The 43

Just a short post tonight. I wanted to write something after being inexcusably idle from posting the last few days. So here I go ... The inversion over the Salt Lake Valley lifted, only to be replaced by a snowstorm yesterday. But the toxic fog is gone. So what happens? Lori, Ben and I all have tickles in our throats. Lori theorized it's because our throats haven't been used to fresh air in weeks. Michael played a basketball game tonight with his Boys & Girls Club team. This team drives him a little nuts because many of his teammates don't listen to their coaches and barely pass. That shouldn't be an excuse for him, but he doesn't quite play as hard as he does with his other teams. Tonight, this team played great and, for once, as a team. Michael responded with his best game in this league, playing great defense, pulling down about 7 rebounds, getting fouled in the act of shooting three times (alas, he was 0-for-6 from the free throw line), almost making a r...

(This is the second post in a series detailing all those things I should have never thrown out from my childhood. Click here for the first. ) In the late 1970s, electronic games were the rage. Home-based video games hadn't quite taken their massive hold yet, but games that interacted back with their players gained popularity in an increasingly technological world. Simon, Mattel Football, Merlin, Electronic Battleship and Speak & Spell were among the games that bleeped and flashed into my generation's hearts. And then there was Electronic Detective. After seeing this commercial with Don Adams of "Get Smart" fame many times in 1979, I asked for the game for Christmas. Santa obliged. Essentially, you solved a murder devised by the computer by questioning suspects with cute names (e.g. Candy Cane), who had their own file cards with questions. You typed in a question, Electronic Detective gave an answer. You marked off answers on a worksheet, and if you got d...

The inversion and cold weather that I complained about two weeks ago hasn't subsided. Yes, we had a blizzard in the meantime , but the temperature dropped as soon as the snow stopped. Though the air quality in past inversions has been worse, January has seemed even longer than usual. It's been really long for the dog. Popcorn's hair is too short to keep her outside in temperatures below 15 for too long. But she's too big to wear a sweater. And she's got too much inherent energy to keep inside day after day. I have managed to get her out for a few walks when the cold has been not so bitter. Even around the block is better than nothing, but I can tell she's cold (though excited to be outside). Furthermore, I don't want to take long walks amid all the trapped smog. When it's too cold, we take Popcorn outside, she does what she needs to do (and takes an extra few seconds to find a spot she likes -- more difficult when all the scents are frozen in the ...

I've written often about my nostalgic streak, especially for games, toys, books, sports and music from my youth. Some of this is stuff I never actually owned as a kid -- music for example -- but much of it is things I once owned and discarded, not thinking I would miss these things or that they were obsolete. And as an adult, I've tried to recapture the tangible and intangible nostalgia that lives on the edge of my memories. For example, as I type this, I'm editing out commercials of a classic "American Top 40" (which are rerun in syndication) that I recorded off an radio Internet stream. I have collected at least 20 of these since I figured out how to record them off my computer and my smartphone. The AT40s notwithstanding, I've mostly exhausted the music quest. Sure, I do occasionally hear old songs that I forgot existed, but over the past 20 years, between record store searches (especially in the compilation section in Circuit City years ago), Napster, ...

Basketball games started this week for Ben and Michael (technically, Michael has been playing games since December, but his third league just began play tonight), just in time for another sport to start up as well: swimming. The boys only do swim team during the summer, but the JCC offers preseason swim workouts twice a week. Michael did these workouts last winter, and it showed once he got to the regular season. So we signed him up again as well as Ben. Both boys were happy to get back into the water. Six months removed from the end of swim season, Michael's stroke looks great. Ben forgot a little bit of what he learned last year, but I'm sure he will get it back in the coming weeks. However, adding these two weekly swim workouts has officially made our routine ridiculously busy. Tuesdays won't be too bad -- I take them to the pool, work out while they are swimming, bring them home. But Thursdays, when Michael has a basketball game at the JCC as well, will be nutty. To...

Michael is in three basketball leagues this year. I'm coaching him in one league that plays its first game this season. I'm also coaching Ben's team this year again. His first game is this week as well. I'm a little nervous. As a coach, I want the kids to have fun. I want them coming away feeling like they played well and did something good, win or lose. OK, I'll admit, I want them to win. I really don't want them to get blown out. I've been on both sides of a blowout as a coach. Part of me is afraid the kids will somehow hate the game if they get routed. So, my stomach will be in knots Wednesday and Thursday when the boys' teams open their seasons. I'm not so worried about Ben's first/second grade team -- the roster is split between second-graders who know what they are doing and first graders who are eager. After coaching 1/2 teams the last two years, I know what to expect from the competition and know we'll hold up well. However,...

I wanted snow to blow out the inversion and the subsequent pollution. I didn't want 18 inches of snow. The snow began to fall in Salt Lake City on Thursday afternoon. Here it is, just past midnight on Friday (technically Saturday morning), and I think it finally stopped. The snow isn't heavy, so it was easy to shovel, but it still made a mess of the roads today. I haven't seen a plow down our street; even the freeways (conceivably, should be cleared first) were bad this morning when I tried driving to work (I ended up getting off the expressway and taking State Street in). Once we all got home, we hunkered down for the night, playing Monopoly and making pizza. Even Popcorn, who normally loves the snow, didn't want to be outside -- the snow was so deep she couldn't find a place to do her business. I drove to get a haircut around noon, and as I was leaving, I saw a flock of geese, in V formation, honking as they flew through the snowstorm. I hope they found what...