Remininici, Renimis, Reminiss, Thinking Back
2008-04-02, 12:55 p.m.

Day 1320

OK so it�s reminiscing. I was just having a little fun. After all, I WAS the WCCS 3rd and 4th grade spelling champ back in um, 19 � something. I think there might be a 6 involved.

Speaking of old � I actually sent in my AARP registration this morning. Something like $30 for 3 years. We�ll see if we can rack up any savings in travel expenses or insurance or any of the other myriad things they claim. If I don�t get my $30 back in savings, it�ll be sayonara to them.

Heard some guys at the coffee pot talking about their kids playing hockey. How they needed a mini van to haul around the equipment (you don�t � a Taurus wagon worked just fine for us), the smell (adolescent boys and the stench of their gear!!! There�s an industry built around de-stinking their pads.) and playing with girls. Apparently one of the guys had a daughter playing hockey on a boys team at the house level. She was good enough that the girls at that level really didn�t challenge her.

Wish I�d stayed around to hear how old she was, but you can only stir your coffee so long. My guys had experience playing hockey with girls in several different age brackets. The younger ones, say up to 12 years old, aren�t too bad. After that? Size & testosterone are just too much for the gals to overcome, unless they are VERY special indeed.

I recall one girl in particular, played for the Batavia Boys Bantam A squad. Bantams are 13 � 15 years old I think. Full contact is allowed. Banging shoulders, scrumming in the corners, hip checks, the works. Boys are really hitting their big growth spurts, putting on muscle, thinking about sprouting whiskers. A lot of girls are nearly done with the height and bone mass growth by then. Physics just isn�t working in their favor.

Anyhow. This girl played a forward position. Zach was playing defense at the time. Early on in the game, he figured out that the person wearing the #8 jersey was of the female persuasion. I think the pony tail helped there. Well, little miss #8 was being all kinds of aggressive, forcing play, trying to out work the laws of physics.

For about a period and a half, Zach really didn�t know how to handle her. She was a decent sized gal, 5� 6�, maybe 130lbs or so, but at 15 Zach was already pushing 6� and 170. He was trying to be a gentleman and just sort of squeeze her off to the boards and gently ride her off the puck. He was being pretty successful at it. Miss #8 was starting to take offense at Zach�s level of defense. By the middle of the 2nd period she was getting extremely frustrated. You could see her starting to run her mouth, maybe talking some trash, trying to get under our D�s skin. At one point, she resorted to a little behind the play cross checking action on Zach. To his credit, he just skated away, in spite of the ref�s not really seeing what happened. She should have been assessed a penalty for what she did, but she was smart enough to do it while the ref�s were following the play up the ice.

Miss #8 kept up the sparring. Early in the 3rd (& final period) Miss #8 was skating up the boards on a 2 on 2 break. Her centerman passed the puck over to her and drove to the net. Zach saw the play, moved outside and picked his cut off angle. He caught Miss #8 clean with his hip and pinched her hard against the boards. I don�t think he plowed directly into her, but he did get her up off her skates and bounce her into the boards pretty firmly. After caroming off the boards, she hit the ice rather anti-daintily (like a wet rag) and slid to a stop. Zach retrieved the puck, passed it over to his defense mate and cruised to their bench as the ref blew the whistle for a T. O.

No penalty. Clean hit, well within the rules for boys hockey. Miss #8 did get up and off the ice under her own power, but she stopped giving Zach shit for the rest of the game. I think after that she understood a little more clearly what 6 extra inches, 40 lbs and a bunch more strength can deliver. Poor kids. I felt bad for them both. She shouldn�t have been playing against boys at that age. Zach shouldn�t have been put in the position of deciding if he should play hockey like he knew he should, or if he should not hit girls, like his parents taught him. That was the last time either of my boys had to tangle with girls on the ice � except for the one girl that tried out for goalie for the high school team. She learned that slap shots from 6�2�, 200 lb guys are a helluva lot faster & harder than anything a high school girl can crank at her. She made the team, but the only game time she got was on Senior night. She played the third period of the final game of her senior year. Whoopdee.

Spin class this morning. Pedaling with Patty. Girl has a sense of humor � and horrible taste in music. The windows of our spin studio face east. This morning, we got a gorgeous view of the crescent moon as it rose above the horizon. The air was cold & crystal clear. Really provided a spectacular back drop. The sense of humor (and horrible taste in music) part kicked in at about 6:15 � 45 minutes into class. There was a rosy glow starting to appear on the horizon as the sun was preparing to make it�s entrance. What song pops up on Patty�s mix CD? Harry Belafonte singing Day-O! �Daylight come and me wan go home�. I am sooooo tired of that song. Unfortunately, every time I hear it, I am unable to resist the compulsion to sing along with the bass part during the chorus. My voice just falls right into the lower range and it makes such a pleasing rumble in my chest, getting to sing the nice low notes like that. Not loud � oh no. Can�t have my spin buddies hearing me actually enjoying a song I profess to abhor. But it�s that bass line. I can�t NOT sing along. This morning the timing was oddly appropriate too, so props to Patty for slipping it in. Don�t know if it was intentional, but it was pretty slick.

Well, whadaya know? We got some big lead lined (we do a lot of x-ray kind of stuff here) storage cabinets here at work. Twin cabinets. Had a contest to name them. Our secretary promised fabulous prizes to the naming contest winner.

Did I submit some names? You bet I did. My submissions included Castor & Pollux, Romulus & Remus, Jekyl & Hyde, my personal fave Boris & Natasha, and in a nod to the x-ray folks, Roentgen & Curie. Amongst others.

Just got an email from the secretary. The board picked the winners. Roentgen & Curie came in second. The winner? Ann(ode) and Cath(ode). Great names. Not even thought up by a sparky! (electrical kinda guy).

Apparently, even second place gets a fabulous prize, so I have to trot off to see the secretary and see what she�s got. Man, I hope it isn�t another one-time-use camera. A polo shirt from last years golf tournament would be nice. One can only hope. I�ll go see and report back. Hold on . . .

Hey, not bad for 2nd place. Got 2 $5 vouchers for our cafeteria. That�ll cover a couple of lunches if I stay away from the salad bar. Speaking of lunch, it�s over, I�d better run . . .

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