It’s officially Day 1 of my eight week challenge. It excites me that eight weeks from today I’ll be leaving on a jet plane for sunny beaches. Ideally it will be right when Calgary gets slammed with a freak snow storm — that just makes vacation that much more enjoyable.
Today is hump day and while I won’t be including that kind of sweat and physical activity in my details, it did start off my challenge in a memorable way in the form of a game of street hockey. At work I was volun-told that I was playing street hockey with other members of my department. It originally started out as a casual game of pickup between a few guys about four months ago. Before long it caught on and turned into a league complete with divisions, playoffs, a trophy and even a commissioner that oversees the league. I figured that it was a unique way to break up the day, add some sweat and extra physical activity in my day.
When game time came I quickly realized I hadn’t picked up a hockey stick in probably 20 years. Growing up I never played hockey other than with the neighbours out front of my parents house; usually in the cold of a Winnipeg winter on the street. Occasionally there were some warmer season games, but I just didn’t get out there much.
We lost the game and it was evident that I need some more work on my hockey skills. Red Green always used to say “keep your stick on the ice” at the end of his show and so my stick was on the road. What he also needed to say was “keep your head up” — yeah, that would be some good advice. Thankfully it’s not a highly competitive physical game.
