By my count, Ed Barnowski was one of 30 Orioles to date to be born in Pennsylvania. He was born in Scranton, as were 17 other major leaguers. As he had only 7.1 innings pitched in his major league career, it's the ultimate in small sample sizes, but it's still worth mentioning to this fan of minutiae that Ed's 2.45 ERA is the best among all Scrantonians in MLB history.
So why am I talking about the Keystone State? Ah, it’s once again getaway day. I’m bound for the family cottage in Northeastern Pennsylvania (an hour north of Scranton, and an hour south of Binghamton, and nothing else you'd know is even close to there), with my significant other and her dog in tow. Since we’re both trying to conserve our vacation leave, we decided not to go until after work today. Of course, she works a 9-to-5, after which she has to go home, pack the car and dog, and make the eighty-plus-mile drive up from Southern Maryland to my home. Whenever she arrives (likely between 8 PM and 9 PM), only then will we be able to set out for a four-hour car trip up interstates 83 and 81, with a dash of PA Turnpike sprinkled in. It’s not ideal of course, but I’m driving and I am the “night person” between the two of us. Considering how long it takes to get there, it just wouldn’t be worthwhile to wait until tomorrow morning to make the drive. Two full days is the bare minimum to spend at the cottage if you want to feel like you’ve had time to relax.
So what’s on the itinerary, besides as little as possible? The simple things. There’s no cable or Internet (heavens forefend!), so we’ll probably catch up on some DVD viewing. I haven’t seen Kill Bill or Raising Arizona, so Barbara intends to remedy that. In turn, I’ll be exposing her to the final season of LOST, and maybe The Wrestler if she gets tired of my pestering. Undoubtedly we’ll get some reading done – for my part, I’ve fallen off the wagon in my literary pursuits ever since I stopped riding trains to work a year ago. “The Boys of Summer” has been sitting on my shelf for far too long. Maybe we’ll take the rowboat out on the lake, or roast marshmallows in the fire pit. I can assure you of two things, though: 1) I will not give another thought to this blog; I hope you’ll make do with pre-written auto-posts for the weekend. 2) I will enjoy the hell out of the weather. The forecast is calling for highs in the upper 60s and lows around 50 with no precipitation. After a typical week of high 90s and choking humidity in Baltimore, that sounds like a panacea.
Happy Labor Day weekend to you and yours!
3 comments:
Damn you, Brotzman! You're life is so boss -- the family cottage, the girlfriend, the light reading...all I've got is an apartment that smells like chicken. Have fun this weekend, even though you'll be missing the greatest event to ever befall mankind -- the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. That was a joke of course.
P.S. -- You're 1000th post is coming up this month -- anything in store for the readers?
As a former resident of Binghamton, I am fairly familiar with the towns in that area. I once had a reporter cover a state cross-country meet in extreme southern N.Y. and she got lost in N.E. Pa., cursing the place the whole while. I think it was around Susquehanna Depot.
(As a kid, I'd get fascinated by towns like New Milford and Carbondale during trips to Scranton).
Personally, I find driving in Pa. nerve-wrattling. Especially in poor weather conditions.
William - I caught about 30 seconds of the telethon. It just seems creepy and voyeuristic to watch Jerry now, like he could go at any moment.
As to the 1000th post...that's a secret, and not just because I haven't bothered to think of something yet. ;)
Greg - My grandfather had a hunting cabin in Carbondale, but it fell into disrepair after he passed away. The towns that you pass going up I-81 North are pretty quaint sounding: Tamaqua, McAdoo, Nuangola, Frackville...I practically have them burned into memory. We didn't get on the road until 10PM on Friday, so I was very tense driving through PA. The drivers up there are a different breed. Luckily we made good time - including a 15 minute stop at McDonald's, our total drive time was under four hours.
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