Basketball is now underway and that will take me up to the start of next baseball season. We have our first promotion schedule out and as always it is my beloved Pirates. 5 bobbleheads for next year, we’ll see how many I make. Of course the big one is when I am potentially going to be down in the Carolinas so I guess I’ll get that one on eBay. At least they are on Saturdays which makes things much easier for me, but then I know the Pirates are all about making things easier for me. If only I could find my brick outside of the park. One of these years I’ll just look down at my feet and there it will be. I’ve asked the Pirates and haven’t gotten an answer from them about where it is at. They’ve been as responsive as the Nationals have been about when the team store is open. I’m waiting for a reply guys! I don’t really want to drive all the way back down there only to find not a person around.
The trip down to the Carolinas is taking shape. It looks like I am picking just about the optimal time. Stops tentatively include: Richmond, Norfolk, Durham, Down East, Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Asheville, High Point, Greensboro and Winston-Salem. Should be an interesting trip, hope it doesn’t rain. I wanted to add Salem in since it is more on the way back but for whatever reason them and Lynchburg don’t seem to be able to get their schedule released. Fortunately Fayetteville did release theirs and I see that on the day I would need Salem is playing there, so that takes care of that. I’ll just stop and hit some Civil War sites in the Valley instead and probably a few extra breweries. I do need to get some more pics in that section. I really haven’t visited a lot of the sites there, especially in the Upper Valley like McDowell, Cross Keys, Port Republic and Harrisonburg. I’ll probably leave Winchester and Cedar Creek for a separate trip down since Hagerstown isn’t all that far away. On the plus side that will leave only 3 more Carolina League destinations left.
Made my weekly stop at Gift Horse for a beer on Monday. Tuesday took me over to Gettysburg for the York College game. It’s not like Gettysburg is that far and you get in free there! The only problem was that there was a women’s game beforehand. Yes Messiah may be the #11 team in all the land, or at least Division 3 but it was still women’s basketball. Messiah lost to York last week before beating Juniata by about 30. That doesn’t bode well for my Eagles. Anyway got there with 4 minutes to go and it was a close game. I was praying for someone to win and not go into overtime and fortunately Gettysburg blew a late lead and Messiah pulled it out though the last 30 seconds turned into a timeout calling contest.
In the men’s game York got up on Gettysburg early and while the Bullets stuck around for a bit but were never really in it. It might be a long year for Gettysburg, the talent just really isn’t there. York landed the knockout blow in the second half and Gettysburg never got within 10 from there out. York wins 89-51. If the weather were nicer I probably would have spent the day walking the battlefield but it was chilly and overcast all day. Plus apparently my dad scheduled haircuts and I found out in the afternoon. I like my hair short.
Thursday brought us our much ballyhooed first snow of the year. It wound up being worse than expected so I took advantage of the ability to work from home. The cats were excited, they took turns wanting love and attention so I didn’t get quite as much done as I had hoped. Packed up some more stuff to move down to the new place. The basement’s getting to be pretty empty, next I’ll bring the trash can down. I think I can probably get a full load at least.
Friday took me up to Hershey to watch the Bears take on the Cleveland Monsters. It’s rare that I make it to the Giant Center for a Friday game but that is the way the schedule worked out this time around. Stopped at Tattered Flag in Middletown for dinner and a beer beforehand. I’ve stopped there for beer to go before but this was the first time I had a drink there. Gotta keep upgrading my Untappd badges and it will get much harder as I start running out of local places but then there’s still a few to stop in at and at least one new one opening soon. Still enough to probably level up 3 or 4 more times though, we have that many breweries around here. It’s also much easier to get to a Bears game through Middletown than it is via Harrisburg on a Friday night. A bit longer but much less in the way of traffic and there is a nice back road that goes right up to Hershey.
Three weeks ago I went up to Wilkes-Barre and it just wasn’t there for the Bears. These last 3 weeks have been an almost 180 for them as they have finally started to put some wins on the board. With the score tied at 1 they just opened up on the Monsters. It seemed like everything was getting past former Penguin goaltender Brad Theissen. He got yanked early in the second and while his replacement let two more goals in it was over at that point. The entertainment wasn’t though. This one got real chippy real fast and degenerated into a penalty fest in the 3rd period. Lot of penalty minutes and a big fight. The Bears went on essentially a 5 1/2 minute power play in the third as Cleveland players kept getting sent to the box. The Bears also scored 3 (count ’em 3!) power play goals and Cleveland went a Hershey Bear-esque 0-8 on the power play. Hershey wins 6-1.
Started Saturday with the usual grocery errands and then moved some more stuff. Took a break mid-day to head to Rheems to visit Cox Brewing for the first time. They are only open on Saturdays from 12-3 so I don’t have a large window for that. Nice place but a bit hard to find. Good pricing though, that will get me back. Decided while I was in Lancaster County to also visit some others. Stopped in at Rumspringa, Swashbucker and Mt. Grenta to pick up some beer to go. First time at Mt. Gretna, nice place and got a growler fill to go. Had a late lunch/early dinner at Snitz Creek in Lebanon while the holiday parade was on going. Had the burger with fried Lebanon bologna on it. It was good. I might add some bologna to next year’s Memorial Day BBQ. It was that good. The breweries list has also been updated.
And then what to do on Sunday? Nothing to do so I just moved some more stuff to the new place. You don’t realize how much stuff you have until you have to move it. I found a few things that I have been looking for. Didn’t think it would be where I found it but it’s nice to have my Oriole alumni autograph cards back. Yep, I cornered the market on the late Joe Durham autographs! They seemed to trot him out for every session I went to.
