Speaking of Sports

By John Fragodt, Sports Reporter

Wow, we made it through!  That was a tough few weeks of weather with all the heavy snow, slush, blowing wind and sleet, followed by more snow and a terrible blizzard, but it’s nice to know we can make it through such tough weather.

I really don’t mind snow or cold, but when you combine the two, that’s when I run into problems.  Last week sure tested everyone’s temperament with the steady dose of below-zero temperatures, but at least we had the Holidays to look forward to and once we hit 2023, spring can’t be too far away.

I am extremely thankful to be working at the Pope County Tribune.  At this time last year, I was commuting 30 miles every day and sometimes twice a day to cover sports and school concerts.

Now, as I venture north from Lake Pelican on Highview Avenue each morning, I’m very happy to head east toward Glenwood instead of driving west toward Starbuck and then heading south to Benson.

I didn’t mind the drive to Benson so much when the weather was nice, but when winter came, it tended to add a lot of time and stress.  Even on the most-basic of days, I had to start my car for a while each morning, scrape my windows and then hope I can make it up the first hill past our place before heading south. 

•  I will say it was nice this winter to get a little skating in on Lake Pelican for a few weeks before we got the first significant snowfall of the year.  Since the first snowfall, which came right before I was going to time myself skating across the lake (I wanted to break my record), I’ve been out cross-country skiing a handful of times, but the slushy snow a few weeks ago wasn’t very good and last week’s below-zero weather isn’t my favorite condition to ski in.

I did have a chance to build a family of snowmen Thursday, Dec. 15.  There’s normally about 2-3 times a year where the snow is perfect for building snowmen and if that chance comes early in the winter, I always like to build a bunch of snowmen before it freezes because a lot of times, they’ll last until spring.

Well, Dec. 15 was my chance.  I started off with five snowmen early in the afternoon.  After taking a little break, I completed the extended family of snowmen, although I had to use a 5-gallon pail to form the snowman bodies because the temperature had gone down a couple of degrees during my break and that was just enough time to make it impossible for me to roll giant snowballs.

Yes, the older I’ve gotten I’ve started to realize that you either complain about something, or you try to find a way to work it into your lifestyle.  Handling a Minnesota winter is one of those things.

And, that’s what I’ve been doing this winter; spending more time reading a good book, watching some good TV, going out for a winter walk, skating and cross-country skiing.

Because, before you know it, spring will arrive and we can laugh about weeks like these.