Disappointment?

If you read my blog on October 7, you know that I lamented the fact that after many years we would not get to see a game at Penn State this year due to health problems and the difficulty in getting good seats. Well two weeks ago a friend, Christine from Virginia, contacted me with two good seats for the Illinois game. She has sold to us in previous years and her seats are easy to get to. I accepted with the hopes that my wife would be good enough to go. Dianne has suffered with posterior tibia tendentious and bursitis. She had been in a cast and now must wear a brace and special shoes. Recently her bursitis got worse in both hips and she has had trouble walking and doing stairs. She has had a series of shots, physical therapy, and iontophoresis treatments. Last week her physical therapist told her that he felt she could go to the game. The next problem to face was the parking at Penn State. We had a parking pass and could use the handicapped lot. The shuttle before the game would get us there, but the shuttle is very slow after the game and you really can't leave early to beat the traffic. So I began to try a number of ticket sites to see if I could purchase a reserved parking ticket from somebody. I shared the reason I was looking for a reserved pass on these sites. And I got quite a few responses. Many were willing to sell to me, at $90 or more! Everybody was looking to make a profit on our problem. Great Penn State fans. I was about to give up. Then I received a surprise e-mail from Jim from Philadelphia. He had a pass for a spot 20 yards from the stadium. I was expecting that he would also want $90 or more for that. But I was shocked to learn that he was willing to give it to us - free of charge. Wow! There still are a few nice people around. We accepted and began to plan for the trip to Happy Valley. We planned to make it a two-day trip, going first to Sunbury to visit some relatives, then heading to Happy Valley on Saturday for the game. We planned to eat at a few of our former favorite places. We were excited and looking forward to a relaxing two days. Then the unthinkable happened. For the first time in history Pennsylvania got hit by a major snowstorm - in October. So we decided to stay home on Friday, hoping that the weatherman would be wrong about Saturday, as he often has been in the past. This time he wasn't. And so we sat at home on Saturday, in front of our fire, watching the snow and a mostly terrible football game. But if we had been there, we probably would have left midway in the fourth quarter, when Penn State was terrible. And we would have missed the exciting finish when Penn State pulled it out. So I guess we won't get to Penn State this year - there is just one more home game. But at least we didn't have to make the long trip home after the game. And Penn State did win. At home we only lost a few tree limbs and we didn't lose our electricity or cable as thousands of others did. I guess that is some consolation. Now, hopefully, that is the final snow of this season. That would be great.