The Purity of Hockey

Lake Nokomis, just south of where we live, I assume either this morning or last year. Those are 25 ice rinks (

U.S. Pond Hockey Championships:
Get excited for hockey the way nature intended! Last year it was minus 20 degrees. This year it's mixed precipitation. Only Mother Nature knows who will win the Golden Shovel!

The boys & I are going tomorrow. Who needs the Wild?

While perusing the team names, there's
the expected: Mother Pukers
the befuddeled: Angry Chickens
the amusing: Frozen Pond Scum -- Zamboni Drivers -- Frozen Assets
The prognosticatory: Runners Up

The teams had an opportunity to describe themselves. For example:

• Six oldtimers from Grimsby Ontario Canada looking forward to some good old American hospitality. Hell we might even bring some of our beer to share with you fellas.
• Somebody told us that, win or lose, everyone in the 40+ division gets a free one-year supply of Guinness. So we've got that going for us, which is nice.

There's only 6 teams in the women's division. Surprising, given how many girls'/women's teams there are these days, especially high school teams here in Minn.

I have a totally irrational fear of skating on natural ice. Seriously. Total fear of falling through. Now ... look at the photo at the top. Look at the sheer number of people. They're not afraid... The ice is probably a foot thick ... you can drive your pick up out on to Lake Calhoun to set up your shanty ... They certainly use trucks to put the rink boards up ... right? I keep telling myself that it will be okay to let the boys out on the ice tomorrow. It's not going to collapse... right? ...

I have no idea which games we're going to see: Men's, Women's or Kids. We're just going to go. I might, however, need to find the bus schedule & $1.75, because as we drove by this evening from picking up Jr.Gopher#2, the parking lot @ Lk Nokomis was still packed. The tons of snow still lying all of the city have eliminated at least 10% of the parking spots, too. I'll try to call Lawyers A & B to see if they want to bring their kids, too.

Updates & pictures if we make it. And the ice doesn't collapse.

And ... Jr.Gopher#2 was at a substitute sitter for the day ... who took him ice skating. He was pretty happy about it, although he informed me "I fell down".

Last Day = Try New Thing

Jr.Gopher#1 got a pair of ice skates for Christmas. He was thrilled. Today we finally got a chance to try them out. His buddy from St. Albert's had to cancel our visit on the 26th due to the soggy snow trashing the ice surface on their back yard's mini-ice rink. Well, Longfellow Park wasn't exactly the Xcel Center, but it was at least (mostly) fairly flat. Someone must have gone over it with a Zamboni between the 26th & today.

He was at least passingly interested in the pick-up hockey going on. A family (mom, dad + 2 small boys his age) were playing 2 on 2; a couple grown men were playing around at the other end of the rink). I had to explain that it was like soccer: hit the puck through the net, and no, it's not a ball, it's a "puck". Since it doesn't cost anything for tickets, and no reservation is required, I think I'll take him to a Gopher Women's game. National Champions can't be too bad for a starter. And, as it's free, if he loses interest 10 min. into the 1st period, I'm not out anything.

This is, after all, the land of Pond Hockey. A traditional requirement for manhood. There are at least a dozen lakes here within the city limits of Minneapolis, and several dozen, if not 100, within the Twin Cities. Really. The city, however, puts ice rinks in the parks without lakes/ponds. Lay down liner, flood, wait; repeat if necessary. Several of them have hockey rinks installed for city league or school games. One in St. Paul apparently even has the ice surfaced every day.

Jr.Gopher#1 managed to actually become self-propelled for a dozen meters/yards or so. He was thrilled with himself. So was I. I've never tried to teach anyone to skate; I'm barely proficient myself. I once managed to skate backwards. And, as they say, once only counts in horseshoes & hand grenades.

Or is that "close"? I'd probably recall better if I hadn't just sucked down quite a bit of the lovely Irish water of life in celebration of the blessed new year... :-) Although, considering I can type without error at about 45-50 wpm, I figure the alcohol isn't that much of an impediment to my faculty. Probably my Irish genes.

We were @ St. Albert's this evening. The annual New Year's Eve gaming night was on; no, not the gaming that I used to do with the Gaming Guys on Friday nights in my basement... These people brought out the ancient artillery; every possible board game known to Milton Bradley and man kind. Occasionally people would wander past the tables of games looking at things that we, middle aged people, haven't seen since we were kids. Just sitting around, chatting & playing games. And, since it's a Catholic church, I don't think anyone minded the fellow drinking Summit, rather than the pink lemonade. The boys had fun; I was subjected to the proficient maternal Catholic Guilt Trip when the Other Elizabeth asked me to join in a set of some game. Unfortunately she asked just as we were leaving...

We wish you & yours a peaceful and boring New Year.
(Boredom is highly underrated: it's always better to be able to seek Excitement, rather than have it seeking you!)
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