Fun With Photons: February 2014

I found myself in Rochester, NY one brisk morning in February. It's an interesting place.

Camera in hand, I heard the river call.

Looking south and upstream from the Broad Street Bridge.
The Genesee flows north, which is unusual for rivers in the northern hemisphere.

Nice brickwork on Rochester Gas and Electric Station #6.
Interesting how one can drive by a building 100 times and never notice it.

This is the Times Square Building.
I think Spiderman swung from the top.

Some call these top structures "The Wings of Progress,"
but the correct name is "Bunny Ears."

The parabola upstream is a bridge.

The dam floods the rapids upstream.
Not as interesting to look at, but much improved for the rowers during the warm months.

The Broad Street Bridge, formally the Erie Canal Aqueduct over the Genesee.
This will make a nice post card, don't you think?

Almost as nice as this one.
Same bridge, different day.

And here is Mercury,
looking speedy even though the mercury has contracted.

He's especially quick at changing light bulbs.

Curling clubs are generally not much to look at from the outside.

But inside, they are places of beauty.

Do you know why Wisconsinites love curling?
They want to go out onto the ice to warm up.

(We did see double digit Fahrenheit once while we were there.)

The Portage Curling Club was relatively small, but nicely appointed.
Gotta love the curling-rings tables.

They even have plates to match.
Looks like the Tostitos team scores 3 in this end.

What is this man doing? Humidifying?
No, he is actually "pebbling" the ice, which is necessary to make the surface act consistently.
The cloud is formed by the hot water meeting the cold air.

Why does the curling club have two Pepsi machines?

The craft beer aficionados may poo-pooh the selection,
but they can't argue against the utility.

My teammate Dan enjoying the action.
I think he is sponsored by Leinenkugel Brewery in Chippewa Falls.

What do you think? Is it better to have a deposit on cans,
or a fun-to-use can crusher?

Once flattened, the cans are compelled by gravity into the slot on the right.
It was great fun. Be sure not to crush full cans.

Rick and Scott plot strategy in Scott's techno-corner.
In addition to curling, it was good Scott was there to diagnose the problem
when the club's wireless router died.

The gang at the nearby Tamarack,
celebrating the return of wireless service.

We did our best to support the local economy.
We were told the Friendly Tavern had the best fish fry in town.
I can't say, because I didn't try them all, but theirs was tasty.

Danny with his new best friend.
The people are quite nice in Portage.

A local dentist helped Dan out with a minor emergency.
Unfortunately, relieving the pain forced Dan's face into a permanent smile.
Danny is such a joker.

We're not in New York State anymore...

"What else do Wisconsin natives do in the winter?" you ask.

Build little houses on the ice.

Snowmobile out to go ice fishing.

And drive cars on the ice.
I've never done this. I should have taken advantage of the opportunity.
I'm sure the rental agreement covers any mishap.

They even race cars on the ice.
This was going to be a really nice picture of the nasty-looking studded tires they employ.
Use your imagination. Hard to shoot pictures while you're sliding down the icy road.

So what happened with the curling?

Though you may not believe it possible at my age, I learned quite a bit while having a good time.

We played 6 games against very good competition. 3 of the teams were definitely a cut above, but we had two of these teams in trouble before collapsing at the end of the game. Basically a crisis of confidence, which I believe was a function of two of us not having played at that level before, and that the team had never really played together prior to the bonspiel.

Several of the teams we played against had won this tournament and gone to the World competition, or had a few of their players who had gone. Calling out this fact is called "rationalization."

We finally won the last of our games. Numerous people congratulated us on the win, one even saying, "So glad to see you finally got a win...You played so well, but had nothing to show for it."