068 RECOVERY AND MORE

Holy cow has it ever been an eventful integration into life in Maple Ridge.  It literally feels like I have been in recovery mode since I got here, but I sure do love it here.  First it was the fractured wrist and the rehab which lead me to Spinal Decompression.  It was wildly successful and I was all set for hockey season when my eye went wonky and I had a torn detached retina.  Now my latest adventure.

Early in the season I had a puck bounce off the side of my foot.  Not a hard shot, didn’t hurt all that much but afterwards my little toe was swollen.  Fast forward a few weeks and on a Thursday morning, after playing the night before, I noticed a little white mark on the top of my toe.  I rubbed it and a little pus came out.

So, I rinsed it with alcohol, put on Polysporin and a Band-Aid and thought nothing more about it.  The next morning, pus was oozing out and when I touched the toe it poured out.  I did the same routine, alcohol, Polysporin and a Band-Aid.  By this point I was feeling as sick as a dog and let the organizers know I would not be playing Sunday morning.  I felt like I had a wicked cold or flu.  To this point my toe was not hurting.

Sunday morning and my toe was a gawd awful mess, leaking all over and hurting.  I took Renee to the swimming pool and while I was waiting, the pain was growing, so when she came back I told her we’re going to the hospital.

After getting in and being seen, the Doctor immediately put me on a dose of intravenous antibiotics, cleaned and dressed the wound.  He told me the flu like symptoms could possibly be the earliest indicators of going into sepsis.  Now the bad part of sepsis, is if left alone, it will kill you.

An x-ray of my toe revealed no fracture, but there were several holes in the bone indicating that the infection had infiltrated the bone which make treatment very difficult.  I must visit the hospital every afternoon for another course of intravenous antibiotics.  This will now be going on for 4 to 6 weeks of daily visits and doses.

I had a strange vision the other day as well.  I was sitting in a long corridor waiting for the Doctor to see me, when I looked way down the hall.  There was a man walking towards me and I would swear on a stack of bibles that it was my Dad who passed away in January 2015.  To the best of my knowledge, he had never been to Ridge Meadows Hospital.

So, this man is walking towards me.  He was wearing a grey and blue patterned jacket, just like my Dad.  He was the same height and build and had the same hairstyle.  It was kind of freaky.  Finally, when he got close enough, I could see that he was in fact a real, solid person, but up close he did not look anything like my Dad.  Other than the height, weight, hairstyle and clothes.

As of this morning my toe looks good, it’s not leaking anymore and doesn’t hurt much.  My feet which tend to swell are way less swollen now.  Although the Doc suggested I start wearing compression socks.  So, I bought a pair of those today.  If this course of antibiotics doesn’t work and there is no indication that they won’t, then they will have to amputate my toe.

Meanwhile no hockey, as I have an IV tube sticking out of my arm.  Even if I could pad it up enough, the antibiotics have played hell with my stamina and I’m only able to complete about ¼ of our normal morning walk.  This morning though, I managed to do the whole thing for the first time in 2 weeks.  After breakfast, I passed out and slept until it was time to go back to the hospital.

Throughout all these misfortunes, I am still smiling and every morning I wake up and look around and am so happy and thankful to be living in my wonderful new place.  I appreciate it every day and I’m so glad to be here.  All my neighbours are great and the complex is starting to take on a spooky air as people get into the spirit of Halloween.  Maybe I should be one of the Walking Dead, because man that is how I feel.  Oral antibiotics would be so much worse though.  I will get through it.

067 DISASTER AVERTED

The story starts simply.  We went to the local swimming pool like we do every weekend.  Renee swims her laps and I wait in the truck.  I like swimming, but in a lake.  I hate public pools.  So, I wait in the truck.  Sometimes I nap, most times I play Words with Friends or other games on my iPad.  The parking lot for Walmart is right next to the pool and that’s where I park.

This day though, there was a difference.  Once Renee had finished her swim, we decided to go into Walmart to shop for Halloween decorations.  I haven’t done Halloween in many years.  Partly because I was usually working them, but even after I retired, kids didn’t come to the basement door and Dad was too old to be getting up and down to answer the door.

Even when I lived in Surrey, we didn’t really decorate, other than maybe a cardboard witch in the window and carved pumpkins on the doorstep.  As s kid I always loved Halloween and even as an adult.  I just didn’t like dealing with all of the violence associated with it, once the little kids were done trick or treating.

Anyway, I decided to go all out this year.  I bought a fog machine online as well as the ingredients for making “Fog Juice”.  I looked online for decorations bought I had no way to tell if they were just “cheap” knock offs.  I did notice that they were very expensive and so the decision to go to Walmart.  I knew the prices would be reasonable and I could physically see if something was worth it or not.

