European Basketball Highlights Part 2

 European Basketball Highlights Part 1

 Tuesday March 30th was the last game of the regular season, but it was much more than that.  It was the the game that could determine if we made the playoffs or not. It’s funny because I was in a very similar situation my first time around in Finland but not exactly.  When I played for team Componenta it came down to the last game of the season to determine whether we made the playoffs or not but we had total control. We were tied with a team record wise, but we had the tie breaker because we won 3 out of 4 games against them during the regular season so all we had to do was win and we were in no mater what even if they also won.  If we lost and they won then we were out, but if we both loss we were in because once  again we had the tie breaker.  We played the number one team in the league at home, and they played the second place team (can’t remember if it was home or the road ). We both ended up losing so we were in. I would have rather won the game and got in that way,but at least we fought that game…. This season it came down to the final game as I mentioned, but at the same time the final game win or lose could mean absolutely nothing to us because this time we did not have the tie breaker. We had the exact same record as the team, we (my team because I didn’t play against this team at all) split the season series at 2-2 but in Europe if this situation comes up then it come down to the margin of victory in each teams 2 wins or so in the series. Well this team out score my team by quite a few, and the 41 point loss a few weeks ago really hurt our chances  at being in control of the tie breaker. Bottom line is if we both won or both loss we were out even though we had the exact same record,  but if they lost and we won we were in. There was one more crazy way that we could have gotten in but that one was very unlikely.

  To the game. No I did not play this game either, I did not play the final 3 and 1/2 weeks of the season but if I’m with a team I’m with them no matter what, and I want them to win. We played against the last place team in the league so on paper we were the better team and should win, but there were two factors coming into the game that kind of even the game up. 1. My team had not played well on the road at all this season, and this was a road game. 2 My teammates told me that this team beaten them twice during the regular season, and once they beat my team pretty good even though I don’t know how that happened…. The game started and neither team was hitting much at all, we both missed some easy baskets and neither team shot 3 pointers well. At the half we were up but not by much. They shot I think it was 4 for 20 from the 3 point line and we were 1 for 10. My teammates made adjustments throughout the game, and did a really good job at taking the ball to the basket and shooting less 3’s while the other team continued to shoot and miss them. We ended up getting up by a lot of points so the win was no longer in question so our focus turned towards what was going on in the other game.

  If I remember correctly we were coasting to a victory, and at about 5 minute left in our game one of my teammates that was done playing for the night came up to me on the bench and said that the team we were tied with were up by 3 with 8 minutes left. Now the team that they were playing was second or third to last in the league but at this point and time when everybody was healthy they were actually a  good team because they made a coaching  change before Christmas, and they had different Americans than they had when they started off the season winning maybe 1 out of 15 games or so. The team actually had one of the better records in the league since Christmas break, so we were still pretty confident that they would come back and win on their home court. Next report we got came maybe with a couple minutes 3 minutes left in our game and the team tied with us was up only 1 point. “YESSSssss things were looking good!!!”… Well the next couple reports we got were not to good. First they were up by 5 points with and one of our hopeful hero’s best players fouled out, then next we heard they were up by 7, and then before we knew it they were up by either 12-13 points. It seemed like it all changed so quickly, and all hope was gone. Both of us ended up winning. So that was it, the season was over. Sad but my boys went out like winners at least.

  For me no matter what this was my last game there with the team because I had not played in weeks, so it would not make since for me coach to start rotating us Americans in the playoffs. If we would have made the playoff then I would not even have wanted to be rotated then because I didn’t think that would be fair to the team or just the other Americans. The players needed to get a good rhythm, and the playoffs were not the time to go back and forth between line ups if you have not done that all season. I  really wanted my teammate to win regardless of me playing or not, I would have been truly happy for them, but that was not the case. Sure I wanted to play more than 5 games, but as I mentioned several times “I completely understood the situation”. During this time I did gain a lot even when it wouldn’t seem like that to other people maybe. I got to get back on the basketball court, even though I didn’t peak yet I was able to prove that I was healthy again and I was still a very effective player, and of course yes the getting paid throughout thing was great. Outside of basketball stuff I also got to reunite with old friends and teammates that I never thought I would even see again, and I gained some new friends in that short period of time. Overall this was a crazy, weird,  and very different European experience for me this time around, but it was great all at the same time. The way I look at it is that this experience took a month and a half of stress and complete frustration out of my and my family’s life  because for 6 and 1/2 months or so I was going through one of the most stressful times ever in my life.  They say everything happens for a reason right?… For now Home sweet home I am.

