Go loser Sens go.

Pic 654
PETA seal

December 14, 2009

Two years ago:
Pic 302
Queensway at Rochester

December 14, 2008

Pic 303
Parking lot

December 14, 2008

Or is it? I don’t really know that much about Ottawa. I’m not from here. This is one of the ruined buildings you see from the Chaudière Bridge. Booth Street.

I looked up the bridge on Wikipedia. It leapfrogs across several islands: Chaudière, Victoria, Philemon. I’m pretty sure the abandoned buildings belong to Domtar. And they used to be part of the Eddy match factory.

Ha! I remember Eddy matches. My dad used to carry them around in his shirt pocket to light his smokes. They were called Eddy Strike Anywhere matches, and my dad would indeed strike them anywhere. Usually on the underside of tabletops. I think they’re against the law now.

Local poet and writer Rob McLennan knows quite a bit about Ottawa. He’s written a book called Ottawa: The Unknown City, and he posts photos and info about Ottawa places on his facebook pages.

I’ve never met McLennan so I’m not one of his facebook friends, but the album of photos is open; it’s at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=49476&id=518921687.

The Senators

Here is my annual hockey commentary:
Oh, brother! What a bunch of losers.

Liberal leadership

Probably Ignatieff, although his reptilian smile is starting to creep me out. I prefer Bob Rae but I don’t think people will forgive him for Rae Days. (But I do.)

I don’t know anything about the other guy, Dominic LeBlanc. But knowing the Libs and how they like to focus on spite and bile and warm feelings of “anybody but that guy,” I suspect he has more than an even chance of coming up the middle like Dion did. So he had better be good.

But I’m still predicting Ignatieff.

Favourite blog post of the moment

What a concept!!

Nik, a portrait painter, asks James to explain his government’s complicated scuttling of the portrait gallery. To demonstrate his bona fides, Nik includes a portrait of James.

It’s good too. I love Nik’s portraits.

This picture represents springtime, because the leaf is in the mud instead of the ice. But not everyone likes pictures of leaves, no matter where they are.

Here’s a little doggie. I call this one A dog’s life.

Here’s one more picture. I shouldn’t be using up three pictures in one day, but none of them are prize winners or anything. This is called Glove.

Anyway I’m quite certain that spring is coming to Ottawa tomorrow, and then all my snow pictures will be outdated.

Too bad the loser Sens aren’t going to make the playoffs. I’m looking forward to reading the shocking headline in the morning paper.

Team quits and gives back all the money

“We’re sorry,” former players say. “We don’t really know how to play the game, and we have a terrible attitude. We just fall apart at the first sign of trouble.”

“Good riddance,” former fans reply.

“I don’t know what we were thinking,” former players add. “We never deserved all that money.”

I don’t want to watch a team whose goalie wears diamond earrings and drives a Hummer. Give me a break!

Now what? I guess I could choose another team to root for, one more worthy of my affections. But unless they were the Toronto Maple Leafs – which is unlikely, as the Maple Leafs are even lazier and more overpaid – it would be hard to find their games on the telly.

I need a new enthusiasm. But what could it be?

I’m open to suggestions.

Approaching Scotiabank Place

Hockey fans crossing the road

It costs $11 to park. This is after you’ve already bought a ticket. It began to dawn on me that hockey is actually about money.

I was shocked. Shocked I say!

$11 parking

Lots of people wear Senators jerseys to games. Know how much they cost?

Beer tent

Referee on stilts

Our seats were in the second-last row on the corner. I got a nosebleed. The players looked like tiny red and white ants.

Ants

Good thing I had a camera with a zoom lens. Here’s where I zoomed in on Martin Gerber and the rest of the guys during the pre-game warmup.

Warmup

I like Martin Gerber. He’s quiet and unassuming, not like that other guy – the one that drives the Hummer.

They had an 11-year-old girl singing the national anthems. I was disappointed not to get to see OPP constable Lyndon Slewidge. Maybe it was national kids’ day or something like that.

Slewidge

Kid

I don’t think 11-year-old kids should be encouraged to take on adult roles, such as singing the anthem at big-league sporting events, because they can’t really sing and it’s embarrassing. But that’s just me.

