Long, boring, as-if-you-cared post

Daylight Savings Time can kiss my round goalie ass.

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So, what was looking to be a fairly sedate weekend turned super duper busy at 3 p.m. yesterday when I got a frantic email from one of the folks at the Paddy Dillo tournament down at SLICE. One team lost their goalie, who is a doctor specializing in radiation and had to leave for Japan (as good a reason as any to ditch a hockey tournament). So they needed someone to fill in.

Game at 4:30. Yipes! Especially considering I hadn't really eaten much yet.

So I go with really no notion of the level I'm playing or anything. But I figure I'm better than no goalie at all (which has pretty much been my motto since I started playing).

Anyway, the hockey gods shine on me and give me the best puck luck I've ever had. The other team must have hit 10 posts. An inch here or there and I woulda been lit up like a roman candle, but we got the win 3-1.

Knowing that I played okay but mostly survived on luck left me feeling not very satisfied with my game. Not bothered really but not cranking the tunes on the way home either.

So, I guess I passed muster and they asked me back for the 9:15 a.m. Sunday game. They'd lost their first two games so there was no chance of going to the finals. We were basically just acting as spoilers for the rest of the teams. I think they had to beat us by 5 or 6 goals to get into the finals, and they did.

All that puck luck I used on Saturday was long gone for Sunday. I think I got a piece of nearly everything that went in but it would hit my stick and bounce over my head in to the net. Shit like that.

And in these Dillo tourneys, goals by women count as 2 points. It's smart in terms of encouraging passing to the ladies, but shitty for goalies as it can quickly make them look way worse than they were. Fortunately folks don't seem to take things too seriously, which makes it a pretty fun gig for a goalie and makes up for the statistical downer.

Anyway, the second game, in spite of the 7-1 loss, was actually more satisfying to me. Not sure why. I actually didn't feel like I had as bad a game as the score showed. Plus I was done with a rather grinding 18 hours of goaltending responsibilities (3 games, including one for the Willowbrook novice league Saturday night). I think having that off my shoulders was part of the light feeling after that game.

I had fun at novice (and won 3-2) even though I was crazy tired and didn't really want to be there. It was fun to see the guys I was having so much fun playing with the last couple of seasons (in spite of sort of zoning out on the league in general). A couple of them begged me to come back next season but man, I hate playing Saturdays.

And to be honest, it's hard to get up for the practices. It's just skating lightning or some other warm-up thing, and then a million shots that I don't learn much from and just end up with aching knees from all the up and downs. It's great for the skaters but by the end, I was getting more damage than benefit.

But my knee is a lot better lately so we'll see. They're trying to expand to 4 teams, so there is a goalie need for sure and the potential for a ton of ice time. Maybe if I could work into my contract that I don't have to do skating drills. :D

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Anyway, after all that hockey, and then an incredibly-dull-until-the-third-period-6-goal-avalanche Aeros game, I was a zombie tonight. Went to bed at 9:30, watched OTF, fell asleep for 20 minutes and then Mr.C woke me up to show me the Aeros highlights on the news (solid!). And now I'm a zombie but can't sleep.

And the soreness has set in. I've got bruises everywhere. Ankle, shins, the BACK of my right arm, all up and down the inside of my left arm, my hip (from ramming into a stick holder peg on the wall... broke it clean off. Oops. Sorry SLICE.) My groins are sore, my lower abs are sore, my quads are tired, my stick hand is aching.

And I get to go do it again Monday night at drop-in. And then again Wednesday at Harpies (which I signed up for because I'm missing Tuesday's women's league game and wanted to make sure I got enough ice time... uh... yeah, pretty sure I've met the quota).

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Vacation was good. 10th anniversary come and gone at our usual spot in Fredericksburg. Hot tub, running around in the river with the dog, hiking the trails in the woods, disconnecting a bit. It was good. Twitter felt pretty overwhelming when I got on Friday afternoon. :)

My old dawg <3