Call Centers

I hate call centers. I really hate the ones that are offshore (aren't they all?) that try and pretend to be in the US. The coached voices and muted accents. Like we really don't know where you are. Next time you have one talk a little slang. They have no idea what you are saying as they learn correct english. I had the pleasure of trying to understand 2 different folks today. No Habla.

Bury The Flag

The CBJ instituted a new slogan for this season. Carry The Flag. They have people come out and skate around the ice before games with a large CBJ flag and then they plant it at center ice to get the fans "going". I've not been a fan of it, but whatever... the marketing people are trying to sell the team. Maybe they should try putting a team on the ice that is a legitimate NHL caliber group. In any case My father took myself and my 2 kids to the Detroit Red Wings game Saturday night and we were treated to one of the most lopsided games I've ever been to. Awful sorta covers it from the CBJ side. My dad has gone to 7 games now over the 7 seasons and has yet to see a CBJ win. How pathetic is that? About as pathetic as this franchise has sunk. I'm watching tonight's game against Nashville and once again nobody showed up. Oh they are starting fights and trying to hit, but its a bit late to do that in the last 7 minutes down by 3 goals.

I put the pics of my kids up as it is the best part of the game. Eek once again got on the jumbo screen and she was the last person of the evening to be on. She tried so hard dancing every time there was any break in the action. Frudoch on the other hand was pissed as he never gets on the screen. In any case its another season of watching the playoffs from afar. Word to the CBJ ticket folks: Save you time and money this year as I'm not buying. Maybe a few games here and there but until this organization shows that they can compete on a nightly basis I'm not interested. I don't need all wins (would be nice though). I want to see the team not quit.

Life Comes at You Fast

Its been a few days since my last update and my days have been much like how the Nationwide Insurance saying goes... Life Comes at You Fast. Its been a fast week that included going back to get my truck in Wooster (on my anniversary) and getting the official results on my shoulder as well as 3 inches of rain and today the start of March Madness and spring break for the kids. Its been so crazy that I did not fill out a bracket for the NCAA tournament for the first time since I was about 11. Its been hard to take it all in, but as the saying goes... So are the Days of our Lives....

There have been good things of course and I am thankful for the small glimpses of the end of the tunnel. My Dr. gave me the official news that I had been expecting since getting the test results. I need a shoulder replacement. Its not as common a surgery as other joint replacements and its fairly uncommon for someone to need one at 40, but thats what I face. Trying to find the correct surgeon is my next step. I have had problems in the past getting things fixed on the first try and this has lead to a couple of extra surgeries that I really would have rather not had. My shoulder is just a basket case and there is only one way to fix it. I really don't want more surgery, but if I want to have a working arm its going to be absolutely necessary. Now the fight will be with the insurance company to get it paid for. I have appointments with 2 surgeons that do a lot of these procedures. One is about 20 miles away and the other is about 100 miles away. Both do the surgery daily. I have no idea when I'll actually get it done. At this point I just want to meet these guys and see what vibes I get. In the meantime I will just continue to suffer.

The Day After... or Thereabouts

I made it home from Wooster. Unfortunately it was sans car. We were able to get rides back and forth from the hotel and rink from one of my sons teammates father on Friday and Saturday. Unfortunately he was leaving after Saturdays game so we were able to get rides from the other regular team members father. Since this was a tournament the team consisted of kids from several teams and we only knew a few of them. I had my truck towed to a Chevy dealer and they just called to tell me its done. Of course it cost a boatload. I suspected it was the fuel pump and indeed it was. Not a fun job on the GM large SUV's. Its also a common repair on these and my truck with more than 120K miles was overdue. Oh well. I'll get the truck back first thing in the morning. The trip did have its highlights though as 3 games gave 3 more opportunities to play hockey for my son.

The games however were not so good. The silly thing is the bracket we were in had all 4 teams from the columbus area. The other 3 teams were from the Easton program. Lets just say those teams were loaded and made our group of kids playing together for the first time look pretty outclassed. The highlight for me was the last game on Sunday morning when my son put a puck in goal on a rebound and got the team on the board. Goals had been pretty light as they were outscored 22-6 in all the games. He was very happy and his teammates mobbed him. Needless to say the ride home was better. I sure wish it had been a drive home though.

