Well a dull week this week which means I have no excuse for not making any money and this week proved to be quite lucrative for my content writing. I’ve covered in the various blog posts anything from a piece about dog anal glands to the barns of Gettysburg to the possibility of real life light sabers. I’m developing quite the portfolio. Maybe one day it will be time to start my exhaustive 5 volume work on the Civil War. I’m sure that the five people who actually read last week’s post are hanging on every word of this.
Of course not everything is great. The check engine light came back on in the car, then went back off and is back on. Hope this doesn’t cost an arm and a leg again. Also the water heater in my basement is leaking. I knew that I was going to need a new one soon as it is 17 years old but I was hoping it could make it to spring. I guess technically I was close. Just when things were starting to look great karma intervenes once again but no one ever said life was easy. Since I needed to clear some room in the basement I did get to throw out a good amount of junk from down there.
Sports wise not much going on this week. I don’t live and breathe with Spring Training baseball. I check the scores but as long as no one gets hurt on the Pirates and they don’t go the entire time without getting a hit I don’t really care about the statistics. No one gets awarded a trophy for having the best record in the Grapefruit or Cactus League so I can wait until it starts for real. I did buy my ticket for Opening Day with the Orioles. March 29 will be here soon enough and I’ve got April pretty well mapped out though Mother Nature can always (and will) throw a monkey wrench in there. Staying pretty close to home to start the season but the Pirates are visiting both Philly and Washington early in the season so I’ll get to see them a lot. Not a lot of bobbleheads being given out in April, only about 6 but that’s the way it usually is. That does not pick up until June.
In other baseball news former Pirate prospect Willy Garcia was released by the White Sox on Friday. He had made his big league debut with the Sox during the year and when I saw them in Baltimore he was part of an all-Garcia outfield. That doesn’t happen too often. That tops the three Joneses that I saw with Atlanta many years ago in DC as only two of the Joneses were in the outfield. Chipper was in the infield.
Nothing going on with basketball until the end of the week. I am still confused as to why the NCAA tournament isn’t starting this week but Mark Emmert doesn’t answer to me and right now he has bigger issues to deal with, like why he shouldn’t be fired. I love the first four days of the NCAA Tournament, its wall to wall games and I will admit it is much more exciting when I have a dog (or turtle) in the fight. No Maryland means less excitement for me but hey, they lost three players to season ending injuries and that is hard to overcome. I’ll give Mark Turgeon a pass this year but he needs to get some players in next year’s class. I’ve seen one and while he is skilled he will need to put on some muscle to compete in the Big 10. But I digress.
I don’t know about elsewhere but the big nor’easter on Wednesday sure fizzled here. The weatherman on WGAL kept upping the totals for York County up to 5-7 inches. I woke up with snow falling but it was not laying on the ground and that was mostly the way it stayed. It never did really stick to the ground. So much for that winter storm here.
The sports week consisted of the first round of the PIAA Tournament. I went to West York where York High took on Holy Ghost Prep and Northeastern took on Sun Valley. The York Catholic girls also played against Mastery Charter of Philadelphia. York and Holy Ghost went down to the wire. York would get a 6-8 point lead, they would do some stupid things and then Holy Ghost would come back but just couldn’t get over the hump. York held them off in the end. Next is Bonner-Prendergast from the Philly Catholic League and what I imagine will be the end of the road. York Catholic handled Mastery Charter South easily. For a school that was 19-1 Mastery Charter could not hang with York Catholic. As a York High grand I find it hard to root for anything York Catholic though. Northeastern got up early on Sun Valley but Sun Valley fought back. They were never able to quite get over the hump and Northeastern hung on in the end. I split with about a minute to go and missed the Sun Valley player do whatever it was to a Northeastern player. Northeastern gets a tall test next in Penncrest.
On Saturday I needed to get out and went down to Baltimore. I wanted to stock up on new beers and hit some of my favorite places from when I lived there. Also visited a few breweries while I was at it. I hit Key in Dundalk, Oliver, Peabody Heights, Waverly and Union in Baltimore, South County in Fawn Grove and Gunpowder Falls in Shrewsbury (I know they are listed as New Freedom but you never enter that town to get there). Good times certainly. Peabody Heights contract brews for a number of other breweries and you can get 24 bottles of beer for $25. You can’t beat that. They are great to give out to people as gifts or to take to parties. Now my terrible secret is out.
While driving in Baltimore I heard that 105.7 was going to broadcast the Orioles Spring Training game. It was nice to hear baseball on the radio and it was pretty nice out so I drove around with the windows partly down. It was nice to hear they were playing the Pirates but they clobbered my beloved Buccos but baseball is back. The Orioles turned on Chad Kuhl while I was in Key enjoying a beer so I missed that part. Also missed the last second UMBC shot that clinched a NCAA Tourney bid for them. Good for them.
Couple of site updates: added a photo of the Aquila Randall Monument in the Battle of Baltimore page. I missed seeing that when I went down last fall and since I was in the area I went looking for it. Also added photos of Gunpowder Falls and South County breweries to the Breweries visited page.
