All of a sudden, in the dead of winter, our old town is having a great time.
Imagine! A rock star in our midst!
OK, he’s not a rock star, but few people expected to have an athlete from out little area going to the Winter Olympics. I mean, what were the odds? There are just 3,000 residents in our city. Just 13,000 people in the entire county. And that population is definitely not going up.
But we have an Olympian who will be competing at Vancouver later this month. The town is all abuzz. A lot of excitement. Many businesses have posted signs wishing him luck. They have put up a banner across the highway entering town, complete with the Olympic rings and the Vancouver Olympics logo. Our paper (of course) put together a special section to try to capitalize–getting local businesses to buy ads wishing him good luck and congratulations.
These have been the final days before he leaves for Vancouver, and it’s been crazy for a little, tiny town in the middle of the woods where nothing ever seems to happen. Early last week, our guy was on NBC’s “Today” show, in New York, modeling the outfits the U.S. Olympians will be wearing during the opening ceremonies.
On Thursday night, back here, they held a benefit dinner for him and his family (as a fund-raiser so his family can go, too). They were jam-packed, and parking was impossible to find. Over 450 people attended, I’m told.
Friday afternoon, they held a pep rally for him at the local high school. I covered that and got some pictures. It was very loud. The band played, all the kids from all the grades filled the gym, they showed a video of his snowboardcross races, and he spoke. The two sides of the gym engaged in a shouting contest, trying to find out which side could yell louder:
South side: “Go!” North side: “Nick!” South side: “Go!” North side: “Nick!”
Then, later on, it was …
South side: “U.P.!” North side: “Power!” South side: “U.P.!” North side: “Power!”
And later still, it was …
South side: “U.S.A.” North side: “U.S.A.!” South side: “U.S.A.” North side: “U.S.A.!”
After it ended, he was getting request after request for autographs … while trying to collect his 5-year-old son for the ride home from school. He promised to visit all the classrooms and answer all the questions after returning from Vancouver.
On Friday night, there was another fund-raiser at a bar just across the state line in Wisconsin (which is only 10 miles away from us). Finally, Saturday night, there was a short parade through town. He was at the front of one of the fire trucks–the procession consisted mainly of fire trucks passing down the main street at a walking pace, making enough noise to wake the dead. A slow procession, but also short. Within 15 minutes, I was on my way home.
I have known him for a long time. He’s about 29 … I covered him when he was playing football and wrestling at high school. Then he got into snowboarding, and he has done quite well at it. I have interviewed him several times about it. In recent years, our talks focused increasingly on his dream to make the Olympic team going to Vancouver. I did a feature last summer, about his training regimen and how he is getting ready.
Then, the qualification races. I did articles about each one (from my little desk back here). In Switzerland, he finished third place, and that visit to the podium made all the difference. It was nip and tuck at the end, and it all came down to the final qualifying event, held in Quebec late in January.
Two days later, he was back home, and I got to talk to him during an elementary school basketball tournament at the high school. He talked about all his emotions and all the tension while waiting at the bottom of the hill–another racer had forced a crash during his qualification run, and he was eliminated. So his Olympic hopes came down to whether another racer would finish in second place in the finals, which would bump him off the team.
The other racer came in third. He made it!
It’s all been very exciting (and a bit exhausting for me). Normally in mid-winter, my life is all about a never-ending series of high school basketball games–some good, some bad, some dreadful. I can take only so much basketball, but I have to take a lot of it. This is a little extra work … but it’s fun, too. This last week was very, very hectic, but I think I got everything done that I had to.
I hope so. I’ll find out for real on Monday, when we put the paper together.
****
In other news …
Winter is moving along. Now that we have reached the second week of February, it’s time to start anticipating the first real thaw. Just checked this week’s forecast: No thaw this week.
While other parts of the country are getting pummeled with snowstorms and heavy rains, the weather has been quiet here. Very little snow for the last month. Of course, the stuff we received earlier hasn’t melted.
After getting postponed three times (since late November), we finally visited S and her husband last week. The usual regimen: We went to Golden Corral for dinner and then to the motel pool to relax in the whirlpool. Ah, that was nice. She gave me some Christmas cookies and treats she had made for me (for the late December visit that was postponed by a snowstorm). They were put in the freezer, and they still taste good.
I visited N a few weeks ago. It’s hard to get away for mid-winter visits, though, because of all the nights I spend at basketball games. After the season ends (in March), it should get easier. She lives in an area that normally gets lots of lake-effect snow, but the weather behaved that day.
My wife and I are looking forward to the end of basketball, too. There is a Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Milwaukee museum, and she wants to see it–the exhibit continues into summer. Other summer plans are still in the incubator. Nothing planned yet with B.
I ordered my new computer. It will be a Windows 7 desktop. It was supposed to come this week, but now Dell is telling me I have to wait another week. Well, OK. It should be worth the wait. Meanwhile, I have been working to get rid of old files, such as old mail files or old downloaded programs. I get an extra week to do that.
The newest news: I found a new theme that I actually think looks cool. So how cool is that, anyway?
drdog