The Saturday night sillies

Let me assure you that's not his calm pose.

I've been home for probably two hours, following an adventurous hockey broadcast.

Since I've been home...

- Almost an entire order I received from Amazon has been a disaster (wrong power cable for my computer, the hard drive that I bought isn't installing nicely, I got the wrong audio cable and I'll just keep it because "you never know"). You know how it goes. Thankfully, the returns can go to Kohl's and I'll try the hard drive again tomorrow with a fresh brain.

- The cat. I had to get a cat, right? Well, our little Rascal knocked a TV off a shelf in Sean's room. The good news is the TV is probably 15 years old and it's not that good. Sean doesn't use it, other than it has a DVD player built-in. So, OK. But, still.

- I was ready to throw a cat out of the house (see above).

- With all of this, my dinner got cold.

- I've tried to help someone with an internship and am working on a basketball broadcast that I will probably confirm tomorrow.

As for the hockey game...

- Is it me or are 22 penalties a bit excessive? Most of the calls seem to come from the same referee for what it's worth. Now, I'm not criticizing so don't play the "it sure seems like it" line (and you know who you are). But...twenty-two penalties over 54 minutes of play?

- Brunswick led 3-0 and won 4-2. For what it's worth, a late penalty sort of took the spice out of the game and Brunswick capitalized with a power-play goal to seal the deal. Look, a happy Brunswick is probably best for me but from a drama perspective, well, yeah.

- Despite all of the preparation in the world, I was still missing four players on the opposing roster, including the goalie and the player who served a penalty just a half-minute into the contest.

- Late in the game, I discovered a text from my Local Live producer, telling me my audio was barely audible. Now, the Robcasting feed seems OK but that still meant I was trying to resolve this as I was calling the game. If you don't know, I'm a one-man crew. So there's no analyst or engineer to help me out.

My point behind all of this is, no matter how prepared you are, if you're not -- ahem -- prepared to adjust and improvise, you're screwed. That's the very lesson I constantly teach. You make plans and Scully (God, of course) laughs. At that point, any script goes out the window.

I'm back on hockey next Saturday. There could be some basketball this week (I first called hoops in 1999 so I'd like to do some).

I'll "reboot" and try again tomorrow.

Oh, before I go, I found out earlier today that an old family friend died. I called her "Ma," because, at one time, we were all that close. The relationship is a little more convoluted but, in a strange way, we were sort of related for a while through marriage. Anyway, time and circumstances split everything up but she remained in my life via the interwebs. 

She frequently watched "Doubleheader" and would often post a hello. I'd always wave to her if I didn't come right out and say hello. Though I haven't seen her in probably 20 years, I have many fond memories of a lot of days of miniature golf, bowling, and a lot of family gatherings.

She was also the person who told me my father had died when I wouldn't let her off the phone that night because I wanted to know what was going on.

My condolences to her family and loved ones.

Last thing, my niece admitted online that she's having surgery this week. She's been through a lot and still has a ways to go. Beyond that, it's her story. But know she's as tough as they come. Please do whatever it is you do that can bring peace to her.

I know. I'm just full of great news.

Sorry.