But hopefully not delayed too long. At least I've got a hot chick with me this time!
From the Summit Daily:
Jones found himself being carried by a rare in-bounds avalanche on Vail Mountain. The avalanche was 100 to 150 feet wide and about 600 feet long. It was 3 feet deep, sliding to the ground.
Yep- resort skiing in Blue Sky Basin. Dude's lucky he didn't do a faceplant into a rock or tree- the steeps off that cornice have lots of hazards:
Plus, I loved the lyrics:
I'll be true to you
oh yeah you know I will
and I'll be true for ever or until
I go homeGod, it's great to be alive
takes the skin ride off my hide
to think I'll have to give
all up some day
(Neko Case on backup vox, I found out later.)
At some point, I found out this was a cover- a song written by Daniel Johnston, whose name I was kind of familiar with- influential crazy/eccentric singer-songwriter guy? Then I watched "The Devil and Daniel Johnston." A must-see, if you haven't already. Here's the original version:
Did you like that HQ photo I inserted into my last post? If it would have turned out, it was DeAngelo Williams breaking off a 16-yard touchdown, right after he had gained enough yards to help me win my first-round fantasy football playoff game. Glancing at the 86-68 final score of my game doesn't even come close to telling the whole story.
Jen picked me up from work, and we headed to El Camino, a new restaurant on 32nd & Lowell. The space used to be occupied by Swimblub 32, a restaurant that Jen and I liked, though it did have a little "hipper-than-thou" kind of feel to it. But the food was good, and it was a pretty cool atmosphere. Apparently the owner realized that it was a little too swanky for the Highlands neighborhood, so he completely changed everything, and it's now a Mexican joint. But with a very limited menu. And the food we got wasn't all that good, except for the guac.
But, they have 2 huge HD televisions, and that's what we were there for. Watching a football game, and needing a certain amount of points from one player, can be maddening. I pretty much assumed that I would need a touchdown- 105 yards rushing is a tall order against the Tampa defense. In the first half, here's what Williams did:
0 yd rush
4 yd rush
3 yd rush
9 yd rush
2 yd rush
40 yd rush!!!! (Almost broke it for a TD, but ran out of gas)
4 yd rush
With 1:52 left in the half, they gave Jonathan Stewart the ball on the 2-yard line, and he ran it in! Dammit, coach!
So- 62 yards in the first half. Pretty darned good. If he can just keep getting carries...
4 yd rush
5 yr rush
2 yd rush
-2 yd rush
7 yd rush
7 yd reception
7 yd rush
1 yd rush
With 13:27 left in the game, Stewart gets the carry from the 4-yard line, and scores again! I am officially freaking. To get so close, and lose by a point would kill me! They force the Bucs to punt, and with 10:54 left in the game, Williams gets the carry, blazes past linebackers, and picks up 41 yards!!!! Yeehaw!
Then, for good measure, he runs in a 16-yard TD 3 plays later. After we leave the bar, he breaks off a 36-yard TD as they are running out the clock! That's 99 yards, and 2 touchdowns in the fourth quarter! Like I said- looking at the final score, it seems crazy that I was ever stressing. But things could have easily not gone my way.
Jen faces off against Jose's Armada (Ed Kline), while I play the Hell Hounds (my brother's team). We could see an all-Flanagan fantasy bowl!
Wow. I win! Stressful as hell watching the game, though. When Stewart got 2 goal line carries, I was shitting myself- just ask Jen.
Last year I failed to make the playoffs in both fantasy football leagues in which I participate. That made me very sad. This year, I led both leagues in scoring. The team that Steve F & I own has a first-round bye. In the auction league, I have a first-round matchup vs Steve's younger brother Jeff. things were looking pretty good for me, despite Frank Gore's injury. I had a 2-point lead with a little over three minutes left in the Baltimore-Washington game, and Baltimore was running out the clock, with a 7-point lead. On a 3rd & 5 play, Derrick Mason found himself wide open, and Flacco delivered a 28-yard TD pass. My hopes now rest squarely on the shoulders of DeAngelo Williams, who has been one of the biggest sleeper surprises in fantasy football this season.
