Another week in the books and October is almost done. Guess it will be soon time to start my holiday shopping. Finished the concrete job on Thursday, hooray! One cat went out to the vet Friday. Last year he had an ear infection and the whole thing proved quite costly, several hundred dollars after all was said and done. Throw in a $2,500 check engine light issue and a leaky pipe in the basement and that made for an expensive week. Triple whammy! Knock on wood that I can avoid that and at least this year the vet was much cheaper. Squeaker is in good health and is still a lean, mean kitty machine. OK, he could stand to lose a pound but he’s a healthy little fella. Now we’ll see what they have to say about the other one in a few weeks.
Friday also took me up to Wilkes-Barre for my annual visit to the Mohegan Sun Arena to watch the Bears and Penguins play. This arena has not been kind to the Bears lately and well, the Bears have not been good to start the year though they did finally win a game last week in Wilkes-Barre getting them into the win column (and add another in Charlotte on Sunday). In fact Hershey did not win a game against WBS last year! 12 games, that is hard to do. I like getting up here early in the year, partially because of the weather and partially because of basketball and how it comes to dominate the schedule in about a month, especially on a Friday night which is when the Bears and Baby Pens seem to match up. No one is doing any bobbleheads so get the long trips in now. Almost can’t believe that but that is the way the schedule was made out.
Visited Howling Henry on the way up as well as Susquehanna, Benny’s and Breaker in Coal Country beforehand. First time to both Howling Henry and Benny’s. Howling Henry is in a farmer’s market near Grantville where I got beer to go and Benny’s is on the south side of Wilkes-Barre where I had dinner. They also can their beer so I brought some home with me. Combined with a stop at Sabatini’s Bottle Shop it was a good trip. That’s my go to place in PA Coal Country. In the hockey game the Baby Pens dominated every facet of the game. The Bears power play is pathetic, their defense is non-existent, their offense is just not very good and there is very little good to say. About the only thing was Liam O’Brien netting his 5th goal of the short season late in the game, he’s having a good start to the season. Anyway Wilkes-Barre wins 4-1.
Saturday brought me to Reading to watch the Royals take on the Wheeling Nailers, the Penguins ECHL affiliate. I’ve never seen Wheeling win. Wheeling used to make a lot of trips to Reading but divisional realignment has ended that as Wheeling has changed divisions. Stopped at Chatty Monks brewing in Wyomissing and then walked down the street to a new stop, Broken Chair. The brewery list has been updated. It was a back and forth game with both teams taking leads and the other coming back. Reading tied the game midway through the third period on a breakaway and the game went to OT and then to a shootout. Wheeling scored the only goal of the shootout and I can now say that I have seen Wheeling win a game, doing so 3-2.
Sunday presented a quandary. Should I go to the Halloween Parade? Should I go to team autograph night in Hershey? Well, the decision was made for me since I had to babysit my niece in the evening so I took in the parade before doing my uncle-ly duty. Yep, you can be assured that “Mean” Uncle Kevin was in rare form and not putting up with any shenanigans or guff brooking. Apparently she weaseled her way out of gym class with a sick stomach earlier. Well Uncle Kevin does not put up with any of those shenanigans!
