Mishaps & Setbacks

Hello Everyone,

Well as the title suggest this was not the best week! I had a lot of different things go wrong, but that is life can’t all be good! It started pretty small with my oven going out. I thought I tried everything to fix it myself like check the fuse box, shake it, and turn it on and off. None of those things seemed to work and I forced to call Leanna (she is like the team mom, will talk about her later) to see about getting it fixed. It was on the weekend so I didn’t know if they would be able to get someone over to look at it or not. She was and they were here in less than an hour. Talk about service, I would like to see a repair guy show up within a couple hours of your appliance going out. After an extensive amount of repair work (about 5 minutes) he plugged it back in and it worked! I’m guessing I left it on and the safety kicked the plug out. I never really thought it could have been the cord since I don’t move the oven. Another life lesson reinforced, always check the simple solution first. I think I was taught or heard that lesson before.

This was only the start, as the next day I woke up to a puddle of water in the kitchen. The freezer decided it wanted to defrost itself. I hate when those machines get a mind of their own, just wait till year 3000 when they will be running us. Anyway they sent another repair man over to look at it. I must also mention this was last Sunday. I’m not sure if I just got special treatment because I can’t speak Swedish or if they actually work on that day. Again, try to get a repair man in your home on a Sunday in America! This time I did try to plug it in, but it was not the problem. The guy said it just died and I needed a new one. That is hopefully coming on Monday (22nd). Now on to the painful stuff.

I was washing dishes and the glass broke on me and slit my finger. It was pretty deep and bad. I thought I was going to need stitches.I called Leanna, she lives right across the street and she was prepared with some butterfly stitches. This is a good time to talk about her. She is the team mom. She does a ton of stuff for us and it is all without pay. For example she has come over 3 or 4 times with a meal for me. It makes me feel a little homeless when I answer the door and she is standing there with a plate of food, but trust me I’m not complaining. She makes some awesome meals. She also leaves cookies in the locker room all the time. I mean there are a number of other things she has done, but of course I just focused on the food part. She is just really unbelievable. I wish I had one of her every season over here!

All right back to the cut and dishes. Fortunately for my readers this has now opened up a position. Since the option of getting a mechanical dishwasher isn’t going to work I’m offering a paid position to someone who wants to be my personal dishwasher. When I say paid you won’t be making a lot and I can’t offer any insurance. Now I know this doesn’t sound like a great gig, but hear me out. You get a free room, I’ll provide the food, I will also provide the internet and cable (thanks to the kings), and save the best for last you will have great company (ME)! It would be pretty much like college all over again except replace the classes with dish-washing and the occasional dinner you will have to make! I mean the more I type the better this is sounding. Just let me know if I have any takers and we can work out the details.

We had our first game in two weeks last Friday. It was in Boras which is about three hours away. The road trips continue to surprise me every time. When I played at Butler, you knew what to expect every road trip. You were going to leave the day before the game and practice at that gym, then you would go to the hotel, have shoot around the next morning, then leave after the game. It was the same routine every time. I don’t think I have had the same routine on an away game since I have played overseas. Granted a lot of clubs don’t have the resources that the colleges do. For example this road trip we left the day of the game by train. It was about a 2 hour train ride to some town (the landscape on the train rides is beautiful by the way). Then we got off the train and hoped on a bus for another hour. Once we arrived in Boras 4 players hoped in a taxi while the other walked to the restaurant for lunch. Then we all walked to the hotel. We then took taxis to the game and walked back after. Again I’m not complaining about any of it, I just find it funny the many different ways trips go over here.

In the two weeks leading up to this I had some of my best practices and I was really feeling in shape. Then on Thursday I hurt my hamstring in practice. It wasn’t terrible but it was painful. I really didn’t want to sit out the game after the hard work leading up to the game and also because we already had two important players also injured. I tried to play in the game and was alright in the first quarter. I could definitely tell I wasn’t 100% as I was having trouble keeping up with some of the players. Then in the second quarter they were on a fast break 2 on 1 and I went to jump to block the shot and came down with some terrible pain. I was not able to play at all in the second half. In hindsight I wish I would have just sat out the game for I may have made it worse. I have always had trouble sitting myself out, but something I will need to get better with. I have an MRI on Monday (22nd) to see if I tore it or how bad the injury is. No matter what it says I will be out at least 2 weeks and at most 7 weeks.

We ended up losing the game by 1 with three starters out. We had a few things go wrong at the end, but we could have and should have pulled that one out. We continue to show our youth on the floor. I am the 4th oldest guy on the team with the oldest player 28. That is extremely young for a professional team. I think we play harder than any other team in our league, but that doesn’t always get you wins have we have seen with our 2-10 record. We will continue to work hard and fight to get some wins.
I’m trying to stay positive through this experience as I know there are far worse things going on in the world than me sitting on the sideline with an injury. It just is very stressful when you work so hard to get somewhere and then you experience a setback like this. This is sort of the worst time this could have happened with us playing 9 more games before Christmas. I will get the results of the MRI and then we have a couple people I am going to be working with to treat and also rehab the leg.

Until Next Time!

The European Hotel



European Hotel after Americans check in





This is BC gone for now