My Teammates Warming Up Before Our Last Game

Me In One Of My Games I Did Play.

 My team played two games this past week and boy were they two completely different outcomes. I still can’t figure out why they/we play so much different at home than on the road. It really is like night and day.

 First game of the week was Wednesday March 24 on the road against the number 2 team in the league  who is currently  in a fight for the number 1 spot. My team is fighting for the 7th or 8th spot right now but the last time they played this team at home (before I got here) my team beat them by 40. This time was much different. This time they beat us by almost 40 (can’t remember the exact score.). Lets just say that this was not the best officiated game that I have ever seen, but maybe the worse. Not going to say that the officials lost us the game but they didn’t help us either. Our starting point guard Ricky picked up 4 fouls with over 5 minutes left in the first half, and 2 of the fouls were more than questionable. People who know basketball will say “well why was he still in the game in the first place?”. Our other point guard that sometimes starts with  Ricky hurt his ankle earlier in the week so we didn’t have a lot of options. Another one of our Americans also had 3 fouls in the first half so we were in big time foul trouble, but still only down 12 or 13 at the half. Our younger guys came in and played some really good minutes for us. They came out and really stuck it to us in the third quarter so before you know it we were down by 30 or so. We ended up losing the game by either 30 something or 40 and even though I wasn’t playing I was quite upset. Yeah I was upset because we lost, but I might have been even more upset at the 6’9, 245 pound flopper. Now we are all suppose to be men out there on the basketball court, and as far as I know acting class is not a part of basketball practice, but this dude looked like he was trying to win an Oscar for “Best Drama”. One play Corey was just walking jogging down court, the guy jumped in front of him and just fell. Yes the whistle blew and there goes Corey’s 3rd or 4th foul. Ricky fouled out because the Big Sissy  ran up on him full court, grabbed him and flopped like he just got smacked in the face and elbowed when in reality nobody touched him. Ricky fouled out in the 3rd  quarter without even getting his money’s worth. I am not one to do any talking on the court. I don’t talk trash on the court, I don’t do the buddy talk I just play, and if somebody talks trash to me (almost never happens) I tell them to just play basketball. The only time I will say something it if I’m provoked by maybe too much talking or if I get a cheap shot  then I let them know. This dude right here might have made me snap though because he was really that bad. I made sure that I told him about it after a game. When we lined up to shake hands after the game I told him “Man you are too big to be flopping like that”, and then for some reason looking at him eye to eye it made me more made so I told him exactly what I thought and that was “you’re a sissy”. I do not respect anybody that flops, especially for him to be as big as he is so I had to let him know. Flopping is not a part of basketball, it’s a bad example for  kids learning how to play, it’s no fun to,  watch, and no fan should ever clap for that. So to all floppers.. “MAN UP!!!”

  Our game on Saturday was against the team that my old coach from my first team in Finland now coaches. The team had nothing really to play for because they were out of the playoffs, and their best big man was out with and injury so this should have been an easy victory. It didn’t look so good for the first 2.5 quarters or so. I never felt like we were going to lose but the team  just wasn’t very sharp. Their were a lot of lazy passes, turnovers, and a lot of easy drives  to the basket.  We just didn’t look good out there, and the crowd was dead. With the sloppy passes and turnovers scoring wasn’t our main problem because we ended up scoring somewhere around 110 points, but our defense was horrible at times, it was frustrating to watch. We ended up leading by as much as 30 something and winning by at least 20 something but that wasn’t our most impressive home victory. This was my third week of not play, and even though I’m not playing I did realize something. I see how coaches and players sometimes don’t see eye to I or agree on things. Us as players can see a lot of things but we also miss a lot of things out there on the court, but when you are on the bench just watching the game you see every little detail. You see what you should do, what you can do, what mistake was made, who’s fault it wast etc, so that’s why some people can stink as players but still coach…. That was our last home game, and we have one more game to play Tuesday that could determine if we are in the playoffs or not, so we’ll see.