ME WITH THE THREE

Not wanting to leave my iPad in the truck, for fear of it getting broken into and stolen, I took it with me.  I just tucked it under my arm and away we went.  The array of items was impressive some really cheap junk and other items that were great and great value.

RENEE, TOBY AND THE THREE

There were animated figures specifically a witch and a harmonica playing skeleton.  They were a little on the pricey side but the demos in the store were awesome and so they became mine.  We literally filled a shopping cart with Halloween stuff and headed off.  As we were going out I put my iPad in the child seat of the cart and headed for the truck.

Once there we loaded everything into the back of the truck and headed home.  I drove up to the door and we unloaded the stuff and Renee and Toby stayed while I went and parked the truck.  Yes, I know I have to organize the garage one day so I can park inside.  It was as I parked that I realized my iPad was not beside me on the console and I frantically looked all through the truck for it.  No luck.

SAMMY SKELETON AND WANDA THE WITCH

I phoned Renee and had her look through all the bags and with a sinking feeling, she reported it wasn’t there.  The next step was to activate the Find My iPhone app on my iPhone to locate the missing iPad.  No luck.  I have one of those covers on it that turns it off when closed.

So it was back in the truck and back to Walmart we headed.  I thought I may have left it on the counter when I was paying, but I remembered putting it in the cart.  If that was the case, I was pretty sure it was gone for good.  We finally got to Walmart after what seemed like an eternity and even managed to pull back into the same parking spot.

Even before we got parked, Renee looked across and screamed, “there it is!” and pointed.  Sure enough it was sitting straight up in the child carrier section of the cart.  There were 10 or 15 more carts all around it, so people had been there, but they were either too honest to take it, or too distracted to notice it.  Either way it was with a great sigh of relief that I retrieved it from the cart.

This is actually the second time I have lost the iPad since I moved to Maple Ridge.  The first time was the day I took possession of the house and once I had my documents, I had to go to the Post Office to pick up my mail box key.  I was carrying a bunch of file folders and put them down on the counter along with the iPad.  I had to give her my address and phone number.  After getting the key, I headed off and before I got to the house for the first time I got a call on my cell.  It was the postal clerk telling me I had left the iPad on the counter and she would hold it for me.

So Halloween has turned into a big adventure this year.  Both for the excitement of all the decorations and also for the loss and recovery of my iPad.  Renee was so excited about them she started putting up the decorations right away.  I was too darn tired and sore from hockey that morning and the fact I had been on the go since 5:00 AM.

066 HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA

It’s here, after a slightly delayed start.  After all of the physio and surgeries and pain, finally tonight I get to hit the ice for the first time since last April.  It’s not the first time I will have travelled from Maple Ridge to UBC as I did that for the last 7 games of last season, so that isn’t new.

READY TO PLAY

I started off by watching Canada against the United States in the World Cup of Hockey.  The only game of the tournament I have watched so far.  I can’t watch tonight as I will be too busy playing in my own game.  It was great to see Canada come storming back after giving up the first goal and then go on to a 4-2 win over the States, eliminating them from the tournament.  That has been psyched for today.

Let’s recap though, off what happened post last season.  I re-fractured my right wrist in two places just after the season ended and went through total agony and no sleep for almost a week.  I went in and had physio three times a week for several weeks.  While there I learned about, studied and finally committed to spinal Decompression therapy.

When I went in, I was hurting all the time and the only range of motion I had was to be able to touch my knees.  After an entire summer of decompression, my back is essentially pain free for the first time in years and when I bend now, I can touch the floor.  I then spent the last several weeks allowing everything to heal.  It cost me time at the cabin, but it was worth it.

Just when everything was looking good, I started having a shadow, some floaters and a blurry spot in my left eye.  The whole story is chronicled in the previous article.  I got full medical clearance to resume playing last Wednesday, which was the first game of the season, but the bubble in my eye obstructed my downward vision, so I opted to not play.

Suddenly Sunday morning, I woke up and the bubble is gone, so here we go.  First game of the season.  My conditioning is nowhere near where I want it to be, but I have been walking between 4 and 9K every single day, so that will help.  I had planned on going back to the gym, but the eye problem stopped that.  I was even going to go yesterday, but I didn’t want to be completely stiff and sore to start the game tonight.

So we shall see how things go when I get there.  I am well into my game day ritual as I write this.  I took Toby for his 4K walk this morning and had a pre-game nap.  I had my lunch and I’m adding a pre-departure hot shower today, just to make sure everything is good and loose.  I usually carry a hot water bottle and put it on my back while driving, but I think I can skip that with a shower.

