Category Archives: Uncategorized

HP Teams in the Playoffs

Leave a reply

Eric attended the HP vs Lowville football game held at Ilion.  Holland Patent scored five first-half touchdowns and went on to a 49-28 Section III, Class C football victory over Lowville Academy Friday night at Central Valley Academy’s Diss Field Memorial Field. Holland Patent, 9-0 and ranked sixth in the state, will head to the Carrier Dome to play General Brown for the title at 1 p.m. Saturday, November 3. Read the full story on 7m.

Girls Varsity Soccer advanced to Tuesday’s region semifinal on sophomore Taylor Koenig’s deciding kick, helping the Knights (18-1-1) edge Clinton (17-2-2) in penalty kicks 5-4. Clinton had a 62-minute goal by Sarah Owens’ and Holland Patent’s matched with a game-tying goal by Meaghan Greenway with 10.7 seconds remaining in regulation. The win sends the top-seeded Holland Patent Golden Knights (18-1-1) to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association regional semifinal, which will be against the Section X champion Tuesday at G. Ray Bodley High School.

History was made for the HP girls Varsity Soccer ⚽️ program as they won their first ever Section 3 title after a long three hour battle against Clinton that was decided by penalty kicks. With the win in penalty kicks, the girls are participating in the NY State competition and have a regional semi-final game tomorrow (Tuesday) at 6pm at G. Ray Bodley High School in Fulton, NY against Section 10 Champion Potsdam.

Congratulations also goes to the Lady Knights Field hockey 🏑 team. They also made history by bringing home back-to-back Sectional titles as Section 3 Class B Champions! They beat ESM by a score of 3-1 yesterday. HoPaFiHo will also play in the state tournament’s regional contest and face Afton at noon on Saturday 11/3 at Cicero-North Syracuse High School.

Additionally, congratulations are also expressed to the Varsity Football 🏈 team. With their weekend 49-28 win against Lowville, they advance to the 2018 Section III Class C Varsity Football Championship Title Game being held at noon on Saturday, 11/3 in the Carrier Dome against General Brown

Eric’s Ankle Surgery

Leave a reply

It was a long day.  Eric was in surgery for 3 hours and ten minutes.  Ed had two screws installed that will dissolve in 2 years.  The screws anchored stitches which secure his ligaments to his ankle bones.  The orthopedist thinks she took care of all the issues in that ankle. 3-4 weeks on crutches and 4 months of physical therapy/ rehab.

Volley Llamas Playoffs 2018

Leave a reply

Our Volley Llamas 2018 team finished the regular season solidly in 2nd place in the ten team league.  Dig Pink finished in 1st place with only 3 losses (2 imposed by Volley Llamas) and Scrappers finished in 3rd place.

The Volley Llamas summer season ended after reaching the finals after playoff wins 2-0 over Balls Deep and Scrappers before a 2-1 loss to Dig Pink in the finals.

Thanks to  BillieJo Davis, Joshua Darrow, Kathryn Skelly Muller, Tim Reed, Chris Poore and Ron Haier for their play. Thanks go to Isabelle Moo, Sara Mierek, Andy Haier, Matt Kochan, and Connor Ludwin for contributing during the summer. The league at Adirondack Lanes always manages to pull off the tricky combination of competition and fun.

RIP – 1991 Volvo 240 Sedan

Leave a reply

I bought this 1991 Volvo 240 Sedan upon the recommendation of my mechanic, Larry.  A retired Herkimer school teacher wanted to have a ‘sportier’ car (i.e. BMW) as ‘her last car’.  The car had only 58,378 miles on it; mint condition; with extra snow tires.  The previous owners kept a little booklet recording everything ever done to the car; including every tank of gas.  The trunk was pristine and lined with plastic; the back seat looked like no one had ever sat there.  I bought the car for $5,000 and relished the thought of driving a 5-speed stick shift again.

I have had the car for 12 years.  There are many people who know me by the car.  People wave to the vehicle; I am convinced the security gate guards treat the car as a form of ID. I have had people pull over in the Adirondacks because they said “I saw the car and a canoe on it – who else could it be?”

My plan was for Eric to learn to drive on it when he turned 16, only 6 months from now.  It would be a safe vehicle, distinctive and he could learn to drive a standard shift. In the past having a distinctive car was a parental assist as friends, neighbors and co-workers would often report seeing “your Volvo” somewhere piloted by one of my kids – a pre-GPS tracking capability.

Occasionally, I had visions of squeezing three more years out of the car – making it to 2021 and a total of 30 years on the road. But our plans and reality rarely merge.  Parts for this 37 year old car became difficult to locate – I had to acquire hub caps and a gas in-take from Oklahoma. Our trusted Volvo mechanic, Larry, retired, un-retired and then retired for good; selling off his considerable horde of slightly used Volvo parts.  For the past two years the Volvo has been serviced like any other car.

Recently this car turned 171,653 miles.  It has been reliable low cost transportation.  It still has the original clutch and doesn’t burn oil.  A little body rust has shown up but nothing too obscene.

The Volvo finally succumbed to a rusted control arm – which is a suspension link that connects the wheel hub and steering knuckles to the car’s chassis.  This repair would be more expensive than the value of the vehicle.  So the decision was made to move on from the car.  I called around for scrap metal prices and that will seem to be it’s fate.

The little guy shown in the 1st picture is now a 5’10” high school sophomore and he turns 16 in 5 months.

RIP. You served us well.

Eric’s Tonsils

Leave a reply

Eric finished up his Freshman year with various end-of-school get-togethers, including one he had here.  On Tuesday he had his tonsils removed.   He had some minor issues, so we didn’t get discharged when we anticipated.  One issue was nausea, probably from the anesthesia and pain medication.  The other  issue was his uvula was so swollen that when he fell asleep, it would rest on the back of his tongue, dry out and get stuck which then when he woke up his gagging reflex was activated and he also felt like he couldn’t breathe.  So we stayed in hospital long enough for two doses of steroids and some anti-nausea medication.   It was a long day.  He has been feeling pretty miserable.  He is on a very strict diet, basically cool fluids and baby food (which tastes awful) but his throat hurts so much he is taking in very little beside ice water.  An occasional popsicle, which colors his scar tissue as seen below.

For a while we could coerce him into taking a few tablespoons of pediasure or pudding or yogurt or ice cream, in order to get his medication down but he says milk products cause too much phlegm, and he is not allowed to hack it up, so he has refused all milk products. He ran a little fever, which they do forewarn you about, but it is still disconcerting. So, getting up to give him his pain med every 4 hours and monitor his temperature has kept Kathryn from a good night’s sleep. And tending to him and trying to keep him hydrated has kept us housebound in the daytime. His follow-up doctor’s appointment revealed everything to be normal and he could begin eating soft foods, e.g the noodles in chicken noodle soup. Next week he should be able to live a more normal life.