Jigsaw Puzzle Map

For Christmas, my brother James gave Amber and me a personalized jigsaw puzzle: a map of our neighborhood, covering a 4 mile by 6 mile area, with our house in the center. We just got around to working on the puzzle last weekend.

My take on jigsaw puzzles in general? I have little experience, and I usually don't have the patience for them, either. Amber, on the other hand, is a "jigsaw puzzle veteran". So, I think she probably accounted for two-thirds of our total puzzle progress. It would have been even a higher percentage than that if this puzzle were not of a map. While Amber used typical jigsaw puzzle strategy when putting this together (get the edges first and work in from there), I did it a completely different way: by focusing on the roads first. I recognized the I-40 / Durham Freeway interchange on a couple of pieces, so I started there. Then, I located every other freeway piece, and was able to piece together I-40.


So, now I have I-40. Now what? It was a little harder for me from here on out. Amber just kept on cruising, but she's better at this than I am. I couldn't focus on roads alone at this point - there were too many of them to go. So, there were a couple of ways I could continue from here:
- Colors. Black blotches on white background generally meant Research Triangle Park. Pink background meant residential areas, which actually only made up less than a quarter of the total map area. (Given that we live in "barely Durham", there is quite a bit of undeveloped area around our house.)
- Words and route symbols. Not all words were horizontally oriented, but once we figured out which words are horizontal and which weren't, we were able to at least get the orientation of many pieces. That was a big help right from the start. Then, if a road or route symbol was cut off by the edge of the piece, all I would have to do is find the piece that went with it. Eventually, we would find where those pieces fit in the overall puzzle.
- Other distinct markings such as black lines (latitude/longitude, county lines, etc) or major roads. My road geek knowledge of the area helped some, but not as much as you might think, at least once I-40 was taken care of.
- Our house was located on an unconventional "house shaped" piece in the center of the map, so that obviously helped, too, considering that the pieces surrounding the house piece had to also be shaped funny.

The next day, we finished:


This got me thinking. Compared to other people's houses, was this "hometown jigsaw puzzle" easy or hard? I would think easy. There is a major freeway close to home, which was easy to locate and put together from the outset. Our area is neither 95% urban nor 95% rural, so we had a good variety of pieces. (There were quite a few pieces with only green background and brown contour lines to work with, but Amber took care of those.) We don't live close to a lake or ocean, so we weren't stuck with a bunch of pieces that all look exactly the same. (Note that we were not provided with a picture of the finished product beforehand, so we didn't necessarily know where the "pink" went, or where I-40 would fit in the overall puzzle, or even that I-40 would be in it at all, at least before we started looking at the pieces themselves. Going in, I had no idea how much area the map would cover, only that our house would be in the middle.)

So, yeah. Here is where you can get your own, if you're into this sort of thing. And by the way: when they say "2 to 3 weeks for delivery", really, they mean "2 to 3 months". Better get those Christmas 2010 orders in ASAP!

Curling Recap: 2/5/10

End............ 12345678 |TTL
----------------------------
Other team..... 00200000 | 02
Our team....... 34011232 | 16

16 to 2. How did that happen? I still don't know, but in an effort to figure that out, I'm going to try to reconsruct this match end-by-end:

1st end: I don't remember much about the 1st end. We had last rock, so I think it was a pretty standard 3-pointer.

2nd end: In order to score four without the hammer, you have to get a little lucky. With only a rock or two to go, we were lying two - then, the other team caught an unlucky bounce (for them) on one of their shots, at which point we were now lying four. What do you when you're lying four without last rock? Guard, guard, guard! Before you know it, we're leading 7-0. Is the match over already? Heck no! We've recovered from 6-0 down before, so surely, we're more than capable of giving up a 7-point lead.

3rd end: Chris J., the other team's skip, made an excellent shot to score two.

4th end: A well-played end on both sides, and we could only get one point with last rock. General curling policy is that when you have last rock and only score one, it's really a win for the other team, because they only gave up one and now have last rock for themselves. That may not be the case at our level (last rock isn't as much of an advantage for us as it is at the top levels of curling), but regardless, the other team had figured out draw weight by this point, and I figured we had a game on our hands at this point.

5th end: I made my best shot of the match here. The other team was lying two or three or four or something, and I was able to draw to the button or something. (Yeah, I know it doesn't sound impressive without pictures, but I don't remember the shot well enough from a visual perspective to be able to diagram it.) Without that shot, it would have been 8-4 or 8-5 or 8-6 or something, and we really would have had a game on our hands.