 This past week I finished chapter 27 of my life and started chapter 28. I can’t say that chapter 27 was the easiest chapter, but it sure was quite the adventure. I just hope chapter 28 is a bit less stressful…. Where did all of the years go anyway? I can remember in detail a lot of my younger days. I remember in high school on one of our summer basketball trips, my good friend Bryan was irking me really bad so I put lotion in his McFlurry, and he got really mad at me and tried to fight me in the back of the van (where he had all of the room to maneuver because I was too tall to move), but he was unsuccessful. He tried to get me but I just had him in a head lock or something. That was one of the funniest days ever from hs, we still laugh about that to this day. I did end up getting him another McFlurry though, I just happened to have have a free Monopoly game sticker  for a McFlurry haha….. I remember when me and my friends Julian, and Tony were in 7th or 8th grade, and Tony and I found this bike being thrown away and we got it and fixed it up (if you want to call it that). We called the bike “The Bucket”. It had one big wheel in the back, a small wheel in the front, we spray painted it bright orange (kind of neon orange), it switched gears when you kicked back, and it had like the “U” shaped handle bars. Out of all of the “Bucket” stories we have one just sticks with me. The day that Julian and Tony fell because they were stupid enough to try to ride Julian on the handle bars going down a big hill while it was still raining.  They hit some mud and Julian flew off and Tony tumbled down. I cried laughing, I had just told them before we started down the hill that it was a bad idea because of the rain but they did not listen….. Then there was the day when somehow my older brother Eric tied a bubble bee to a string and chased my friend Steve Turner (look him up on facebook and ask him about it, he loves this story lol) up and down our drive way, up and down the sidewalk and all over our front yard while Steve cried and Eric did his evil laugh. We probably were no older than 5 or 6. I was better friends with Steve’s cousin Kyrus then because we went to the same church, school, and lived in the same area, my sister was just babysitting Steve that day. Steve and I became really good friends when high school started, we played for years of basketball together at Richwoods, and this is something that I still mess with him about every now and then. http://www.highschoolelite.com/news/3-6.html (this is a link to an article written about me and Steve in high school where I mention the story in there)  Childhood memories… I bring those things up because they all are fresh in my memory still but yet they were all 10, 15, or  even 20 plus years ago. It’s hard to believe how fast time has gone by. I didn’t mention all of my long time friends  or tell every story but all four of those guys that I mentioned are still really good friends of mine. Nobody probably knew this about me, but sometimes I just lay down and think about my childhood  and I miss it. Yes I’m very thankful for everything I have now  but when I think about it once a person is an adult they are an adult, they can pretty much do the same things  socially they did at 28 at the age 38 but when you are 28 you can’t do the same as you did when you were 14. You can never again mimic the joy of childhood, you can only try to live it through your children. Chapter 28 is started, 6 pages done 359 empty pages left to fill. I hope and pray that this chapter is the best one yet. March 23, 1982…….

27 years ago. Wow..

  It was quite an interesting week. I read some facebook status messages last week and people from back in the Milwaukee and Peoria area were talking about how nice it was there and how they were going for runs by the lake and stuff like that. Well not here, I was actually kind of jealous because it has snowed at least 3 days this past week, one night it was like a blizzard, and there is still a whole lot of ice on the ground. I have had some really close calls but I have yet  to take a spill on the ice (knock on wood). It’s almost spring time here but it doesn’t seem like a warm sunny day is in site, so to all of the people back home, stop bragging on facebook haha.