I need 7 points from Williams tonight. Our scoring system awards a point for every 15 yards rushing and receiving, and 6 points for a TD run or catch. Looking at Williams' recent games, it would be easy to assume that I have this one in the bag:
28 points vs Packers
15 points vs Falcons
20 points vs Lions
15 points vs Raiders
14 points vs Cardinals
10 points vs Saints
1 point vs Buccaneers
27 points vs Chiefs
Looking back through the 12 games the Bucs have played so far, only 5 running backs have performed well enough to earn 7 points in our fantasy league: Reggie Bush in week 1, Matt Forte in week 3, Jamaal Charles and Kolby Smith in week 9, and Pierre Thomas last week. Kolby Smith scored the lone rushing TD, Jamaal Charles had 106 yards, and the others scored TD receptions. If two Chiefs running backs (neither named Larry Johnson) can earn 7+ points in the same game, I have faith in DeAngelo tonight.
Looking closer at the matchups, I realized that all of those games, except the first, happened when Tampa was on the road. Sure enough, their home/road splits are striking:
Rush yds Total yds Pts
Home: 69.8 235.8 12.7
Away: 121 323.2 20.7
I feel much better after seeing that! Plus, this is a huge game for the Panthers- the two teams are tied for first place in the division, and Carolina is 6-0 at home. No doubt DeAngelo remembers that first game vs the Bucs, and is ready to run all over them!
Concurrent video chat and blogging
A car driving around town without a hood.
That's Michelle in the soft stuff. About 15 seconds after I took this picture, I did a faceplant in deep snow, and it took me almost 10 minutes to find one of my skis. Two nice guys came by and helped me look, though.
We were planning on driving back Saturday, but the road conditions and traffic were pretty bad, so we decided to stay until Sunday. We hit the road at about 11:45, and the traffic web cams made it look like everything was moving along alright. Right past the Silverthorne exit, things got gummed up. It's 8 miles from the Silverthorne exit to the Eisenhower Tunnel (which cuts through the Continental Divide), and most of it is at a pretty mellow grade. Once you get past the Silverthorne exit, there's no turning back.
Loveland Pass was closed due to weather, which means they have to periodically stop traffic at the tunnel, and let trucks carrying hazardous materials through. It was stop-and-go traffic for a long time, but then things started opening up a little bit. We've been talking about the need to either get good snow tires, or, preferably, get rid of the front-wheel drive Civic, and get a good vehicle for snowy/icy conditions, likely an Outback. Too bad we didn't make the change earlier! Once we got about halfway to the tunnel (which had taken us at least an hour to get 4 miles), we started slippin' and a-slidin. We were in the middle of 3 lanes, and the tires were just spinning. Luckily, traffic was moving at a snail's pace, so people didn't have much of a problem driving around us.
The grade of the hill was just steep enough, that I couldn't get traction. Jen got out and tried pushing, to no avail. Then we switched spots, and still had no luck. The snowpack was slick enough, and the road steep enough, so that the wheels were just spinning, and you couldn't get anything resembling solid footing to give a good push. We were so screwed!
After flailing about for a bit (10 minutes? 15?), the truck you see above pulled in front of it, and our savior jumped out- Rick from the Colorado Department of Transportation. "Mind if I pull you up to the tunnel?" I almost gave him a bear hug. Right as this was happening, an SUV pulled over, and two guys in their mid-twenties jumped out to help. Rick told them he had it under control, but it was nice to see some other Good Samaritans.
He hooked us up to his big white Ford F250, and pulled us nearly to the top, where there's a parking lot area for emergency vehicles, etc. Whoo-hoo! And, off we go. Except, we couldn't get out of the parking lot and back onto I-70. There was enough snow and ice in the parking lot, and enough of an uphill, so that we were stuck again! Luckily, after about 10 minutes, Rick came by again, and told us that a big truck would give us a push, to get us going. We backed the car up, and a big rig came up behind us, nuzzled its giant flat rubber bumper into the back of our car, and pushed us up onto the freeway, and got us enough of a head of steam so that we were able to keep going, and make it to the tunnel.
The rest of the trip home was very slow, but we were never in danger of getting stuck once we got on the other side of the Continental Divide. A trip that normally takes about an hour and fifteen minutes took over three hours, but we were just happy to get home in one piece! ASAP, we're buying one of these:
