062 FIRST SIGNS OF FALL

After just writing about the dog days of summer here I am now writing about the first signs of fall.  The PNE has been on now for just under a week and surprisingly has not been rained on. It has been sunny and hot, well at least out here.  It’s been 30C out here and the weather reports in Vancouver are calling 23C hot.  I could use that kind of hot out here.

But I digress, while the PNE is a sign of the rapidly advancing fall, I have noticed a lot more signs along the way.  Despite the heat during the day, there is now a distinct chill in the air overnight and into the early morning.  It makes it pleasant to do the morning walk and makes it a lot easier on Toby.

Some of the trees, mostly alder and cottonwood are starting to shed their leaves.  There is a nice crunch from the dry leaves as we walk down the two trails.  There is even a blush of colour starting to appear on some of the other leaves.  Mostly yellows but there is a hint of red in some of the maple trees along the way.

PRIMARY TRAIL

There have been flocks of birds starting to gather for the long flight south.  I heard a flock of, I think, geese fly over, but I could not see them.  I have been somewhat remiss in not carrying my camera lately, but I’ve been trying it to see if it helps my back along the healing path.  So far so good.

SECONDARY TRAIL

Which provides me a segue way into my next sign of fall and that is my physio treatments have now ended.  I started back in March with my wrist fracture and it has now been confirmed that I didn’t have pseudo-gout.  The wrist healed nicely, but has become somewhat arthritic and flares up just a little.  It’s also a little stiff in the morning, but loosens up in the shower.  The wrist worked itself into spinal decompression which I have carried on all summer.

It caused me to miss time at the lake this year, but it sounds like the weather was not that great anyway.  I just know I did the right thing though, as my back feels better than it has in several years.  I have no pain in my lower back and my range of motion has improved from being able to touch my knees to being able to touch the floor.  I can turn my head fully side to side now as well.

Hopefully this will improve my hockey this season, which is another distinct sign of fall.  The World Cup of Hockey starts soon, but I’m not sure if I want to watch Bettman’s Boondoggle or not.  More importantly is that I just got notification of the start of Kerrisdale Over 50 hockey starting September 14^th which will be my 4^th season with them.  Sunday hockey starts on September 25 and that will be the start of my 45^th season with them.

It started in the 1971-1972 season at what was then 4 Rinks and we were one of their first groups.  We had the god awful start time of 5:00 AM.  We played on the yellow rink.  The changes though.  When we started, you came out of the dressing room and had to go down one step to ice level.  Now when you leave the dressing room you go up three stairs to get to ice level.

We now play at a quite agreeable hour of 8:00 AM in what is now called 8 Rinks, and we step down three steps to the ice on the “new” side of the building.  8 Rinks is a bit of a misnomer as one rink is dedicated specifically for Figure Skating while another has been converted to indoor soccer.

I am the only original member of the group left and when I started I was 16 years old.  Three years before I became a policeman and in fact I was still in high school.  I got into this group because a friend of mine, Mike Kennedy was a goalie and his Dad was one of the organizers.  He said that he didn’t want to be the only 16-year-old player, so they allowed him to invite some friends.  I happened to be one of them.  Here it is the start of the 2016-2017 season and I have not missed a lot of Sundays in all those years.

I missed 4 games after knee surgery at the end of one season.  The most I ever missed was a couple of years ago when I fractured my wrist and then developed pneumonia.  That cost me a full 8 Sundays plus 2 during Christmas break, which doesn’t really count as there was no hockey anyway.

I’m looking forward to getting back on the ice, but I’m also looking forward to what it will look like around here once the fall colour comes out fully.  I’m already imagining Halloween with all the kids who are already in the complex.  It will be fun to decorate and give out candy.  Mostly though I am anticipating winter.  Maple Ridge gets a lot more snow than Vancouver did.  I love snow.  The fact that I don’t have to shovel it, makes it that much better.