Devils goalie Martin Brodeur

Spartacat

When the game started I was surprised to learn that there isn’t any play-by-play at a real game. It was eerily quiet in there. They tried to liven it up by posting instructions on the jumbotron.

Jumbotron

I rely on the play-by-play when I’m watching a game on TV. I only look up when the announcer starts yelling that somebody scored. Then I catch the replay. None of that is possible at a real game. You have to try to identify the tiny ants by the numbers they have on their sweaters.

You can also take a longer view and observe the patterns of play over the whole ice surface, which is something you can’t do on TV. That was amusing for certain periods of time, but at other times my attention wandered.

Crowd

In between periods, where at home you get Don Cherry or the Hot Stove League, I was expecting an elaborate variety show with glamorous dancers covered in sequins. On skates. Maybe Céline or Shania.

Not so. At a real game you get zambonis and Spartacat. Little kids ride on the zamboni and wave at the crowd. I think they won a contest to get to do that.

The zamboni is actually an ad for Canadian Tire. I was shocked. Shocked!

Zamboni

In the second intermission I thought it might be time for the glamorous dancers, but instead they had some kind of race with guys dressed as hockey pucks.

Hockey pucks

For most of the game it seemed like an easy win for the Senators. They went up 2-0 right away, and it looked as if they could easily hold the lead, but the Devils came on strong in the 3rd. So that was pretty exciting. And Chris Neil got into a fight.

Hockey action with Heatley and Spezza

Well, we won. We beat the Devils 4-2. Alfredsson put it away with an empty-net goal in the last minute. I didn’t get a picture.

Here’s the team congratulating Martin Gerber for another victory, his fourth in a row. I don’t see how they can bring back that noisy egotistical guy when the quiet and steady Gerber is playing so well. And he doesn’t drive a Hummer.

No Hummer

It took quite awhile to get out of the arena, and then out of the parking lot, and then out of Kanata, but I was expecting that. We weren’t in a hurry.

I’m glad I went, but in general I’d have to say that I didn’t really get it. I guess I’d go again if the seats were a bit closer. (A lot closer.) And if it wasn’t in the afternoon, and if it wasn’t national kids’ day, and if the hated Maple Leafs were playing instead of the not-specially-hated New Jersey Devils.

Next time I’d probably try and get the game on the radio and have it in my headphones while I was watching the real game. Maybe I’d bring a laptop so I could do a bit of web surfing while I was watching. Then it would be just like not being there.

The election

I’m voting Green this time. Here’s how I feel about it:

1. I vote for the party, not the candidate. I’m not interested in the personality of the candidate.

2. The mainstream parties have had their chance. I want new ideas, fresh thinking, real engagement.

3. The NDP is now an old-line party. I don’t see fresh thinking there.

That leaves the Greens. Let’s give them a chance, try to get a couple of them elected, get them into the debates, hear their voice. It’s about time.

I’ll be voting for Greg Laxton of the Green Party. You should too :)

MMP

Mixed Member Proportional. Yes, of course. It will benefit the smaller parties, and that will be good for democracy. Here’s some info about it.

Hockey

Sens all the way!

Hallowe’en

Facebook Scrabble

I’m through with complaining about how slowly people play. Now I think it’s up to each player to start as many games as they need in order to maintain the pace that they like. I find that if I play 35-45 games at once, it will quite often be my turn in one of them.

Stéphane Dion

I told you so.

Fires

None this week. An order has been issued to tear down the abandoned houses on my street within 30 days. That will be a big change, and I don’t really welcome it; but it’s too late to save the houses. We can’t keep having fires.

It’s shocking when a blogger gets blogged. Thanks for the photo Sarah Naegels.

A real gone cat

The ship of state has sailed

All for now, over and out.

I wasn’t going to blog it unless Ottawa scored. Well, they did. Now it’s 2-1 Anaheim in the second period.

Alfredsson scored the goal. The Anaheim crowd boos him every time he touches the puck, just like the Toronto crowd does. Pretty funny. He’s such a mild-mannered candidate for most hated player.

I’ll update the score now and then, unless it turns into an Anaheim rout. Then I probably won’t bother.