6th end: So, you have a 9-2 lead with three ends to go. What's the strategy? If you're a good curling team playing on real curling ice, the strategy is to take-out as many of the other team's rocks as possible. However, we are not as good at curling as the Canadians, and we certainly don't have real curling ice, so I generally try to avoid take-outs as much as possible. Take-outs were very difficult that night, because the line on the zamboni-cut ice was very weight sensitive. On normal curling ice, if you throw it hard enough, the rock will hold close to straight. On our not exactly perfectly flat ice, unfortunately, it's not that simple. So in our case, the strategy was completely different: throw rocks in the house, and challenge the other team to make the challenging take-outs. From the other team's perspective, you have to score big at this point, and you're not going to do that if the other team has a bunch of rocks in the house. So, they pretty much had to go for take-outs. Unfortunately for them, "playing for the win" can also mean "giving up lots of points" if things don't work out. (Note that I should not take all of the credit for our team's strategy this season. Even though I am playing skip, our team's vice-skip Lance is very experienced, and I often will defer to him on matters of strategy, at least when it's not immediately obvious to me what we should do.)

7th end: So, you have an 11-2 lead with two ends to go. Now what's the strategy? At this point, we knew it was pretty much over, so we just played normal strategy from here on out. Feel free to call it "running up the score" if you want to.

8th end: On my last shot of the game, even though we were lying two and in excellent position, I was actually considering just throwing it as hard as I could - you know, just for fun. If we end up giving them a couple of points in the process, so what? In retrospect, maybe that's what I should have done. Super-fast take-outs - or "kablammo" shots, as I like to call them - are the most fun shots to make. On the other hand, lying down for the other team when you have a big lead is, perhaps, the most insulting thing you can do. I know that when my team is down big, I don't want the other team to feel sorry for us and give away "pity points". I want to earn it. (Actually, Chris J. might have been happy to take the "pity points", because a couple of extra points would have put them in next week's 3rd place game instead of the 5th place game.)

So, to recap: how do you win a curling match 16-2? Apparently, it's a three-step procedure: 1) Combine a well-played end with a lucky end early on; 2) Maintain the big lead through the middle ends by playing even to your opponent; 3) Force the other team to make difficult shots from that point on in order to come back and win. If they make the shots, then they earned it. If they miss, then you'll extend your lead even further. I know I make it sound simple, but I assure you: this will never happen again.

Finally, some pictures! These are actually from Thursday night's Triangle Curling Club "Open House", and were taken not by me or Amber, but by Adam Prince. You can see the full slate of pictures here, but if you don't feel like wading through all 108 of them, you can find pictures of me here*, here, and here, plus pictures of Stormy (the Carolina Hurricanes mascot) here, here, and here. (* - My curling form is hardly textbook. It's supposed to look kind of like this, but I'm not flexible enough to pull that off, and I don't get to practice enough to be able to perfect it, so in the meantime, my tuck-the-knee-in-front form will suffice.)

Downtown Durham, Via Bicycle

I went on a bike ride today through downtown Durham, and took some pictures along the way. From south to north:


Eight days after the fact, there is still some snow to be found on Durham soil, if you look hard enough. Hang on, little buddy...


This is the north end of the American Tobacco Trail, located on the other side of the Durham Freeway from downtown.


(The north end of the ATT is in the background of this picture.)
It's about 10 miles via bicycle from home to here. Normally at this point, I turn around and head back home...but let's keep going, shall we?


This part of downtown Durham - the part that the city's administration actually wants you to visit - is branded as the American Tobacco Historic District. (Click here for the Wikipedia article on the American Tobacco Company.) They've actually done a fairly nice job with this area.



My property taxes at work! At least, I'm assuming this canal and artificial waterfall serves no practical purpose.


I didn't do a good job with this picture (I just learned that I shouldn't put the sun in the picture), but these are Lucky Strike towers or something. Yay tobacco! Let's go take up smoking!


This is the $44 million Durham Performing Arts Center, opened on November 30, 2008. Your move, Raleigh.


One of Durham's nicknames is the "Bull City". The inspiration for the nickname (and eventually, the minor league baseball team, and the movie based on the baseball team) is - surprise! - tobacco related. Actually, the main reason I took this picture is because I was surprised they gave him balls.


