And just when all seems lost...

So yesterday, I kick off the morning tweaking something in my back- just enough to make work miserable.  Then, in the middle of cutting some pieces a sewer messed up, the machine suddenly stopped.

No reason, just stopped. 

So like any good IT guy (Hopefully the guys at A Beer For The Shower won't mind I borrowed that line), I shutdown and re-booted. 

"Warning: Your PC doesn't not have a lock."

WTH?

What followed was an hour of trying to pull various people from a conference call to assess the situation only to figure out, after 5 minutes of actual application to the problem:

"Call the manufacturer."

Who then confirmed the worst: the part of it's brain that connects PC to machine has died.  Thus, I was sent home early and told to stay home today.

Which, if nothing else, was a relief for my back.

Flash to this morning, when shortly after a shopping trip Laurie was in the kitchen putting Mountain Dews in the frig to get cold, began to chuckle.

The missing lens had at last appeared, hiding between her case of MD and the wall.  I haven't the faintest how it got there.  Laurie says she even moved the case and hadn't found it before.  But with the last cans taken out, she picked up the empty and down it fell.

I said, "That means that within ten minutes, Wal-Mart will call and say my new glasses are in."

11:26 AM- couldn't have been two minutes later- my phone rang.

Don't you just love when life is predictable?  So Laurie will pick them up at work tonight and I have the backup pair of glasses I should have gotten in the first place.


Move forward one more time, to this afternoon.  Back still hurts some, and it's cold out there, but  I decide to take Scrappy and Stick to the dog park.  Lesson # 1:  When it's cold enough outside that you can comfortably wear your hoodie around the house all day, it is cold enough to wear a second jacket.  Future reference, doncha know.

 

Scrappy checking the scene.

 

Suddenly, a fine little lady enters.

 

Caught her in a shake.  How does she shake it?

 

 

 

Like that!

 

Just as I mentioned, "Scrappy doesn't know what to do with a dog that just stands there,"  and her dad said, "She usually plays,"  She made her move.

 

And then, they left, and we went home.  The end.



And now with the interesting stuff done, the first thing I did with my eyes returned to status quo ante is to figure up how the Martin favorite hockey team leading scorer list is going.  Here's the top 16, with last time's rank and notes about the newbies.

1. (1 last time) Derek Ryan, Rekord, Austria, 14 goals-14 assists-28 points.

2. (2) John Hughes, Rekord, 8-19-27.

3. (18) Jean-Michel Daoust, Stavenger, Norway, 7-13-20.

4. (9t) Dan Kissel, Stavenger, 6-14-20.

5t. (8) Cory Quirk, SonderjyksE, Denmark, 9-9-18.

5t. (NR) Brent Walton, SonderjyskE.  From Georgetown, Ont., he had a year at Dayton in the ECHL in 2006-7, and spent the last couple of years in the German second league.  9-9-18.

7. (6) Petr Sinagl, Sanok, Poland, 8-10-18.

8. (NR) Kurt Davis, Stavenger.  A Plymouth, MA, native and graduate of Minnesota State, Kurt is in his second season with the Oilers.  6-12-18.

9. (15)  Martin Vozdeky, Sanok, 9-8-17.

10.  (On the team leaders who didn't make the list" List) Jaroslav Markovic, Martin, Slovakia.  A native, his brief experience outside of Slovakia was two seasons at Tri-Cities of the old USHL in 2004-5 and 2005-6.  A Martin vet, he's at 7-10-17.

11. (4) Giullio Scandella, Val Pusteria, Italy, 6-11-17.

12. (11t) Jiri Polansky, Trinec, Czech Rep., 5-12-17.

13. (7) Martin Adamsky, Trinec, 10-6-16.

14. (3) Stefan Meyer, Sheffield, UK, 8-8-16.

15t. (11t) Stefan Frank, SonderjyskE, 7-9-16.

15t. (16t) Dennis McCauley, Val Pusteria, 7-9-16.


And the "We lead our team but didn't make the top 16" list:

Lida, Belarus- Pavel Kutsevich, a 30 year-old vet of 375 games in the Belarussian league, 4-7-11.

JYP Jyvaskyla, Finland- Ossi Louhivaara (also on this list last time), 3-10-13.

Rouen, France- Julien Derossiers, 9-5-14.

Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg, Germany- Mark Dzieduszycki (11t last time), 7-7-14.

Yaroslavl, KHL- Sergei Plotnikov, a veteran of the Amur Khabarovsk team in his second season with the new Loko, 2-8-10.

Farjestad, Sweden- Joakim Hillding, a 3-year vet of the team, 7-5-12.

Geneva Servette, Switzerland- Cody Almond (5th last time), 7-7-14.

Tohoku Free Blades, Asia- Go Tanaka, a vet of this tem and, if you can believe this, the now-folded Seibu Prince Rabbits before this, 7-5-12.

 

 

New York Islanders, NHL- Frans Nielsen, a Dane who is spending his seventh campaign on Long Island after four years in the old Swedish Eliteserien, 5-6-11.

Fort Wayne Komets, ECHL- They've only had the one game, and in it Mickey Lang scored twice.  He is a Reno, NV, native, who led the Quad City Mallards in the CHL in scoring last year. 


In the meantime, I've decided to do goalies as well.  I'll start filtering in their stories as we go on, but here's the first list:

1.  Ruben Smith, Stavenger, 1.22 goals-against average.
2. Curtis Sanford, Lokomotiv, 1.68.
3. Jean-Sebastien Aubin, Val Pusteria, 1.80.
4. Tuomis Tarkki, JYP, 1.97.
5. Sebastian Vogt, GA Wolfsburg, 2.00.
6.Tobias Stephan, Geneva Servette, 2.06.
7.Alfie Michaud, SonderjyskE, 2.26.
8. John Murray, Sanok, 2.43.
9. Fredrik Pettersson Wentzel, Farjestad, 2.46.
10. Fabrice L'Henry, Rouen, 2.53.
11. Martin Surek, Martin, 2.73.
12. John Muse, Komets, 2.77- however, after one game he has been loaned to the Charlotte Checkers, so I don't know who'll be top gun in the K's nets yet.
13. Evgeni Nabakov, NY Islanders, 2.79.
14. Jean-Phillipe Lamoureaux, Rekord, 2.82.
15. Simon Hrubec, Trinec, 2.86.
16. Frank Doyle, Sheffield, 2.88.
17. Michikazu Hatta, Tohoku, 3.39.
18.  Alex Brish, Lida, 3.71.


Okay, I'm done.  You can wake up now.