Take this truck and shove it

Yesterday afternoon I picked my son up from school and we headed north 75 miles for a hockey tournament. Everything went well until we passed the rink and went to turn around in a parking lot. My truck just died. In a driving rainstorm about half mile from the rink. We walked to the rink-in the rain. The car--well lets just say it won't start. One of the teammates father drove us to the hotel and this morning I called every shop in town. Nothing. No chance of getting it fixed. We are in Wooster Ohio if anybody has any thoughts. I guess its call Enterprise and get a rental and try and have my truck towed to a shop. Oh what fun.

The Kind of News That You Never Expect

Since 1997 my health would not be what anyone would call great. In that time I've had 6 major surgeries and an additional 13 smaller surgical procedures. Its not been fun. Not even the drugs. About a month ago my shoulder which has been the recipient of most of those surgeries started to hurt much more than "normal". Typically I rate my pain as a 4 or 5 out of 10 on a daily basis and keep it under control with medication. As I said about a month ago the pain level went up dramatically. I had not done anything to cause this so after a week or two I made an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon who has been treating me. His exam did not show anything obvious although I could barely speak afterwards from the intense pain from the pulling and twisting. He ordered an MRI and an Arthrogram to look for any issues.

The tests themselves were not pleasant as I love being inside a 10000 pound magnetic tube with my arm twisted up in a very uncomfortable position. The Arthrogram was not much better as the Radiologist had trouble getting his catheter of die into what is left of my shoulder. Immediately after that we looked at the monitor and he remarked that several areas of my labrum appeared to be out of position or missing altogether. Then it was back for another MRI with the dye now inside my shoulder. Now I knew my labrum was bad as I have had both and arthroscopic and open labral repair done in the past. The labrum is the piece that cushions the shoulder joint and its the piece that is often torn by pitchers and quarterbacks as well as hockey players after a big hit in the shoulder. So in any case the test were done which caused even more pain, but I was happy that I'd at least soon hopefully know what was going on. In fact my wife was trying to prepare me for the likely results of nothing wrong beyond my past problems. For a day I even started to think that was true. Yesterday we got the report back.

Rather than calling me the Dr. came down to talk to my wife. Its not normal by any stretch of the imagination. Without going into too much medical detail I have 6 different serious problems. 5 of which will require surgical repair at some point. When my wife relayed the news to me it was like the old Batman TV show. KABLAM, POW, BOOM. I had years ago decided I could live with what I have. The chronic pain and reduced function of my arm was bad, but in my mind it was not worth going under the knife for a few degrees more movement or a possible reduction in pain. I was content, but somehow things changed. I don't know how or why, but they changed. So now I am at that point where I need to go back and revisit a surgical possibility on my shoulder. I lost the last 2.5 years to surgeries on my foot and was really looking forward to getting back up and around again. Now I'm facing having 2 separate tears of my rotator cuff fixed and having a shoulder replacement at a minimum. The report said the level of arthritis in my shoulder was fairly marked which in layman's terms means very advanced. Bone on bone every time I move my arm. Think about that for awhile.

Bummer Dude

So I'm almost 41 and during the 80's I rocked hard with many concerts and always had the music pumping. Though my tastes have changed I still enjoy some of those 80's hair bands on my ipod. Late last year Van Halen announced they would be playing Columbus at the Schottenstein Center and I was all over it. When tickets went on sale I was online and got a pair of nice tickets. I knew my wife would not want to go, but tough. I've gone to stuff like Spamalot and Mama Mia and plenty of other plays. I even went to High School Musical the Concert. I've paid my dues. The last concert I dragged my wife to was Journey with Peter Frampton and John Waite in about 2002 I think. She really enjoyed it.

So in any case a week or so ago I noticed that some dates were postponed and rumors were the tour was cancelled. Those dates were rescheduled and everything was supposed to be fine. Until today when Van Halen announced that they are postponing the next 17 dates including Columbus on April 1. Well that just sucks. My guess is the tour is done. My chance to see VH with David Lee Roth is probably over. Man this stinks. Even if it is rescheduled its likely I won't be able to go. I'm gonna be out $200 and worse there will be no music. Bummer.

Snow

Damn did it snow today. Officially 20.4 inches. Unofficially I put it as big snow. I just came in after plowing about 2/3rds of the driveway. Ugh! I want Spring and I want it now. Pictures to follow. Gotta go sleepy.

No Mas

Just as Roberto Duran uttered those famous words in a fight against Ray Leonard many years ago I find them now rolling from my mouth. Is it yet another loss at home for the CBJ or yet another snowstorm? Initially it was all snowstorm, but after tonight's hopeless game its now easily both.