The red/yellow/blue flag in the center is the official flag of Durham. (Here is a better view.) How many cities have their own flag? Actually, most major cities do, but few display it as prominently as Durham. (Side comment: if you look hard enough, you can see my bike in that picture.)


This might be the tallest building in downtown Durham (I actually don't know), but regardless, it's NOT the tallest building in the city. That honor goes to the University Tower, located nowhere near downtown along the US-15/501 bypass. (Oh, and by the way: BOOOO SunTrust.)


Just north of downtown, you enter the "Central Park" area. I really thought I took a picture of the main sign, but the sign in front of Durham's Central Park (pictured here on Google Street View) touts the park as a "work in progress". Now that's a ringing endorsement if there ever was one! You can tell where Durham puts their money and where they don't.


The bridge I take across I-40 (along the two-lane Barbee Road) is narrow and, at times, heavily trafficked. On a bike, it's not great. On the other hand, the Washington Street bridge over I-85, despite carrying less traffic than Barbee Road, has a dedicated bike lane and a sidewalk on both sides! Yay! With all this extra room, I decided to park my bike and take a picture of the highway below. In fact, I even crossed the street and took another picture in the other direction.


I would not try this on the Barbee Road I-40 bridge.


I kept going well past downtown, but this intersection - 15½ miles from home - is where I felt like turning around. Next time, I'll shoot for Valley Springs Park, which is another three miles that way.

Finally, for those who care, here is the SportyPal log of today's ride.

Sports Saturday: 2/6/10

NFL - The Super Bowl is so huge, it's easy to forget that it's just a sporting event. In fact, I almost forgot to even include it on this list, even though no list of weekend sports would be complete without it.

"So, Chris - who's going to win the Super Bowl? Huh? Huh? I want a pick!" Sorry, folks. I'm not in the business of making picks. My ability to forecast the outcomes of sporting events is even worse than my ability to forecast the weather. Instead, I'll just give you a bunch of random thoughts about the game. For example, I used to know which number Super Bowl we were up each year without even thinking, but this year, I actually had to look it up: this is Super Bowl XLIV. Speaking of which, if the NFL decided that the whole Roman numerals thing had run its course and decided to officially spell next year's game "Super Bowl 45" rather than "Super Bowl XLV", I think I'd be fine with that.

"Fine. But surely, Chris, you MUST have a rooting interest. Who do you want to win?" You would think that as a Jaguars fan, I would automatically hate the Colts, given that they win the division every freaking year. During the season, that is true, and I generally root for the Colts to lose. But once the playoffs start and the Jaguars are long gone, my disdain for the Colts wears off, and I don't really care whether they win or lose. Aside from the fact that they are a division rival, I don't consider the Colts an annoying team. They're not flamboyant or cocky. They aren't overhyped and overexposed like some other teams in the league are (the Steelers, the Patriots, the entire NFC East, and whichever team Brett Favre is playing for). They pretty much just go about their business. Other than the fact that he beats the crap out of the Jaguars' secondary twice annually, I have no problem with Peyton Manning. I was actually considering rooting for the Colts to win on Sunday.

However...the Saints carry the trump card. Their backup quarterback is Mark Brunell - the same Mark Brunell that is still the greatest quarterback in Jacksonville Jaguars franchise history, still makes his family home in Jacksonville (I think), has done extensive charity work in Jacksonville over the years, and is just an all around good guy. It would be great to see him get a Super Bowl ring, even as an aging backup quarterback on another team who does nothing more than hold for field goals. Based on that alone, I am rooting for New Orleans to win. Go Saints!

Finally, I've decided that just like the last two years, I'm going to watch the Super Bowl on DVR delay and skip both the commercials and the halftime show. For one, this means I'll be able to watch the entire game in two hours or less. I don't care about the glitz and the show so much as I just want to watch the game. Super Bowl commercials have gotten worse over the years, and most so I don't need to devote an hour of my day to watching every single one. I'll watch the best ones after the fact on YouTube or something. And the halftime show...meh. You can do a heck of a lot worse than The Who, but nonetheless...meh.

Sun 6:25p - New Orleans v. Indianapolis, CBS

Auto racing - NASCAR is back, woohoo! Well...sort of.

