Windex in 10 degree Weather...

....doesn't work all that well. I was cleaning the insides of the cars this afternoon because they needed it bad. I had been putting it off for weeks with this terribly cold weather. I actually had a chance to take them to get washed on the one day it was actually above freezing this past week. So all the salt and grime was rinsed off for a day or two at least.

Today, I wanted to work on the interior. Vacuuming went well, but there was some salty crust on the floor mats that I couldn't sweep off. Then, on to the windows and wiping down the interior. I sprayed the Windex on the windshield and it pretty much froze on the spot. Uh-oh! So, I wiped a little harder and got the initial spray of Windex addressed. This wasn't going to work too well.

My plan B for the other car was to go run my errands and come back and keep the engine running and spray down the interior when it's warm. It worked a little better, but definitely not my best interior clean of my career. It was just SO COLD. My fingertips were getting numb after only a few minutes of vacuuming.

Anyway, I'm back inside in the mostly warm house now.

One more week until the Super Bowl. This should be a fun week leading up to the game. I bet the Steelers are going to love the weather in Tampa. Troy Polamalu had a quote about it being much nicer to play the Super Bowl in Tampa instead of Detroit.

As far as my training, it's consisted of running with Beth on Sundays, box agility drills with the track kids and only a little swimming. The swimming has been cut back because Beth and I have determined that I may be allergic to swimming. Not really, but what I mean is that 5 or so hours after I swim, I have this massive congestion where my nasal passages essentially close. We had this theory running for a little bit now (remember my month of congestion in December?...I swam 2-3 times/week), and we've confirmed it with the last two times I've gone swimming (most recently Friday).

So, what to do about it? I enjoy the swimming even though I'm still pretty slow because it's a nice alternative to beating the legs up with running. I'm not affected while I'm swimming. Heck, I PR'ed in my 200 on Friday by 6 seconds (down to a blazing 3:36) and felt great. But, by lunchtime, I could feel it coming on and couldn't breathe out of my nose by dinner time and didn't sleep too well Friday night. By mid day on Saturday it was gone. This was what happened the last time I went swimming also last Monday. The weird part was that this didn't start until November. Maybe it's the cold weather, too? Maybe it has something to do with the ear problems/tinnitus that has plagued me since my youth.

Solutions? I'd be open to any suggestions. One thing I'm going to try is using ear plugs to see if the water is getting in that way. I've stopped doing flip turns for the past month to hopefully stop the water from getting up my nose, but that doesn't seem to be stopping the congestion. I'll post an update later this week on how it goes.

Finally, in college basketball news, my three teams I follow all won on Saturday. But, the victories were in very different fashions:

Penn State played sluggish at home against an inferior Iowa team and trailed the entire game until about 3 minutes left in the game. They were able to come back and are now 5-3 in the Big Ten. But, hold on there Sparky (to steal a quote from Jen Harrison), they've got a tough stretch for the next month: at #7 MSU, at Michigan, Wisconsin, at #18 Purdue, #20 Minnesota, at #24 Illinois, at Ohio St. This will determine whether they are NCAA or NIT worthy. We shall see.

Davidson won their 39th consecutive Southern Conference game by 23. They just need to keep the pedal to the metal and keep working on the little things to make them a tough out in the NCAA tourney.

Arizona actually stopped a 3-game losing streak by coming back to beat big bad (not really) Houston in a non-conference game in overtime. They were trailing most of the game also, but were sparked when one of the UA players' face was stepped on intentionally. They tied it up in the last minute and then held Houston to only two free throws in overtime. They've got a lot of work ahead of them if they plan on keeping their NCAA-best streak of consecutive tournament appearances going. They're 12-8 overall and 2-5 in the Pac 10. Ugh!