Ramble with Storm: Furry, snowy & steroidy

Mulling things on my morning ramble with Storm, our family’s mixed Lab.

We have had enough pre-teens, teens and 20-somethings filter through our home the last 15 years that I thought I kept up on the lingo our youth fairly well.

Until I heard furry this week, during the discussion of the Cubs mascot Clark. Never even heard of it before and had to look it up in urbandictionary.com.

Last night after the Chicago Boat Show at McCormick Place, I picked up our oldest boy to come for a long weekend. He fully understands the world of geeks. He said he might know some “closet furries.”

That was a turn of phrase that made me laugh. Apparently, even in his world, furries are on the fringe.

I kind of like my turn of phrase there.

A rabbit, to make a segue of sorts from furry, bolted along the brush by the side rail separating the town from the wildness of the town pond. Last week, a rabbit bolted from behind the fence at the ball field. Other than that and lots of tracks, haven’t seen many rabbits in weeks.

Plenty of Canada geese raised a racket on the lake to the west, so much so I thought they might be taking off to feed. But they just kept yakking.

Another round of snow overnight, enough to coat the ground. More snow coming tomorrow. Just one of those winters where the town pond is a nearly permanent white on ice.

There’s a reason that the Cubs and Sox hold their conventions now. It’s the heart of winter. The Cubs is this weekend.

I spend too much time listening to “The Score,” which means I get more to hear more than my fair of meatball sports callers.

But I think some of the Cubs meatballs might be right to be leery of the progress of the Cubs under Theo Epstein.

Yes, he has made the organization much more in the modern professional model of a sports team.

On the other hand, I think his success for the Boston Red Sox might be related more to steroid freaks anchoring the pitching staff and the heart of the line-up than to his organizational skills.

Such are the things to mull in a winter like this.

Back downtown, early traffic had turned the light snow on Station Street to ice.