Rigging up the lights

The Bob Rivers Comedy Group does a great parody of the Twelve Days of Christmas entitled Twelve Pains of Christmas. Included on that wonderful list is "rigging up the lights."

If there's ever a year for that to apply to my life, this year is that year. As regular readers of my newspaper columns over the past 15 years know, there's usually a weekend in early December where I head north and put up the Christmas lights at my mother's house in Stark. Usually, this is a weekend project, where I head up on Saturday morning and spend two days getting the lights and decorations up. But, because there are no winter sports going on quite yet, I decided to make the trip last Friday afternoon.

I got there in the middle of the afternoon and couldn't really make up my mind how I wanted to get going. My first thought was to tackle the wreaths while I still had some light, but figured it might be better to do the trees and then get the lights on them as darkness descended. It's always easy to put the lights up at night because I can see where the "holes" are in the trees when I am done.

On Thanksgiving, I had put the stakes in the ground and laid out the extension cords for all the trees. I also had gotten the smaller of the trees put in place, so out of the 17 trees I had to deal with, six were already in place and just needed lights.

My mother's boyfriend, Mike, got home from work and he helped me carry the trees out of the top of the barn and get them all set up in the yard or on the porches. Once they were in place, Mike helped my mother with some stuff she needed and I started putting the lights on the trees. One by one, the lights came out of the barn and enveloped the trees. I only had to replace a few sets of lights after the long offseason, which is normal.

Once the lights were done, it was time to work inside and even that was different, as I wore a mask the entire time I was inside. I got all the candles set up in all the windows in the barn and the house and went outside to take a few pictures of how things looked.

I saved the rest of the inside stuff for the next morning and got most of them done before anyone else was up. The final part of the puzzle was putting up the wreaths on all the windows. Most of these are fairly easy, since they are on windows on the porch or easily reachable. Mike helped me with the ones that I needed the ladder for, including climbing on the roof of the barn and the house to get the final wreaths up. 

The good news was, everything was done before noon, which allowed me to be on the road to home before the storm got bad. It wasn't snowing when I left Stark and I didn't' encounter any snow until I got to Ossipee.

So, rigging up the lights is done for another year. And come January, they'll all have to come down again.

The lights are up in Stark for another year.

A Monday morning rabbit hole

Sometimes, now that the busy fall season has drawn to a close, I find myself with a little free time in the office on a Monday or Tuesday and I tend to get drawn down rabbit holes. Mostly, my rabbit holes involve the Olympics, in one form or another.

This probably isn't much of a surprise, but given the postponement of the 2020 Summer Games until next summer as well as the next Winter Olympics, which will take place in 2022 in Beijing, China, I spend a lot of time reading updates and checking in on any new information coming out from the International Olympic Committee or any of the host organizations. For whatever reason, I like to read many of the documents that were presented when the different cities were making their bids for the Olympics. It's interesting to see what the cities were proposing when they made their bids and how they envisioned the Olympics playing out in their city.

What's even more interesting about these documents are the proposals from the cities that were not selected. The most interesting ones I've seen have been for Almaty, Kazakhstan and Stockholm-Are, Sweden. Almaty made a bid to host the 2022 Games, which went to Beijing and Stockholm-Are made a bid to host the 2026 Games, which were awarded to Milan-Cortina, Italy. While there is no guarantee that I am going to get to any of the future Olympics, it's cool to check out where I might be going but it's even more interesting to look at places that won't be hosting. And then, The Amazing Race did an episode in Almaty a few weeks ago, which sparked my interest in that city again.

This morning, my rabbit hole was the Milan-Cortina web site, looking at some of the plans they have in place for those Games. This truly looks like it will be one of the most photogenic Olympics in recent years. Sochi, PyeongChang and Beijing aren't exactly hot beds of winter sports, so while it was incredible to see those parts of Russia and Korea, it didn't feel like a real winter sports atmosphere. Milan-Cortina will be using the famous ski courses of the Alps to host alpine, Nordic, biathlon and other snow-based events. To me, there isn't much more of a classic winter setting than the Alps and I anticipate some incredible shots on NBC in six years.

What's also different about the Milan-Cortina location is the fact that the mountain venues and the indoor city venues are not terribly close. In Sochi and PyeongChang, much was made about them being some of the most compact Winter Olympics ever. Most of the venues were within two hours of each other, at the most. Beijing has announced a high speed rail that will connect the downtown venues with the snow-based venues in the mountains outside the city, making the travel time fairly similar to Sochi and PyeongChang. However, a simple look at Milan and Cortina, two of the main areas for the 2026 Games, shows that they are more than four hours apart. And, there are two other venue areas that are a few hours outside of Milan, where the indoor venues are mostly located. I believe there will be some updates in the next six years to possibly cut the travel time down.

Anyways, Monday's rabbit hole was fun. Who knows what tomorrow's might bring.

This is one of my favorite pictures from PyeongChang, showing just how close the sliding center (in the foreground) is to the ski jumping center (in the background).

Just another hit

 Another month, another gut punch from the spectacular pile of crap that has been 2020.

It's the day before Thanksgiving. Normally, I would be traveling to upstate New York to visit family for the holiday. This is traditionally one of the few "vacations" I take during the year. I love to visit the farm and spend a few days away from work and just relaxing.

But like everything else in 2020, that has gone down the drain. First it was the end of the high school winter sports season, with a number of local teams still in contention for championships. The complete loss of the spring sports season followed, leaving a large group of athletes without a chance to compete for one final time for their school and their community. There was a trip to New York and another to Atlanta, both for Survivor - RHAP events, both cancelled due to 2020 being a shit show. There was the St. Patrick's Day trip to Dublin, Ireland with the University of New Hampshire Marching Band that got called off at the last minute. And of course, there was the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which were going to be my first shot at covering the Summer Games after two previous Winter Games experiences. But in late March, they were called off as well.

Just for good measure, there was the temporary layoff that lasted from April until mid-August and seeing a number of my co-workers laid off as well as COVID wreaked its havoc on the newspaper industry.

But now, it's messing with my holidays. And that kind of sucks. I know not traveling to New York is the right thing to do, but it still sucks. Instead of four days of relaxing on the farm, I'll spend a good chunk of the time making donuts, pies and other baked goods at the Yum Yum Shop.

And I guess they'll be some stories to write in that time too.

Hopefully next year we can go back to the family gathering together for Thanksgiving in New York.

The side hustle

For almost all of the last 18-plus years, covering sports is how I made my living, mostly. Starting in January of 2003, I have been full-time with Salmon Press, with the lone exception of the few months this past summer where I was laid off.

But over the course of that time, I have also held numerous jobs on the side, helping to pay the credit card bills that I built up during my college years. The good news is that one of those was completely paid off late last year and the other is ticking downward every month. And it's because of those side jobs that I've been able to pay the bills a bit quicker than if I just worked the one job.

