Time to make the donuts

It has been a busy few weeks since I got back from Milan and my sixth Olympic experience. As much as I wanted to stay in the mountains of Italy, reality beckoned and I had to reluctantly get back to real life. 

As I've mentioned, I went straight from the airport (after a stop for dinner) to the Division III boys' basketball semifinals in Bedford, the next night I was in Bow for the Division III girls' basketball semifinals and the next two nights I hit the road north for quarterfinal games in Littleton. Saturday started with a quick trip to Derry for the wrestling Meet of Champions and then across the state to Keene for the Division III hoop championships. The next week started with a trip to Manchester on Monday for the Division IV boys' basketball semifinals, Tuesday was a trip to Hanover for the Nordic championships, Wednesday was a drive north to Whitefield for the Division IV girls' basketball semifinals and after a break on Thursday, Friday was another trip north to Berlin for the girls' hockey quarterfinals. Saturday it was off to Colby-Sawyer College for the Division IV basketball finals and back to Wolfeboro for boys' hockey quarterfinals.

So yeah, it's been a busy few weeks of traveling around the state, but the good news was I didn't have to wait for a bus that never showed up.

But, sprinkled in with all that driving around the state was the return to the bakery. For those that may not know, in addition to my full-time job at the newspaper, I also work full-time at the Yum Yum Shop in Wolfeboro. When COVID shut down spring sports in 2020, I got laid off from the newspapers and after a month or so of sitting around, I realized I needed something to do. Peter Kelly, who I covered during his senior year of high school at Kingswood and also worked with when he coached the Kingswood girls' hockey team, is the manager of the bakery and said he could offer me full-time hours throughout the summer, so I took him up on the offer.

I had never worked in a bakery before but I had plenty of kitchen experience, having worked in the UNH dining halls for many years both during and after college as well as at a couple of different nursing home kitchens after college. Learning the baking was a whole new thing, but it was a job that helped bridge the gap and when I got rehired by the papers at the end of the summer, I was able to stay on part-time to make donuts a couple of days a week.

Those two days eventually became three or four days a week and I went back to full time in the summer when the paper slows down a bit for me. Eventually, Peter asked me if I'd be interested in being a full-time employee, which would mean I could get paid time off and health insurance. It also meant I had to work at least 30 hours a week.

Since I was basically doing close to that anyway and was tired of paying for my insurance through the completely unaffordable marketplace, I took him up on the offer and ever since have been holding down two full-time jobs. During the summer months I work five days a week and then in the offseason I work four days most weeks. It helps that the hours are early mornings, which allow me to be out of work in time to get to most games (they are flexible with my schedule and I have great coworkers who are willing to switch shifts if I need to change a day) so it works out well. And I use the paycheck from that job to help pay for the trips to the Olympics, so in the end, it all comes together.

But, the drawback to early morning hours is the fact that basketball and hockey games are often in the evening and driving back from locations like Littleton and Whitefield often gets me home after 10 p.m., so there's usually a shortage of sleep. That being said, I've always been able to deal with little sleep.

Before I left for Italy, I told Peter I wanted the day after I landed (Wednesday) off before going back to the bakery on Thursday and Friday and I was back at it. While I am not optimistic I will still be in a position to get credentials by the time Los Angeles rolls around in two years, the money will be there if I am.

Jumping back into the bakery wasn't too difficult, as I've been making donuts for more than five years and it is much like riding a bike, you just don't forget too much. There were things throughout the day I had to think about a time or two before I did them, but for the most part, everything just fell into place.

I appreciate everyone taking the time to read while I was in Italy. I will update my Olympic rankings in the next few days as is the tradition after the last few Olympic trips.


When you work in a bakery, the mornings start well before the sun comes up.

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