December 8-10

Tuesday morning: my mother had her car at the service center, while there she tripped on a low step and fell. At first she felt OK but by Wednesday her left knee was throbbing. She made a doctor appointment for Thursday morning, they ordered an x-ray which came back negative. They believe the fall may have triggered her arthritis accounting for the pain, it's just a matter of allowing the jolt to wear off. My mother is 81 years old and she gets around remarkably well but 81 is still 81 no matter where it is. On Tuesday evening I was at McCaskey, the girls basketball team hosted Reading High in their home opener. The girls have only nine home games on the schedule, the other eight are league dates coinciding with the boys. The JV squad lost by five points, the varsity won their game by twenty-seven. The boys basketball program received some terrible news on Sunday, former player Anthony "Dudie" Hunter (class of 2007) lost his life over the weekend at the age of 26. Dudie was a three-year varsity starter at point guard, the program won the league championship all three seasons. On Tuesday the boys had practice before the girls game, Coach Powell was still there when I arrived. He told me that Randolph Speller and Ricky Cruz had agreed to trade uniform numbers. Ran (as a senior and a relative of the Hunter family) wished to wear Dudie's old #11 in his honor for the rest of the season, Ricky had been #11 but surrendered it in exchange for Ran's former #1. The boys are back in action for a weekend double-dip at home, on Friday in the league opener against Elizabethtown and on Saturday when Chester visits. Take care, thanks for reading.