  Anyway, now to the title of this blog “To Play Or Not To Play? That Is The Question..”. Well after our loss last Saturday that was the question,  at our coach told us that the Monday following that loss. We loss by a super embarrassing 41 points. Now I definitely don’t think I would have made a 41 point difference. I could have helped with some things of course but nothing I could have done would’ve turned things completely around in our favor. The team shot better than any team I have ever seen in my life that night, 20 out of 28 3 pointers (71%) and it seemed like they made everything else in between.  It was a fluky win if you ask me because I think they shot 30 something percent for the season from 3 but that game they all shot like a bunch of Ray Allens… I happened to run into coach the day after the game at the restaurant and I told him the exactly what I thought about that game, I told him that I didn’t think anybody would’ve beat that team that night. No I did not take that opportunity to plug myself, I didn’t mention one world about “if I should play or not, when would I play, you should play me instead,  or if I was playing”, that’s not my  style. I talked about the game and that’s it……… As I mentioned our coach told us the following Monday that he was going to let us know Friday what the roster was. Ok now to me I never really took that to heart, I always kind of knew how things would go. Some people were telling me that they thought I would play for sure because they needed my size and rebounding since the team we played next had a pretty big line up, but I never really felt like I would. I knew the whole situation, and I analyzed everything from the eyes of our coach so if anything I just felt like he was trying to motivate the players, and or keep me motivated for practice by making me think that I would play. Well I hope motivating me for practice wasn’t the case because I will work hard regardless whether I’m playing or not, I’m not the type of player that will slack if I’m not playing, especially now since I was home most of this season. Even though I was pretty sure that I wasn’t playing no matter what, I would’ve liked to know for sure a lot earlier in the week instead of the day before the game because I can prepare  myself a lot better then. I also think that the players that will start together and play the most minutes should practice together all week to get into a good flow and rhythm, especially after a loss like we had but the line ups were mixed all week. Finally Friday came and coach informed us at the end of practice what the line up would be. Once again I already knew how things would be, I’ve always been good at figuring out things. As I mentioned in previous blogs, I understand the tough position that everybody is in so it’s nobodies fault, we are all good but very different players and could all help the team in different ways but the team had only played with 3 Americans all season so it was tough to start rotating now, and I was perfectly fine with that. I want to play but in this situation I was just thankful to be back on the court and getting paid for it, so I have  kept a good attitude. The one thing that did strike a nerve with me though is how coach did things. At the end of Friday’s practice when he called everybody together to tell us the line up, he started with the Finnish players naming them one by one and then he said “now the Americans”.  He named us one by one also and he kind of paused and looked at us for the last one like it was a game show and one of us was going to win a million bucks, then he named the last person. We had the same line up as usual except he rotated like 2 young guys that don’t really play. To me it was very unnecessary to call out each player one by one because in my eyes he already knew exactly who was going to play,  so he could’ve just said “same 3 Americans, and these 2 young guys”. I could have done without the drama because that was the only thing that upset me. For me to have been out so long this whole season that is not the way to do it, just tell me early and I am fine with it, I will still work hard and support the team.

  The team ended up playing pretty good and winning the game this Saturday at home. I was there on the bench cheering them on, and yelling “He got hopps baby, he got hopps” while raising the roof every time Ricky, Ray, or Corey dunked (for those of you who saw the movie “He Got Game” that is kind of a joke we say from that movie). I never thought for one second that the team would lose if I didn’t play, I knew they could win, especially at home. After the game there was a sauna party for the team, yes a “sauna” party. They had some good food there (pizza & wings) but where I’m from we don’t have sauna parties, and dudes aren’t looking forward to going into a little hot room with sweaty naked men laughing and giggling haha. Maybe it’s different over here in Europe but most of my Finnish teammates were pretty excited about this, they grabbed their beer, whisky or whatever and got to steaming. That’s just not my style haha, plus I’m not good in extra hot places. We did have some good laughs though, there are some good guys on my team.

  First of all I would like to say congrats to two of my former teams that had great season, but fell short from there goals. For anybody that knows me they know that I’m really proud of the basketball tradition of my hometown of Peoria Illinois, not just Peoria but the whole state of Illinois. Peoria is always first in my heart though because that is where I was born and raised, but I honestly believe Illinois is consistently the best basketball state in the country.  Peoria always seems to produce basketball talent every year. Guys like  Howard Nathan, Sergio McClain, Frank Williams, Marcus Griffin, Mike Robinson, Shaun Livingston All of which were McDonalds All Americans. Then there are guys like A.J Guyton that weren’t as highly celebrated across the country  but he went on to win Big Ten Player of the year and first team all American as a senior playing for Indiana University in 2000. David Booth went on to be Depaul University’s second all time leading scorer and had a great career playing over seas. These are just some of the great players that Peoria has produced over the year, I don’t have enough time to name them all……… With that being said I haven’t been able to keep up with much high school basketball in my hometown lately because I  don’t live there anymore, and when high school basketball season starts I’m usually gone out of the country for my own season. Until a few days ago I didn’t know anything about what’s was going on in Peoria HS hoops, let alone my old HS, but I found out on Friday night that they were 30-3, ranked #1 in the state and were playing in the championship game. Unfortunately we lost to Country Clubs Hills Hillcrest (for any Marquette people or people familiar with MU, this is the HS Jerel McNeal & Maurice Acker went to) by 3 with a chance to tie at the end. Even though we lost it makes me proud to know that my high school, and Peoria in general is still a basketball city. Congrats to my former HS assistant coach turned head coach Mike Ellis and the rest of the Richwoods Knights!!!!

