Recap of a Great Weekend
While I typically head back home to Angola to enjoy the outdoors, put the boat in the water or do some work at my parent’s house, this weekend I stayed in the Buffalo area and had plenty of things to do. I put in a 6 mile run Friday evening and then had planned on heading over to Coles on Elmwood to meet up with some friends primarily from college after Shakespeare in the Park ended. Unfortunately, almost all of them ended up bailing, with the exception of one – who conveniently still wandered over and was even kind enough to buy me a beer for a bet we made on who’d have the better time at the Corporate Challenge. (Sucker! – but thanks Austin!). A good friend of mine from grade school and his wife who I rarely get to see also happened to be in town, and they were able to come out and catch up.
Saturday I did another 6 mile run and then headed up to Artpark in Lewiston for the Tragically Hip concert. This was my 3rd Hip show, but far from the top of the three. I still enjoyed the show quite a bit, but unfortunately only had lawn seats, which are quite a distance from the stage. The most distinct part of the show to me was since Gord was dressed in all white, the stage lights lit his entire body up in whatever the color of the moment was. I’ll have to find a copy of the show or set list to see exactly what was played, but the music was good. I hadn’t been in Artpark since I was a child. While the website for the show warned no tailgating would be allowed, the State Park Police were pretty layed back & left us alone as long as we stayed out of the parking lot. I found the beers during the show to be reasonable at $4 each, but was surprised they served them in an unopened cans. The restroom lines were pretty long though. (perhaps due to the reasonable beers?) The night ended a little rough in that one of the crew was pushed on the way out & ripped open his toes pretty bad. The paramedics tried to talk us into heading to the hospital, but he declined. I managed to rough up two knuckles of mine as well. To top it off, we also lost one of the crew when we went to get in the cars. The State Park Police didn’t want to hear we were waiting for her, but fortunately she showed up in time. I was really disappointed in the shirt selection – I lost my All Canadian Surf Club tee shirt a while back and wanted to place it, but all they had were black tee shirts and that’s really not my style.
Sunday morning I ran around trying to find some Sabres gear. The Sabres mailed season ticket holders to send in pictures of you dressed up in Sabres gear & they’d select some for the photos on next year’s season tickets. Our group has some connections with Sabres workers, so we’re hoping to get selected. I wasn’t expecting it to be difficult gear at this time of year, but wasn’t happy with the selection at Laux, Great Skate or Dicks. Triple extra large seemed to be the only thing in stock. I eventually got lucky and found an old school long sleeve shirt on a clearance rack at Dicks.
My outdoor soccer team played Sunday afternoon. We started quickly with a goal in the first couple minutes and then nothing major happened until the 89th minute, when the opposition was rewarded a direct free kick from about 20 yards out. The kicker struck a beautiful shot over the wall, which foiled our keeper, who’d gotten a fair piece of it. Thinking the game was sure to end in a tie, I was shocked when right after the kickoff we headed down field, picked up a turnover just outside the 18 & put one in to regain the lead. The game ended shortly thereafter – what a rush!
There was potential for a horrible ending on Monday morning – while getting ready for work, I realized I’d left my wallet in the truck the night before. Much to my surprise when I got to the truck, I discovered the wallet on the center console, my check book on the passenger seat & my passenger window wide open for anyone to grab either through!