When I started this job, I had been working at Mountain View Nursing Home in Ossipee full-time in the kitchen. I went down to two days a week when I started full-time at the paper and worked there for a number of years. After leaving that job, I went to work part-time at Pronto Market in Wolfeboro, which was conveniently located right next door to our office in Clarke Plaza. The owners, Paul and Louise Labbe, gave me whatever hours I could handle and also allowed me some flexible hours, mostly mornings, but also some evenings when I could.

When Pronto closed, I went with just one job for a while, but some other bills started to pop up and I realized it was time to start looking for another side hustle. I found a job working four nights a week for AfterDark Commercial Cleaning in Wolfeboro, doing the floors in the kitchen and dining room at Brewster Academy. In many ways, this job was good, as it allowed me to work after games and pretty much make up my own hours. However, after a few years, it started to wear me down and after I fell asleep at the wheel and totaled my car on Route 109A in Tuftonboro, I realized it was time to call it quits.

Then came this past April, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced Salmon Press to make some drastic changes and with sports cancelled at the local high schools, I was among those laid off. After collecting unemployment for a month, I realized that I needed to have something to do. Peter Kelly, the girls' hockey coach at Kingswood, runs the Yum Yum Shop in Wolfeboro and offered me a full-time job for the summer working in the kitchen. I spent all summer long learning the ins and outs of baking and making lots and lots and lots of donuts. It was nice to be able to pick up some overtime along the way and without a question, the job helped me get through what was a difficult time.

When I got called back to the paper, I offered to stay on a couple days a week to help as long as I was needed. So, while I've been back at the paper since mid-August, I have been working Wednesday and Thursday mornings at the Yum Yum Shop. The extra money comes in handy and I work with a good group of people, which is always a plus. I've learned a lot from the experienced bakers and have hopefully gotten better as the year has rolled along.

However, the pandemic combined with working in a bakery has virtually killed any hopes I had of keeping the weight off that I lost a few years back. Let's just say it's been a rough few months.

I spend Wednesday and Thursday mornings cranking out donuts and other delicious things at the Yum Yum Shop in Wolfeboro.

Unique times in the land of high school sports

 Since I started back to work in mid-August, things have been going a mile a minute and there's barely been time to slow down and breathe.

Now that the high school season is slowly drawing to a close, time has become more readily available and it was time to look back on what has been the strangest season of high school sports I have ever been a part of.

If you had asked me, while I was making hundreds of donuts a day back in mid-June, if there would even be a high school season this fall, I would've told you that I was not optimistic. I also would have said that they may start a season but there's no way it's reaching the playoffs. Thankfully, I was wrong on both counts.

Practices started in early September and the first official games of the fall season started shortly after that. The schedule was regionalized, meaning there were very few games on my schedule that did not involve two teams that I cover. Of course, there were 10 schools added to my coverage area to start this year, so in addition to the five that I had covered the last number of years, there was more on my plate.

The sad part about that is that there were teams I never got to see this season. The Inter-Lakes volleyball team, the Moultonborough boys' soccer team and volleyball team and the Lisbon girls' soccer team all fell victim to a tough schedule. Inter-Lakes called off their season early, which eliminated the chance I had circled on my calendar to see three of the teams on that list. The Lisbon soccer boys, Kingswood and Newfound football and Moultonborough cross country teams I didn't see until the playoffs (or the play-in games).

And things were different. Limited amounts of fans were allowed to view the contests, there were checklists at the doors of indoor venues (and in some cases, outdoor venues as well). Each school had its own way of keeping its students safe. It wasn't fun wearing a mask while covering any of the events this fall, but it was better than the other option of not seeing any sports. It's easy enough to put a mask on for a few hours if that is what the school asks.

Perhaps the most unusual site this fall was this past weekend at the cross country championships at Derryfield Park in Manchester. Traditionally, all divisions run fairly close together and the schools are all bunched around the park. This year, to promote social distancing, the race times were separated more, each division's schools had to vacate the park as soon as the race was over to allow the next division in. And no spectators were allowed. Having attended more than 15 of these championships, it was weird looking out over the park from my traditional photo spot and not seeing hundreds of kids and spectators. However, it did make keeping my photo spot easier, since nobody was getting in the way.

There have been a few hiccups in the road, with most of the schools in my coverage area losing a game or two to COVID concerns. Inter-Lakes stopped their season early and Berlin missed out on the field hockey championships and cross country championships thanks to a COVID uptick in the community. But all in all, the season was completed without too many issues.

There have been a number of successes to date and there's still 11 teams left playing as of this writing (Gilford and Newfound volleyball, Belmont, Moultonborough and Littleton girls' soccer, Littleton, Profile and Gilford boys' soccer and Kennett, Plymouth and Winnisquam football). 

Here's hoping the rest of the season goes as well as it can and we can bring a healthy conclusion to the fall sports season instead of the rough ending last winter season saw.

The Kennett field hockey team's Division II championship is one highlight in this unusual fall sports season.

500 days to go? Why not?

 Yesterday, Monday, Sept. 21, marked a milestone in the Olympic journey, both in the larger sense and in a much more personal sense.

Obviously, I've written in this space countless times about my Olympic travels in Russia in 2014, Korea in 2018 and the plans to be in Tokyo next summer when the postponed Olympics take place.

But the milestone that passed yesterday was for the Beijing Olympics, coming in 2022. Now, that may seem like a ways away and indeed, yesterday marked 500 days until the start of the next Winter Olympics, which take place in February of 2022. But 500 days, in the grand scheme of things, is not that far away. It's less than two years from now and about six months after the Tokyo 2020 rescheduled Olympics are scheduled to take place.

The Beijing 2022 team was all over social media on Monday promoting the 500 days countdown and in China there was a big celebration near the Great Wall, which will likely provide the backdrop for a lot of NBC's extensive Olympic coverage in 2022. And rightfully so, it is an impressive piece of history.

And while the celebration was alive on the other side of the world, I was in my office in Meredith getting ready to send stories and photos to the editor for inclusion in this week's papers. When that was all done, I reached a little bit of a milestone of my own. I filled out the paperwork officially applying for credentials to what I am hoping will be my fourth Olympics.

The process of applying for Olympic media credentials is obviously not a short one, as a lot of planning goes into things. When I first applied to cover the Sochi Winter Olympics of 2014, it was actually 2012. If I remember correctly, it was late in the summer when I applied and then I got a call from a writer from Buffalo asking about my plans for covering the games, etc. In late October, I got the email confirming that I had gotten credentials to cover my first Olympics. I remember it well, I had just finished covering a football game at Kennett and because the cell service is so bad at the school, I was in the Burger King parking lot in North Conway checking my e-mail after the game.

