The long expensive season...

When does it ever end? Yes I'm talking hockey hockey. The kids seasons officially ended with games in March and while part of me was sad to see the end I am pretty darn tired from all the travel. 2 kids playing travel hockey gets tiring pretty quickly. Yet I know I'll look back on this year and love every minute. Between the 2 kids we had more than 100 games and more than 180 practices. The kids played in 26 different ice rinks in 2 states and it would have been 3 states except Frudoch missed a tournament in Pennsylvania and Poppy's team missed one there as well due to a screw up by the team manager. I don't even want to think of how much fuel we went thru for my car and truck. This winter we had our Subaru blow a turbo on the way to an early hockey game in Cleveland which added another $3k to the expenses and then had to sell said car as there was so much metal sucked thru the engine that it would fail. If I had to guess... we spent more than $8k on hotels, food, gas, supplies, doctors appointments, hockey equipment and car repairs. Never mind the time which has even more value. Why do we do it? Hockey is a great sport. Perhaps the greatest. Our vacation this year was staying home and resting after a long season. The best part..... Development camp started last week for both kids. Frudoch as an instructor and Poppy as a student.

Of course the next step is Mid Am development camp tryouts for elite players and for the first time Frudoch is invited. Should be a great measuring stick for him before tryouts for the 2011/12 season which are less than a month away. Poppy will skip girls Mid Am camp and will be looking to play all girls travel next year as no matter what anybody says a girl doesn't get a fair shake on a boys team. Even when she is better than the boys. Oh well it was tons-o-fun and its already going again so I need some sleep.

Intensity

The hockey season is moving along with so many games and practices that sometimes I forget what day it is. Both kids are playing at higher levels than ever and are excelling. Frudoch is leading the Columbus Capitals in goals, shots, hits, scoring and assists despite playing less than half the minutes of the other forwards on the team. He was just switched from center to right wing so he is having to get used to having his back to the goal now and fighting off the defenseman. Just look at the intensity in this photo taken against Stongsville a couple weeks ago.


Poppy has been playing as a defenseman almost exclusively and her teams record stands at 6-1 which is great considering last year her team was 0-14-1 after the regular season. She also mad the Columbus North Stars select team and they have decided to play at the AA level in order to improve every player and really challenge the kids. Their travel schedule is really going to be hectic come January and February. They have played one game and steamrolled the opponents easily. These kids are going to be good.
As a parent I'm very proud of my kids although i'm getting worn out with hockey 6 days/nights a week from September to March.....

Time Flies

Wow has the last few months flown by. It seems that the kids just went back to school. Alas its not the case and as I write this we are closer to Thanksgiving than we are to this past summer. The leaves are gone and I'm once again way late on throwing a blog post up. The kids are playing very competitive hockey this year and Freddy was able to make a PeeWee Major team instead of the expected Minor team. Quite an accomplishment for a kid starting his 3rd year of play. He has passed EVERY single kid that was on his first hockey team 2 short years ago. From last off the bench to starting at center. I'm quite proud of him. Poppy has elevated her game although the boys make it hard. Unfortunately this past Sunday a hit into the boards resulted in the ligaments in her thumb taking a beating. She came out of the game for about 6 minutes and her thumb was quite swollen, but she went back in and iced the thumb between shifts. The Dr. wants her in a splint and tight wrap for 2 weeks then we'll get an MRI and see if the ligaments are torn or if a break has manifested. She is in pain, but she went to practice the next night and gave it a go. We'll see how the season goes. Both are trying to make their respective select teams although both face uphill odds as first year PeeWee's and Squirts rarely make those teams without dad being a coach.

As for dad...I am helping coach Poppy's team and of course I enjoy it. Some times I wish I could take over entirely, but I just don't have the time. I'm up for reelection as Regional Executive of my region of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA). I'm being challenged by the person that was the previous RE. Its a bit unorthodox to be RE and then not give the next one a chance, but whatever. i'll deal with it. If I lose it won't be so bad as I will get more free time.

