Trying to Warm Up

So I was down in Wareham this weekend, doing research for the book I'm writing (in other words, I was playing golf). Since I am not a beach goer, I think this is the best time of year to go down to the Cape. It's not too hot and the crowds have mostly stopped spending their weekends on the Cape so there are no crowds to contend with. I was able to roll into Little Harbor Country Club at noon on a Friday and play the back 9 with no waiting or getting lumped in with strangers. This weekend did not disappoint for weather, either - for the most part it was a gorgeous weekend with warm, sunny days Friday though Sunday. Everyday was mid 70s with a slight breeze and barely any clouds in the sky. It was the nights, however, where I ran into the issue.

On both nights the weather reports called for it to go down to record cold temperatures and the weathermen were right on. It was into the low 40's both Friday and Saturday nights. Now, normally cold wouldn't be an issue for me, because my internal thermometer runs hot, but the family cottage down in Wareham is strictly a summer place - meaning it has no insulation and even the comforters on the beds aren't that thick. I may be part polar bear but even I need some kind of cover. At night I tried extra blankets and closing the windows in the house but it was still really cold. The weirder part was that when it got cold outside it got colder in the house and then when it got warmer outside... it stayed colder in the house. You would think that the no insulation thing would work both ways and the cold air would escape just as easily as the hot air, but no. While cold is good during the summer, when the calendar hits fall it would be nice to have kept some of that heat inside. Sunday morning I put on a sweatshirt because it still felt chilly in the house and I expected outside to follow suit, only to step outside to mid 70s heat. It's no wonder I'm fighting a cold today.

-Another reason that I was pleased to stay the weekend down in Wareham is because we have HBO down there and I wanted to see this year's edition of Hard Knocks. For those of you who may not watch the show, it's basically a behind-the-scenes look at training camp with one NFL team. It's a fantastic show and I had a mini-marathon over the weekend. It features unprecedented access to see stuff that normally would be off limits. You get to see how coaches handle their team and the decision that go on behind closed doors about who gets cut. But, it also shows you why some teams have an easy time attracting free agents (like the Cowboys, who have been on the show twice), while others can't seem to get players to sign with their team (like the Bengals, the subject of this season). While last season you had the Cowboys pulling guys aside and the owner personally telling them why there were being cut, this year the Bengals would have their Director of Player Personnel wake guys out a dead sleep at 5:30 in the morning to hand them plane tickets. It's the little touches that won one franchise 5 Super Bowls while the other has none.