The game itself was yet another performance lacking passing efficiency and scoring save the Dan Fritsche score with 00:00.8 left in the third. Yes .8 seconds left and we tie it up and grab a point. Confidence was not high and soon thereafter Edmonton seemingly effortlessly dumped a shot in and another loss appears. 7 losses in a row at home. 4 regular losses to go with 3 OT losses. 11 points gone and never to be found. All this from a team that was second best in home winning before this "streak". Its safe to officially declare the chant is now "Bury the flag". When is the 2008 entry draft?

So on to the original topic of this blog entry--Yet another winter storm. This time we have even been granted elite status with an honest to goodness Blizzard Warning from the weather service! This is central Ohio so we expect to get a decent amount of snow each year. Typically we will get 20 to 30 inches spread out over 3 or 4 months. However, give us more than a couple tenths and the stores are overrun with people stocking up and the roads are filled with people slowing down a wee too much. I grew up in Wisconsin so snow is not that big a deal for me. I learned to drive in the winter weather in a Camaro Z-28 with no traction and it did not bother me. Today I have a Yukon with 4wd, but I usually leave it in 2wd as its more fun to fishtail and slide. My wife drives a Subaru--enough said. We can go out in any bad weather and get where we are going-eventually. Today though we started a 2 day marathon storm with a predicted total of 10 to 16 inches or more. Cool. Except this is storm number 10 or 11 this year. I'm sick of the snow and the blahs that go with it. I want some warmer weather. I'll settle for seasonal at this point. I'm sick of the snow. When will it end? To add to the misery we are not going anywhere for spring-break. I'll be taking my son to one more hockey tournament in that sought after locale of Wooster Ohio. Blah! Maybe I can get some $10 fares on Skybus to go somewhere in the morning and fly back in the evening. I just want to go somewhere. Anywhere. Just make it warm. We have plans for next year and they include the 50th state in the union. Particularly one island that I've developed a great fondness for. Maui. Oh how that sounds nice about now. To the Blizzard outside I say No Mas. Roberto, I know what you were thinking.

Sadness and Pain

If you saw my post from a few days ago about my sons first goal then you know that they lost the game in OT. The team that beat them got some generous calls and scored when it counted. I think its safe to say though that they were not the favorites to win the tournament. The scores of their games were 5-4, 4-3, 3-2 and that put them in the championship game against the team most (including me) expected to win . Well last night they continued and won again. Thats all fine and dandy except it just opened the floodgates of hurt for my son yet again. The cries of just one goal and the like repeated over and over. You see he has yet to figure out a way to get over the loss. As parents we say things like: suck it up or get over it, but for kids its not that easy. I wish there was a magic pill I could give him to make the hurt go away. I wish I could tell him it will never happen again, but there are some lessons that you just have to learn the hard way. Sometimes as a parent you just feel like crap. Its still one of those times.

Crappy Days

Despite having more than 500 channels of Satellite TV pumped throughout my house it amazes me how many times I can't find something to watch. What happened to shows like CHiPs or Happy Days? BJ and the Bear was cool. Emergency kept me glued to the tele. Eight is Enough taught us all life lessons. One Day at a Time clued us in to the beauty of the non-traditional family (and Valerie Bertinelli). Kojak and Mannix and Jack Lord in Hawaii Five-0 kept us safe. The Streets of San Francisco were ultra hip. Steve Austin and Jamie Summers fought crime as the Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman (yeah Max too). The Dukes of Hazzard made country and Daisy Duke mainstream and the Theme from S.W.A.T kept us all bouncing. The Rookies learned the ropes while Charlies Angels dazzled us with their beauty. There are so many more shows that I could write for hours and still not name them all. My point is while not all were Emmy Award winning television shows they were original. TV and the movies are stuck in a rut. All we get are shows and movies that are just redone and recycled. I just don't go to the theatre anymore as nothing grabs me. In fact when I do go I like the trailers for the upcoming films best. On HDNET there's a show called Nothing But Trailers. Its as it says and I love it. The studios put the best parts of 95% of all movies in the trailer. I see the trailer and I'm good.

TV is worse off right now. The writers strike is not the problem. The writers are. The heyday of TV is long gone. The 70's produced great TV. Now all we have are reality shows and stupid game shows. The best show on TV today is not even made in the USA. That show is called Top Car and its from the UK. The problem is we get it 9 months after it was filmed. I'm thankful we get it at all on BBC America. So anyways here is to great TV. Its now available on DVD, but thanks to the great folks at Blockbuster allowing any fool to use my name and rent films I can't rent films from them now. So for now several of those programs I listed can be rented. Just not by me.

