Spruced up for a bit over 6,000.

After we four trudged the two blocks from bar and grille Shaughnessy’s to our hockey arena in single-digit temperatures and easily found our seats in the second level, I happily looked around and anticipated the American Hockey League tussle between our Syracuse Crunch and the rival Rochester Americans from just down the New York State Thruway.

Eating our early dinner, my dear wife Karen, terrific daughter Elisabeth and fantastic George Three and I couldn’t quite nail down the last time we’d ventured out to a hockey game together.

Years.

And we all like the sport!

But this was a night where the local squad allowed more than a handful of business organizations to partake in a you’re-part-of-the-fun-and-get-the-group-name-on-the-scoreboard event.

Elisabeth continues to work a few nights a week at Syracuse Orthopedic Specialists, and happily sat in that section with other SOS workers.

Interestingly, after she’d happily chatted with a nice woman in the lobby and I noted the friendly connection, I was told that was her boss at her main job with the New York State Health Department, not an SOS friend.

Small world.

Karen and Elisabeth said they’d welcome a cup of hot cocoa, so off I went in search of …