Sept 3, 2010
We’re back from our adventure – it went well but he won’t be changing his mailing address anytime soon.
Thanks to everyone for the well wishes. It was a neat experience and we’re both a bit fried, so TGIF and TG for the long weekend.
I could tell a million stories – well, maybe fewer than a million – but they’re his stories to tell.
Overall a great learning experience – for both of us.
- - -
Laura and Chris drove down for the final scrimmage of camp yesterday which I think we can safely file under “It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time.”
She got caught in a torrential rain on the 401 driving down, and then in another trying to escape London in 5p traffic.
But they were glad they came down for the hockey and both were impressed with the action on the ice and the size of the crowd, which only goes to show how serious they take their team.
- - -
While we were away Pad’s new iPhone4 showed up. So eventually he will wake up and we’ll go get the thing activated and retire the old phone that he affectionately calls “the brick.”
Chris – who has had an iTouch for sometime – told me last night that it’s no fun for him now that his brother has a cooler piece of technology than him.
- - -
I meant to post this last week, but a couple alumni of the Timbit Big Blue Machine of many years ago were members of the bantam Team Ontario lacrosse squad that won the national championship.
Andrew Kew was a full-time member of that Timbit team, while Foster Cuomo joined us for the season-ending Erindale Tournament in 2002.
Anyway, they were good athletes then and they’re great athletes now.
Andrew’s younger brother earned a place in our family lore when he absconded with the player of the game trophy that I had been handing out for several years to kids who played for me.
Eventually the trophy was located hidden under some stuffed toys or at the bottom of a toy box, but whenever we see the Kew boys, that story always comes to mind.
Congratulations to Andrew and Foster on a great season and for representing their town and Oakville minor lacrosse so well.
Read more here.
- - -
I hope everyone has a safe and happy long weekend. Spare a thought for those folks in the Maritimes who are coping with Hurricane Earl. Hopefully it will be nothing serious because they all know what serious feels like, and it’s not fun.
Drive safely.
Hug the kids.
Sept 1, 2010
It's very hot here -- just like it's very hot where you are. The difference is I'm spending most of my days sitting in a very cool (not cold) rink watching hockey.
It's a blast.
- - -
On Day 1, the guys were subjected to physicals and fitness evaluations which Pad's been through before. Vertical jump, maximum number of situps in 60 seconds, bench press (155 pounds as many times as you can press it until you can't anymore), among other things. And thpse other things were to include the two-mile run but because of the weather they canned the run.
So that was the blessing of Day 1. No run in the 34 degree heat.
The only ice time Tuesday was a 45 minute light workout with the squad you're assigned to scrimmage with for the next two days. Piece of cake.
- - -
Today was tougher.
Two scrimmages consisting of two 36-minute (mostly) straight time periods each. So, a lot of ice against and with some pretty good hockey players. There's half a dozen guys here who will be attending NHL rookie camps. And everyone here is trying to get noticed.
So for some that means nifty moves and dangling the puck; for others that means trying to separate the danglers' heads from their bodies when they dangle; and for others, it's fighting. I think there were eight fights in the two scrimmages Pad was in.
He's having a blast.
- - -
He's back on the ice tomorrow morning for at 8:30a and again at 3:15p -- then exit interviews and out. He's under no illusion of cracking the lineup here but it's a great experience and everything about it has been first class. Very cool.
There have been other entertaining moments -- I got enough ketchup on my shirt at dinner Tuesday night that I looked like I took gun fire to the chest so I bought a new shirt before we got back to the hotel, because I'm a slave to fashion.
And we tried to go to dinner Wednesday night at two different places within walking distance of the hotel but both had floors littered with peanut shells, so, that's a non-go for us because of Pad's allergy.
We ended up at Boston Pizza, which is oddly appropriate because Boston Pizza is the unofficial home of the hockey road trip. And this is an awesome hockey road trip.
We saw Corey Perry and Drew Doughty play in an alumni scrimmage between the training camps scrimmages, and that was cool.
And as hot as it's been here, I think this is the first time I've been to London for hockey when I didn't have to scrape snow off my car in the morning. Little risk of that in the days ahead.
I know my kid is working his tail off. The pace is gruelling.
But man. This is so much fun.
He agrees.
A