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| Merry Xmas. I think just about every local rink in my neck o' the woods has one of these this year. Another missed merch. opportunity for your old diarist. |
I'm still working on that wonky Mohawk. I'm still listening for the magic word from my coach that suddenly transforms my RFI Mohawk from hell on blades into a thing of beauty or at least a thing that can be successfully run past the judges. At Thurday's lesson, coach A. watched my feeble attempts and said "you need to keep your weight, (for the entry edge), back further on the heel." So I tried that and the turn became marginally more controllable. Controllable but not great. When we skate partnered, that Mohawk is still a disaster waiting for the right opportunity to bring me low as I stagger through the back progressive and cross in front steps which follow it. Anyway, keeping my weight back on the entry edge is something new for me to experiment with.
Yesterday afternoon diaristwoman and I went down to the
National Gallery of Art to gawk at impressionists. Although my lab is closed by the fed gov shutdown, the NGA and other national museums in DC are open through the 2nd of January. Although they have enough funding to finish out the calendar year, operations are questionable beyond that.
NB: if you are planning to take advantage of this unexpected opening in the face of the partial shutdown, recall that all of the fed government funded museums in DC are always closed on the 1st of January in observance of New Year's Day.
Afterwards as we walked to
Paul's for a bowl of soup and a sandwich, we passed by the sculpture garden fountain. In winter the fountain is transformed into a small and at times very crowded ice rink.
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| It was a pleasantly warm, for December, day with little wind. The ice was quite crowded before the Zamboni came out for a much needed ice cut. |
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| The Zamboni driver laid on a generous layer of water to the heavily rutted ice. This mercifully was given a chance to freeze, filling in most of the deep ruts, with only a few ruts requiring hand filling/hockey puck smoothing before the skating public was allowed back on. |
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| The skaters give an idea of the size of the rink. This photo was taken just after the rink reopened. Within a few minutes the rink was once again heaving with people. I was glad I didn't bother to bring my skates. Soon after this photo was taken the ice was so crowded that skaters could barely perimeter skate. Like Rockefeller Center, the idea in the mind's eye is better than reality. |
And so, gentle reader, with that I leave you 'til the ball drops. Smooth Skating and Happy New Year!
