Category Archives: Personal

The Weekend of Lots of Youth Basketball

Friday night Eric went downhill skiing for the 1st time and, of course, loved it. He had been invited by his buddy Jack. He needed to take a lesson and stay on the easy slopes. so he didn’t do much skiing with Jack.

Saturday morning HP Gold played two basketball games in the Rome League; v.s. Oneida and v.s. Oriskany, winning both games.

Saturday evening we went to play volleyball in Remsen, unremarkable except for the fact that we were playing on women’s height nets and I took a ball to the glasses and forehead by blocking above the net. The glasses gave me a patterned cut across both eye lids and forehead, rendering me looking like a face-tatooed StarTrek character.

Sunday morning HP Gold played a team from Utica at the Jewish Community Center. It was challenge for the boys as they had not played ‘stealing off the dribble’ and it took a while to adjust. Some boys wilted under the pressure, but Luke relished it. Eric played well, scoring 8 points. At one point he made 3 consecutive shots. I was pleased that he used a little pump fake on two of his shots – making one of them.

Below: Luke, Marquis, Eric (with the ball), Caleb and Trevor.

Trailblazing

We got 9″ of new snow on Friday evening, finally enabling some XC skiing and snowshoeing. Kathryn got ‘lost’ on Saturday when she tried to ski the loop so Sunday AM we set off to traverse the loop and flag the confusing portions. Eric wore XC skis, I wore snowshoes and Kathryn wore her snowshoes and packed her skis; planning to ski the return trip downhill on our trail. Below the group takes a break near cookout corner.

We got to the top of the hill where Eric grew fatigued, complained of stomach problems and asked to return. So he and Kathryn skied back down the hill while I snowshoed the loop and flagged the trail such that Kathryn could easily repeat the trip. It took me from 9:30 – 11:30 to make the snowshoe trail through the woods but it was a pretty trip.

BB Gun Hunters

We went to look for Hunting Rifles for Sale last week and saw all different kinds. Among those were 9 mm, BB guns, ar-15 rifles online (on the gun source) and in store. So much to choose from but we ended up with BB guns. Trevor and Eric wanted to go ‘hunting’ with their BB guns, so we bundled up, Trevor and I donned snowshoes and we went through the 9″ of new snow looking for ‘game’. We wandered around in the woods, looking at deer tracks and trying to find targets for the boys to shoot at. They shot at empty bird nests, overturned root balls and eventually went home cold and empty-handed.

Coyote at Dinner Time

During dinner tonight a coyote crossed the pasture just below our house and settled in for a nap. The foraging deer were not impressed.

Eric’s SuperBowl Poster

Eric had Trevor over to play after their basketball game and the boys got enthused about making posters for the SuperBowl game. Trevor for Baltimore (with a picture of Ray Lewis) and Eric for San Francisco (with a picture of Colin Kaepernick).

Kathryn left on Sunday to visit her friend Judy overnight. I told Eric that if he took a nap he could stay up and watch the SuperBowl to the end. Eric and I made a quick shopping trip hitting the Pet Store for dog food, Phillipson’s looking for a wind shirt, and Game Stop to turn in some of his PlayStation Games for a new FIFA Soccer game. We hung the poster next to the TV during the game and ate pizza and snacks during the game. We had a good time.

HP Gold vs. HP Purple

The two undefeated HP 3rd-4th grade boys basketball teams played one another on Saturday AM with HP Gold winning 24-13. HP Purple had a decided advantage in size which they exploited rebounding to yield more team shots, but HP Gold had better team speed, played excellent defense and were able to generate offense without resorted to many called plays. Eric scored the 1st basket and had six points in all. He did a real good job defensively having to guard Logan, David, Scottie and Shane. Scottie was a very skilled wing and point guard; Shane is a strong and rugged post player. The 1st period ended in a 2-2 tie, HP Gold managed a small 4-2 lead and then broke the game open playing excellent defense. Below Jack sets a pick on Marquis as Trevor breaks up the lane for a pass from Luke.

Eric guarding Shane.

Eric guards Scottie as point guard in the 4th quarter.

Eric in bounds the ball against Scottie’s defense.

The two teams posed for a combined after game photo. First row: Jack, Marquis, Luke, Logan, Daniel, Scottie, Caleb and Richard. Second row: Dylan, Eric, Shane, Michael, Trevor, David, DeVante, James and Sawyer. Third row: Coach Matt and Coach Pat.

HP Gold vs. Bellamy Gray

In their 3rd game of the season HP Gold faced Bellamy Gray. Eric was excited because Jennifer and Mike were coming to see his game. He played well, running hard, good defense, scored 4 points and he got a lot of rebounds. He won Matt’s Saranac Root Beet Award for the most rebounds – although I am sure Michael and Trevor were very close in total rebounds as well.

BB Guns

Eric used his birthday money to buy a BB Gun – a Crosman pump that can also shoot pellets. Saturday afternoon he and Trevor set up a sheet rock target in the snow bank. They took turns firing at the target and shot outside for about 30 minutes in single digit temperatures. Both boys were real good about gun safety.

Coyote Breakfast

I had just given Eric a bowl of cereal for breakfast and grabbed a cup of tea. I went to check messages on the computer and heard coyote howl with the sound coming from our backyard. I looked out the window and saw a coyote sitting on the dirt pile excavated from Gary’s pond just outside our yard.

It was -9 degrees and the coyote was looking for some mice or breakfast food. The deer browsing in the corn field either didn’t see the coyote or weren’t concerned.