The other reason its been so long since I posted was on October 12th, 2009 my longtime companion Zulu died. Zulu was nearly 14 years old and for a Rhodesian Ridgeback that is an exceptionally long life. Even though I knew the days were numbered the end hit me incredibly hard. Its been almost a month now and i still find myself looking for him dozens of times a day. Zulu was my daily companion for all those years and since for the past 5 I've been at home every day I spent so much time with him. He went with me everywhere. Many people have suggested getting another dog, but truly I'm not sure that another dog will be the same. Zulu had incredible qualities about him that other dogs just didn't have. Its tough to explain, but for the next couple years I think I'll be dog free. He died with me and it was a very difficult last few days and especially hours. Its hard to move on from that.

Again I'm on Facebook and I am able to catch up with so many people there so I post more often over there. Look for me. As of today Ohio enters the realm of states that allow gambling as a statewide referendum was passed yesterday to allow 4 casinos in the major metropolitan areas. This is going to be interesting to watch. I now need to find a place to take the fam for spring break or early summer vacation. Got any suggestions involving warmth and beaches?

Back to the Story-- I'm feeling better

Wow how time has flown. Its been 2 and a half weeks since my last post and what was current then is old news now. I'll try to be more timely in my posts. So I left off in Vegas and thats a good place to pick up. The reason for my trip was to attend the 2009 SCCA National Convention. The SCCA is the Sports Car Club of America and I've been a member for 15 years. This was my first convention though. It went very well and I even came home up a bit winning $10.75. Las vegas itself has changed quite a bit since I was last there in 2002. The strip has a completely different look as new buildings are sprouting up everywhere. In fact the sidewalks were so crowded you could hardly walk. The planes coming in were all full as well. Las Vegas is not hurting. The high roller rooms were though. Our hotel was the South Point Casino about 8 miles off the strip. It was nice and the prices were fair. The trip home was not nearly as eventful as the way down. I had a 6:00 am flight to Atlanta on a Boeing 767. I love flying widebody aircraft as there is so much more room. I literally made it thru security with minutes to spare as I underestimated my time to get to the airport via a shuttle. All was well until my phone rang as the doors were about to close. My wife called to say there was no heat in the house back in Ohio. I had to talk quickly but told my wife to call the repair guys as our whole HVAC system was only 8 months old. Off to ATL I went. Upon landing my phone was ringing again. The furnace was fine (not) and we were out of propane. We live in the country so its either electric heat or a propane tank. Its cheap and warm if somewhat different. I told her call the gas guy. So I am standing in the middle of the terminal talking to a guy I know from Ft. Wayne and my phone rings again.

The Gas company won't talk to my wife as its my name on the account. I need to call them myself. I do and they eventually send out a truck. Gas will be on when I get home. I board my flight to Columbus, a MD-80. I hope we get off early as I hope to make my son's second game. The first game he got to by calling the opponent and asking one of them to drive and my dad agreed to pick him up and take him to the rink near the airport where I will take him home. I land in Columbus and get to the rink to find the game had ended. Oh well. The house will be warm and I am super tired having only gotten 2.5 hours of sleep.

When I get home the house is at 60 degrees. Calamity ensues as i try to figure out what's wrong. Lots of phone calls to the gas company and the HVAC company later the house is now 57 degrees. I am so tired at this point I just don't care and we all hunker down in the master bedroom for a night of camping in sleeping bags. When we wake up its 50 degrees. It turns out the burner did go bad....

So Then I came down with a horrible URI that had ben going around and I had a fever of 102 for a few days. It was really as sick as I've been in a while. The hard part was getting back to the regular grind.