Sat 1:00p - NASCAR Sprint Cup Daytona 500 Qualifying, FOX: NASCAR qualifying is, in a word: BORING. This is the only time I'll watch NASCAR qualifying all year. I'm only doing it today because it'll be a chance to see everybody's new sponsors, paint schemes, and so on, so I'll already know who's driving what even before the first race. If there ever was a time to use the DVR to watch a sporting event, this was it. I don't expect to devote more than 30 minutes to this.

Sat 4:30p - ARCA racing at Daytona, SPEED: Normally, there's no reason for anyone other than hardcore racing fans (me) to care about an ARCA race. But today is a different story. Today's ARCA race may be the most publicized, most watched ARCA race ever! All thanks to Danica Patrick, who will be making her stock car debut in this race.

All of the attention surrounding Danica Patrick's part-time move to NASCAR this season has been, well, nauseating. I should clarify that I would be watching the ARCA race regardless of Danica's entry. But I am going to talk about Danica because, well, I'm guessing you don't really care about Frank Kimmel or Bobby Gerhart or Parker Kligerman or any of the other guys who may or may not be racing. (In fact, this will be the only time I list the ARCA race on the weekend sports menu.)

So, here's what I think about Danica's foray into NASCAR. For one, I'm surprised more IndyCar drivers don't do this. The IndyCar schedule is short enough, the drivers have plenty of time to dabble in other forms of motorsports. Why didn't Sam Hornish or Dario Franchitti try NASCAR on a part-time basis first before switching over full-time? This will give Danica prior experience should she ever want to make the full-time switch to NASCAR, and will give her enough of a taste to know whether or not that would be good for her career.

Is Danica going to succeed in NASCAR? Here's my take. Some drivers are good IndyCar drivers but not good NASCAR drivers. Some drivers are good NASCAR drivers but not good IndyCar drivers. Some drivers are good at both. Is Danica good at both? How should we know? There's no real way to know until she tries it. Maybe she will do well in NASCAR; maybe she won't. All I know is that today, Danica should consider herself fortunate to just finish the race. ARCA drivers are, for the most part, young and inexperienced. Therefore, ARCA races typically feature lots of crashes. ARCA races at Daytona feature even more crashes than that. There will be plenty of wrecks in this here ARCA race. Regardless of whether she gets caught up in one of the wrecks or not, I actually expect her to run near the front. At Daytona, the car is more important than the driver, and in ARCA, there is a very wide gap between the best cars and the worst cars. Danica will have good equipment in this race, so I see no reason to expect her to run anywhere other than the top 10 most of the day, at least until one of the 18-year-old rookies takes her out. (As in, takes her out of the race.)

Did I seriously just devote four paragraphs to an ARCA race? Sorry about that. It's easy for me to get carried away when I'm talking racing.

Sun 8:00p - NASCAR Sprint Cup Bud Shootout, FOX: This is a made-for-TV exhibition race, so...no need to devote too many words to this.

College basketball - Normally I talk about the ACC or Penn State here...but not today! Perennial Big East doormat South Florida just won its fourth consecutive Big East game (at Georgetown, of all places) and is now 5-5 in the Big East. They're even talking about USF on respectable college basketball blogs now! WOW!

I haven't watched much (read: any) USF basketball this season, so I don't have much to add, other than this. Could South Florida actually finish with a better Big East record in basketball than they did in football (3-4)? Yes, it could happen. Maybe if USF ever gets really good at basketball, the ACC would be willing to send Boston College back to the Big East in exchange for South Florida. That would make a lot more sense geographically, wouldn't it? South Florida in the ACC would be pretty sweet. Unfortunately, the more realistic scenario is that with more basketball success, the USF head coach will eventually take a better job elsewhere (ala Seth Greenberg), and South Florida basketball will become irrelevant once again.

(Only televised ACC, Big Ten, Big East, and Atlantic 10 games listed)

