The scale of the United States is hard to understand for a Brit. Last night we spent some time "watching" the semi-finals (how don't know how many there are) for the American Superbowl. Not so much us but our host's sons and daughter were watching the game but watching two different things. The boys were watching the team from Miami and Kansas City and the girl was on her phone texting about Taylor Swift who was in attendance (her boyfriend plays for the Kansas team). We were mostly sitting outside on the deck enjoying wine and it was funny to overhear the conversation between the three children. The girl was mostly trying to spot Ms. Swift who was in one of the boxes, while the boys were watching the game. Considering that it was about 12c (about the same as at home) where we were, it was -22c in Kansas City where the game was played (the distance between Kansas City and San Francisco is 1,800 miles).
One son came out and asked his dad how could a football helmet shatter. He showed us a short clip showing a player's helmet being shattered. His father explained that helmets are made to shatter, two things were probably at play here. There was probably already microfracture due to normal wear and tear, but the extreme cold weather also had a role to play.
Our host was telling us that there is a huge backlash about Ms Swift because she is seen too often during football games. This is amazing for two reasons: (a) Ms. Swift has no control over stadium cameras, and (b) the cameras are controlled by the league and the TV networks...so the commentators are complaining about over which they alone have control. My wife said, I guess that if she didn't go and support her boyfriend's team they would have reported that as a negative. My wife then said, "Haters are going to hate". This is apparently funny because of Ms. Swift's own lyrics!
Strange land, America. Tomorrow we are going shopping for ski clothing, apparently, there's a "sports mall" about 20 miles away where all the stores are sports-related. Never heard of such a thing. Our host indicated that we should buy warm ski gear... it's going to be cold. Personally, I am considering buying heated ski jacket, socks and gloves. I tried heated boots a few years ago...game changer!
A good occasion for us to buy some horseriding gear too. We enjoy riding at a nearby farm that has a horse stable that we use from time to time. We take the horses onto our land for a few hours of exercise when the weather (and schedule) cooperates. We also want to purchase some bouldering shoes. Since we are there are two climbing stores in the mall (two...I am not joking).
Note: For the first time ever clearing customs was quick. In San Francisco, the border control introduced something called Mobile passport control. Considering we already had our visas, instead of taking a solid hour to clear customs it took only 15 minutes.
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