Category — Hobbies

Well the Hockey Season in Canada has begun. So without further ado, you are true Canadian if get a real laugh out of this:

TOP TEN REASONS HOCKEY IS BETTER THAN SEX
10. It’s legal to play hockey professionally.
9. The puck is always hard.
8. The protective equipment is reusable, and you don’t even have to wash it.
7. It lasts a full hour.
6. You know you’re finished when the buzzer goes off.
5. Your parents cheer when you score.
4. A two-on-one or three-on-one is not uncommon.
3. Periods last only 20 minutes.
2. You can count on it at least twice a week.
1. You can tell all of your friends about it afterward.

On a similar note, the beginning of the hockey season also means that I will be busy assisting the Kamloops Minor Hockey Officials. Check out the Web Page Kamloops Referees. This year, as in the past few years I help with the on ice development of the New and Level 1 Officials. What this involves is an on ice shdaow and then a written report/evaluation to help them improve their skills as officials. We work on the basic positions and procedures toi be an effective referee. For the most part these are very positive experiences for the new official and myself…… it’s great fun to watch the young ref’s improve after a little bit of coaching and support. I always remember my very first game and my first on ice evaluation. My first hockey game was an Inititation “D” at Brock Arena and the other referee was Nick Swaine who is now a linesman in the WHL. I expect Nick will one day be an NHL Official, he’s a very good hockey official. My first on ice shadow/evaluation was done my Steve Kozari. At that time Steve was a WHL referee and now he is a full time referee in the NHL. Actually I ran into Steve in the Vancouver Air Canada lounge and we reminisced about the on ice shadow/evaluation and our time together in the Kamloops Minor Hockey system. The really cool part is that the invited me to visit the officials room if I was ever at an NHL game where he is officiating. More about refereeing and hockey as the season goes on.

Last night was our second game of curling this season. We ended up losing by 1 point as the other team stole 2 points in the 8th end, so that kind of sucked as we had “the hammer”, but none of us threw any good shots in the final frame. We had a lot of fun, a few laughs and we feel we certainly did a lot better.

As far as golf my last two games have been very interesting. Thursday I shot an 87 which is pretty good, however it does not help to get my handicap index any lower. Still had a few laughs and a lot of fun with my regular golfing buddies. Today ( Friday) I shot a 78 which is outstanding. The most interesting part was I started with a double bogie and ended with a double bogie and still shot a 78! After entering this score my index is down to a 9.8, so I have achieved a goal I set at the start of the season and that was to get into a single index factor by year end. The fun part and challenge will be retaining this low index factor.

My last two games of Golf have been much better. Friday I shot an 84 and today I shot an 82 and my index is down to a 10.4 handicap factor. It would be really nice to end the season in single digits, however that may be tough to do and right now I am focusing on eliminating the bad shots and still enjoying myself.

Last Thursday was my first night of Mens’ League Curling. I decided to take up the sport as an activity for the winter. I have joined the McArthur Island Curling Club with Rick P., his son-in-law Randy P. and our skip David L.

Rick was unable to make the first night so my golfing buddy Al J. spared for us; Al is a great curler and was very helpful for my first real serious attempt at curling. I believe we were playing last years Men’s League Champions and they were great curlers and great guys to curl against; easy to get along with and helpful for us newbies. We lost badly and shook hands after 6 ends, but we had some laughs and learned a lot, so we will only get better. I’ll provide updates through out the season .

We went fishing on Sunday at Pinantan and basically got blown off the lake. Actually we got on the lake and drifted to the east end of the lake and as we were turning to head up wind I caught a fish; which we released. But at least I got a chance to use my new fishing rod and it’s going to be great. Then we paddled hard and worked our butts off to get back down the lake to the west end. After that we paddled back and forth across the lake which made it a lot more pleasant, plus the wind died down so it wasn’t too bad. We had a few bites but none of them were that hungry. So, we had a lunch on the water and then headed home.

On Saturday I golfed with Dave and Ley and shot a 83………. not too bad but those stupid doubles take the fun out of the round. Today (Monday) I golfed with Dave and Bart and had a career round going until the 17th and 18th hole. The foursome in front of us was “PAINFULLY SSSSLLLOOOWWW” and I got myself worked up. Anyway, I lost focus and ended us taking double bogies on both holes. I still finsihed with an 81; but it could have been a 77. My index factor is at an 11.7 which I am pretty happy with.

 Well I decided it was about time that I got going and published a blog.  So here it is! Wednesday’s from May through till September, I go Dragon Boating in a Recreational League.  It is a really fun thing to do in the summer in Kamloops.  This past Wednesday was a warm but not too hot day and about 6:45 pm we headed upstream paddling hard and doing drills along the way.  About 45 minutes upstream we headed over to check out a beaver lodge and then turn around and head downstream, unfortunately we didn’t see the beaver but instead lots of little fingerling fish jumping around his lodge.  Along the way we regularly see the Osprey Family and lots of geese and goslings so it is pretty neat.  We also go by lots of houses, a Motel and a Restaurant so there is always someone to wave at (as long as our leader doesn’t have us doing drills).  Dragon Boating is a good workout for pretty much your whole body, legs to brace yourself, your core for getting power into the stroke and of course your arms with the paddling.  Anyway, I have included a few pictures from last year (haven’t taken any from this year yet).

Fun on the water 

Dragon Boating friends-Helen and Sue

Well since the start of the golf season and the start of my retirement vacation, my Golf Index has been rapidly dropping. I started the year at a 16.8 Index which translates into about a 16-17 handicap depending on the course slope rating and all that other golfing technical stuff. I played quite a few games immediately after going on vacation but have backed off a bit with suite renovations, trips to Victoria, Calgary, Vancouver Island, Vancouver and Princeton. So right after I got home this week I went out on Thursday (after my dentist appointment) and without expecting too much I played Sun Rivers and shot a 79. It was a bit of an up and down round but you can’t complain about the final result. The scary part is that it could have easily been a 75-76, the greens were like putting on the hardwood kitchen floor….. super fast and it took a few holes to get used to them. Then today I golfed at my home course Eagle Point and shot an 82, another up and down round. But as Walter Gretzky would say (when people complained how Wayne would score goals from the odd angles and back of the net); “they don’t ask how they ask how many”. I just need to stop taking those 1 or 2 double bogies at some point during the round. So, after all the scores have been entered my updated handicap index is an 11.2 or a 12 Handicap. I am really happy with that and am working to get it lower over the next couple weeks. I’ll provide updates as I go.