For the PyeongChang Games in 2018, I applied at approximately the same time of the year, but didn't have to do an interview and again found out later in the fall that I had been approved. The Tokyo Olympics were on a different timeline because of the fact that they are happening in the summer, but it was still more than a year and a half before the scheduled 2020 Olympics that the process began.

The Beijing process seems to be a bit behind where the Sochi and PyeongChang processes were, but I am guessing that is completely because of the Tokyo situation, which has sent a lot of people scrambling to figure things out. The Olympics haven't been this close together since the early-1990s, when the Winter and Summer Games were held in the same year (1992, Albertville and Barcelona were the last time they were held in the same year). So, all the work that is going into getting ready for Tokyo would normally have been done by now and the focus could solely be on Beijing. However, with Tokyo delayed a year, there is work to be done for both, right now.

The e-mail announcing that the credentialing process was something I was expecting to arrive, though I was hoping it wasn't something that slipped through the cracks while I was laid off during the summer. The USOPC, which handles the credentialing of US media, told us that we would know if we were approved by early next year, meaning we'd have a year to plan it all out. While that may seem like a lot of time, it's definitely 3-4 months shorter than the last three Olympic processes.

Additionally, Tokyo is just about six months before Beijing, meaning if I end up going to both places, the time to come up with the money will be pretty short.

But, that's a problem for another day. The milestone has passed, both in China and right here at home. Looking forward to a possible fourth Olympics obviously may be a stretch considering I haven't made it to my third yet, but the power of positive thinking has to be put to work here.

Here I go again, on my own

As of yesterday, I have been back at work for a month. And things are slowly getting back to normal, or at least as normal as they are going to be for a little while.

It started slowly, but it has steadily picked up over the last week and next week promises to be a full-on onslaught of games and contests. The first week back I started making contact with athletic directors around the region, hoping to get their take on how things were shaping up for the fall season. I also wanted to reach out to some of the new athletic directors that I am dealing with this year.

For most of my time on the job, I've been covering five schools, Kennett, Kingswood, Prospect Mountain, Newfound and Plymouth. I've had two people working for me who also cover five schools apiece and I would edit their content and get it set for the papers each week. While we were all laid off back in April, at this point, I am the only one who has been brought back, which means that in addition to the five schools I've covered for a few years, I am adding Moultonborough, Inter-Lakes, Gilford, Winnisquam, Belmont, Littleton, Lisbon, Profile, Lin-Wood and Woodsville.

Needless to say, this is going to be a dauntless challenge that is going to require a lot of cooperation from coaches to help cover the many, many athletes on these teams. There's no question that this is going to be a season like no other, in more ways than one.

Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic has also changed the way the sports season started. The start of practices was delayed and teams were separated into different categories to determine when they could play their first games. This left me with only golf competing for the first week and a half. So, over the course of eight days, I covered six golf matches at six different courses and saw nine different teams. I started with Prospect Mountain, Plymouth, Gilford and Belmont at Farmington Country Club last Thursday and then went to Blackmount Country Club on Friday for Littleton and Woodsville. On Monday it was up to Owl's Nest Resort for Plymouth and Tuesday was a trip to Cochecho Country Club to see the Kennett team open up its season. Moultonborough and Kingswood teed off at Ridgewood Country Club to start their seasons on Wednesday and on Thursday it was a trip to Maplewood in Bethlehem to see Littleton, Woodsville and White Mountains.

This new situation has also brought about regional schedules, which is something I will not complain about at all. Seemingly every game on the schedule is between two teams in our coverage area, which is nice. Plymouth and Newfound are facing off in a couple of sports, the aforementioned Moultonborough and Kingswood golf match featured teams that usually don't play each other and there's many more matchups that haven't taken place before.

The real work starts today, as soccer, field hockey, cross country and volleyball get the official nod to start with contests and it's full-on from here on out.

I am happy to be back at work. Even if it's going to be a bit busy.

The time has come

 If 2020 had gone as planned (hahahahaha), this past Monday would have been my return trip from the Tokyo Olympics. I would have flown from the Japanese capital through Seattle and then to Boston. It surely would have been an exciting two weeks in Eastern Asia and I am hopeful that next summer offers the same opportunity. But that's a story for another day.

On a related note, this coming Monday will mark my return to the job that I held since 2003 before I was temporarily laid off in April. It's been a long few months and over the past few weeks, I've been slowly gearing up for the return to writing, but I have to admit, it is going to take some getting used to. I've actually taken in a few different games over the last couple of weeks in preparation (I've seen you Wolfeboro Wolverines and MWV Eagles softball and Wolfeboro Senior Babe Ruth).

Writing is something that I have essentially been doing since I've been out of college. I feel like covering sports is something that I need to be doing. But I also know that going back to the job is going to be different. The people that I have worked with over the last few years are not back on the job yet, so there will likely be more work to do. At the same time, there's also a chance that some schools will not be doing sports this fall. Yes, sports are going to look different when they do come back and I know that the coverage I can provide will likely be a little different as well.

I am looking forward to being back on the sidelines when sports do return but there's a good chance I am going to have to rely on the help of coaches and others a little more, since I am going from the five schools I have covered the last few years to a total of 19 schools in the Salmon Press coverage area. This will provide a challenge or sure but in the time of COVID-19, everything has been a challenge, so this will be no different.

If you are a local athlete, parent, coach or fan, I look forward to possibly seeing you out and about in the upcoming seasons. And I hope everyone continues to stay safe as sports slowly seep back into our world.

The day

Today is the day.

Or more specifically, today was supposed to be the day.

July 22, 2020 was the day I was set to board a plane at Logan Airport bound for Seoul, South Korea and then on to Tokyo to cover my first Summer Olympics.

Of course, those plans all went out the window, along with just about everything else in the world, back in March when the International Olympic Committee announced that the 2020 Tokyo Olympics would be postponed for a year and will take place in July and August of 2021.

Obviously, I've written many times over the past few months about the impact of the postponement of the Olympics. A few days after the announcement, I was temporarily laid off from my job at Salmon Press, meaning the possibility of covering the Olympics next year was also in doubt.

As we head toward August, the possibility of getting back to work is down the road a bit and with it, comes the possibility of still getting the chance to go to Tokyo and if all goes as planned, one year from now, I will be in Tokyo for the start of the Olympics, which kick off on July 23.

Instead of finding myself on a plane to Seoul, this morning I was up before dawn and off to cook the donuts at the Yum Yum Shop in Wolfeboro, which has been my saving grace the last few months, allowing me to stay busy and still pay the bills

Here's hoping that next year at this time, you'll be getting blog posts live from Tokyo instead of live from my apartment.

Looking forward?

This was supposed to be a good year. There was so much to look forward to, so much to be excited about and things were seemingly looking up.

