It's Winter . . . and the Stillers are playing football.



As many of you are aware, I am about as interested in sports as . . . well, I don't know very many people more clueless than I am. Living in Pittsburgh, it is REALLY hard not to care about football and the Steelers. People around here consider it heresy to even suggest that you don't follow the team.

I'm sitting here typing while Greg is watching the playoff game with the Steelers against the Chargers this afternoon. (The score is currently tied 7 all.) When we went to church this morning, about a quarter of the people in the congregation were either in football jerseys or black and gold. The preacher ended the service with "Let's go Steelers!" The owner of our favorite restaurant where we had brunch was wearing black and gold. And people at the Giant Eagle where we stopped to get groceries were rushing around buying "game food" and doing their own version of rushing the line to get home so they could get control of the remote. Whatever! I need to at least know the final score in order to get into the office in the morning.

Personally, Greg and I were outside for an hour or so this morning shovelling the 5+ inches of snow off the driveway in 24-degree weather with the sun shining on us. Given that experience, I am having a tough time imagining the 65,000 or so people down there at Heinz Field waving their terrible towels for 4 or 5 hours this evening being able to bend their knees when they get to their cars later. I think there is a chromosone missing on somebody in this scenario. I'm just not sure if it's me or the people down there that have the deficit.

On to another topic. Winter and associated weather. As you may have noticed, it is January. Our area got about 5 inches of snow between Friday and Saturday. Greg and I didn't bother to shovel yesterday since we used the snowy Saturday to stay home and putter. This morning, we got up and worked on clearing the walks and driveway. I kept thinking about people who have moved to warmer climates saying they miss the changing of the seasons as we were shovelling. Is there a place where you can get the deciduous trees and the leaves changing and have about 1 week of winter with one pretty snowfall on a weekend that melts by Monday and turns into spring? If so, let me know. I'm interested.