September 26-30

The weather turned noticeably cooler over the weekend, on Monday evening at the rink we started week #2 of street hockey season. Winners on this night were the Riot over the Hammerheads, the UniLords over the Kings and the Misfits over the Blues. On Tuesday Jenny was not in town, she asked if we could do our midweek lunch a day early. At the rink in the evening the Kings beat the Pub Dawgs, the UniLords defeated the Owls and the Steamers knocked off the Riot. Rain moved into our area on Wednesday afternoon and stayed around into the evening hours, had there been games scheduled at the rink they would have been postponed. The dreary conditions hung around into Thursday, we had some heavy rain in the morning and afternoon. There was more in the evening forecast, at 5:00 Don and I talked it over and we postponed the night's schedule. It turned out to be the right move, by 7:00 the rain was coming down steadily. We play three games a night starting at 6:15, the makeup games were plugged into the time slot after the 8:00 games on October 4, 17 and 20. On Friday morning I was up north in Berks County for the first time in many months. The Reading newspaper had done a series of stories over the summer highlighting the top baseball players in the city's history, I had been a part of the selection committee. On this day the author of the stories invited the group to lunch, we met at a cafe in the northern suburbs. We had only been all together one other time (that was at a meeting in February when the idea was conceived), the voting process was all done by e-mail. Most of us have known one another for a long time but for me it was special because my association with pro ball in Reading has been over since 2012 and I don't see these people as often anymore. I appreciated being asked to be a part of the committee because having your opinions wanted and respected is a good feeling that doesn't always happen (especially where they should know better but ego and arrogance prevent it). After the gathering broke up I made a trip to the newly-opened Royals ticket center which ironically is only about a mile from the cafe we ate at. The hockey club begins its sixteenth season with an exhibition game at the Arena on October 7, they established this satellite location for ticket sales over the summer. I dropped in to pick up the ticket packages for Jenny and her mother so we'll be all set for the home opener on the 15th. I finally arrived home around 4:00 or so, with the weather still damp and misty I elected to stay in for the evening and relax (no football games to work since both JPM and LCHS were away). Take care, thanks for reading.