Oh-oh, Anaheim scored again. But Phillips put it in his own net! What could be sadder than that?

3-1 Anaheim.

And seconds later, Anaheim again. 4-2 Anaheim at the second intermission.

Quack. Final score 6-2 Mighty Anaheim Ducks. They were the better team.

I’m $52 richer. There is some pressure to take the office out for beers with the combined $104, but my co-winner and I are resisting. We both thought we might use our $52 to get something for ourselves instead. What do you think?

First period

The Senators are dramatically outplaying the Ducks. Anaheim looks lost on defence without their big man, Chris Pronger, and they keep taking penalties. But the Sens can’t seem to score. Please score!

Oh-oh, Sens are getting too fancy. Behind-the-back passes. This could be a big mistake. Keep it simple! And score!

Home-town girl Alanis Morrisette sang the anthems. She had on a Sens jersey, so there’s no doubt about her sympathies. (Not that I think there’s anything wrong with the usual anthem guy, OPP constable Lyndon Slewidge, he of the operatic baritone and the Dickensian name.)

Alanis

The Sens really have to score before they start to lose their intensity. Now they have another power play with just a couple of minutes left in the 1st period.

Alfie scores! Less than a second left in the period! It’s 1-0 Sens.

Other stuff

I started thinking about moving again, this time because of the gas fumes from the PetroCan on the corner. I didn’t used to notice them much, but now I do. I don’t know if they’re worse than they used to be or if I’ve become sensitized to them.

It doesn’t seem like I’m that close to the gas station because my house is around the corner from it, but this photo shows that it actually touches my back yard on the diagonal. Circled is the apartment behind mine.

But I didn’t give notice on the 1st of June. Maybe they’ll shut down the Petro-Can. They have that new gasoline palace at Bronson and Gladstone, and it doesn’t look like they’re doing much maintenance on this one. Look how shoddy the sign is getting. I’d rather have the gas station go away than me have to move.

Second period

Hmm, Ducks look a lot better. They were so close to scoring that it hurt to see it. I hate this! Now Chris Neil has taken a penalty so it’s a Ducks power play. They look like a different team. It’s a good thing I have on my gladiator helmet or I’d be getting upset.

Sens please score! And keep killing penalties! Oh another penalty, now to Chris Phillips. (Sigh)

Ducks score. Tie game. Now I can’t even look.

Ducks score! 2-1 Anaheim. Oh my. Both goals were scored within one minute and both by the same guy, Andy MacDonald.

Sens score!! Game tied 2-2 late in the second! It was Heatley, finally.

Flower pics

Here are some soothing flower pictures. First the community garden at Bronson and Laurier. An Indian family and an Asian man were tending their gardens on Saturday. It made me feel good to see them, especially the family, so busy and scrubbed and earnest.

This is just a bit of bush next to the gardens. Amazing how jungly it can be right in the city. That’s a pretty hot corner for development so I don’t know if it can last much longer.

Here’s some more wall art at the technical high school. I just realized what this is – it’s puke!

Here are some flowers.

Period 3

Here we go again. Both teams are pretty feisty now. I’ll be surprised if there isn’t a hockey brawl in one of these games.

Ducks score. 3-2 Ducks. Only 6 minutes left. Ducks are clogging up the centre of the ice so the Sens can’t get in. I’m not optimistic about this game.

The city

This lock is securing the fence at the technical high school.

Mystery sign. What could it mean? This one seems so obvious that it’s right on the tip of my tongue, but I can’t get it. Does it have something to do with conjoined twins? Water dowsing?

The ivy-covered wall is at Ottawa U. Here’s another one.

And another.

This is on Sparks St. It’s a light fixture in a window. Some days everything looks good to me.

The end of the game

Two minutes left. Dum-ta-dum-ta-dum-ta-dum. Not lookin’ good, nope… They’re having a time out. Looks like they’ll pull Emery. Dum-ta-dum-ta-dum-ta-dum… One minute… 10 seconds…

Anaheim wins. They lead the series 3 games to 1. Game 5 is in Anaheim on Wednesday.

The anthems

In game one they had Sixties relic Steven Stills (Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young) performing the US anthem. It was truly horrible.

