End of the football season and the Lambeau Leap

On Sunday afternoon RonO and I met at Grumpy's in preparation for a trip over to St Paul to watch our recently hapless hockey team, the Wild, lose decisively to the streaking Chicago Blackhawks. Even though the Wild are creating extreme suction as of late, they still manage to sell out the building to the loyal fan base. We also watched the Minnesota Vikings clinch the division title against the New York Giants second string. As the lone Packer fan in the bar, I was much more interested in the Packers helping the Detroit Lions achieve their 'perfect season' than in any Viking win. As an alien in enemy territory for the past three decades, I have a snappy comeback for every smug comment that was sure to come my way at work on Monday morning. As I watched the Vikings celebrate, I recalled that fifteen years ago I was at Lambeau Field with my two boys watching the Packers win their first division title in a dozen or so years. Reggie White was completing his first year with the team and, although we didn't know it at the time, we witnessed the beginning of the famous Lambeau Leap.

My former spouse was from the small town of DePere and every Christmas we would drive the 5 1/2 hours to the Green Bay area for the holidays. While there, we would scalp or otherwise track down Packer tickets. Prices tended to drop with the temperature and this particular day the temperature was around 0F (-18C) with a brisk breeze. This was the old Lambeau, the one that looked like a giant John Deere implement barn before all the corporate improvements were made. The bench seats were, and are, aluminum and act as a heat sink that sucks bodily warmth right out through the butt cheeks if you're not armed with some sort of insulating cushion. The official Packer colors that time of year in Lambeau are green, gold, and blaze orange. For most folks in Wisconsin, the warmest gear they own is their deer hunting stuff and it makes for an interesting color spectrum in the stands. The boys, 11 and 14 at the time, and I had plenty of warm gear and were in good shape for the game. I did run into a fellow in the bathroom that had a similar layered look but he negated 50% of his stored warmth when he neglected to properly clear all layers of clothing as he stepped up to the communal urinal trough. As I zipped up, I glanced over and pointed out to him that his used beer was flowing down the inside of his snowmobile suit leg rather than into the stainless steel trough. He was not pleased; it appeared to me that he had been overserved.

I can't remember exactly when it took place in the game, but Reggie White forced a fumble, picked it up, and lateraled it to Leroy Butler, who took it in for the touchdown. For some reason, after he scored he jumped up into the stands. "Because I had pointed, the fans knew what they had to do," wrote Butler, the Packers' former All-Pro safety. "I go up into the green padding ... and when I'm halfway up, a guy starts pulling me up the rest of the way. Everyone right behind him grabs on. Everyone is screaming and yelling. Some are complimenting me with 'Awesome' or 'Good job.' It only lasts 2 or 3 seconds, and I'm back down". The boys and I thought it was pretty cool but had no idea that we were present at the start of a tradition.

Good luck to the Vikings. They will be playing the Eagles and we'll up north cross country skiing. It sounds like there are still about 20,000 tickets left; I don't know why people wouldn't want to attend the first home playoff game in a few years but the Viking fan is a unique creature. It would certainly send a message if we had a playoff game blacked out in Minneapolis and St Paul. As for me, I'll stick with Wild hockey and Packer football when the occasional ticket falls into my lap. As far as TV sports, give me the ski's, kayak, bike, deer rifle, etc. any time over the tube. Enjoy the new year!

A cold winter so far

Although yesterday was above freezing, a fact that forced the ManFromSnowyLegs and I to go to the hated waxless cross country skis on our little ski workout, the winter has been nicely frigid. So cold in fact, that all the outdoor skating rinks were open well before Christmas break and guys were ice fishing the weekend after Thanksgiving in many places. I've kind of gotten away from ice fishing but fully expect to take it up again 'When I Have More Time'.....whenever that is. As a kid, the Old Man knew that the fish would really bite right after the ice went on. This would mean shuffling out on the bay with snowshoes, a Stearns life vest, and homemade ice picks on a string around our necks to haul our frozen asses out if we did go through. We did slay the panfish but also incurred the vehement disapproval of my mother, who I'm sure would have liked to have the Old Man committed on a number of occassions.


The ice on my favorite body of water is well ahead of schedule also. The western tip of the lake near Duluth is iced in but its still thin enough so that Coast Guard can clear the way for the big lakers loaded with coal and taconite. The ice between Bayfield and Madeline Island is thickening and for the first time since 1985 the Madeline Island Ferry Line will be shutting down in December. There will be an interim period where the kids get to school and people get to the mainland on the ice sleds (seen above) but then the ice road will be safe enough and free transit will begin. This is a very good thing in my opinion, because there have been winters recently when the ferry has run all winter long due to wimpy winter weather.