I’ll feed Toby his dinner at 2:30 PM and then make myself a big travel mug of coffee.  I’ll take a couple of B vitamins for the energy and then we shall head out from here at 3:00 PM.  This will give me time to stop into my favourite hockey shop in Burnaby on the way.  There I will get my skates sharpened and grab a few rolls of tape and then head to UBC.

I try and time my arrival for just after 4:30 PM, that way I only have to pay $4.50 for parking in the parkade, instead of $10.50.  I will then roll into the dressing room at about 4:45 PM and will be the first one there.  That gives me 45 minutes to tape my sticks, defog my visor and put my gear on.  There will be lots of chatting and joking as the guys start to filter into the room.

At about 5:20 PM, I’ll go out to the bench with one or two other early birds and I will do my stretching routine, while watching the Zamboni clear the ice.  There it will be, a fresh new sheet of ice, to start a fresh new season.  After a 10 to 15-minute warmup, the game will be underway and I will be back where I belong.

I am looking forward to this season even more than normal.  Partly because of all the trials and tribulations of the past summer, but also partly because I am happy to be still playing at 61.  The game that has owned me since I was a kid and I am still playing.  This year I am looking forward even more with the new found flexibility in my back, that seriously had me wondering if it was all over.  Now there is re-found hope.  Maybe even a re-found slap shot that has all but disappeared in the last couple of years.

065 NEEDLES IN THE EYE

Have you ever described something you disliked intensely by saying “I’d rather stick needles in my eye”?  I have many times and in the last few days I have had exactly that done.  Surprisingly it didn’t hurt and I was expecting it to hurt more than anything I could imagine.  Who knew?  But I’m getting ahead of myself here.

This all started a couple of weeks ago, no that’s not quite right, it started many years ago.  As a kid my eyesight was perfect, but then suddenly in Grade 11, I discovered I needed glasses.  I was near-sighted and discovered this when I was sitting in the front row of the class and could not read the blackboard.  So I got glasses.  This almost came back to haunt me a few years later.

At 19 I applied to the Vancouver Police Department after spending the past 14 months in the Police Reserves.  When it came to the medical testing, I just barely failed the vision test.  Two thing conspired to let me in.  One was the massive number of recruits needed and the other was my good record as a Reserve Constable.  However, I had to get contact lenses.  This was when soft contacts first came out.  It took me two hours on the morning of the first day of the academy to get them in my eyes.

After about 5 years on the job, I abandoned the contacts and went back to glasses.  Suddenly after about 20 years, I went back to contacts.  They drove my eyes crazy and with 2 years left in my career, I took the big step to have laser surgery.  I went from 20/50 to 20/10, the eyes of a fighter pilot they said.  It was so awesome and I marveled at my newfound eyesight every day.

Everything was perfect until a couple of weeks ago, when I suddenly noticed a blurry area, a shadow that looked like a cloud and lots of those black floaty things.  I figured they would go away, but they didn’t.  I was due for an eye checkup anyway.  Since the surgery I have religiously gotten my eyes checked about every 5 years and so I booked an appointment.

Everything was going along perfectly.  My eyesight was checking out great and I ordered some custom reading glasses.  On the pressure test for glaucoma, I had a reading between 9 and 12 which is excellent.  Anything over 25 is dangerous.  I had the final consult with the eye doctor, who ordered a second set of photos of the inside of my eyes because he was concerned about something, but didn’t say more.  We did the shots and he put them up on the screen and then pointed out an area and gave me the shocking news.  “You have a tear in your retina”, he said.  We’ll book you a spot in the surgical center and call you.

Knowing how the wait lists are, I figured this would take place weeks, or even months down the road.  The next morning, I got a phone call telling me to report to the eye center in Vancouver at 1:00 PM.  Holy cow, was that fast and that is when the whirlwind began.

I went through a series of tests and 3 different types of photos on my eyes and the news I got was even more shocking than what I had received the day before.  I not only had a torn retina, it had become partially detached as well.  He told me that the tear had allowed some fluid to get behind the retina and caused it to detach from the back wall of my eye.

He then explained a new procedure that they do and that is to inject an air bubble into the eye.  He warned me that it only works about 70% of the time and carrier with it a risk of infection.  Again, I figured this would be several days away, but again I was wrong.  It was happening now!  I was sent to sit in the waiting room.

I admit it though; I was scared spitless about having needles in my eye.  I knew, or thought I did, how much this would hurt.  Now whenever I am scared or nervous, I pace, and so I did, up and down the hall.  My Fitbit showed I did 5,000 steps while I was waiting.  Then the call came and off I went.

