I'm at the library waiting for my daughter's tennis practice to end so I thought I'd spend a moment catching you up on my interesting life...
It takes me 20-25 minutes to put on all of my hockey gear. You get undressed, put on the long underwear that goes under the uniform, then the cup (a very, very important piece of equipment), the hockey pants, the skates, then the pads, then the chest protector, then the jersey and then the helmet. Then you grab your blocker, your trapper (or catch glove) and your stick and you are ready to go.
I could have saved myself the time and the effort today. I'm not saying I was horseshit in all departments on the ice this afternoon, but I'm pretty sure I could have gone out there stark raving naked except for my skates and come away from the skate with nary a bruise. This is not good when one is a goaltender and his main purpose -- his only purpose, is to get in the way of the puck.
But, I did not and do not care. I had a bad day. It happens. Besides, it was just a 3-3 skate -- practice mostly, and besides, I'm still reveling in last Friday's 3-1 victory; the greatest win of my career. Or the most meaningful, at least. I didn't think I'd win again I thought my career was over after a medical thing had kept me off the ice since last spring. As I wrote about previously, my doctor has been supervising my on-ice activities since November and I have to tell you, if you'd seen me on the ice those first couple of sessions, you'd have thought I'd never won again either. But I played really well last week and I beat the other guy and it made all the hard work worth it. I know it's just a bunch of middle-aged guys (office workers, cops and firefighters in the main) out there and the world will little note nor long remember, but I will never forget. Other than the night I turned 50 and went out and won a game against a group of guys who were almost all half my age, that win meant more to me than any other. So I skate on...
I promise to stop boring you with my hockey stories now. Except when something interesting happens.
If you missed last week's Frontline on PBS, go and see it. It will blow you away. It was about the Wall Street crash and if you want to know what happened and why we are in the mess we are in today, see it!
Gotta run. The library is closing. I'm checking out The Kennedy Tapes about the Cuban Missle Crises. I love history. Hope you are all well and we'll check in again soon!
Reflecting on Richard Hauptmann
2 years ago
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5 comments:
Say, Richard … what are these “jerseys” and “helmets” of which you speak? I’ve heard of “sweaters” and “hats,” but I dunno what “jerseys” and “helmets” are …
By the way, my sainted 7-year-old daughter announced to me last night, “I know what the colors of Michigan State are.” So I asked her, I did, “What are the colors of Michigan State?” And she sez … “Um, green and white.”
Just thought you’d like to know.
Tell your daughter I am very proud of her, even if she thinks MSU's colors (and those of all schools as I understand it) should be pink and more pint.
Richard:
We are not bored, although we admit to a certain lack of understanding of the the game of hockey. When I see such a large chunk of ice I immediately start trying to figure out how many megaliters or single malt it would take to make it palatable.
damn, that should have read "of single malt"
Hockey I like. It’s the fisticuffs I’m not fond of. But, being as how I’m from an Original Six™ town, I cannot forsake the national game of Canada.
By the way, did you know (you probably did) that Cubs great Fergie Jenkins was a very good youth hockey player up there in Hamilton, Ontario? But, I guess in those days the NHL wasn’t very keen on his tan, if ya catch my drift.
As for MSU, it’s kinda funny. My daughter knows their colors ’cuz there’s a boy in her class who wears a wool cap fashioned to look like a Spartans helmet in the winter time. Which has been, like, 20 months long or so. Anyways, he apparently is an MSU fan, or, more likely, the progeny of one or more MSU fans. What my daughter doesn’t know is, as an Illinois fan/Michigan-and-Indiana hater, MSU is my team of choice if my Illini are struggling. Or, in this case, doing well but not likely to make it out of the first weekend of the NCAA’s. I’ve always had this hierarchy of fandom where Illinois is first, then teams like MSU, Purdue and Minnesota are next – primarily because those schools aren’t Michigan, Indiana, Ohio State … And I probably shouldn’t say this (because (a) my sister works at Northwestern; and (2) the local media is positively infested with Northwestern-ites), but I put NU way, way down the list, maybe just above Michigan. So it goes …
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