But, here we sit more than halfway through the year and I can't help but wonder if there is anything to look forward to right now.

On March 11, I boarded an early morning flight out of Boston heading to Los Angeles. The flights were less than half full and it was obvious that change was coming to the country. I traveled to California for a Rob Has a Podcast live Survivor event in North Hollywood. These live RHAP events have been a great time for me over the past few years. I've been to New York City pretty much at least once a year for these events and have also gone to Chicago, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, Minneapolis, Toronto and Los Angeles on different occasions over the past few years.

I've met a lot of great people at these events and it is always nice to catch up with folks I mostly see online. There's usually other events going on around the podcast and in March, a group of us successfully escaped from an escape room prior to a group dinner before the podcast. With the busy schedule I had covering sports, I usually went in and out the same day and the trip to Los Angeles was no different, as I flew back on a red-eye flight that same night.

That was the day that everything changed.

Sports leagues began cancelling games and then seasons. The high school sports season that was wrapping up came to a grinding halt. Travel came almost to a standstill and all that I was looking forward to in 2020 started unraveling at the seams.

While in North Hollywood eating dinner prior to the podcast, I got an e-mail from the University of New Hampshire Marching Band director stating that our planned trip to Ireland, scheduled to leave just a couple days after I got back to the Granite State, was cancelled. This was one of the things I was most excited for this year. We were heading to Dublin to play in the St. Patrick's Day parade and take a quick tour of Ireland. All the rehearsing and preparing was down the drain.

By the time I got home on Thursday, March 12, the NHIAA had announced that they were working on a solution to finishing out the winter season but within a few days, it became obvious that this was not going to happen and by the end of March, the season had officially been cancelled.

Over the course of the last few weeks of March, the other things I was looking forward to slowly began to fall by the wayside. I was slated to travel with the Kennett baseball team to Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Florida for a little spring training at the end of the month, but the high school was quick to call off all trips and that excursion was done before it began.

There were also two more RHAP events on the books, including one in New York City in early April and another in Atlanta in late April and those were both cancelled.

But perhaps the most disappointing announcement came in very late March when the International Olympic Committee announced that the Tokyo Summer Olympics were being postponed by a year. After covering the previous two Winter Olympics, I was looking forward to attending my first Summer Games. While this was obviously the right decision for the IOC and my credentials will carry over to next summer, there's a lot of questions.

First and foremost in my mind is the question in the title of this post. Is there a way to look forward? Is there something, anything, to look forward to? 

If there are fall sports at the high school level, I am hopeful that I will have my job back, but I am not terribly optimistic about the fall sports season going on as planned. Additionally, newspapers have taken a huge hit with the Covid pandemic, so there are obviously questions about how things will look even if sports come back in the fall. While I worked a lot of hours at the job, there were obviously tons of things that made the job fun and there was always something to look forward to. Watching sports for a living has its upside for sure.

I am sure that if things can get back to normal, RHAP will host live events again, but if I don't have the flexibility (and funds) that my writing job provided me, it remains unseen whether I'd be able to get to the live events.

If I do have my job back, will the Olympics still be a viable option? And if I don't have my job back, the Olympic credentials are essentially not available to me, even if I am lucky enough to find another job in the journalism field.

It has officially been 100 days since I was "temporarily" laid off and while I was lucky to find a job working with good people at the Yum Yum Shop in Wolfeboro, there's no question that I miss standing on the sidelines on the fields across the Lakes Region and covering the local athletes.

So, I ask, is there something to look forward to? Because right now, it's a struggle to find anything.

Of shuttered theaters and cancelled flights

Tuesdays and Wednesdays have been my days off from my "new normal" job at the Yum Yum Shop in Wolfeboro. That was scheduled to change this week, moving to Thursday and Friday, but I had already scheduled something this morning, so this week, I am off Tuesday and Thursday.
The scheduled thing I had on the docket this morning was a visit with the HVAC representative doing some work on the air handling units at the Village Players Theater in Wolfeboro. This was the second visit I've overseen in the past month or so, as a large piece was taken out to be worked on and new parts were ordered. Today was the day that they got installed again.
I decided to also use the time while I was waiting for the HVAC technician to do his thing to work on getting my money back for my flight to Tokyo, which was set to happen in just more than a month. I purchased the flights through Expedia, one on Korean Air and the other on Delta. I had also purchased the insurance on the flight offered by Expedia and that may be the best $125 I've spent.
I made contact with Expedia and they got me some good information. Because of Covid-19, Korean Air was offering refunds on all flights without having to file a claim through the insurance company, so the agent I was working with online went to work on that. Delta's system was a little different so I had to go through the insurance company to work on getting that refund.
Either way, it was kind of a sad situation. I was sitting on the stage of the theater, a building that I have used to escape my every day life for more than a decade. The set we were finishing up for Broadway Bound is still on stage, so it's kind of an eerie scene of a set with no show in sight. The plan for the show is to put it on next spring, but if we are able to do another show between now and then, the set would have to come down.
The Village Players has become a place that I truly love. When we have shows going on, I spend more than a few nights a week inside the building, whether it's rehearsing or building a set or just preparing for the show. I have been a part of every single production since summer 2012's Leading Ladies. I don't do much outside of work, but when I do, it's usually with the VP.
In fact, the Village Players were helpful in my first Olympic trip in 2014, holding a celebration roast in my honor as a fundraiser and another fundraiser was planned for the Tokyo trip that was planned for this summer.
In addition to a shuttered theater (we hope to stage a fall production but that's still up in the air), the other sad part about the entire situation was that the big trip, what was to be the highlight of my year, was officially being cancelled. Granted, when the Olympics were postponed a few months ago, that had already become the case, but still, it was made even more official. Having already had to cancel a trip to Ireland, a trip to Florida, a trip to New York City and a trip to Atlanta, this was just another bummer in what has become a major downer of a year in my world (and the world in general I imagine).
For the record, on a positive note, Expedia was very easy to deal with. I first communicated with a virtual agent, but after about 10 minutes, a "real" agent was on the line and he was able to solve things pretty quickly. He cancelled the flights and got the refund from Korean Air and gave me the proper channels in which to get my refund on my return flight.
While I would rather be preparing for my trip to Tokyo in just more than a month, I guess this will have to suffice for a "successful" day.

The Village Players Theater remains empty amidst the pandemic.