They put yet another set of drops in my eye and then came the needle to “freeze” the eye.  I tensed waiting for the intense pain and it didn’t happen.  In seconds, that one was over.  I had to wait a few seconds for it to take effect and then he stuck a second needle in my eye to remove some fluid.  As he explained, they had to make room for the bubble.  Then they injected the bubble and he drew an arrow on my forehead with a Sharpie.

ARROW HEAD

I had to keep the arrow pointed straight up and so it meant keeping my head cocked at a strange angle.  My neck began to hurt more than the injections had.  The purpose of this was to keep the bubble centered over the detachment.  This would press my retina against the back wall of my eye and hopefully it would attach.  If it didn’t it would mean conventional surgery where they open my eye and repair it that way.  Renee drove me home.

The disconcerting thing was that I can actually see the bubble on the inside of my eye and it is annoying as hell.  Even with a bandage over my eye, I can see it.  But my vision in the right eye was crystal clear and I drove to the clinic the next day.  I discovered that I can drive better with one eye closed than 70% of the drivers in Vancouver.

Twenty-four hours later, on a Saturday at 4:00 PM I was back in the chair.  Again I had needles in my eye to freeze it, and because I take daily aspirin, it bled a lot more than it should have.  The Doctor then looked and was very impressed with the result.  My retina had adhered so well; it was hard to even see the tear.

He began to laser the inside of my eye, essentially spot welding the retina in place and closing the tear.  Every so often he would hit a nerve and the pain would shoot through to the back of my head, but they were minor and over quick.  After about 40 minutes, I was on my way home.

ZOMBIE EYE

The next day, I was able to take the bandage off and I am able to see clearly again.  I think it was successful.  Well, clearly except for the damn bubble.  I can see perfectly over top of it, but looking down my vision is obstructed.  Two days later I was back in the vision center and was told that the surgery was a complete success and I had achieved an “outstanding” result.  My vision is back to 20/10 and perfectly clear.  Well, clear except for the damn bubble.

064 SUMMER IS OVER

Summer is over.  It’s not officially over until September 21, but today is Labour Day, so yes, it’s done.  As I mentioned in an earlier article, leaves are already coming off the trees.  People go back to work tomorrow and the kids go back to school.  My hockey season starts next Wednesday and I am really stoked, with my back feeling better than it has in years.

When I reinjured my back a few years ago, I stopped going to the gym, because it just hurt too much.  Granted, it didn’t stop me from playing hockey, but it sure did limit what I could and couldn’t do.  Never a strong skater, it turned me into a weak one and the extra weight I packed on certainly didn’t help.  The biggest thing it did was to steal my biggest weapon, my slapshot.  I’m hoping it will return this season, I’ll know on Wednesday.

Now that the weather is cooling down as well, I am going to return to the gym.  Trevor Linden’s Club 16 is just up the road and is much easier to get to than the one in Burnaby I used to go to.  The cool weather is important in this endeavor as Toby goes everywhere with me, and I’m not leaving him in the truck when it is hot.

Obviously, I won’t be able to start off where I was and will have to work up to it.  My workouts were a little on the insane side.  I would start with a 10-minute bike ride to warm up, then I would do the weight training circuit (12 stations) 3 times and take about 45 minutes.  That would be followed immediately by 30 to 45 minutes of sprints on the bike followed by a cooldown of fast walking on the treadmill for an additional 30 minutes.  I did this ever Monday and Tuesday, play hockey on Wednesday evening.  Then it was back to the gym for Thursday and Friday.  I would rest on Saturday and play hockey Sunday morning.

Now, I have not been completely sedentary for all this time.  I was still playing hockey every Sunday and Wednesday during the season and every single day I take Toby for his walk for 45-60 minutes every morning.  At the old house, I took Toby to the park, so I will admit, I wasn’t moving the whole time, especially if there was another dog owner to talk to.  Now, out here, it is an actual fast walk for 45-60 minutes every morning and another 20-30 minute walk every evening.

I missed going to the lake this year, but I know I did the right thing with how good my back feels now.  I’m still stiff and sore when I get out of bed, but that’s more age than anything and it passes once I’m up and moving.  It’s the same if I have been sitting for any length of time.

Another important milestone is just around the corner.  Wednesday marks the 6-month anniversary since I took possession of my new house.  Next Saturday is a big milestone as it marks 6 months since I actually moved in and spent my first night in the house.  After 20 years of living in an old 300 square foot basement suite, it is a slice of heaven living here.  In fact, it was 20 years to the day when I moved in and when I moved out.

