Blackberry Brandy and a Birthday Kiss

Tuesday evening on City Island started out much the same as most others. Another game, same-old, same old. It looked like it was going to rain at some point, so nothing different there . Frank, Alan, Knute, and myself in attendance. Just like Monday. But I had forgotten, today was Frank's birthday. The middle man on the "senior crew" he turned 52 today. We really didn't have anything special planned, though, other than having his name announced with the other birthdays. I heard someone mention that he was asking for kisses before the game. Enough said there. Nothing out of the ordinary for pregame, we blew through it as always. We settled into the cubby and tuned in the Weather Channel to keep an eye on the sky. It was hockey night, too, so we waited for both the Penguins and Bears games to start. Pens at 8, Bears at 8:30. It turned out to be a good night for the Pens and Sens, but a tough one for the Bears. The game rolled along at a brisk pace as it had the night before. Could we get home at a decent hour again? Dare to dream... As it turned out, the game finished a little after 9:30. And the Sens got a nice win, 3-0. We got things cleaned up fairly quickly, and then put the tarp on, as it looked like rain after midnight. . We milled around for a few minutes, chatting, and were going to head out when Tim came up and said "everybody in the back." We made our back to the equipment storage area, where Tim produced a large bottle of blackberry brandy and a bunch of cups. He poured all around and we all drank a toast to Frank. Good stuff! After that we headed out to take advantage of the early exit time. Until tomorrow, here's a big birthday kiss for Frank. XXXXXXX