Stills in better days

Tonight the US anthem was more conventional, but Toronto jazz singer Holly Cole got the call for Oh Canada. It was… audacious ;)

Cole. Not at the rink.

The matchup

The Ducks are BIG. This is hard to take for a nervous fan like me. They look like they are all a foot taller than every Senator. They look like the Senators’ big brothers showing them how to play the game. They are also fast and tenacious.

The Sens are holding their own, but I think they are going to have to find a way to take control of the tempo and switch it to their usual faster pace. Right now the Ducks seem overwhelming, but it doesn’t show on the scoreboard, so I’m not giving up yet.

Multitasking

Meanwhile, I’ve been uploading some videos to YouTube. They are from a day in January, 1989, at a cafe I used to have in Bancroft called Paradise Lunch. The quality of the videos is pretty poor, but I like the slice of history that they represent.

Those were good times. You could get anything you wanted at Paradise Lunch… such as an enormous hamburger and a special Coke. If you are interested, you could go on Facebook and check out a group called “Paradise Lunch Regulars.” Or else search YouTube for the tag “Paradise_Lunch.”

Second period

This is so nerve-wracking, I don’t know why I even bother with it. And I’m not even that absorbed in it. I have a TV next to my computer so I can multitask. I usually miss seeing the goals, but I hear the crowd yelling and then I catch the replay.

As well as creating and uploading videos from 1989, I’m writing this blog entry.

I have a bad habit of posting more than one entry in a day, usually on the weekend. I should hold some of them back so I’d have something to post on other days. I feel that my regular readers, of whom there are a (very) few, expect more regular updates. I want them all to have a good time and come back!

I know this blog is sort of an odd duck. It doesn’t quite know what it wants to be. Lately it’s more of a photo blog than anything else, although it’s not one of those “picture a day” blogs. I just love taking pictures, and then I like choosing one and trying to pep it up in Lightroom so it’s as good as I can get it. After that I want to post it big because I’m proud of it.

I used to do more writing on here, but lately I prefer to post pictures. (Except for right now during Hockey Night in Anaheim.) I’m kind of tired of writing. I write for a living – software instructions.

Not sure I have much to say anyway. At my advanced age I have already said it all. ;) When I do write on this blog it’s usually this kind of chatty writing you are reading now, which is more like talking than writing. Other times it’s extended photo captions and wisecracks.

For local blogs that are always full of good writing, I recommend Knitnut.net and Kill Everything.

Oh! Emery is being peppered with shots. He’s saving this game for the Sens. I don’t see how they can stand much more of this.

Photos

I haven’t taken a lot of pictures lately. The weather, too busy, I don’t know.

Sometimes I go out with my wide-angle lens, and usually I’m disappointed. I just don’t “get” that lens. It feels like I waste a day of picture-taking trying to figure it out. Even when I get some good pics with it, I find myself cropping them tighter so in the end the wide-angle effect is minimal.

Ottawa is trying to kill a penalty with 1 1/2 minutes left in the second period. I can’t believe there is still no score.

Here are a couple of flower pics. No big deal, but I think they’re pretty. Flower pics are always pretty.

The reason I don’t mention what kind of flower they are is because I have no idea.

Maple keys in my yard.

Here’s a young woman I surprised. I like this picture but I don’t know why. Just the expression on her face, I guess.

Period 3

Oh, oh, Teemu Selanne almost scored. They are going upstairs for a video review but for sure it’s no goal.

Everybody wants Teemu Selanne to be on a Stanley Cup winner before he retires, even me, and he’s on the other team. He’s just so darn personable.

Selanne

Here’s another picture. This is in the office where I go to write the software instructions. I call it the software mines, heigh-ho!

This is a woman who works in the building across the street from mine. I took it through the window. I hope she had a nice day at work. I’m not sure what they do over there. She’s dressed like a nurse, but I think it’s a spa. Thing is, I don’t know what goes on at a spa.

Oh! This is hopeless. Still no score but Anaheim owns this game.

Here are some clouds out the window at the office.

The end

Guess I’ll call it a night and post this. I might come back with a hockey recap, for those of you who rely on this blog for all your hockey news ;)

I did it again, didn’t I? This is so long it could have been four posts.