Election Day

So today is the big day here in Ohio. La Di Frickin Da. The best thing about that is the damn robo-calls will stop. I have been getting 30 or so per day for the past week or so. Leave me alone I want to say, but there is nobody there.

Oh hey there goes the phone now. Seriously.

A Day to Remember

My son had been wanting to ply ice hockey for a couple years and we finally relented 2 years ago and put him in skating classes. He learned it was not quite as easy as the NHl player make it look. He took his falls and got a few bumps including an enormous egg on his head when he fell and his helmet slid up. His black eye was nasty, but he did not stop. It was hockey he wanted to play not be a skater. We progressed to hockey classes and it was fun, but not games so this past year we put him in a house league. He did surprisingly well for a first timer and was rated one of the better players in the league and was rewarded with being traded on the night before the season started. He went from being around teammates he knew to knowing nobody and being last on the list at his new team. Not what he needed at the time.

When the season started he was declared a defenseman  and playing time was slim. As the season progressed it never changed. His coaches did not know him and never really gave him a chance. He made mistakes and was sent to the bench while watching the coaches kids make the same mistakes and remain on the ice. He wanted to score a goal. He just wanted a chance. Unfortunately it just never happened. He was asked to try out for a select team and did not make it so somebdy felt he had the skills. He was very willing to get physical. Something not really permitted at this level. He seemed to do so much right, but not get any respect from his coaches. I managed to keep my mouth mostly shut, but my frustration grew just as his did. During a really bad stretch of losses he played less than 10 minutes out of the 36 minute games. This is on a team with 2 offensive and 2 defensive lines. Not really fair for a house league. He just wanted to score a goal. As the season wound down he got a few chances to play on the forward line as a backup. In one game he got a few shifts at center and won 5 of 6 faceoffs. Of course next game and back to defense he went. It really made no sense as all the other kids were getting a chance to play up front. he even spoke to the coach after practice. The next game he played only 7 minutes out of 36. The team just never could play well. Losses mounted and the coaches kept changing lineups. Occasionally he would get a few shifts on offense and then go back to D. Last week the season ending tournament started and it started off poorly. A team we had never played in the regular season kicked out butts an we were in the losers bracket. Of course my son played D, but he played a great game. Friday night we played and won as my son played defense with a boy who had played goalie most of the year. They played really well and we assumed that this morning he would play D again.

As the game started this morning my son took his normal spot on the defense end of the bench and the coach said they were going to play the starters most of the game. Oh well I told my wife. At least he knows that position well and does not make mistakes. Surprise surprise! They put him out on offense and what a game they played. It was so close with little scoring until we took a lead in the 2nd period. The other team came back with 2 goals and I said thats it. A timeout was called and play resumed. A goal got waived off on a bad offsides call but they did not quit. On a faceoff the coach did not have enough players out and we were shorthanded 1 player. Stupid! On the faceoff the puck went to the other team and somehow my son then got it from the point and drove to the net and put up a wrist shot at the goalie. He instantly started jumping wildly and pumping his fist in the air. No call from the ref and then suddenly his arm went off.

GOAL

He scored a goal. His first in Squirt. The joy he had and relief was so awesome to enjoy. The weight of a whole season had left in that few seconds. And shorthanded too! This tied up the game and it remained that way until a minute and 10 seconds to go in the game. A 3-2 lead and just over a minute to play. Wow! The atmosphere was incredible in the rink. Unfortunately they tied it up with just 20 seconds to go. On to OT for the first time as we normally have ties. 3:00 on the clock and the starters were tired. The coach road his horses til they couldn't play anymore. With 19.7 seconds to play in OT the other team got a freak roll of the puck into the net. Game-Over. Season over. Tears aplenty. I just could not say or do anything to make him feel better. On this day he has been waiting for. The day he said that when it happened he would not care whether they won or lost he did care. He gave his all and while he got that goal he wanted so bad he learned a lesson.

I couldn't be any more proud of him than I am right now. Not for the goal-I knew that would come, but for the fact he grew up today. He's becoming a young man and a caring one at that.

Smelly Foote

Just a bit more on one of the most hated people in Columbus. Adam Foote played the GBJ and demanded a trade back to Colorado. In todays Columbus Dispatch Sports columnist Michael Arace laid it all out. Its worth the read. Find it here. Thats all for now. We have a hockeye game in the morning. Lose and the season is done. Win and they play again Monday. My stuff has kicked in and I'm going to bed.