ran nto Serge last weekend
 

Serge uic'd an Eastern national in Pa last weekend. I had decided not to come back early from the beach, so I did not umpire in this one. I did get to Sunbury on Sunday morning to meet him & watch some of the folks I know work. It was good to meet another of the "board" folks. I've said for a while that folks from my area don't get the opportunity to work a national - and a good friend & longtime mentor was able to work his first national. This guy had a double knee replacement over a year ago and had gone through all sorts of complications since then. When he was younger, this guy regularly worked mens' major games and had a number of the Stofflet-Feigner hookups (the slow guy in those games threw about 105). Since his operations, he isn't anywhere near what he once was. Serge took good care of him - I can't even begin to say how much I appreciated that.
It was good to hear some of the folks "complain" about the nit-picking observations of their games - I've made many of those same observations for a few years. Maybe the observations will sink in.
Serge had things organized really well. Here's to hoping we can convince him to come up here next year for a district clinic.

Steve,

The way you keep running into people, you may want to consider some very dark shades and a white cane. Then again, the local players would probably want to know what took you so long