While we’re waiting for the bitter end, here are a couple more people I saw out the window.

It’s over. Ducks won. Bye-bye!

True, the Senators are doing really well. Tonight it’s game 5 of the series against the New Jersey Devils, which the Sens are leading 3-1. If they win tonight they will send the Devils packing and move on to the conference final.

It’s tempting to think that they can’t lose, they’re a better team than the Devils, they’re on a roll, blah-blah. But experience teaches that the Senators tend to lose this kind of game. I don’t think I can watch it.

Maybe I’ll watch a movie instead. Now and then I could flip over to the game, and if the score says it’s safe, I might watch for a little while. I could watch with my hands over my eyes.

Why is it so hard to watch these games? Have the Senators come to represent some part of my own psyche? Some fragile, vulnerable part that has a will to fail? That doesn’t come through when the chips are down? That drives a Hummer and gets into a fender-bender on the Queensway and misses its flight to New Jersey? (That was Ray Emery. Please Ray, lose the Hummer, it’s embarrassing.)

Some people point out that there is no reason to be loyal to a bunch of millionaire mercenaries who don’t feel any loyalty to the team or the city. They’re just as likely to chase the money to the highest bidder, like Chara and Havlat did. How true!

Whenever one of those guys plays badly, as all of them will from time to time, I always think they might give back some of the money. Like, when Wade Redden gives the puck away in his own zone, what if he gave back some of his salary? Maybe he’d grab a microphone and humbly apologize for taking the 5 million in the first place. “Heck,” he’d say. “You’d have to be a perfect player to deserve that kind of money. Nobody’s perfect! Here’s $100,000 back.” But it will never happen. Hockey players have no sense of irony. They think they deserve the money.

Oh, it’s starting. How dull our anthem always sounds, compared to the rocket’s red glare. I think I’ll watch… um… some movie… oh, maybe I’ll stay with hockey for a bit. Talk to you later!

New Jersey is coming on strong. Oh no, penalty to Ottawa.

Sometimes people like having their picture taken. You just have to ask. This Ottawa U student was cramming for an exam in Confederation Park.

I’m more used to this kind of reaction. What a couple of sourpusses.

I liked the guy with the umbrella. He looks so well-prepared.

Sometimes this place really looks like Disneyland. This is from the Somerset foot bridge.

There is a contest to name that bridge, but it’s a little late. I saw a petition to name it the “Corktown Bridge,” after the early Irish canal-workers’ settlement, which might have been a good idea if the bridge didn’t already have a name and if there weren’t already a Corkstown Road elsewhere in the city.

Here’s a progress report on the development at Lebreton Flats. Yup, looks like they’re really going to build it.

The drunk building was complaining to the lion. The lion’s heard it all before.

Hockey

I missed Game 5 but I caught the highlights on the news. Go Sens go!

[Final score: 3-0 Senators. Ottawa wins the series over Pittsburgh 4 games to 1]

Joanna Newsom, part 2

I gave “Ys” a try. In my opinion it isn’t good.

Newsom has an inventive imagination and a good ear for a line, but she has no idea what a song is. Stringing a lot (a LOT) of lines together doesn’t make a song, it makes undergraduate doggerel. Her voice would be ok too, if there weren’t so much of it; but she doesn’t leave any spaces for your ear to get a rest.

That sums up my criticism. These songs are just way too crowded. I find it incredible that this CD has done so well. I’m trying to find her first CD, The Milk-Eyed Mender. I have a feeling it might be better. At least it doesn’t have Van Dyke Parks on it. (Parks is responsible for drowning Newsom’s harp in swooshy layers of strings.)

Updated April 22, 2007:
I came upon a fan site called “Milky Moon” that has quotes from Joanna Newsom about this and that. Here’s one:

“I’m not part of some epic, bracelet-clanking, eyes-rolled-back, blase, nihilistic scenester cult or anything.”

Marry, the lady doth protest too much!

The reason I got so interested in Joanna Newsom is because I read a quote in an interview with a musician I admire, someone famous and venerated like Pete Townsend (although I can’t remember who it really was), and they said they were listening to Newsom. Naturally I had to check her out.

