From colleague Peter A. Martin:
I have been back at the office for almost an hour now and I still can’t feel my toes.
I just returned from the lovely Icenter in Salem, N.H. where I took in Timberlane’s 5-1 victory over Oyster River, a very well played game by the Owls. As it was a home game for Timberlane one would expect the talk after the game to involve how well the team played.
Not the case, I can assure you. All everyone could think about is how cold they were.
Everywhere in the stands were people who looked more suited the ski slopes than a hockey game.
People in parkas and ski gloves or wrapped up under blankets were the norm. As I walked to my car after the game I actually began to warm up in the 23-degree New Hampshire air.
I am sure the players didn’t take much notice of the temperature on the ice, and none of them mentioned it after the game, but they were moving. The rest of us froze and huddled together discussing almost nothing else but the cold.
I know . . . I know, it is an ice rink, but ice stays frozen and perfectly playable at temperatures that are not unbearable to the people who came out to support these kids.
Perhaps it is just the Icenter attempting to live up to its name, or a lack of any way to warm the building up, but when a healthy 24-year-old in jeans and a ski jacket is shivering . . . INSIDE . . . it’s time to find the thermostat.