Sat 12:00p - Wake Forest at Virginia, WRAL (Raycom)
Sat 12:00p - Villanova at Georgetown, ESPN
Sat 12:00p - West Virginia at St. John's, ESPNU
Sat 12:00p - Marquette at Providence, MASN
Sat 12:00p - Xavier at Dayton, ESPN2
Sat 2:00p - Duke at Boston College, ESPN
Sat 2:00p - Minnesota at Penn State, Big Ten Network
Sat 2:00p - Charlotte at Fordham, MASN
Sat 2:00p - Temple at Richmond, ESPNU
Sat 4:00p - NC State at Georgia Tech, WRAL (Raycom)
Sat 4:00p - Clemson at Virginia Tech, WRAL.2 (Raycom)
Sat 4:00p - Wisconsin at Michigan, CBS (not televised locally)
Sat 4:00p - Rutgers at Louisville, MASN
Sat 6:00p - Seton Hall at Pittsburgh, MASN
Sat 8:00p - Miami (FL) at Florida State, ESPNU
Sat 8:00p - DePaul at Connecticut, MASN
Sat 9:00p - Michigan State at Illinois, ESPN
Sun 12:00p - Iowa at Ohio State, Big Ten Network
Sun 12:00p - South Florida at Notre Dame, MASN
Sun 2:00p - North Carolina at Maryland, FSN
Sun 2:00p - Syracuse at Cincinnati, MASN
Sun 2:30p - Indiana at Northwestern, Big Ten Network

NHL - Just a couple of things to say about hockey: 1) Why is it that all of the players the Carolina Hurricanes are trying to trade seem to have no-trade clauses? That was dumb. 2) I'm really looking forward to Olympic hockey. Only one more week!

Sat 1:00p - Vancouver at Boston, NESN
Sat 2:00p - Pittsburgh at Montreal, Fox Sports Pittsburgh
Sat 4:00p - Detroit at Los Angeles, Fox Sports Detroit
Sat 6:00p - Phoenix at Dallas, Fox Sports Southwest
Sat 7:00p - Carolina at NY Islanders, Fox Sports Carolinas
Sat 7:00p - Ottawa at Toronto, NHL Network
Sat 7:00p - New Jersey at NY Rangers, MSG Plus
Sat 7:00p - Calgary at Tampa Bay, NHL Center Ice
Sat 7:00p - Florida at Atlanta, NHL Center Ice (maybe?)
Sat 7:00p - Buffalo at Columbus, Fox Sports Ohio
Sat 8:00p - Chicago at St. Louis, Fox Sports Midwest
Sat 8:00p - San Jose at Nashville, CSN California
Sat 8:00p - Philadelphia at Minnesota, NHL Center Ice
Sat 10:00p - Edmonton at Colorado, Altitude 2
Sun 12:00p - Pittsburgh at Washington, NBC: For those keeping track at home, this is the third consecutive week that the NBC "Game of the Week" has featured the Pittsburgh Penguins. How about a little variety, NBC?
Sun 3:00p - Boston at Montreal, NESN

Piggly Wiggly: Has the Novelty Worn Off?

I had nothing to write about today, so I went back through my blog archives looking for things I used to write about a lot, but haven't in a while. That leads me to Piggly Wiggly.

From the first time I went to my first Piggly Wiggly grocery store in Ashburn, Georgia, to the time I found the mysterious Mr. Pig brand soda in Port St. Joe, Florida, I've always loved the Piggly Wiggly chain of grocery stores. Sure, many Piggly Wigglys are complete dumps and can make even Food Lion seem upscale, but it's not about that. It's about the grocery store's redneck stigma, the logo, the happy pig, the pig-branded groceries, and just the overall attitude of the place. Piggly Wigglys don't take themselves too seriously. I mean, it's called Piggly Wiggly! How can they?

Sadly, I think the novelty has worn off. I used to make long road trips specifically to go to the nearest Piggly Wiggly, but despite living in a state with Piggly Wigglys throughout (at least in the eastern part of the state), I can't even remember the last time I went to one. After seven or eight years of regular wear and tear, my Piggly Wiggly "I'M BIG ON THE PIG" T-shirt has since been removed from regular t-shirt rotation is now part of the "exercise" t-shirt rotation. And while I'm still rocking the "I'm Stickin' With The Pig" bumper sticker, I've seen several other "I'm Stickin' With The Pig" bumper stickers scattered throughout the state. It appears Piggly Wiggly is not as much of a novelty in North Carolina as it is in Florida or Pennsylvania. Sadly, that makes it way less cool. Maybe that's why I haven't been to one. When I go driving in the eastern part of the state, I see them everywhere!

Part of the problem is that Piggly Wiggly brand items are hard to find in North Carolina. Not all Piggly Wigglys are under the same management umbrella, so while it is easy to find Piggly Wiggly brand potato chips and soda (for example) in South Carolina, the North Carolina stores only feature "Our Family" generic products. Lame. In my opinion, having the pig on the label doubles the value of the product, at least. Furthermore, while the Piggly Wigglys in some parts of the country are very nice grocery stores - South Carolina and Wisconsin, in particular - the ones in North Carolina are, for the most part, dumps. It isn't exactly "where shopping is a pleasure".

