The weather around here is messed. There probably aren’t too many places in the world that within the span of a couple of days you can go from it being -20 celsius to now a balmy 13 celsius. That’s a 33 degree swing in temperature. Safe to say this thaw totally wiped out the beautiful skating rink Howard and I had built in the backyard. How frustrating. It took countless hours to get a decent skating surface with a few setbacks along the way. We started about a week and a half before Christmas with a goal of being able to skate on Christmas Day. Weather didn’t work with us and it wasn’t until just before New Year’s Day that it was solid and skatable. All the kids came over and skated on it, yet I never got to skate on it when it was ready since I was sick the first couple of days. I figured I would be able to use the ice Friday night, only to find myself struck by a new ailment, which I will assume was the avian flu. I’m feeling better today, but now the rink is entirely gonzo. Shitty.

This was something I was really hoping to do since I got a load of hockey gear for Christmas this year. I’ve long had the aspiration to start playing hockey, even though I’ve never played any form or organized hockey and can only marginally skate. Corina, her parents and my parents all got me various awesome gear. I only need to buy shoulder pads and a neck guard and I should be ready to skate. Now it seems I’m actually going to have to play. It’s weird with far off dreams. You talk about them for the longest time, but when they arrive it’s a little frightening. I’ve never suited up and skated in pads, so this will be a totally new experience. The backyard rink was ideally going to allow me to get some skating and practice in without being thrown into a game, but that plan is pretty much scuttled.