Making adjustments

The term "the new normal" has been thrown out a lot in the past few months as people make adjustments to the conditions presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, including social distancing and the wearing of masks.
In my case, there was a pretty large shakeup in life, with the temporary layoff taking place on April 1, which I have to admit was completely unexpected. Two days later, I applied for unemployment through the New Hampshire state web site. The good news was that I was paid for the week I was laid off and also received a week of pay for the personal time I had accrued through the first three months of the year.
Each week, I went back to the unemployment web site and filed my claim, but the weeks went on with no money deposited in my account. Eventually, as it went out to more than a month without anything coming in, it became obvious I was either going to have to find a job or move out of my apartment if I wanted to keep paying my health insurance bill (Affordable Care Act my ass).
One of the coaches I work with during my normal life, Peter Kelly, is the general manager of the Yum Yum Shop in Wolfeboro and had said soon after the layoff happened that if I needed a job, he had a spot for me that would likely be available in the middle of May. While out walking one afternoon, I saw Peter and fellow Kingswood hockey coach Mike Potenza in the shop parking lot and stopped by to say hello. Peter again let me know he had a position if I wanted it and since the unemployment still hadn't come through, I took him up on his offer.
I went in on a Thursday afternoon and filled out paperwork and got the lay of the land. And wouldn't you know it, that Friday afternoon, the notice came that the unemployment funds were going to be deposited into my bank account.
I started work on May 11 at 5 a.m. and after a couple of days, moved to starting at 4 a.m. Now, I'm not averse to waking up early. In my regular life, my alarm goes off around 5:30 a.m., but setting an alarm prior to 3 a.m. is a bit of a challenge.
As I've mentioned before, I have worked in kitchens pretty much all my life, so that environment is nothing new to me. However, every kitchen is different and working more on the baking side of things is an adjustment. I'm slowly learning the ins and outs of making pies, donuts, turnovers and cookies. The good news is that I work with a lot of really nice people who have been more than helpful in getting me through it all.
It's definitely different, but I don't quite feel like it's the "new normal" yet. I am happy to be working, mainly because I was going out of my mind of boredom sitting at home all day. On work days (Thursday through Monday) I get out of work around noon and still head out in the afternoon for a walk. On days I don't have to work, I try to walk a little in the morning as well. As a creature of habit, I am learning new habits and routines but I am also hopeful that at some point I am going to be able to get back to the routine that comes with covering sports every day.

Talking sports

Over the last few weeks, living without sports has been an interesting experience. Networks have done a good job of bringing back old sporting events to our televisions and I spent a lot of time over the last two weeks watching old Olympic events from the Summer Games in Beijing in 2008, London in 2012 and Rio in 2016 along with a few highlights from Games even further back, including Sydney in 2000, Athens in 2004, Atlanta in 1996 and even the gold medal game for the original Dream Team in Barcelona in 1992.
That was a lot of fun, and usually, in a normal world, I'd be writing about sports all the time, covering the local high school teams and other events going on throughout the community. Of course, I'd probably also be complaining about all this rain that would certainly be wreaking havoc on our spring schedule.
But, with no high school sports or community activities and with no longer being employed, I have had a lack of sports interaction (or really, interaction in general). So, I was excited to get to talk some sports on Wednesday when Wolfeboro Community Television hosts Mike Danais and Charlie Hossack invited me on their show, Mike and the Hoss, to discuss sports in general for a little while.
Mike and Charlie are local coaches, teachers and parents who I have had the pleasure of knowing for a number of years as I've covered their kids playing sports through the seasons. I was on their show a while back when it was still okay to be in a studio in the high school with other people less than six feet away, but this time it was a little different.
The show, as most shows are these days, was shot through the Internet, with each of us in our respective homes. I logged in to Google Meet and spent close to 45 minutes talking over things with Mike and Charlie. We talked about baseball, the NFL Draft and the Olympics along with a little update on what I'm doing in this time of no sports.
It was nice to be able to just talk about sports and while there were no real live sports going on, the fact that the NFL Draft had just happened, that was a good discussion point. Additionally, I am always willing to talk about the Olympics and have plenty of background information on the postponement of the 2020 Summer Olympics. Charlie also had us talk some baseball, ranking players at different positions around the diamond. Since baseball is my favorite sport, this was also a lot of fun.
Truth be told, this whole quarantine, unemployed thing has really been getting to me. If you had asked me five months ago whether I'd be walking 10+ miles a day just to get out of the apartment, I would have told you that you were crazy. But that is the case. Although I love watching television, sitting in my apartment for eight hours at a time is just too much.
Yes, it has been a month and it is time to find a job (even if it's just on a temporary basis). I've probably been procrastinating a little bit on that front because I'm hopeful that I can have my real job back soon, but I am not terribly optimistic on that and there are bills that have to be paid.
But, for a while on Wednesday, it was nice to talk sports with some familiar faces.

A trip down memory lane (from my couch)

Last week I spent a good deal of time discussing the Olympic rabbit hole that I went down, reading tons of information on Olympic bids from various cities, including winning hosts Beijing, Milan-Cortina, Paris and Los Angeles.
It was a great way to kill time, but unfortunately got me thinking about some deeper questions like whether or not I'd even have my job back next summer when the Tokyo Olympics take place or whether the Olympics would even be able to take place as planned in Tokyo next summer.
Of course, in case you didn't know, I'm bored out of my mind. I've watched a lot of television and most of it is just rewatching shows I've seen before.
However, I was online last week and noticed a schedule from NBC Sports Network that noted they would be running highlights from the Summer Olympics over the course of the next few weeks. I promptly went into my DVR and set it to record as many of the episodes as I could.
Most of the first week was dedicated to recaps of numerous sports from throughout the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016. I watched Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky, Aly Raisman, Simone Biles, Galen Rupp and more in their competitions from the South American city, the first trip to the continent for the Olympic Games.
After the days of Rio coverage, they went into coverage of the London Olympics from 2012. These specials originally aired a few years ago, but it was cool to look back at those Games, with some of the same faces that I had seen in the Rio segments, only four years younger. This coming week, there is some more content from the Beijing Games in 2008, which will be even more interesting to look back on because it's not quite as fresh in the mind as some of the newer Olympics.
Most of these events I saw when they originally aired, but in a time when there is no live sports, it's always nice to see some competition (lots of networks are airing classic games) and in a year when we were supposed to see the Olympics, it's a good time to look back and remember some of the incredible performances.
I got curious as to whether or not NBC Sports Network had done a similar program for the Winter Olympics, so I looked around the web site and found that they had indeed run specials on PyeongChang last year (on the one-year anniversary of the 2018 Winter Olympics). My hope is that they will run these specials again at some point in the upcoming winter.
These would certainly prove a unique experience for me because I was there and was able to witness a number of the events in person. However, because I was on the other side of the world, I never really got to see NBC's coverage of the Games from PyeongChang and Sochi, so it would be cool to see how they covered some of these events and it would also bring back some memories of the cool locations I got to travel to in 2014 and 2018.
For now, that's about as close to the Olympics as I (or anyone) is going to get, but I'm grateful for NBCSN for providing a nice look back into a time when we were all able to come together, both in person and through the television.