Frudochs team won their first game in the championship and then lost to the Islanders and the Blues about 18 hours apart and they were out. A very disappointing end to the season for the only team to beat the islanders this year. We did go watch some of the playoffs although Fru thought they should have been there. Unfortunately the team played like individuals instead of a team. Lesson learned. Poppy finished her season playing full ice games and even got to join the Orange Crush for a full ice game an hour before her teams final game. Poppy was named player of the game for her play with the Orange Crush.

At the year end banquet both kids got awards for a great season. Frudoch getting a medal and Poppy a trophy. A load of pizza and pepsi too!. Last weekend the season came to an end with games in Athens Ohio for Poppy and Cleveland for Frudoch. I'll pick the story up there shortly with some photos.

Next....

So we returned from the tournament in Detroit and the first thing I heard was a really weird noise coming from my sump pump. I'll get around to that after Vegas I said to myself. I had 2 days and a million things to do. Poppy had her tournament final game at 7:30am at Chiller Easton. Nothing like having to wake up at o dark thirty on a holiday day off. So we went out and watched the CAHA team get handled not only by the other team, but the parents that were working the clock.


Well the game was fun, but decidedly one sided as the other team plays full ice vs. our half ice. Since these games were full ice and this one on Olympic ice it was hard to cover so much open ice. So after the game it was announced that all players were getting tickets to that nights Columbus Blue Jackets game against Dallas. Now I had so much to do with a trip coming on Wednesday morning, but Poppy earned it and I took her and as always she appeared on the Jumbotron with several of her teammates. We had fun. When I got home I heard that noise again.....

Please stay tuned. SO MUCH to tell and its getting late. Several more posts tomorrow.

Hockeytown

So I'm up in Detroit for a few days for what else? A hockey tournament. While the NHL team from up here went down to our town Columbus and guess what happened. The Jackets beat the RedWings 3-2. Awesome. Except for the fact we could not find any place to watch it up here. Hockeytown my ass. The hotel is nice, but is SOOOOO LOUD. The pool is in an atrium and the rooms overlook it. Nobody could sleep and it showed in this mornings game. A 2-0 loss to Pittsburgh. Its going to take alot more for Frudoch to get a trophy here. Add to that there is no free wifi. $9.99 for 24 hours and no free breakfast. Bummer. WE are across the street from Detroit Metro Airport, but you can't see anything because of the snow. Double bummer. When we get back home I turn around and head out west for the SCCA National Convention so hopefully the weather is nice. Cross your fingers for Frudoch and Poppy who is also playing this weekend for a team called the Blue Chill in the Chiller House Mite Tournament. Go Blue Chill and Go North Stars.

Another Weekend Another Spectacular Goal

Well he did it again. Frudoch had a couple games and scored a couple more goals. The goal in the second game was absolutely amazing. It was a deflection off a hard shot that was exactly as its supposed to go, but rarely does. You've seen the type--In an NHL game. Frudoch was so excited he did a happy dance across the ice. The crowd was roaring. It sealed the win. A win over the Islanders who were playing their last game of the season. To that point in time they had not lost. Now they know what its like. And we got to see the happy dance.


SCOREBOARD

Goals Goals and More Goals. A goalie too!

We had another busy hockey weekend and it was fun fun fun. Poppy had 2 games and Frudoch had but 1. But what a game it was. Poppy had a really good game on Saturday with a couple goals and lots of heads up play. Sunday morning she took her stint as goalie again and once again was tough. She let a few through, but her team did a great job of scoring goals and playing defense. In fact one of her teammates who does not like girls told me that she plays goalie really well(for a girl). He also thought she was the best girl goalie around. High praise indeed. we returned a few hours later for Frudoch's game and he got off to a fast start with a couple goals in the first period. He worked hard trying to get that elusive third goal for the rest of the game and came close several times before finally(!) getting that third goal for the hat trick! His game was much more physical and he stayed with it as several team members were not able to play so the shifts were long. Now we have 2 games next weekend for him and a game for poppy before both go to tournaments the following weekend. For the season its about 15 goals. From the same kid that struggled to get one all of last year. Its a good feeling.