Curling finale

No Doyle this week. Between the gym and a few things that needed doing around the house after I got back from the gym, it was about 10:20 before I sat down. I think this week is the season finale, so I'll try and make time to sit down and watch it.

As for other things happening, curling season wrapped up for me this week. If I haven't spoken about curling quite as much as I usually do it's because I found this season a bit frustrating. I just wasn't playing well and it wasn't...fun, although I'm not sure why as the guys on my team are pretty cool. My third, a nice guy named Jeremy, joked during our final game last night that I never listen to his advice. My response is that in previous years my Third has been a cute woman and I'm apparently more receptive to their advice.

(There are many women I should apologize to for that last remark, but let's start with Cathy, and then move on to Stephanie and Ashley, who were my Thirds in recent years.)

I suspect many people would wonder why I was so frustrated. We didn't win our Tuesday League night, but we did win the B final that night, which was nice. We curled in the Canadian North Bonspiel last night (no plane ticket again, alas) and won the B Final in that event. Apparently, it's been a B kind of week.

The weekend was actually a lot of fun. It was only a three person team due to various weirdness. After losing an annoying game on Friday night (two of my final stones picked up debris and did weird thing. Cost me six points), we won Saturday morning, a nice strategic battle in the afternoon to get to the final and then an epic one in the final. We were the last teams on the ice, all I had to do with my last shot was make a take out to win...which I missed, of course. So now we're tied, it's 10 p.m. everyone else is eating and they're trying to convince us to go to an extra end.

We deferred, as we were all exhausted. Instead, we did a fun little bit of mental torture called skip stones. Basically each skip throws one rock, closest to the button wins. No pressure. The other skip went first and put his rock in the eight foot (the white rings, for those of you who watch curling on TV). I threw mine and put it on the button. It must be said, there is something nice about doing a pressure shot like that and making it, and then looking up and seeing people applauding (everyone was watching) and pounding on the glass.

I threw the last rock, in the last game of the season to win a final. I like that.

But I'm not sure it cancels out everything in the weeks before. As I said, I was frustrated a lot, my patience was thinner that it has been in years. My broom went flying a few times when I was frustrated, which I haven't done in about five years. That's not acceptable.

So I figure one of three things will happen.
1. Business as usual. I'll go back next season and do it all over again. The odds of that are marginally better after this week. And not just because of the wins. I notice my delivery is better as I've been losing some weight.

2. I'll put my name out there and if some team wants to recruit me, I'll curl with them on the condition I'm not the skip. I'll shoot Third stone or something.

3. Take a year, possibly more, off.

We'll see. I'm leaning towards #3, but that might change come September. Maybe the itch will be back.

But for now, time to hang up the curling shoes. I'll also have to see if I'm going to add Tuesday nights to the gym schedule. I've been going five nights a week, except Tuesday (curling) and Friday (recovery). Not sure I want to do six days a week at the gym, but I'll make my decision after Easter.

Last Five
1. Ribbons undone (live) - Tori Amos
2. The letter - Mark Bragg
3. Your heart is an empty room - Death Cab for Cutie*
4. Girls like you - The Naked and Famous
5. Tiger Lily - Ron Hynes