A different week this week for sure. I had to take my niece to school and pick her up where she gets off of the bus. Uncle Kevin has never done that before. I never rode the bus either, I either got a ride from my mom or walked. That chewed up a nice little chunk of my day too since I had to drive up to Dover for both of them. It doesn’t look that far on the map but it’s a longer drive than it looks. But I need to do my uncle-ly duty so it was done, made easier by the fact that she got sick and stayed home on Thursday. Fortunately it was a light week this week. Just one of them dry times. It will pick up, it always has.
It was well that it was a light week. Went to vote on Tuesday and afterwards when I got into work on Tuesday my laptop starting acting squirrely and I rebooted it. Got the dreaded BSOD and it wouldn’t go past that. Nothing was working to fix it and the instructions online for the error I was getting did not work. Just what I need, having to buy another laptop but there was no real way around it. I have another laptop at home but the screen doesn’t work and my little Squeaky buddy spilled beer on the keyboard so I have to use a desktop keyboard with it. Not ideal but at least I could get my work done. It was probably time anyway, there were a number of small things that were not working that were starting to add up. I could live with them or had found a workaround to them but at some point it just gets annoying.
But of course the kharma gods decided I needed more punishment and the check engine light came on on my car on Wednesday. The car’s going in on Monday to check it out, we’ll see what it is. I was well past due for an oil change and all of that so I am hoping it is in some small way related to that. I was just hoping it could make it another week but it decided not to oblige. Or maybe it would have, it went off the next day after I left Gift Horse since I needed an end of day beer. It does get a little boring sitting at home but I do end up much more relaxed. I also don’t get much done since Squeaker always has to lay on my lap.
Friday was the start of basketball season as York College made the short trip to F&M, or as Weenie Boy called them S&M. Pregame drink at the Meduseld Meadery down the street. Never been to a meadery before. Would have hit the one next to Hijinx in Allentown but I was already too far in the hole at that point. They also have a badge on Untappd and I needed one more mead for my mead badge so it was worth it. Can’t say I really like mead, most of them seem to taste more like wine and I can get a cheap bottle of wine for much less.
After that made the short drive to F&M. Well I was there but apparently a number of F&M students took issue with some athletes Halloween costumes and decided to have a protest during the day and throw a temper tantrum before the game. Before the start of the game a bunch of them walked onto the court and sat down. After the racial complaints that one would expect from an overprivileged child that has probably never seen true racism (let’s face it tuition at F&M is over 70 grand including room and board) they were roundly boo’ed but the spineless administration decided to quickly cancel the game when the fans didn’t just get up and leave after the protesters stated that they weren’t leaving. We wanted to see some basketball but you can’t argue with crazy or brainwashed people. It says postponed on the website but the spineless administrator said cancelled, which I assume would be a forfeit for F&M. It’s a good thing that there was no admission cost for this one. I tell you what, these kids are doing more to help Donald Trump get re-elected. Yep, these kids are going to do well in the real world. It’s a good thing for them that they did this against York and not a school that came from further away. There might have really been a problem there with those fans.
When I got home I decided to pull up the local news coverage of this on social media and let’s just say the people think these kids are nuts at best and crazy at worst. Could it be that the days of woke outrage over anything and everything are nearly over and this country could return to some sanity? Here’s the thing, the athletes didn’t break a law, they didn’t use any racial slurs (as far as has been reported), they just dressed up in some ethnic costumes. Heck, I saw far worse during my college days and I have photos. If they had just protested for 5 or 10 minutes before the game, said their peace and left no one would have complained. But they didn’t and I am sure they were all patting themselves on the back all night in their mutual admiration society. They won’t be when Trump wins again and I will enjoy that. Might take a stroll through campus that day just to check it out. I know I don’t normally say much about politics but this was ridiculous. I bet Glenn Robinson is glad he retired and didn’t have to deal with this, or maybe this was the reason he retired earlier this week?
Saturday took me up to Reading to see the Royals take on the Wheeling Nailers. Pregame stops at Swashbucker in Manheim (so I could avoid the mess on 222 at Ephrata), Chatty Monks and Broken Chair in West Reading. Wheeling used to be in the same division as Reading but there was a realignment a few years ago so they went from playing them 4-6 times at home to playing 2 times at home if I am lucky. With the Nailers being the Penguins affiliate I try to get them in during the year. I don’t know if any of the Nailer players I’ve seen have made it to Pittsburgh. They have, there’s a website that lists them all (I think 61 or so but the Penguins and Montreal shared the farm team for several years) and I can remember seeing some of them but that probably came with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. I can think off of the top of my head a few Royals players that have made it to the NHL so there might be one in there.
This was a defense optional game. Reading struck first less than 2 minutes in when Ralph Cuddemi caught Jordan Ruby out of position and put one home. Wheeling responded halfway through the first on a nifty move by Renas Krastenbergs on the power play that shook 2 defenders and beat Reading’s Trevor Gorsuch. Goals were hot and heavy in the 2nd with Reading tying it with a Corey Makin effort. The third period was all Reading, taking the lead seven minutes in with another goal from Cuddemi and an insurance goal with 2 minutes to go from Brayden Low. It was a big game for Cuddemi with 2 goals and 2 assists as Reading wins it 6-4.
And on Sunday I rest. Actually did some work on my old house demoing the kitchen cabinets.