There has been several more bear sightings in and around the complex, although, I have personally only witnessed one.  I have seen lots of evidence of bears around, but not the bears themselves.  It’s probably just as well, but I would like to see one from a place of safety, with camera in hand to get some nice shots.

All in all, it has been an adventuresome 6 months and an amazing summer.  The weather wasn’t the greatest for long periods, but, I don’t tolerate heat very well at the best of times.  My favourite kinds of days are, sunny days where it is just warm enough to wear shorts and T-shirt, or better yet a bright sunny day, where it is at 0 degrees or lower, just after a fresh snowfall.

Which is something I am really hoping for and looking forward to.  The Farmer’s Almanac is calling for a very cold winter with lots of snow, so we shall see.  In Vancouver, snow was something that if you got it at all, it was just a dusting that lasted a couple of days.  Maple Ridge has always seen more snow, so hopefully it continues along that pattern.  Especially since, I no longer have to shovel it.

063 PHOTOGRAPHIC PET PEEVES

As a photographer I love taking photos.  I have literally been doing it since I was 5 or 6 when my parents gave me my first camera.  It was a little Kodak Brownie.  I even still have it buried in a box somewhere.  One day when I get my office straightened out, I will have all my camera gear on display.  It’s amazing the technological advances in camera gear over the years.

I graduated from the Brownie, to a little camera called an Instamatic, which took cartridges of 110 mm film.  I took that camera to Grand Cayman when I visited my cousin and when I took a side trip to Cape Kennedy.  I got some nice memory photos, but nothing too Earth shattering.  It was convenient to be able to drop a cartridge of film in and take photos, but they were expensive to buy and more expensive to process and print.  One tended to be very careful about the number of photos taken.

Then you would trundle the cartridge off to the camera store and wait up to 2 weeks to get back the results of your work.  By the time you got them back, you had forgotten what you had shot and in most cases were disappointed in the results.

I graduated, as it were, to a 35 mm camera when I started Graphic Arts in Grade 7 at my high school.  They gave us loaner cameras and it was, gasp! A Canon.  Not that I knew anything about camera brands back then.  We would run around the school taking photos of anything and everything, all in black and white.  Occasionally we would sneak away from the school at lunch and blast down to the Pacific Coliseum where the Canucks or their opponents were practicing.

I watched and photographed players such as Orland Kurtenbach, Pat Quinn, Bobby Hull, Gordie Howe, Jean Beliveau and Guy LaFleur to name a few.  This was just practice, so of course they did not wear their games jerseys, but you knew who they were.  This was when all NHL practices were open to the public.

A few years later when I joined the police department and was making pretty good money, I bought my very own, first 35 mm camera.  An Asahi Pentax.  I started with just a base 50 mm lens and then added a few telephoto zoom lenses.  I stayed with Pentax for several years and had several different camera bodies.  It was such a technological jump when they came out with “auto-exposure”.

Eventually I grew restless with Pentax and decided to make the jump to a more “pro” level camera and I made the switch to Nikon and have stayed true ever since.  It’s funny though, what really put the bug in my ear about Nikon was the Paul Simon song, “Kodachrome”.  In it he sings, “I got a Nikon camera, love to take the photographs…”.  That single line is directly responsible for me switching to Nikon.

This is all preamble to the point of this whole article.  If there is one statement that I and numerous other photographers hear that drives us crazy.  When people see my Pro model Nikon D4s with a very long 600 mm telephoto, they will point to it and say things like “I bet that camera takes some nice pictures”.  Yes, it does, but truly, I have a hand in it.  No matter how good the camera and lens, it can’t take photos without some sort of human intervention.

The other thing that is said that is equally annoying, is when people see a photo you have taken and know of your equipment, they will say things like “that camera sure takes good photos”.  Literally it is like telling a chef that his incredible recipe is because of his stove or a musician that it’s because he or she plays a grand piano or whatever instrument.

Don’t get me wrong, top of the line equipment in any endeavor certainly helps, but it is the person using it which is responsible.  You can give a top notch photographer an entry level camera and they will still produce great photos.  The same as a master chef can produce great food over a campfire.  It all comes down to experience and learned technique.

Even when you get pretty good at it, you can still be improved by suggestions from people with more experience when it comes to making better photos.  The biggest key to it all though is that “the absolute best camera you can own, is the one you have with you at the right time”.  There is some luck involved with being in the right place at the right time.  But experience can make you better at being in that spot at that time.

The other thing to remember is that, you are the only one that needs to be pleased with your work.  Take suggestions from people who may be able to help you get better, but when it comes right down to it, to hell with what anyone else thinks, as long as you like it, nobody else’s opinion matters at all.  This of course does not apply if you are making money at the hobby.  Then you have to shoot what pleases your client.

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.