The worst day

It's been hyped as the biggest game of the regular season for the Syracuse Orange, the Saturday tip off against #20 Marquette was scheduled for Noon and a win would pull the Orange closer to an at large bid in the Big Dance. So of course I'm pumped up in an unhealthy way for this huge game, which is the way I usually get for big games, and ready to explode. Just one problem. After watching College Gameday I went down stairs to get some food and came back to see a horrifying sight: Princeton vs. Virginia in some good, old fashioned, college Lacrosse. College Lacrosse? Now I think Lacrosse is a fine sport and all, but I wanted to see some Golden Eagle beat down, not learn how the prestigious Tigers offense works. I switched to every possible channel, even checking CNN [ can you say desperate] , but none of them had my Orange.

After checking ESPN I found that the game had been switched to four o'clock. Why still baffles me but at the time I thought at least I was going to be able to see the game. Then the cable blew. Your first thought when the cable blows out is, why? Why did it blow? Well Ithaca had been hit by its usual storm in March that I call the "What the…?" storm. You have no idea what is coming down other then it is: 1. Wet, 2. Cold, and 3. It comes at the WORST TIME! There is your meteorology lesson for the day. So we had branch that had too much ice on it and fell right on our cable line. Ok I thought, I have 3 hours [this was at One in case that wasn't clear] the cable will be back in time, right? Two o'clock passes, then three, and its almost four and I am ready to explode again but In the worst way. So I try to wait it out, but it's after 4:30 and I still got nothing. The clock finally hits 5 and then after a couple of minutes I do my two minute check of the cable and this time, there is picture! Sound! Color! The 'Cuse! And even better? Syracuse is up 36-31. This is looking good. Then it happens, with about 15 minutes left in the game all Hell broke loose and Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, and our whole house lost power. They could prop ably hear my scream from the hill. This had to be a joke right? No cable, ok I could always check the game online, but no power? Now I know how colonial people lived and trust me, when I came out of the womb I did not sign up for that. No where in my contract did it say "must live like we are in the 18^th century" no, never said that. So that was bad enough that I was living in an Amish paradise, but now I had to miss the game? What was worse is for a minute the power kept coming on and off every 10 seconds or so for the first minute. It was as though God was enjoying the sight of me squirming around every time the power came back on just to see me crumble every time it went off.

Then it got really interesting. After some family stories, our power flickered on at about 8. This time it was for more then 10 seconds it was about two minutes, however, my father was in the middle of a interesting story about one of our cousins so I didn't think to get up and check the score of the game. As I was about too, what happened? The power goes off again. Of course. Hey, lets chop of my arm while we're at it! If you have never experienced a power outage, then I envy you. In the modern 21^st century life that we have come accustomed to, it's tough to live without you 40 inch HDTV and your new computer. Much less light and a decent shower.

So I got another quick glimpse of what life is like in Upstate New York. Will it ever change? Of course not, that would be to easy.