So many questions

The late great Kenny Rogers once sang, "the boredom overtook us, and he began to speak."
The boredom is real in this time of quarantines, self-isolation and pandemics. Add to all of that, the fact that I am not working, and things can get really boring, really quickly, as I've mentioned more than once.
This morning, sitting on my couch listening to the radio as is my (new) normal routine following my morning walk, I finished checking e-mail, reading the Union Leader and the sports section of the Boston Globe (online), I found myself looking for something to keep me occupied for a little while.
I listen to the local radio show until 10 a.m. and then I listen to a satellite radio show from 10 a.m. to noon, so I don't have to turn on the television before noon. But while I'm listening, I like to have something to do. Back in the "olden days," I would listen to these shows in my office, but since that is no longer an option, I sat on my computer looking for something to read.
A couple of the sites I check on a regular basis for new news are the Olympic web sites. One of the sites is the media portal for the Tokyo Games, which as everyone knows, were postponed from this summer until next summer. This site gives Tokyo-credentialed media members information about the Games, including accommodation guides, transportation guides and schedules. I checked in there this morning but there was no new information posted on the site.
The other Olympic web site I use is the officially Olympic site, which has public information about all the Olympic Games over the years, including press releases, photos and other information. I will usually check in every few days or so to see if there's new information from the IOC and while there was nothing new there today, I started bouncing around to future Olympic cities on the web site. While there was no new information on Beijing (2022), Paris (2024), Milan-Cortina (2026) and Los Angeles (2028), I was looking around and found a "documents" link that provided me with all sorts of information about the bids presented and the IOC's responses.
I started with Milan-Cortina (Stockholm-Are was the other finalist city included in the presentation) and started reading about the venues, the plans for the media and transportation and more. From there, I moved on to Beijing, the site of the next Winter Olympics and read much of the same information about that city and Almaty, the other finalist city from that bidding process. After that it was on to Paris, where I read about both the French capital and Los Angeles, who submitted their bids at the same time.
All of this Olympic reading has got me really excited to cover the Olympic experience again. I've been thinking about the possibilities of traveling to different countries and what it would be like to cover events in gorgeous places like Milan, Cortina and Paris.
But, then I got to thinking about the entire situation I am in now, sitting in my apartment instead of putting the final touches on this week's newspapers. Where will I be in another few months? Or next year when the Tokyo Olympics come along? Will I have my job back? Will I have any kind of job in the media? Will I even be able to cover the Olympics? Will the Olympics even be able to happen next summer?
So many questions. So few answers. Maybe it was a bad idea to go down the Olympic rabbit hole this morning. Maybe. But I guess in these ridiculous times, it's good to think positive. At least for a few hours while sitting on the couch dealing with the sheer boredom.

Weird times

This is traditionally a blog about preparing for the Olympics and eventually covering the Olympics, but occasionally it veers into different territory.
With the (hopefully) temporary layoff now a week old, I've been searching for a way to at least write once in a while and get stuff out there, so this is the space.
To someone who is a creature of habit, used to working more than 50 hours a week, creating a routine that is timed to perfection every morning, throwing the wrench of no work, no gym, really no anything, into the mix is just a gut-punch.
I've been doing my best to try not to think about it too much, but I obviously miss sports. Of course, my livelihood depends on sports, but there's also the professional sports that I would watch on a regular basis. This would be the first month of baseball season, which is such a harbinger of spring. And as my favorite sport, baseball is badly missed in this corner of the world.
But high school sports play a big part of my life. I miss getting out on the tennis courts, baseball and softball diamonds, lacrosse fields and tracks around the region. This would be the time when those spring sports would be ramping up and kicking off the season. Now, like the kids who are likely missing these sports, I find myself in the same boat.
I feel particularly bad for the seniors who have seen their high school careers cut short. I am not optimistic about the possibility of spring sports getting a chance to play, but I hold out hope for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it would be good for everyone to get out to play or watch, but if we can get sports back, there's a chance I could be back at work.
My routine is certainly off, but I've been trying to keep things on the same sort of schedule. I get up at the same time, instead of going to the gym, I go walking every morning for 45 minutes or so. But I also find myself going stir crazy in the afternoon and get out and walk for another 45 minutes or an hour just to do something.
Some day we will get back to normal. Some day we will have sports again. And some day can't come soon enough.

A bump in the road

On Monday morning, word came down that the Tokyo Olympics had a new start date.
On Wednesday morning, word came down that impacted life in a more personal and much more impactful way.
The organizers of the Tokyo Games came out on Monday morning with an announcement that the Olympics would start on July 23, 2021. That date was one day less than one year from the original planned starting date. This is good news in many ways, since that time of year is best in my schedule as far as having some free time. This also gives the world a lot of time to rebound from this pandemic that has caused all the problems.
Media members received an e-mail on Wednesday morning from the people handling the accommodations that they would be in communication with the hotels that were housing the media and would let us know if it was possible to keep all our planned nights in the media housing.
This was all good news, but it was later Wednesday morning that the news that wasn't so good came along.
With a massive hit in advertising revenue, our company needed to find ways to meet the budget and the way to do it at this point, with no sports going on, was to temporarily lay off the sports department.
While this came as a shock in many ways, it was also something that probably could've been seen coming down the pike, as so many businesses continue to struggle during the pandemic.
Maybe it's time to go back a little to describe just what this means in my world.
I started mowing lawns in my teens, doing two or three a week in addition to my own. I also got a job at the local racetrack, working in the concession stands. The day after I graduated from high school, I started working at a grocery store in town. And I don't think I've stopped since.
After working at the store during the summer, I headed to the University of New Hampshire in the fall of 1994 and during the first semester, I focused on adjusting to school, playing in marching band and just getting used to things. During Christmas break, I was back at the grocery store and when I returned to UNH, I applied for a job at the dining hall near my dorm.
I worked for a year and a half as a regular student-employee, putting in as many hours as my class schedule would allow. Near the end of my sophomore year I applied for the job of student supervisor and starting in my junior year, I moved into that position. This job remains one of my favorite jobs I've ever had, simply because I was working with a great group of people and I got to "be in charge."
I did that job for my final two years of college, at times working close to 40 hours a week in addition to my classes. When the grocery store closed down, eliminating my vacation job, I got a job working for a food service company at Hidden Valley Boy Scout Camp in Gilmanton the summer after my junior year. I worked Monday through Thursday 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Friday from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. and then headed north and worked at a different grocery store in town for both days of the weekend.
I did the summer camp job the summer after my senior year and the company offered me a full time job at a nursing home in Concord when the summer was over. I also went back to UNH just a week or so into the year and started working part time at the dining hall again.
I left the Concord nursing home in late 1999 to work at a nursing home in Ossipee and continued to work part time at UNH.
Then, in early 2001, one of the cooks at the nursing home, knowing I had an English degree, said that a friend of hers was looking for a freelance sports writer for the Carroll County Independent. Mike Whaley hired me and I started with the spring sports season.
I continued with all three jobs through the next few years and eventually, the full time sports editor job became available and Jeanne Tempest hired me. I started in January of 2003. I kept working part time at the nursing home for years after that.
After leaving the nursing home, I also worked part time at Pronto Market in Wolfeboro for a few years and also did more than a year with Afterdark Commercial Cleaning.
So, needless to say, I don't know what it's like to not work. It's not in my nature. I have a crazy work ethic that I believe came from my father and even just sitting at home the last week working from home has been driving me crazy.
Now, I don't have a job. And I don't know what to do with myself.
The hope remains that when sports start back up again, I will be able to return to work. But until then,  I just don't know.

