clearance for his use. Next time I will.

The game is getting started. I'll file a final report later.

BCOT