January 6-7

Noticed that this blog reached 22,000 views recently, I don't know who reads the tripe I post here but I thank you for being my audience. The new week began in the usual manner with a Monday morning visit to the mall, the rest of the day was quiet including an earlier-than-usual bedtime. On Tuesday morning I was awake before 7:00, by 7:30 ("by the dawn's early light") I was northbound on 222. It was a strange feeling watching the sun rising in the east while I was making the trip, usually it's the other way around but this day was very different. At the Arena the Royals hosted its first-ever Education Day game, the puck dropped at 10:30. The Maine Mariners were the opponent for the fourth of their six regular-season visits. The early start time reminded me of similar games in days past when I was working elsewhere in Berks County (long ago and far away in a place where I spent thirty-five summers of my life and almost never talk about anymore). The attendance was close to 6000 and 5000 of them were school kids who kept the noise and energy going from start to finish, six minutes into the first period Matthew Gaudreau gave them a reason to scream when he gave the Royals a 1-0 lead. Midway through the second period Corey Mackin lit the lamp to make it 2-0, late in the third the Mariners broke up the shutout bid but Kirill Ustemenko and company closed the door from there for the tough 2-1 victory. The Royals reach the midpoint of the home schedule at 13-4-1, overall the club is 19-12-4. The game wound down at 12:45, I stopped on the way home for a quick lunch. There was talk of wintry weather in the forecast, flurries began to blow around on the drive south and by the time I was home it was coming straight down and steady. The basketball team was scheduled to play at Penn Manor, the game was called and reset for Monday the 13th. Later in the afternoon I got a phone call from the athletic office, the girls' home game with PM was being played on Wednesday and the young lady who usually does their PA was unavailable. I rarely get to see our girls play so I probably would have been there anyway so filling in on the mic is no problem at all. When I was absent from the boys games over the weekend she covered it for me so as they say "fair is fair". Take care, thanks for reading.