Busman's Holiday

After the Phillies ended a disappointing homestand, they headed west for 7 games. This gave your Center City Correspondent and Mrs. CCC a chance to get out of town too. Did we head for the shore? No. Did we head for the mountains? No. We head for more baseball games. We took in a game in Harrisburg and another in Reading and in between we checked out some breweries and brewpubs.

I can give you two recommendations. The first is if you’re ever in Harrisburg and see that the Senators are playing, take in a game. Their park is on an island in the middle of the Susquehanna River, maybe one of the most picturesque sites for a ballpark in the country, and it’s a relatively low-cost deal. Then when the game is over, stroll back across the bridge and take in the bar scene that’s sprung up along the river.

The second recommendation is a longshot: if you’re ever in Pottsville, take the Yuengling brewery tour. It’s free and you can see how they make one of the best local beers in the country. It is a small operation, making only about 450 barrels of beer a day, and it’s topped off with a visit to a small bar downstairs where you can sample their products. A pleasant weekend trip, but I was happy to see the Center City skyline once again.

Civics class

One of the joys of living in the city is that every once in a while you get called to jury duty. I’ve lived in town for 43 months and I’ve been called 3 times. I lived in Bucks County for 30 years and was called only twice. I was originally scheduled to attend back in July but I had other pressing matters, so I rearranged it to last Monday. If you’ve never attended jury duty here in Philadelphia, it’s not as bad as you might think. It’s one day or one trial, so if you don’t get picked for a jury you get to leave at the end of the day. Both previous times I was released at noontime which wasn’t bad. This time, as soon as I got there I was put in a panel of 50 people for a trial that was to begin that day. I was #42. So they took us out of the assembly room and brought us up to an unused court room where we proceeded to spend the rest of the morning until we were taken to the actual courtroom where we were sworn in and the judge explained the process and asked us a few questions about hardships, physical limits, etc. He said the trial could last 3-4 days. We were sent to lunch and when we returned the judge questioned us individually as to our capacity to be jurors. I missed that part because by the time they got to #42, they already had seated the jury and two alternates, so I got to go home at 4 PM. I dodged a bullet there. Hey, I did my civic duty and responsibility for the year.


We’re in the middle of a 10-game Phillies home stand and my knee is holding up pretty well. Plus the Phillies are getting hot at the right time so it could be another Fall to remember.

All for now. Enjoy your weekend. Go Phils!!

Sojourns

I don’t have to tell my readers how much I enjoy living and working in Center City. But every once in a while, Mrs. CCC and I have to escape the concrete confines of town and sojourn to greener places. Especially in the month of August when the heat builds up and the air gets so thick you have to chew it first before breathing. A lady friend of ours invited us to spend some time with her in Cape May. It’s been 40 years since I was last in Cape May. One reason for that is that I always thought it took so long to get to the shore. I think the last time we went down there we took the Delsea Drive. But we went on a late Monday morning and it only took 1.5 hours to get there on the high speed roads. We had a delightful time, doing the touristy things and sampling the food and drink offered. Great seafood and blue drinks! Thanks so much to Kay for her hospitality.


After being home for a few days, Mrs. CCC wanted to get out of town again. She wanted to go to someplace where there was grass and flowers. Naturally I thought of a baseball park, so we checked the schedule and off we went to beautiful Camden, New Jersey to see the Riversharks play. Campbell’s Field is nestled below the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, right by the Delaware River. So when you lose interest in the game you can be distracted by the many forms of transportation visible from your seat: cars, buses, Hi-Speed line on the bridge, boats churning along the river under the bridge, and planes flying over the bridge. We also got to watch a beautiful sunset behind the bridge and Center City, and as the clouds drifted away, a nice quarter moon appeared in the evening sky. After the game, we were treated to a fireworks display, and then kids get to run the bases. Don’t ever tell me I can’t show a girl a good time.

Have a good week and Go Phils!!

Summer Weekend

So after all the hoopla of July, with the World Cup, the Tour de France and the British Open, along with all the church things, your Center City Correspondent had to think up a few things to keep him and Mrs. CCC busy this weekend. Luckily the weather cooperated so we were able to do just about anything we wanted.

On Friday we strolled over to the Art Museum and saw the Late Renoir exhibit. He used beautiful colors along with pleasant models to celebrate his life and the world around him. His paintings are accessible and don’t scare me the way some modern artists do. The exhibit covers his work from about 1890 to his death in 1919, and at the end of the exhibit, after seeing all these beautiful paintings, there is a short film clip of him at work painting. He suffered from arthritis which made his hands all gnarly. Try to imagine painting with your hand in a ball and the index and middle fingers in a V and your thumb at a 90 degree angle to them. Then stick a paint brush in there and try to paint. He truly suffered for his art. Afterwards we hit the local for a lunch and a few drinks, then home to plan the rest of the weekend.


We had originally decided to go to NYC on Saturday, but instead Mrs. CCC suggested we go see the Philadelphia Union play. As you probably know, the Union is the new soccer team in town, except that their stadium is in Chester, PA. So we drove down there, and I must report that that the stadium is a gem, in a beautiful riverside location, with the Commodore Barry Bridge running almost overhead. Very scenic. The game was interesting, ending up in a 1-1 tie against the New England Revolution. I realized as I drove home that any sporting event that I can’t reach by subway may be too much of a hassle for me.

After the excitement of the last few days, we stuck close to home today and watched the Phillies avoid a sweep against the Washington Nationals in DC. It seemed like more than half the fans attending the game were Phillies fans; at least they got to see a win.

A quick note about my recovery – I worked the last Phillies home stand as a ticket-taker to spare my knee the steps. It went pretty well. I just needed to ice my knee a few days to ease the pain and I was fine. This Friday when they return from their road trip, I’ll be back in the sections, hiking up and down the steps. Wish me well. I want to thank the Phillies for being so accommodating and bringing me back. If I wasn’t able to do that it would have been a real shame.

All for now. Enjoy your week.