There is no excuse for excuses when I have chosen my own
challenge – eyes wide open and quite sober and only slightly bewitched by a
lacy leaf design and some wicked brick-and-lavender colored yarn.  So, with little hope of reaching the Gold, I
fix my eyes solidly on the Bronze – which I intend to award myself if I finish
the leg of the second sock before the torch is extinguished on Sunday (it would
be Silver if I somehow got even one of the socks entirely done, but like the
cross-country skier slogging away brutal meters behind the leaders, I am happy
to fight for the Bronze).