Champa!! Bay!!

Greetings from Champa Bay, where Lightning has struck again! If you're scoring at home, first off, congratulations. Second, that's now three championships in a little over ten months. That's  a quite impressive feat, so much so that our friends and rivals to the north are a bit jealous. From the Boston Herald on facebook: 

Seems like they're a little salty over Tampa Tom signing here last spring. Oh well. As a Boston area native (and current Tampa Bay resident) once wrote: "And if they hate, let 'em hate, I drop their whole clan. Lay your ass down for the three second tan." I bet you can't get that song out of your head now. 

Nonetheless, I'm thrilled to pieces for my home region, now if only Tampa Bay's sporting success can spread to Orlando. Waiting on you, Magic and OCSC.

Speaking of Orlando, I was doing some Googling the other day to see what happened to some of the teachers/administrators of the old Orlando Christian school I attended as a little kid in Pine Hills. Much to my surprise, the old principal, Les Van Winkle, is still around and still living in the Pine Hills area. The president of the school, Dr. Meyer, sadly passed away two years ago. As is the case with my second grade teacher, Mr, Booth in 2013. As far as I know, my first grade teacher (Mrs. Nelson) in Zellwood, FL. And I think Mrs. Butler passed away not too long ago, but I'm not too certain; I'll have to verify if that is the case. 

I also saw the old playground at the old school (now Kingsway Christian Academy), and saw a few things I didn't quite recognize, like a couple of trees planted near the walkway where I would walk with my crush after school from the annex where grades 1-6 were to the office/chapel/high school area was where her mom worked, and her canary yellow Olds Ninety Eight. I could make an entire blog post about her (stay tuned), but for now, let's just say she was the Jessica to my Morty (if you've seen 'Rick and Morty,' you'll understand the reference.

But I digress, Monday is the victory boat parade for the Lightning, and hopefully I can attend. I'm hoping for a ride down to Tampa, otherwise I'll have to utilize this regions fractured and inefficient transit system, and that may take forever. Plus the parade starts at 11am, kind of early, but who doesn't want to see party Kuch at that time of day? If you remember last year's celebration at Raymond James Stadium (why couldn't the use it this year,) Party Kuch was a sensation, as was Pat Maroon. Anyway, hoping I can attend.

Well, better get to my Friday night, and my Fireball. 😉

CT

Twitter

Elsa's Here

 Greetings once again. In case you haven't noticed (especially if you live in Florida), Tropical Storm (for now) Elsa is knocking on the doorstep of the Gulf Coast of the Sunshine State. Here where I live, we have made sure everything in secured. Sandbags have been filled across many counties across the Tampa Bay region, and this area by and large is ready. By the way, I mentioned in my last post about how Elsa could affect the Stanley Cup Final. Well, I can tell you that the Tampa Bay Lightning players have arrived back in Tampa safely, and I assume the Montreal Canadiens have as well, but as of this writing nothing official from the NHL has been said about any potential disruptions to Game 5, which is scheduled for Wednesday at Amalie Arena. Of course, by that time, Elsa will have long since left the immediate Tampa Bay region and probably affect Gainesville, but that is something everyone will undoubtedly keep an eye on.

I'm writing this right now because frankly I don't know if and when we'll lose power in Hernando County, which means that I can't post anything on here until power returns, and who knows that will last? Bottom line though, is that I hope everyone in Florida stays safe from this storm.  

CT

Why a sweep would be optimal for Tampa Bay

 Greetings again, in my last post I made a list of potential future topics to write about for this blog. Well, I'm not going to work on that just yet; instead, I thought I would give my thoughts about this year's Stanley Cup Final, which at the time of this writing, was being led by the Tampa Bay Lightning two games to none, with games three and four being held on Friday and next Monday respectively.

If Montreal wins either one of their home games, the series shifts back to Tampa for Game Five. So what's the issue you ask? Elsa.

As you can see from the map above, Elsa is our latest tropical system and from its current predicted path, could wreak havoc with a possible Game 5 come next Wednesday. So, what can be done? Well, and this is totally speculative, the NHL could play game 5 in Montreal and have games 6 and 7 in Tampa. There is a precedent (sort of) for an unforeseen set of circumstances moving a series after all. Or, the NHL could potentially delay game 5 until later. But the best possible outcome?

Tampa takes care of business Friday and Monday and clinches their second consecutive Stanley Cup and third overall.

CT

Follow me on Twitter