Now I’m listening to Danny Michel and Jim Bryson. And Jann Arden’s covers album, “Uncover Me.”

(Sigh) Updated a little later on Sunday, April 22, 2007:

Here’s a video. This is from Newsom’s earlier album Milk-Eyed Mender. I like it more than the songs from Ys. Actually I like it a lot. (I had to right-click, save to my computer to get it to play. It’s in .MOV format.)

I guess I’m really trying to like Joanna Newsom. If so it’s because I think sometimes it’s hard to get something new if you don’t really give it a chance. I don’t want to miss out on something really good.

Here is a list of some things I almost missed out on because I couldn’t stand them the first time I heard them:
1. The Incredible String Band
2. Jimi Hendrix – “Are You Experienced” album
3. Neil Young’s voice
4. Van Morrison’s voice
5. The Wizard of Oz

Joanna Newsom

Joanna Newsom is a 23-year-old musician from San Francisco who plays a full-size concert harp and sings at the same time. The songs are intricate and dense, and very long. There are only five of them on this album.

Her voice is a bit hard to take. You won’t be humming along. Most reviews mention caterwauling and helium, although many of the reviewers like her anyway and this CD has done very well for her.

Newsom has been photographed wearing an animal on her head. What, she’s a warrior princess? Maybe she needs to learn to say no to the marketing department.

So far, I don’t know if I like her or not. I admire her originality. I’ve got her on my iPod in heavy rotation. I think she’ll either grow on me or drive me crazy.

Newsom reminds me of a band from the 60s called The Incredible String Band. They were two guys who performed a kind of pagan backwoods British folk-music-sounding stuff, using weird instruments that they didn’t seem to know how to play. They couldn’t sing either, but I came to love them. Here’s the cover of an album of theirs called The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter.

Christianity

I’m not a Christian. It just seems too complicated to me. If somebody didn’t tell you about it, you’d never guess any of that stuff.

I think if a religion were true it would seem inevitable. Maybe even obvious. Most likely there’d be a thunder god.

But I came across this quote from C.S.Lewis (author of the Narnia books, among others), whose thoughts on this are the opposite of mine:

“That is one of the reasons that I believe in Christianity. It is not a religion you could have guessed. If it offered us just the kind of universe that we have always expected, I should expect that we were making it up. But in fact it is not the sort of thing that anyone could have made up. It just has that queer twist about it that real things have.” -C.S. Lewis

I’m inclined to say “Hmmph.” By that logic you might as well believe in anything, such as Scientology or the tooth fairy. Or gravity! ;)

Hmmph.

Hockey playoffs

It’s a 1-1 tie in the 2nd intermission of game 4 with the Penguins. This one is making me nervous because tonight the Senators don’t look as good.

I hate how they don’t seem to be able to come through with enough grit when it really counts. That’s what everybody says, but maybe it’s true.

During the intermission I zipped over to check out Sanjaya on American Idol. He’s really terrible. Back to hockey!

Oh I hope they win this. I can hardly stand to watch it. The Senators are such a hard team to be a fan of.

Volchenkov scores! 2-1 Ottawa with 10 minutes left to play.

[Final score: 2-1 Senators]

Da hockey

2-1 Ottawa, second period of game 3. This game is in Pittsburgh. The announcers are baby-talking for the benefit of US audiences.

Oh! Alfredsson scores! 3-1 Ottawa.

Eaves is hurt! McAmmond and Talbot are fighting at centre ice! What a spectacle. Now Eaves is going off on a stretcher. My God! They’re sending in lions! The lions are eating the Senators!

Oh, the humanity!

Just kidding. Now it’s period 3 and the Sens have gone ahead 4-1 so things are looking pretty good. Except that these guys have been known to give away bigger leads than that in the 3rd.

[Final: 4-2 Ottawa]

True Husband Confessions revived

John Deau reports that he is trying to revive True Husband Confessions, the erstwhile companion site to True Wife Confessions.

For background, see my posts about True Husband Confessions and True Wife Confessions.