There are good things that can happen when a big piece of the lake freezes. Scientists think that the lack of ice cover has been one of the factors in the decreasing lake level over the past few years. It would also cut down on some of the lake effect snow. Somehow, I don't think the folks in the snow belt would mind if they only got 200"(5m) instead of 300" (7.5m). I know the KingOfIronwoodIsland would not mind, since his normal whine as he leaves deer camp early at the end of November is, "I gotta get home and blow the damn snow".

I hope our real winter hangs on. I always dread the January thaw and its snow melting, ice dam building, slush creating havoc. May the snow be good and the ice strong until at least the Ides of March!

Peace on Earth

Christmas Eve unfolded as it has for a number of years with one notable exception; I didn't have to work a half day or more. Newly anointed 1st LieutenantO was back home from Brooklyn and wound up crashing at our place after a particularly fun filled hotdish night at Grumpy's Bar with GuitarMatt and I. GM just turned 21 and was exposed to the delights of IPA, winter warmers, and Russian Imperial Stout by me, 1stLtO, and PatD, the affable owner of Grumpys. Once we shook the cobwebs in the morning we ran a number of errands, including a gyros and beer for lunch, and I dropped 1stLtO off at mom's work. I headed back home to prepare for the onslaught of friends and relatives that would descend upon us after 5pm mass, where the VOR would be singing in the Christmas Choir.

All went well and the party began. The VOR was concerned that we wouldn't have enough food. Translation: We only had enough food for four times the actual number of guests rather than six times the number. Rookie the Wonder Dog was in his glory because when someone got sick of scratching his ears and told him to beat it, he'd just move on to the next victim. By the time he had hit everyone he just started the cycle over. We did have one new guest at the party, the new husband of one of the VOR's nieces. They had flown up for Christmas from San Diego, Camp Pendleton actually, and would be heading back Sunday. In the din and chaos of thirteen people stuffed in the living room, I managed to get a chance to chat with Jeremiah and he told me that he would be heading to Iraq for his second deployment in a couple months. On our errand mission that morning, 1stLtO told me he thought their brigade would be heading for Afghanistan in 2011. His good friend and 'battle buddy', Lt MannyC, will be shipping out in a couple months also, leaving behind his wife and two small girls, both of which have 1stLtO serving as their godfather.

Two months is a lot more immediate than two years but they both gave me pause, having talked to both of them the same day, Christmas Eve day at that. There is a local play that's enjoying a nice run in town, about the Christmas Truce in World War I. Soldiers on both sides just said to hell with this war thing and met in no man's land. True story. And then they climbed back in the trenches and continued shooting at each other the next day. I always wondered why they couldn't have just decided to continue the truce and maybe the idea would spread to neighboring units. Simplistic but a good thought.

Enjoy the holiday season. Good friends and relatives, food and drink, time to relax, and the spirit of the season, the same spirit that caused those soldiers in the trenches of 1914 to lay down their arms and meet on common ground. Think about peace on earth and continue to think about it well after the holiday season has passed. And perhaps take up the pen or keyboard and bring a little heat to those who think we need to defend every slight, every act that might diminish our power, with a bunch of young people with rifles. "Change" is supposed to be coming on 20 January. Some collective feet need to be held to the fire until someone says enough. Peace On Earth.

Open your eyes and smell the chlorine

Since GalwayGuy is back from St Louis, an area which does not have readily available kayak opportunities for him, I thought I'd set aside my anti-chlorite views and absorb a bit of the noxious chemical on Sunday. As it turned out he was stuck in Bismarck, ND due to the blizzard conditions. His plan to get up at 4am, drive back, and make the pool session at 11am was thwarted, but I felt that since I had told RonO I'd be there I better show. So after being forced back inside a couple times to restore small motor function to my fingers as I attempted to tie the boat on the roof in sub zero temperatures, I made my way over the black ice on I-694 to the Brooklyn Center pool.

Four of us made it to the session, hearty or stupid souls who either had the holiday shopping, baking, and stressing out under control or maybe just didn't give a rip. I personally fell into the procrastinators camp and it was strongly suggested by the VOR that a 'quick' beer stop at Grumpy's after rolling might be pushing the envelope, Christmas prep-wise. I ran into MrEngineerGear in the locker room and he immediately informed me he would have to give me some shit about showing up after reading my anti-chlorite ramblings from last winter. He was way too easy on me however. I did hear of a new and uniquely cold weather pool mishap when I got in the pool though. RonO left his neoprene booties in his gear box and they froze solid. He put them in the pool to thaw and one drifted over to the pool filter, was sucked in, and has not been seen since.