So...has Piggly Wiggly run its course in my life? Is this the end of my obsession with Piggly Wiggly? In an attempt to rekindle the magic, I'm going to go shopping at a nearby Piggly Wiggly this weekend. Apparently there's one in Pittsboro. Let's go!

Snow Driving in North Carolina

I'm going to put a period on last weekend's snow event by talking about what it's like to drive through it in North Carolina. Let's take the driving experience day-by-day:

Friday: We drove through the snow both on our way to, and our way back home from, curling Friday night. On the way to curling, the snow was falling pretty hard, but it wasn't sticking to the roads. Nevertheless, I took it slow: 45 mph on the interstate. That made me probably the slowest car on the road. Everyone whizzed by me, and I thought they were nuts. Turns out that I could have easily gone faster and been okay, but I didn't know that the roads were still in good shape at that point. I was actually more scared of the other drivers than I was of the snow. There was still a full load of traffic on the roads at that point, in part because the snow started sooner than expected, and not everyone had made it home yet.

The drive home, however...now that was an adventure. By this point, the snow was still falling, and had started collecting on all roads. Based on all the snow driving I did last weekend, I think this is the most dangerous time to be out there. It's dark, visibility is poor on top of that due to the falling snow, the entire road is covered in fresh snow, and there are still plenty of idiots on the road who don't know better. Yes, there were still people going 65+ mph even in these conditions. It took us over an hour to get home from curling (normally takes 35 minutes), but that's okay, because we made it home safe without incident. The key is just taking it slow.

All the while...I had a blast. It was exciting! It had been a while since I had gotten an adrenaline rush like that. I never really felt in danger, but then again, you never do until you hit something. Maybe that's why people drive so fast in it? We don't get many opportunities to drive in the snow here, so people don't have the experience. Granted, I don't, either, but I'd like to think I do things on the safe side of halfway. (That's not to say my snow driving skills are better than average. I'm pretty sure they're not, even in this state.)

Sunday: Needless to say, we didn't go anywhere on Saturday. But what about Sunday? Surely, I don't want to spend another day cooped up at home, right? You're correct. So, I went on a drive...to Charlotte and back.


View Larger Map

Let me get this straight...the day after a major snowstorm, you drove all the way to Charlotte and back? Are you CRAZY? Well, yes. Didn't you know that already? Now, I could say that the purpose of this drive was just to casually check out the road conditions, so that I have a better idea of what to expect the day after the next snowstorm. While that is partially true, I'm afraid I must keep the true purpose of this drive - and any other Charlotte day trips Amber and I may make in the future - out of this blog. I will, however, blog about these "mystery trips to Charlotte" from a road trip and statistical point of view. For example, Sunday's drive meant the prediction that my car wouldn't hit 40,000 miles until March was completely wrong, not to mention a ridiculous statement to make, given my driving habits. It's only February 2nd, and I'm already sitting on 39,994.

So, anyway...in most places up north, 24 hours after receiving 6" of snow, you can generally expect the main roads to be plowed and ready to go. North Carolina is not one of those places. They only have so many plows and manpower here, so, they don't do a whole lot of plowing. I thought NC-55 from Durham to Apex and US-1 south from there were major enough roads such that they would be in good shape. Nope! Both were completely covered in white. The normally 20-minute drive to Apex down NC-55 took over 40 minutes this time. No wonder this place shuts down every time we get snow. It's not our fault; it's NCDOT's fault. But in the state's defense, given how infrequently we get snow, it isn't cost effective to have a major snow removal operation in place. I'm willing to deal with the occasional crappy road day if it means paying lower taxes.

I decided to take the southern route (US-1/US-74 via Rockingham) first because southern areas didn't get as much snow, and due to melting, all roads would get progressively better as the day went on. I think that worked out pretty well, because once I got about 10 miles south of Sanford, the roads were clear from there on out. Until then, however...yikes. I should repeat that US-1 is a major highway - an expressway, even - and 24 hours after a modest snowstorm, the road was not clear. There were spots of clear, but that was probably more due to dumb luck than anything else. And once it started melting, it actually got worse, because the tires started digging into the snow (as opposed to just gliding over it). Consistent snow cover is manageable, but when you're constantly going back and forth between cleared to snow covered to slushy to a combination of all three, it's not great. Now I know what to expect in the future: even though US-1 is a major highway, it's not an interstate, and the interstates get first billing. I believe the interstates were all clear, or at least close to it, most of the day Sunday. So, at least NCDOT has that going for it. I-85 was in nearly perfect shape, and the return trip from Charlotte actually took no longer than it normally would have (just under 2½ hours).

