Cruel Day

It has been over a month since Dutch and I had our snowmachines out, for one reason or another. I was really hoping we could manage at least a short ride before the Super Bowl started. My dad, who is a major football fan, said the game should start about 2:30 Alaska time, so it seemed a reasonable hope.

Last weekend’s blizzards gave us such a huge dump of snow that the trails are perfect. The temperatures have been mild all week, 20 to 30 above, and there have been lots of snowmachines out, so the trails are easy to see and follow. Time to get out of town and into the wilderness!

But once again the weather had to thwart me. The day was gorgeous to look at: cloudless blue sky with bright sun shining on all that lovely snow making sparkles everywhere. But the thermometer this morning read minus 23 degrees F, and the 10-15 mph wind gave us a wind chill of about minus 50. Way too cold for unnecessary traveling. The last time we went out, Dutch got a good-sized patch of frostbite on his face, and it was a quite a bit warmer than this. So we stayed inside and did a few house chores until it was time to turn on the TV.

Dutch enjoys watching football, mostly college level, but he is not fanatic about it. I would far rather watch baseball than football. The Super Bowl is my one exception. It is part of our history. The first Super Bowl I ever watched was with him at his parents’ house in Florida in January, 1972. It was Super Bowl VI, and the Miami Dolphins were routed by the Dallas Cowboys, 24-3.

When it comes to athletic contests, if I have no connection or loyalty to either team, I tend to pull for the underdogs. I love it when a team can come from nowhere, play the game of their lives, and beat the favorite.

But today was different. I really wanted the Patriots to win this one. Partly because it would give them a perfect season, which is a nearly impossible thing to achieve in any sport; and partly because I just adore Tom Brady. He’s gorgeous and he’s a great football player.

The Giants did that underdog thing that I usually love to see. They played their hearts out and they won in the last few minutes of the game. Nurse Kim over at Emergiblog hasn’t posted about it yet, but I’m sure she is in deep mourning. She has been a serious Brady fan since his college career at University of Michigan.

Perhaps Brady can lead the Patriots to follow in the footsteps of the Dolphins, who came back the next year to win Super Bowl VII, completing a perfect season. If he doesn’t get traded by then, that is.