The love of Pond Hockey

Man, I never realized how much I loved hockey till I started playing it outoors again. We have this little rec. *league* that plays on weekends. There's usually between 8-15 people on any given Sunday. We play on Shallow Bay, just off of Lake Laberge, and it is always a freakin' blast! It also brings me back to the good ol' childhood days- playing outdoors, (thanks for those outoor rinks dad!!), and exhausting (thus, endangering) yourself because you're too stupid to stop when tired. Nothing beats the feeling after a 3-hour game played outside in -20C (I wish I had my camera to take pictures of our Michelin Man outfits or the faces with red cheeks and frosty eyelashes). Add that exhaustion to the game of "watch-out-for-the-ice-cracks-so-you-don't-snap-an-ankle, and it makes for entertaining, yet oddly skillful hockey. Other than a few bumps and bruises, one person slightly twisting her ankle, an accidental full-on body check (which was AWESOME to watch by the way!!!) everything went smooth. I scored two goals, thanks to brilliant passes, but we don't even really keep track...except of course for your OWN goals. Those are bloody important!! Then to end the game we always have a best of 3. Well, we were so freakin' tired, it ended up being a best of 1, since the end-to-ends were killing us. Doesn't help that the rink is gigantic... so the other team scored on our superstar 9-yr old goalie, Rory... who was bummed, despite his numerous acrobatic stops earlier.

As a bonus, I had the brilliant idea to ski over to the bay (which is only a km away or so), thinking I'd snag a ride home via snowmachine with a neighbor... but she didn't show up! Doh! Bummer. That ski home was more like a "shuffle" home with the rubbery-spaghetti legs.

Oh! There was also some yahoos filming a Pontiac commercial out on the bay! They were out there for days, driving in circles around us.... so watch for it sometime soon. Those wimpos had about 4 tents and food set up and.... gasp!.... PortaPotties!!!!