Fifteen or twenty minutes later I had executed a few rolls feebly, forgotten everything I'd learned this summer about my offside (excuse me, other side rolls), and remembered that doing a bunch of rolls in quick succession after a two month layoff generally leaves my back sore for a week. That, combined with the chlorine saturation of all my gear and mucuous membranes, made for a pretty typical DaveO pool session experience. The foggy photo above and attached video clip of an aborted roll attempt while holding the camera, further illustrate the 'fun' I had on that frigid Sunday afternoon.

If GalwayGuy wants to hit the pool again, a likely scenario once he sees what Santa brought, I will go along but perhaps in a boat sharing scenario. They do have a nice sauna there and I would envision perhaps a 90-10 breakdown in 'butt in the boat' time. I believe I will stay true to my principles for the rest of the winter and glide over the snow rather than brush it off the kayak rack. Its shaping up to be one of those bountiful snow winters and I'm all over that.

Leinies Bock is back!!

During my holiday liquor mission yesterday I ran into one of my old hockey buddies who, conveniently, is the beer buyer at Surdyks, a very fine liquor venue in Northeast Minneapolis. When I asked him what was new he said that the original Leinenkugels Bock, renamed 1888 Bock, was back. Memories immediately popped into my head and a 12 pack immediately popped into my cart.

I grew up about 15 miles south of the Leninkugels brewery in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. It was the Old Man's favorite beer and two returnable cases were a permanent fixture next to the door that went from the garage to the house. Regular Leinie's was a small cut above the Schlitz/Pabst/Miller/Bud of the day, perhaps because Leinies continued to use leaf hops instead of hop pellets, a substance closely resembling rabbit dung or that bad 'natural' cereal they sell. It was the Leinies Bock however, that was different from other beers of the time. Rather than the pale yellow, over carbonated, and undrinkable above 40 degrees F 'American lagers', it was dark, flavorful, and actually had some character. It was produced in the spring, right around the start of Lent, and the rumor was they made it when they 'cleaned the tanks'. The tank thing was ridiculous, of course, but the timing got me in to the habit of giving up light beer for Lent. I do not believe I've violated my Lenten pledge for nearly two decades now. It was pretty much the first beer I ever tasted that pushed the envelope and I credit it with getting me on the trail of the good beer that's available today.

One of my fondest memories of Leinies Bock was when the Old Man, his buddy Hoot, and me headed up to our lake cottage early one spring to construct a storage shed. The cottage was not a current day 'lake home' but an uninsulated, oil burner heated frame building with an outhouse and a hand pump halfway down the hill to the lake. We headed up in early April, armed with our tools and a cooler full of sandwiches and Leinies Bock. I must have been about 17 years old at the time. As we built this structure we sipped on the Bock and carried out the instructions on my Keweenaw Brewing T-Shirt. Keweenaw is in Houghton, MI and was founded by Michigan Tech engineering grads. The instructions are, "Drink beer. Material balance. Iterate". The shed was right up next to the woods in back so the 'material balance part consisted of simply turning around on the platform and peeing off the back of the structure into the woods. After 3 or 4 hours of work the place was framed up and it was time to frame in the windows. When I asked Hoot where he wanted the window in the back he looked at it with a critical eye, thought for a moment, and told me, "Better put 'er about shvanz high".

The good bye party for Leinies Bock in the returnable case took place about 5 years ago, once again in the spring of the year on a weekend where there was work to be done. Pod and I headed out to camp to burn some brush before the woods dried out, and like that spring weekend many years before, brought a supply of Leinies Bock. Only this time we knew they were discontinuing the Bock to brew insipid crap like Berry Weiss and Summer Shandy. We got the pile going and then, to avoid any runaway forest fires, sat and watched it like hawks for several hours, leaving only for material balance. The photo above illustrates our vigilance perfectly. You can't see our fire fighting equipment in the photo but trust me, its there.

This beer isn't an assertive dark beer like a winter warmer or even a malty German style bock. Its a good 'session beer' as my English buddies say, one that you can have a few of and still be in pretty good shape. It actually reminds me more of a mild ale than a bock but what it really reminds me of is good times, good memories, and an very early glimpse of the outdoor beer drinking season.