Me As A Sophmore At RHS

I Always Represent My City No Matter Where I’m At. Downtown Peoria.

  My other team that I would like to say congrats to is non other than my Marquette Golden Eagles. No MU did not make it to the championship game or even out of the first round of the NCAA tournament, we lost in the first round to the Washington Huskies basically on a last second shot. Some people may wonder “why would you congratulate a team when they got knocked out in the first round?”. Well if you don’t know much about MU basketball, MU was was the toughest team in the country, no not physically but mentally. From the end of the season last season last year until probably the end of February MU was underestimated tremendously, and everybody wanted to talk about how it was a rebuilding year and their lack of size and dept. We were picked to finish 12th in the Big East, but finished 5th, 22-12 overall, with 9 losses being 5 points or less, and only 1 loss by double figures (3rd game in 3 days  in the Big East  tournament). This team showed tremendous heart, mental toughness and played together  as a team all year. Coach Williams did a great job coaching last season, but this season in when he really established himself as one of the best coaches in the nation. This team showed young kids across America what can be achieved when you play with heart, toughness, and play for each other. Congrats to Lazar, Mo, Cubi on a great career,  and congrats to the rest of the Golden Eagle Family for a great season. I Can’t wait for next season.

  My roller coaster year of basketball continues, another obstacle for me.Started with me being home much longer than anyone expected. Within that time there were some deals that almost happened but didn’t, a verbal offer from one of my old coaches but come to find out that he wasn’t the one to make the final decision. My favorite one (sarcasm) was another team in Finland actually offered and actually sent me and the agent a contract in December, scheduled me to leave on Christmas day, and then backed out of the deal because they said they wanted somebody that had already been over in Europe playing (silly them)…. Now there is a new situation, but this one is quite  different…..

 First of all I played one more game since the last game that I mentioned in a previous blog, and this game just so happened to be against the team that bamboozled me with the contract back in December. I remember how angry  was back then when I told my family and some of my friends that I was finally going back across the water, and I was suppose to leave Christmas day, only to find out a day or 2 later that the team was unprofessional and went back on the contact they sent us right as I was going to sign it and send it in. It wasn’t easy having to tell my family that the team “changed their mind” after I already told them that I FINALLY was heading back over seas just a few hours prior. I almost snapped.. I remember telling people that “They better hope that I don’t come over to another team in Finland because I’m going to kill them (on the court)”. Now at that time I had anger and revenge on my mind,  and when I’m angry that when I play my best a lot of the times,  but it’s not really good to have revenge on your mind. I had to remind myself many times that everything happens for a reason, and that minor set back could be a huge step forward in the future. Anyway I went into that game not being angry, or revengeful, but focused on getting myself back in the flow even more and also winning. Of course I knew and remembered what they did to me , but I wasn’t angry anymore and I didn’t have revenge on my mind, I just played basketball. We ended up winning the game comfortably, and I played well. I think they might have regretted their decision about me but now it’s just water under the bridge in my eyes because I don’t want revenge to be my motivation, I have more important  things that keep me motivated. I also don’t think that was the right team for me anyway because from what I saw winning didn’t seem to be the main goal of a lot of the players there and that is definitely mine.

