December 24-31

The first few days of the new week were very quiet, it's That Time Of The Year and quite frankly I couldn't care less if I tried. I make sure Jenny is taken care of and that's as far as I go, I wish it could be different but it simply isn't in me and it's been years (hell, DECADES) since it was. Jenny and I had our midweek lunch on Wednesday, on Thursday I took the scorebooks over to basketball practice since I would be absent from both nights of our tournament over the weekend. On Friday the Royals returned home from holiday recess, the Newfoundland Growlers visited for the first of a two-game set. It goes without saying that the Growlers play an unusual schedule, since they are from the easternmost city in North America they tend to play at home for as much as two weeks at a time and have road trips of similar length. On this night the Royals fell behind early but rebounded on goals from Alex Roos and Brayden Low to lead 2-1 at the first intermission. Midway through the third Frank Dichiara lit the lamp for an insurance goal, Chris McCarthy's empty-netter put the lid on a 4-1 Royals win. In game #2 on Saturday it was "A-Philly-ation Night", the club wore Flyers-themed orange-and-black sweaters. Goals by Joe Houk and Adam Schmidt fifty-five seconds apart gave the Royals a 2-0 lead five minutes in but Newfoundland rallied to tie the score at the intermission. In the second period Alex Roos put the Royals ahead but the Growlers replied in kind, after two it was 3-3. The deadlock would not be resolved until the overtime shootout, Newfoundland outscored the Royals two goals to one and took the game 4-3. The Royals goaltender of record on both nights was newcomer Callum Booth, on loan from the Carolina Hurricanes organization and the sixth goalie used by the Royals thus far in '18-19. He has been between the Royals and the Hurricanes' AHL club in Charlotte for most of December, he had played five games on the road before making his home debut during the weekend. The Royals finish the 2018 home portion of the schedule with a 6-6-4 mark and 15-8-7 overall, the first home date in 2019 is January 4 against Norfolk. The calendar year ended on Monday with rain and temperatures in the 50s, the newspaper carried a story claiming 2018 as the wettest year on record for our area. 153 of the 365 days featured some degree of precipitation and the yearly total exceeded sixty inches. There were New Years Eve celebrations set for downtown in the evening, with the rain pelting down anyone who was there was either waterproof or a sadist. Thanks for reading, everyone. See you in 2019, take care.