The impact

It's been a tough week in the Olympic world, with the announcement that the 2020 Summer Games have been postponed, with the July start pushed ahead into the next calendar year.

With the social distancing still in place and working from home a thing, I've had a lot of time to think about all this stuff, which probably isn't good. I should probably be focusing on something else, something on the positive side.

As I sit here now in my apartment, NBC Sports Network is airing a special Olympic event with interviews with lots of different athletes who are impacted by the postponement and with an opening interview with Thomas Bach, the President of the International Olympic Committee discussing the situation. 

As I've spent hours being bummed out about not being able to go to Tokyo (never mind the three other trips I had planned between now and then), I've been seeing lots of social media posts from athletes who have been impacted by this and it got me thinking that this situation's impact on me is minor in comparison to the impact on the people who are so much more invested in the Olympics than I am.

The many, many athletes who are journeying to Japan from around the world should be the focus of any Olympic Games and as I'm watching this special on NBCSN, it's obvious that the majority of athletes seem to favor moving the Olympics and if that's what they want, then it is the right decision.

As media, we haven't received much in the form of updates from the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee or from the Tokyo Organizing Committee. We received an e-mail early in the week from the accommodations folks announcing that the deadline for room cancellation had been bumped back a month. The original deadline to cancel portions of the room without penalty was actually yesterday, March 25. It was postponed a month but I anticipate there will be more communication on this front coming in the near future.

So far, I've sent more than $800 in as a deposit on my accommodation and I will have to make a decision as to whether or not I want to go to Tokyo next year or get the money back to plan for a possible Beijing trip in 2022 for the Winter Olympics. The good news is that I purchased insurance on my flight to Tokyo, which cost more than $1,700, so if I need to cancel or move that flight, I will get my money back.

Yes, I am disappointed, but this is about a lot more than me. This is the decision that was needed for the many athletes, coaches and so many more people who have a stake in these Olympics. As I sit here today, my gut says I will give it a go to get to Tokyo next year, but that's still a decision that is in the future.

And I should take a moment to thank all the folks who've helped to make these Olympic trips a possibility. Two trips to the Olympics have been a dream come true and I am forever grateful.

It will be a bit of a wait until we can see more Olympic action.

A disappointing decision

The word is out that yes, the Summer Olympics are going to be postponed.
Scheduled to start on July 24, it became increasingly obvious over the last few weeks that the coronavirus pandemic was going to be an issue when it comes to the Olympics. The IOC held firm for a few weeks, stating they were hopeful that they wouldn't have to change things, but as more and more countries and/or athletes spoke up, it became obvious that a change was going to be needed.
First and foremost, bringing together thousands of people from around the world into one location certainly was not the ideal move.
Secondly, with the virus forcing the causing many places to close and events to be cancelled, the chance that athletes had to qualify for the Olympics were being called off, meaning they would have to be rescheduled before the Olympics and that was looking less and less likely to happen.
It just wasn't going to work out and that became pretty obvious to everyone on Sunday. While I was not completely sold on the IOC's optimism out of the gate, I admittedly held out hope that things would go on as planned and we'd be able to travel to Tokyo in July.
I was excited for my first Summer Olympic experience and now I have some things to consider. If the Summer Olympics are moved to the exact same time next year, do I suck it up, move my planned accommodations to next year and swap the flight as well or do I just cancel everything and focus on Beijing in 2022?
The issue for me is funding. For past Olympics, I've had four years between events to get the money together and with deciding to try for the Summer Olympics, I cut that in half for both Tokyo and a possible Beijing trip in 2022. If the Olympics get moved to next summer, we're looking at a scant six to eight months between Summer and Winter Games.
And the sheer amount of paperwork would certainly be impressive, since I'd be dealing with Summer Olympics ramp up while also going through the work for Beijing. I anticipate that the media process for Beijing will likely begin later this year, though I also know that there's no guarantee that I get approved for credentials.
There's a lot to think about over the next few weeks. Instead of gearing up for Tokyo by filling out paperwork and making final payments as the official Olympic credentials started arriving in the mail, I will be sitting at home like everyone else without much to do.
It's disappointing. It's the right decision, but nonetheless, it's disappointing.

The winds of PyeongChang will continue to be my most recent Olympic experience, for a while at least.

Nervousness, apprehension and excitement, all at the same time

As I write this on Thursday, Feb. 20, it’s been almost six years to the day since my first Olympic experience drew to a close.

That was in Sochi in February of 2014 and it was an experience that I will always remember. It was my first time covering such a huge event and in many ways, it was overwhelming.

However, I learned a lot in that first time out and when it came time to head to PyeongChang four years later, I had a much better idea of what to expect and it made the great experience I had the first time even better.

Now, as I prepare for my first Summer Olympics experience, I am concerned a bit about the sheer massiveness of the summer games compared to the winter games.

However, that’s a story for another day.

What has been on my mind lately has been the whole threat of the coronavirus and how it might impact my Olympic trip.

Going back to 2014 before I traveled to Russia, there was a lot of talk about security concerns and what Russia was doing to prepare. There were reports that some venues and some housing units weren’t complete. I can’t tell you the number of links people sent me about incomplete rooms and more.

However, I said to myself back then that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and there was no way I was not going, despite the many issues that seemed to be popping up as they got closer.

This has been on my mind as the Tokyo Summer Olympics inch closer and the threat of the coronavirus continues to hang over eastern Asia. I keep reading stories that the Olympic officials have stated over and over that they are not cancelling or not delaying the Summer Games. Then I will read a story or two that quotes Japanese “medical professionals” saying that they think this could be more of an issue than Olympic officials are letting on.

Out of the gate, the first thing I thought of was the money that has gone into this. Thanks to many awesome people, I have sent the deposit for my housing (half of the overall $1,600 cost) and I have bought my airline tickets there and back ($1,700). I am sure that if the Olympics get changed, my rooming would likely be intact, just for different dates.