  I didn’t realize this at the time but that in all likelihood was my last game here in Finland for this season. When I played In Finland 3 years ago teams could have unlimited Americans, and could play them as much as they wanted but now the rules are different. Now each team can only play 3 Americans per game but can have as many as they want, they just have to choose who plays each game. Now to me that’s stupid but I definitely can understand why a lot of the Finnish players like it better this way. Some teams in the league have 4 or 5 Americans and just rotate them game by  game depending on the match ups, but some have only had 3 all year. Our team has only had 3 all year, no rotation. I came here to replace a guy that had a broken thumb. I came here knowing that this was the last leg of the season (11 regular season games left), so I knew that I didn’t have a lot of games to work with, I just didn’t know I would have so few. Cory (guy that I replaced) healed up a little faster than expected so he came back and played this past  Wednesday & Friday. I have no hard feelings towards him at all, I knew when I came here that he is only out because of injury but was playing well before it so he should play. Our point guard “Ricky” has to play every game, and it just wouldn’t be fair to Ray who won the championship last season with them and was P.O.Y. It’s a tough situation for me obviously because I have missed most of the year already so I REALLY want to play but at the same time it’s a tough situation for everybody. It’s tough on our coach because he has 3 (not counting our point guard) Americans who all can contributed and have all been playing well, but how can he all of a sudden start rotating 4 players game by game if he hasn’t done it at all the first 3/4 of the season…. All of the players including the Americans know that I can play and could really help, but all 4 of us can’t play together so there is no way to keep us all happy. Coach has not told me anything, so I could have another game or two but I doubt, it I’m not even expecting. It is frustrating though because I was starting to get my feel back a little, but now I don’t know anything for certain, all I can do is practice and try to be ready just in case. I’m not mad at anybody, it’s nobodies fault, it’s just a tough situation for everyone involved. Regardless, this was the path chosen for me. I helped the team stay afloat by winning 3 of our last 4 games I played, with 2 of those wins coming against teams ranked ahead of us, and I played well in each of those wins. I got a couple good game videos to use the coming season, or hopefully this spring even. I also get to practice 5 on 5 not just me by myself, I still get paid, I met some pretty cool guys, and most importantly I’m just very thankful for the opportunity to get back on the court at all after the year I have had had. If I don’t play another game here in Lahti I’m still going to cheer my teammates on, and hope they win every game.

I just found a a page on  “best-natural-health-supplements.com” that basically describes what Yoli is and why it’s special. This is not facts that I typed up or the company typed up, but the facts that “best-natural-health-supplements.com” researched, so for those of you that haven’t looked at our site yet, check out this  page to see what they say. Even those of you that have checked out our website you should read this. Just click on the title above.

It seems like it snows here five days a week, and most of the time it’s snow that sticks. The Finnish people say that it’s not normal for it to snow as much as it has this winter, but it seems like the words “not normal” are becoming normal around the world as far as weather is concerned. I got the scoop on the story as to why  our practice was cancelled because of snow on the roof. I asked one of my Finnish teammates was it normal for practice to be canceled because of snow on the roof and he told me that this winter there have been a lot of roofs caving in because of the weight of the snow, and a few people have died. He said a roof at one Ikea caved in also, so that was dangerous for the customers, employees, and I’m sure they had thousands of dollars in damages to the furniture they sale. After hearing that it suddenly made a lot of sense.

Snowy Finland At Night

As far as my day here in Finland, well I didn’t do anything too interesting. I woke up late today because we didn’t have anything that we had to do. Two or three days a week we get to eat at this Italian restaurant called “Mama’s” for free because they are one of our sponsors, so I went there. They have really good food there. We can basically order any meal we want as far as I know, but  I’ve only get basically two things, I get either pasta, or this steak and fries.. Now let me tell you about this steak… This is something that they don’t have on the menu everyday but I wish they did. I know for sure they have it on Thursdays and maybe one other day during the week, but whenever I can get it I do. Usually I always like A1 sauce with my steak when I’m home in the U.S, but this steak doesn’t even need it. They season it real good and then they put this garlic butter on it, now that does the trick. Mmmm MM!!!!! Magnifico!!! (I think that’s the word in Italian haha). The steak comes with these seasoned fries and it came with green beans today so I did have my vegetables. I don’t know if my description  is doing the steak justice, I wish you could try it for yourself. Here is a picture of it.

Magically Delicious!!!

It was almost time for practice after my lunch. We practice a little Earlier today, at 4pm instead of 6pm. I didn’t know this until right before practice but we only had an hour today. In a short period of time we got some good work in. One of the Americans here, Cory Rouse the guy that I had to come replace because he had a broken thumb has been trying to work himself back into shape a little so he has practice some with us the last couple of days. He’s a good player, and I always enjoy the challenge of going against good players, especially now because it helps me get because back in the flow of things better… After practice I went straight to the weight room and got a good upper body and ab workout in, no legs today, I gotta keep them fresh for the weekend. Once I finished all of my work for the day I came home I just came back to the apartment, talked my family on webcam for a bit and then I’ve just been relaxinng ever since. It’s too cold, snowy, and icy to be out site seeing, plus I already almost slipped and did the splits several time, and that will make a grown man cry.