Brutal Weekend

We sure had a brutal weekend this past weekend, and it may take weeks for me to recover. The State Tournament has started and the kids were in two different places at the same time, it's just that the two different places were in opposite corners of the state. A had to head up to Highgate which is about 5 miles south of the Canadian border, while N was down in Rutland. Talk about inconvenient, it doesn't get any worse than that. We had to divide and conquer, with R going with A, and myself going with N. It was yet another weekend of driving all over, but you do what you have to do, right?

To aggravate things, we are all sick, some of us more than others. N got it first early last week, and there was some concern that he would even play but he rebounded quickly and by Friday he was good to go. Then A got sick and she actually missed the opening of the tournament on Friday because she had a fever, so mom took her up on Saturday for the next game. Then came me, who got sick on Friday as well, and then it seemed to spiral into this pretty serious flu-like condition. I don't know what it is, but I still have it, and it sure is a bummer. To compound the suffering, I get these massive chills and have to spend hours in these freezing cold ice rinks, only to emerge into this arctic vortex that we seem to be immersed in. It's been pretty miserable, and on at least one night we got this massive snowstorm that made driving home through the Killington Pass precarious, where we averaged about 35 mph. Then we came home to cold house where we had to get the fire going before we could warm up, then wake up early the next day and do it all over again.

We actually spent the first night in Rutland at a B&B, which mom found for us and it worked out nicely (she didn't want us staying in a roach motel). We had a 7:00AM game, which is a brutal time slot, and figured staying nearby would give us a couple hours extra of sleep.The place was actually nice, and they were very accommodating and let us hang out after check out because we had a long gap between games, which is very helpful. The other families stayed in some of the nearby budget hotels and they all complained that they were not only dumps, but the proprietors were very unfriendly. I think mom was looking out for us.

On Sunday we had a morning game, and then one in the afternoon so people had to kill several hours. I asked our friend MH, who lives (sort of) nearby, if she was going home, and if so, if N could go with and her son, who is N's buddy. That was her plan so they took off and I just hung out and killed time. We then had an afternoon game, which for the record was amazing because we won and advanced to the championship, and by evening it was time to go home.

Now we're back in the swing of things, sort of tired of hockey and in need of a rest. I'm still sick, I skipped practice last night, though I'm feeling a little better today so I think I'll have to report for duty. When will this all end?

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Marcelo Ruiz for the pic.