Hoping for Hope

I worked the penalty box for the two medal games of the Ontario Bantam AAA tournament yesterday. Bronze medal game took awhile to warm up with nothing but offsides and icing. Game ended up being pretty good, 7-5 back and forth. The gold medal game saw the Missasauga Rebels jump on the Soo Greyhounds right away and put them down 4-0 in the first period. Four power play goals on mostly dumb penalties. We had one major and a handful of double minors from a crease crashing, slashing and spearing. It took about 5 minutes just for the paperwork and sorting out for that one.

Another election? I predict less than 50% of Canadians will vote. It's not apathy, it's frustration. Save about 200 million and just give us all a million, we'll fix the economy. We'll hire Americans cause we won't need jobs, heck we'll fix their economy too. Seriously, if one party could find someone with something positive to offer rather than just spending hundreds of thousands on ads demeaning the opposition personalities, we might have reason to vote. In 2008 13,929,093 votes were counted and the election cost the country $278 million. This was the only time the percentage of eligible voters that cast a vote (58%) dropped below 60% since 1867. We may see that drop below 50% if this short campaign doesn't provide a reason for hope.

From the Rink

3-2 with a minute to go, goalie pulled, one kid cherry picking at the far blue line and skating backwards towards the empty net. He is offside by about four feet and the ref is right on the line as they go in 3 on the twine. The puck carrier shoots and hits the post. Thank God.

Matt Cooke gets 10 plus the first round. Seems about right. Are they going to use the Lemieux rule and fine the Pens?
I bet they trade him before next season if Mario is going to practice what he preaches.

I'm off to the Gardens tomorrow night to work the penalty box got the bantam AAA Ontarios. Should be some great hockey.

Most Beautiful Site

Why? Because she's outside after a one hour ride and my hands are no worse for wear. I wore the brace on my more troublesome left wrist and yes these were a few bees buzzing around but just the tame North American bees not the killer bees of Africa. With a brace, a long sleeve dry-wear and a sweatshirt it was tough to pull a glove over the multiple layers but it went on. The glove came off about a third of the way along and other than being a bit cool my hand was fine. I'm going to raise the bars a bit and try for a little better wrist angle. All in all I'm very surprised. My butt was a bit sore but that took my mind off of my hands. Once it warms up I can wear the braces without any trouble and will at least be able to ride with Sal for a couple of hours and maybe longer.
I just finished the 2nd book in the Stieg Larsson Millenium triology, the Girl Who Played With Fire. I can't remember whipping through books this fast, ever. Reading a magazine in bed, even with the braces on causes more discomfort than riding did, so being able to hold my phone with one hand allows me to read as long as I want, or as long as I can stay awake anyway. Great detective books by the way. Lisbeth Salander has to be one of the strangest heroines ever.

Link to google map 14.4km ride 19-March-2011

It's Going To Be A Long Meeting...

The directors of LMHL drafted a change to our penalties and suspensions bylaw, adding suspensions for repeat offenders of the checking to the head penalty. At the same time we want to include tournament games where LMHL teams compete. We often get chastised for incidents that take place in tournament games and are not in our jurisdiction. The motion will change that and allow us to track the evil-doers no matter where the evil deeds take place. The email went out a few days ago without much response until today. Opinions ranged from taking body contact out of all age divisions we administer to lowering the age it starts to 7. We'll need only half of the associations to vote in favour of our motion so hopefully it will pass, but I think we're in for a long night.

Not Your Papa's Lego

Wow...Lego has sure changed. They make everything with custom themed pieces for Star Wars etc. This is a Space Police thingamadoo Ginko made this morning out of some of the 9000 pieces he got for Christmas and his birthday. My take is that the old box of blocks inspired the imagination, I guess this gets him to follow instructions.  Maybe he'll get inspired and create original vehicles later.

A Ride To Work, Finally

Temperature, check. Precipitation, check. Tires inflated, check. Tail light working, check. Head light, nope, dead battery, check anyway. Off we go.

Eyowen took me to work this morning. My butt hurt, my hands buzzed and I loved every minute of it. I found a small crack in the frame where the seatpost goes in. Time to call in my credit at Petries and order, the Surly Troll. A very versatile frame that I can load up with all the parts I already have. And it's orange.

Snow Fort

On Sunday we headed to mom and dad's with the Ginko. When I saw the huge pile of snow in the driveway I knew we'd be making a snow fort. Sal wanted to make a snowman but it was too cool for the snow to be sticky. The Ginko loves digging tunnels in the snow and he started out at the top of the 12 foot high pile while I started about 8 feet south in the base. He thought we'd dig through in no time. With his tiny emergency shovel that is perfect for kids, he excavated the snow to about knee deep while I had a hole about 4 feet in and ever expanding. He then went on to making a place to store snowballs for when 'they' came. He had a whole scenario all thought out for what he would do when 'they' came, just who 'they' are remains a mystery. During the dig I took a pile of pictures and this is probably the best shot I've ever taken of the Ginko. Trying to see in the sunlight with nothing but bright snow in the background makes every shot a roll of the dice. The second one of the whole crew was handled by the tripod and self timer.
We did finally dig from the top through but from directly above. Sal made the initial break through and of course he had to slide from the top into the bottom. Earlier he jumped knees first into his snowball storage hole and could not get himself out. Tears ensued but he had a great time and had a nice long, fresh air induced nap on the way in.

Scary

Of all the pictures and video I saw regarding the quake and tsunami this one is the scariest. The buildings in the foreground look so small in comparison to the wave approaching in the distance. That much water going up to 500mph is just not imaginable.

One More Day

Another season of hockey is almost done. In a few hours two teams will be crowding around a trophy, two others will have a short cry and then leave it all behind. It's been a good year, no major problems. I've tried to downplay having a grandson in the league and since he's not really a big factor in the games yet it has been easy. It will get harder once he gets more involved. Two weeks ago they were down 1-0 in a game against the weakest team. The other team had 2 in the box and a minute to go. The clock might have run for a few seconds longer than it should have. A parent wanted me to have the timekeeper put time back on the clock. Not going to happen. I'll be pulling for his team quietly in their big game today, but very very quietly.

Sal and I stopped in at Petrie's this morning. Farzam was quick to show me some of the new bikes that have come in. Hopefully I'll be able to ride once spring gets here. My hands haven't really gotten any better. Not sure what to expect. Some mornings they are so stiff I doubt I could squeeze a brake lever. It's going to be a long way back. Walking has stabilized my weight but I still feel lousy. Maybe just feeling sorry for myself but there are so many worse things so I should just get at it.
 

When Life Gets You Down