Winners and "We're just happy to compete"-ers

In case you haven't heard, the Packers won the Super Bowl Sunday night. Contrary to the KingOfIronwoodIsland's prediction, the loss to the Motor City Kitties did not knock us out of the playoffs. I'm pretty sure that my decision to watch the game at Ray's Place in Eau Claire, coupled with Carl's ratty 60's era Packer stocking cap and green and gold Jello shots after every Packer TD, were a deciding factor in the win. I have not had time to post since then because I had a 8am flight to LA on Monday morning for a 3 day work trip and have been like a one legged man in an ass kicking contest since then. Let me just say that a late ending Super Bowl celebration, Jello shots, pitchers of Leinies, and a drive back to the Twin Cities (don't worry, I had a wingman) is not a combination that's conducive to 8am flights the next morning. Fortunately, I can sleep soundly on a marble bench and did rally strongly. Actually the marble bench would have been more restful because there would be no one to wake me and ask if I'd like a complimentary beverage.

There was another winner over the weekend, arguably with much more long term importance than a fleeting football championship. The small town of Grand Marais, MI, like the Green Bay Packers, defeated much larger rivals for a share of the five million bucks in the Readers Digest contest. Now maybe the town can get rolling on fixing the breakwall that the government had decided to studiously ignore. Thanks to everyone that punched in their ten votes per day. It's obvious that tons of people who don't live in the town feel that their goal of saving their harbor is a worthwhile one because 300 people couldn't have done it all on their own. It's too bad no one from Grand Marais drove over to Marquette yesterday to hold up a sign for Prez Obama. 'We did it in spite of you', 'Thanks for nothing', or maybe even 'Get some new czars'. Or maybe they did......

On the 'happy to be there' side of the equation, two teams of five intrepid skiers will compete in the Vasaloppet relay in Mora, MN this weekend. Temps promise to be 55F warmer than they were on the first relay event. The two SKOAC Renegade squads, GAS and DGAS (that's Give A S*** and Don't GAS) have trained diligently.....sporadically.......a little bit......OK, we've all skied some this winter. Actually on both teams there are a couple skiers that have actually gotten out and trained for ski marathons this year so we are expecting big things from both teams. However we will be competing against high school and college skiers who just want a sprint style warmup rather than knocking off the entire 58k. Oh, we're goin' down, that's for sure, but that's fine because both Renegade teams are confident of a top ten finish, a goal we have achieved every year we have skied the race.

Four hours to the south, the Iowa Paddlesports Expo will be in full swing. There is even a plan afoot to paddle since the weather is supposed to be balmy. Good luck to all our buddies down there. Our brains are still firmly in ski season, although plans for the Traditional Gathering are well underway and the Canoecopia countdown is down to 28 days. To all my LA acquaintances who asked what the heck we do up here in the winter, I gotta say it's getting tougher and tougher to choose among all the choices.