So, lesson learned. After a snow event on the order of 6" hits the state of North Carolina, you can expect the interstates to be cleared sometime the next day. All other roads, however...you're pretty much going to have to wait for the snow to melt.

Monday and Tuesday: Public schools were canceled throughout the Triangle both Monday and Tuesday. Most roads are clear this morning...BUT, there was a chance of freezing rain this morning (although I don't think it ever materialized), and most are still some residential streets covered in snow - for example, our short cul-de-sac. A full 72 hours after the snow stopped falling, it's still covered in ice and snow.


(That picture is from today, and it's actually not all that bad now.)
Ohio native Amber thinks it's absolutely ridiculous that our street still hasn't been cleared at this point, especially since it's on a hill. Even yesterday, Amber still wasn't able to make it up the street after work. (I was able to make it up the street, even on Sunday, but we think she needs new tires.) But like I said, North Carolina doesn't have the resources or the budget to deal with snow as well as Ohio does. And besides, by the time public works would get around to plowing our street, the snow has usually already melted by then anyway. Last weekend's snowstorm is not an annual occurrence.

Going forward, I'm looking forward to the time when I can start biking again. The next two days are supposed to be nice, so...maybe? Hopefully soon, because we might get snow again this weekend. Back-to-back snowfalls could set my bike fitness back to pre-October levels. (Note that if I lived in a place that gets more frequent snow, I would either join an indoor gym, invest in a stationary bike, or if I lived close enough to a ski resort, regularly go skiing or snowboarding. I'm not a naturally good athlete, so I need frequent repetition to stay in tip-top shape.)

Finally, in case you're interested, here's an official snowfall analysis from the weekend for North Carolina. The official analysis puts our house right on the 6" line, which is probably about right. My measurement of 5.25" was hardly official.

UPDATE 2/3/10 11:45a: Public schools in Wake and Durham Counties were closed for Wednesday as well, which I think is absolutely ridiculous. The make-up day will supposedly be the first day of Spring Break. I have a hard time believing that more kids are going to come to school on the first day of Spring Break than would have been able to make it to school today.

The "Lost" Season Premiere

"24" let me down last week the moment Renee Walker started crying again. Ugh. I'm still watching, but for now, it's time to shift focus to what is now a better, far more interesting show: "Lost". The first episode of the final season is tomorrow night. And considering that they ended the previous season on a huge cliffhanger, it's about freaking time. (Note - if you don't watch "Lost", you might as well stop reading. Or, if you do watch "Lost" but haven't seen the previous season in its entirety yet, you definitely should stop reading, because there are spoilers.)

"Lost" is a fantastic show. No show I've ever watched does as good a job with continuity and story depth than does "Lost". Even though their rules for science are a little kooky, that's okay, because you know up front that this is science fiction. When I watch the show, I'm rarely thinking, "Ugh, that's dumb. Why would (name of character) do that? That makes no sense. What terrible writing." Considering the premise, everything is held together pretty well. And now that this is the final season, finally they're going to explain everything, from the smoke monster, to what the deal with Jacob is, to the guy who was posing as John Locke (whom I think is also the same "person" that poses as the dead Christian Shepherd, and posed as Ben's dead daughter when she gave him explicit instructions to follow John Locke's every word...just my theory, anyway, since never have all of those seemingly reincarnated characters ever appeared on screen at once) to all the other mysteries that we've forgotten about...right?

Of course not! No show ever explains everything. They are going to leave some loose ends hanging at the end. Know that going in. When it comes time for the season finale, keep your expectations low. The vast majority of long running series' finales leave the viewers disappointed. "Lost" may or may not do that, but trust me - they will want everyone talking about this show at water coolers across the country long after its conclusion, discussing the possibilities for either what just happened, or what may happen "next" if the show were to continue.