When I purchased my airline tickets, I did get the insurance, so if I had to change my flight, I could likely do so without much of a fee.

However, in addition to the money, there’s also the whole coronavirus thing. The quarantined cruise ship that’s been on the news is docked in Yokohama, which is near Tokyo and is hosting a number of Olympic events. So, this is legitimate.

However, like in Sochi with the security concerns, this is a great opportunity and letting something outside of my control ruin what could be quite an experience is the wrong thing to do.

I’m moving forward with the trip and I’m excited about it. My hope that is in the five months until I leave things get more cleared up on the coronavirus front.

Additionally, I should note a special thanks to my friends at the Village Players Theater who are organizing a fundraiser to help with the final expenses for the trip. It is set for Saturday, May 2, at 6 p.m. at the theater in Wolfeboro. I am sure more information will be released soon and I’ll get it out there for readers.

From my first Olympic experience, the Media Center in Sochi in 2014.

Less than 200 days to go...

This past Monday marked 200 days until Tokyo 2020, which meant that it was 198 days until it's time to head around the world.

As the number continued to tick down, I realized that it was time to do a little more planning in regards to the Olympic experience, so after I made all my newspaper deadlines, I spent some time online researching the cheapest flights to get to Tokyo in July.

There are a lot of ways to get to Japan, but none of the flights were terribly inexpensive. Being as this is a self-funded trip (along with donations from some great people), my most important search function for the flight was to find the cheapest way to get there. 

In this regard, there were a few flights that were right around the same price. The one that intrigued me the most was a flight on Hawaiian Airlines that went from Boston to Honolulu then on to Tokyo. Having never been to Hawaii, I thought this would be a great pit stop along the way. However, the layover was almost an entire day and I wasn't sure I wanted to miss out on the possibility of attending the opening ceremonies on Friday, July 24.

So, I looked away from the Hawaiian Airlines flight and found one that was just a bit cheaper on Korean Air. Ironically enough, I didn't use Korean Air to get to the Olympics in February 2018 in PyeongChang, South Korea. This flight would go directly from Boston to Seoul, which is where I flew into (via Toronto) for the 2018 Olympics. From Seoul, the flight would go on to Tokyo.

In the end, that is the flight that I booked. 

I will be leaving Boston's Logan Airport on Wednesday, July 22, at 1:15 p.m. and will be landing in Seoul at 4:25 p.m. the next day after a 14-hour flight. Since Seoul is 14 hours ahead of our eastern time zone, that technically means I will be landing in the middle of the night according to my body clock. From there, after a one-hour, 15-minute layover, I will be in the air for two hours and 20 minutes on the way to Tokyo, where I will land at 8 p.m. Tokyo is in the same time zone as Korea, so this trip will have me 14 hours ahead of folks at home, just like in PyeongChang.

At the last two Olympics I've covered, I have not been able to attend the opening or the closing ceremonies due to my flight times. I saw the Sochi opening ceremonies from an airport in Moscow and I saw the PyeongChang opening ceremonies on a television as I was checking into my media housing. And both times, I left before the closing ceremonies.

Of course, because they are high-demand events, it's not always possible to get into the opening and closing ceremonies, but I am going to give it a shot and apply for one or both.

As for the return flight, I will actually be leaving from a different airport in Tokyo and will be flying back via Delta Airlines. The closing ceremonies are Sunday, Aug. 9, and my flight out of Tokyo leaves on Monday afternoon, Aug. 10, at 4:45 p.m. I will be taking a nine-hour flight to Seattle and after a layover of more than an hour, I will leave for Boston and will touch down at 7:55 p.m. Like the trip back from Korea, I'm arriving home three hours after I left due to the time difference.

So, with the deposit on the housing and the flight, a good chunk of the bill for Tokyo has been paid. The other half of the housing bill is due in April.

I also spent some time on Tuesday working on the required paperwork needed for Tokyo. I submitted my passport information, a photo for my Olympic ID card and all the other information the United States Olympic Committee needed.

My plan, like in the last two Olympics that I have attended, is to update this blog every day while I am there. I plan on putting pictures that I take with my phone on Instagram and Twitter (SalmonSportsGuy) and on my personal Facebook page. Additionally, the photos from my camera will likely go on my personal Facebook page and the Facebook page for Salmon Press Sports – Wolfeboro.

Additionally, I am looking for any information on any local connections we might have for the Summer Olympics. I know all the teams have not been selected yet, but if you know of some local connections, send me an e-mail at josh@salmonpress.news. And if there's anything I can do for you regarding the Olympics, also let me know and I will do my best.

Travel ahead in 2020

This week, as the calendar turns to 2020, it’s time to look ahead and see just what a busy 2020 has in store.

An exciting development that popped up last year was the chance to travel to Ireland with the University of New Hampshire Marching Band. This coming year marks the band’s 100^thanniversary and the director, who was a freshman during my senior year in the band, decided to plan a trip to Ireland and invited alumni to come along if they were interested. The first international trip (not counting Canada) I took in my life was also with the UNH Marching Band, when we traveled to Europe in late 2001-early 2002. I was also an alum at that point, but that trip was a blast and I am hoping the Ireland trip is much of the same. I’ll be making that trip in mid-March and will be in Ireland for the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in Dublin.

A few weeks later, I will make a shorter trip, this time to Florida for a little spring training baseball. The Kingswood baseball team has made a number of trips to Florida over the past few years and I usually tag along with the Knights, in part for a good story, in part to get a taste of warmer weather after a long winter. This year the Knights will be going to Dodgertown in Vero Beach the final week of March. As it so happens, the Kennett baseball team is also planning to be there that same weekend, so I will get a chance to see two different teams in action over the course of the weekend. 

Obviously, the big trip of 2020 is the two weeks-plus I’ll be spending in Tokyo in late-July and early-August for the Summer Olympics. This will be my third Olympic trip, but it will be the first time I am covering the Summer Games, which from all accounts, are much bigger than their winter counterparts. I’ve taken a few preliminary looks at the schedule and it is daunting with how many different sports and events there are, but I am looking forward to the challenge of seeing as much as I can. As of right now, my plan is to be in Japan for July 23 and stay until Aug. 10. I have booked my media accommodations to cover those nights so the next step will be booking a flight, which is on my to-do list for early in the year. I am incredibly excited to get the chance to see the Olympics in a different light, though I’m not as excited to deal with the wonderful humidity that comes with a summer in Tokyo.

Of course, there will probably be a few Survivor trips in the spring as well, since it is season 40 and there’s bound to be some excitement for the all-winner season of the game. It’s looking like another New York trip and also possible trips to Atlanta and Los Angeles. But that is preliminary.

I’d also like to check another baseball stadium or two off my list, so I’ll see how that works out as well.

I guess 2020 is going to be a pretty busy year, assuming all goes as planned.