Hockey, Hockey, Hockey!

I can't really skate backwards. Now given that I'm from Eastern Canada and a boy this is a fairly silly thing. Something beyond the pale. If I was from Georgia, I'd be one hell of a skater. But, alas, I'm not. And I come from good stock - Dad was a wonderful skater, and a talented high-school hockey player; Mom, also a good skater and a provincial champion curler - not hockey, but ice related. Even worse, I married and continue to associate with a figure skater. I take full responsibility for the fact that our two boys have had a limited interest in hockey. I'm not an avid hockey watcher; don't live and die based on whether the Leaf's win or not and have only played sporadically throughout adulthood. And none of this mattered until we moved to PEI. A valley kid that played baseball and basketball could hide easily in a cosmopolitan metropolis like Halifax. Stop laughing. A little mountain biking, a pretense to surfing, and viola, the fact that I didn't play three nights a week and talk hockey constantly was easily covered. PEI, is a different story. I stick out here, like a sore thumb. And now that JT is in school, so does he; or more to the point, did he - because this year, at the age of eight, he started Novice Hockey, with kids that have been skating and playing hockey with Brad Richard's young cousins since the age of three - four latest. To a kid they all skate better then me - let alone poor JT - just starting and already four to five years behind. Here's the thing, he could care less. He tries hard every practice and loves every game. The kids are just young enough that they have yet to realize that there are some kids that will play in the NHL and some that will watch. Even the ones that score four goals a game seem genuinely happy for themselves and unaware of the 'pylons' they so easily skated around on the way to glory. The parent-coaches are dolls that truly support all of the kids and at this point we couldn't be happier to have him in hockey. Even when it starts at 5:20 AM for power skating on a Friday morning. So think of us tomorrow, a Saturday, that will start at 6 AM, on the ice for practice at 7, game at 1:30 followed by the Santa Parade at 5PM. But don't feel bad. We are all actually really enjoying this. Heck I might even try to find an old fart's league.

Love from us to all.