A Look At Another Sport

I just listened to Dave Winfield talking with Leonard Lopate on Lopate's WNYC radio show. Winfield has a new book out talking about what is wrong with baseball. While many of the things Winfield points out are baseball specific, others are cultural and can provide lessons to us about other sports, including my beloved track and field (or for those of you who are English, Athletics).

note: post written about a week ago, but not posted until 4/5/07

Vermont

I spent last weekend in Vermont. We arrived on Thursday and I did some X-C skiing with my son of Friday. Conditions were a bit icy, as they'd just come off a thaw. The facility where I was skiing had groomed well, and the snow was "packed granular" or what I'd call "corn snow." It was fast, but easy. Really nice on the flats, but the hills hadn't been groomed and were really fast and chattery. On Saturday, we had gotten a big snow dump in the overnight, and it was flurrying through the day. They'd packed the snow, and the hills were excellent. I managed to blister a heel in the AM, so after a bit of field surgery*, headed out again in the afternoon with my wife and son. It was a good day.

*surgery consisted of lancing the blister which the guy at the ski area had "disinfected" by shoving the tip into a pot of water on top of the wood stove in the "lodge." Then, I stuck a Band-Aid over the hole. Afterwards, the heel was sensitive, but since I was going easy because of my son, no real problem.

Generic Drug Pricing

Check out this link to the Freakonomics blog. If you have parents, health issues, or know anyone with them, it could make a real difference.

Pinewood Derby

A week ago Saturday was my son's Pinewood Derby. He placed second in his den, and as he descibed it, last in his rank. Of course that was last in the rank's run-off. So, he was last of the four that qualified. That means that he could have been fourth, or perhaps a few places back in the overall for his rank. The boy who won his rank went on to win the overall pack race. My son said that he lost because his car got sashed by another car during one of the heats and he claimed that he had to run on one of the slower lanes twice. I wasn't there, so I can't be sure. I couldn't see any obvious damage when I looked at the car. So, we did OK, but not really well.

Maybe, Just Maybe...

Word just came out that there were 2 jackpot winners in last night's $370 million MegaMillions lottery. I bought some tickets. One of the winners is in NJ, the other is in GA. Maybe the NJ winner is me!

My son asked which states participate in MegaMillions, and I found this on the NJ lottery site: The MEGA MILLIONS member states are New Jersey, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Virginia, New York, Ohio, Texas, Washington State and California.

Update: word came out at about 8:30 that the winner was in South Jersey...not me. I have checked my ticket and think my total winnings from my $4 ticket are $0.

Pinewood Derby Update

My son and I continue to make progress on this year's Pinewood Derby car. Two nights ago, we purchased a piece of 5/8" rod stock to use as a weight. I cut off a one inch piece to weigh and went off and weighed the car body, wheels and axles, and the metal slug. Weights were as follows: slug - 1.3 oz.; wheels & axles - 0.6 oz.; and body - 2.8 oz. The total of these weights is 4.7 oz. That puts the car under the 5 oz. maximum we're aiming for.

Last night, we drilled a hole in the body and glued the slug to its bottom. We followed that up by plugging the hole with a dowel. This morning, the protruding portion of the dowel was cut off, sanded flat, and the paint process began.

In order to paint the car easily, I drilled a 1/2" hole in the bottom and in a board, then I took about a five inch segment of dowel and stuck it into the holes, mounting the car onto a base. A quick job with spray primer was followed by a coating of red spray paint. The car will dry today, and tonight we'll decorate it.

The axles (cheap nails) have been getting polished, having the grooves under the heads polished out. If all goes well, we'll mount the wheels tonight or early tomorrow morning, securing the axles with hot glue. A bit of powdered graphite lubricant will have the car ready for technical inspection (weigh-in and check of clearances) and to race.