But the finale is a long way off. As for tonight, the question remains: after the hydrogen bomb "incident", what next? Was time reset back to 2004 (or whatever), as James seems to think, citing the fact that the season premiere is on Groundhog Day? The writers have definitely been keeping it a secret as much as possible. Not once during all of the commercials for "Lost" has a second of actual final season footage been aired as a teaser. There are no trailers giving away final season footage, at least that I know of. They're keeping their hand close to the chest, because they want us all to tune in tomorrow night to find out where the show is going to go from here. Well, you know what? It's working! Unlike most shows we watch, this will be same day viewing for Amber and me.

Aside from the eventual inevitable reunion of Sun and Jin, I think this season, anything goes. Should be fun.

(Side note: I'm going to use this post's traffic as a gauge to determine how much effort and blogspace to devote to "Lost" the rest of the way, so depending on how that goes, I'll either blog about the show weekly, or just once or twice more total. ... UPDATE 9:40 PM: Based on the traffic thus far, I think every two or three weeks is appropriate.)

Curling Recap: 1/29/10

Despite the snow, we went curling last Friday night. However, completely unrelated to the snow, the zamboni wasn't working properly, which meant a couple of things. First, it meant the ice conditions were, well, interesting. Second, it meant getting started 30 minutes late, so we could only get six ends in.

End............ 123456 |TTL
---------------------------
Our team....... 024020 | 08
Other team..... 200302 | 07

The problem with the zamboni was that it couldn't flood the ice and create a new ice surface. Instead, it could only do a "dry cut", shaving off what the hockey players left behind. This meant the ice surface was much more slanted than normal, and that the zamboni lines were more pronounced than ever. This image is not to scale, but it should give you a general idea:


In between the zamboni lines the rocks would always fall the same way, regardless of what turn we put on the rock. But the zamboni line "cliffs" were so steep that once the rock hit the zamboni line, it either hugged the line the rest of the way down the ice, or bounced off slightly and then fell back to it again.

Here's an overhead view from the opposite perspective:


So, what impact did this have on our match? A few things:

- It didn't really matter if your aim was off, because your rock was generally going to end up on one of those zamboni lines at the end.
- Take-outs were almost automatic. However, since there is an occasional "bounce" off the zamboni lines, not every hit was dead-on. In fact, most hits were not, and it was impossible to plan for the "bounce". Trade enough hits back and forth, eventually, we would get one that rolled to either side, away from the zamboni lines, and was then impossible to take out.
- Correct weight was hard to get. Due to the zamboni cut (which left the ice rather rough in spots), the ice got significantly faster as the match progressed and the ice smoothed out. It was hard to keep up with the rapidly changing ice speed.

Due to the certainty of take-outs, last rock was a significant advantage. Last rock scored in every end except the 3rd end. How did we score four in that end? First, we got a lucky hit and roll to the impossible-to-reach button. Then, on the other team's last rock (which was an attempt to hit and stick to one of our rocks, cutting us down to one point instead of four), the rock got an unfortunate bounce off the zamboni line and missed everything. That shot pretty much decided the match.

I don't know what the best strategy was with this ice, but I think the best play might have been to leave your first two rocks just in front of the house as guards. According to the free guard rule, these rocks cannot be taken out immediately. Then, starting with the third rock, try to raise your guards into the house, and hope you get a slight bounce such that the hit is slightly off-center and the raised rock is promoted to an impossible-to-take-out location. I tried that in a couple of ends, however, and it didn't work out. The rocks need to be directly in front of the house to give you the best chance of success, and due to the rapidly changing ice speed, it was very difficult to get the weight right.

Now...the last end. We had a three point lead. We threw away our first two rocks on purpose, for a couple of reasons. One, due to the difficulty of draw weight, I didn't want to leave anything in the house that the other team could hit and stop against. Two, I didn't want to leave any guards, either, because that could leave to an unfortunate wick away from the surefire zamboni lines. Once the other team did get a rock in the house (which didn't happen until the third or fourth shot, I think), we took it out immediately, at which point we traded take-outs until one team got the lucky hit-and-roll. This strategy almost backfired, though, because the other team got the lucky hit-and-roll twice, giving them two impossible-to-remove rocks in the house. With one throw for each team remaining, they had a chance to tie the game on the last shot. However, I threw my last rock as a guard on one of the zamboni lines, and the other team's last rock couldn't swing around it. Game over. Whew... (I pay a lot more attention when I'm playing skip. Can't you tell?)

Gotta love curling in North Carolina, don't you? On any given night, you never know what you're going to get.