January 22-24

This was a weekend that figured to be noteworthy, it ended up being all that and more. On Friday afternoon we made our way north to Reading for the opener of what was supposed to be a three-game weekend. When I arrived I got word that the Saturday game was being postponed due to the impending weather conditions, that game was reset for Monday the 25th at 7:00. McCaskey plays at Penn Manor that night and this causes me to be absent, I immediately called Coach Powell's wife to let her know so they can arrange a substitute bookkeeper. The Sunday Royals game was still on but there was a possibility of that being banged as well, that wouldn't be decided until Saturday night. The Royals hosted the Brampton Beast (the ECHL's lone Canadian entry) on Friday and suffered a 2-1 defeat in overtime, Robbie Czarnik scored the lone goal as Martin Ouellette took the loss in net. The snow arrived in Reading during the game, since the storm was moving north the drive home got progressively worse as we went further south. By the time I got everybody home safely it was close to midnight, I'm usually home from a 7:00 game between 11:00 and 11:15 but on this night it was about safety above all else. The brunt of the storm moved in overnight into Saturday, I never left the house because there was absolutely no reason to whatsoever. A snow emergency was declared in Lancaster and a ban on non-essential travel was enacted, that ban lasted until 5:00 on Sunday afternoon. On Saturday evening it was announced that the Sunday Royals game was indeed postponed, it was rescheduled for March 29. By Sunday morning the storm had moved on and there was brilliant sunshine, we managed to get the sidewalk cleared and the cars moved out of our parking lot so it could be plowed. Several of the neighbors were out and about, it ended up being a team effort so all things considered it worked out about as well as you could expect. As the day wore on my back started to bother me, maybe a good night's sleep will be the answer for that but who knows? In the evening it was posted online that the official snowfall total here in Lancaster was 26.7 inches which is the second largest in recorded history for this area. The only one larger was a 30-incher in January of 1996 which I happen to remember quite well. Temperatures in the high 30s/low 40s are expected for the early part of the new week but it's going to be awhile before what is here melts away. Take care, thanks for reading.