Updated April 25, 2007:

Later I googled “trivium” and learned that in the Goth world, “trivia” doesn’t have anything to do with tidbits of information. This from Wikipedia:

“Trivia in Roman mythology was the equivalent of the Greek goddess Artemis, “goddess of the hunt”, or possibly of Hecate. She was the three-faced deity of those crossroads where three roads came together; her name meant “of the three ways”. At the new moon, Athenians put on lavish entertainments and made sacrifices to her and distributed their gifts to the poor.”

“Trivium” is also, of course, the study of grammar, logic, and rhetoric, which in medieval education formed the basis of a bachelor’s degree, and the name of a death-metal band from Florida.

Hockey update

It’s 2-1 Senators in the second period of game 2 against the Penguins.

I entered a playoff hockey pool at the office. In the world of my hockey pool the Senators not only win this series against the Penguins, they win the whole darn Stanley Cup. So go Sens go!

[Final score: Penguins 4-3]

[Final score: 6-3 Senators]

Gorgeous day. Here’s the shore of Dow’s Lake around noon.

And here’s my old pal The Man With Two Hats. Look at the fear in his eyes… Must have heard a weather report… He’s sent out for more hats…

I’m also a very discerning critic of my favourite radio station, CBC One. And the mayor too.

Since Jason Spezza and Mike Fisher went out with knee injuries, my hockey team has racked up an astonishing 1000 wins and zero losses. Some miserable fans are calling for the dashing twosome to be traded, since the team plays better without them, but I don’t go there. They can come back as long as they fit in and don’t get too cocky. They will probably have to play on a newly-created seventh line with the stick boy and the goalie coach.

As for the CBC, I’m pleased to report that that tedious afternoon program called um… I can never remember what it’s called, featuring um… I can’t remember who’s on it, is being cancelled in mid-March. Yay!

In exchange we’re getting Jian Ghomeshi. I like Jian ok but like the insufferable Brent Bambury, he’s starting to think he’s too cool for life on earth. This cannot be so because as everyone knows, only Watawa life blog is too cool for life on earth.

Thanks to the miracle of multitasking, I’m actually watching a hockey game at this very moment. You couldn’t even tell, could you?

This is a great game. My team, the Sens, are playing another really good Canadian team, the Vancouver Canucks. So far there is no score and they seem very evenly matched. Both teams are demonstrating a knowledge of puck control, responsible D, and sizzling O.

Most people think the Canucks have a better goalie in Roberto Luongo, but I don’t see how it could be true. Roberto is for hairdressers. Goalies should be named Ray like our goalie, Ray Emery.

I don’t know who will win but I think it will be well-deserved. I don’t even care who wins. Vancouver is my home town after all. I just hope they don’t crush us. Be kind Vancouver! Don’t spit in our faces when we’re down.

As for the mayor, the jury is still out. He committed another rookie gaffe by criticizing the city councillors’ work ethic when they voted to call it a day at 7 PM. This business-guy mayor doesn’t seem to get that the councillors don’t actually work for him. And he can’t fire them.

But there’s still not much to say about the mayor until we get a budget. What will he keep? What will he cut? Will you have to take your garbage to the landfill in the trunk of your car? Stay tuned.

Oh-oh, Vancouver has scored! But I’m not downhearted. Maybe we’ll come back.

Oh-oh! They scored again. Now I’m a little bit downhearted.

As for Kathleen Petty on the CBC, I’m getting used to her. At least she’s starting to sound like she’s heard of Pinecrest before. Life goes on, people move, Lucy Van Oldenbarneveld gets to be on TV. I’m sure it’s all ok. But I’m a creature of habit and I liked hearing Lucy on the radio.

Lucy

I like Hallie Cotnam too.

Alfredsson scores! What will happen?

Awww…

I grew up in Burnaby, BC, where there is no natural ice. We played hockey in parking lots and lacrosse boxes wearing running shoes with a tennis ball for a puck. It was fun but the friction with the cement was murder on our sticks.

Lacrosse was much more popular than hockey in my neighbourhood. Lacrosse sticks were beautiful in those days. They were made out of leather and wood. (Nowadays of course they are plastic.)

I wonder in which federal institution Mr. Hatch now resides. If I knew I might send him a postcard.

When I reached high school a few kids were playing hockey on teams down at the arena. Maybe they came from other parts of Canada where they have ice. Anyway I wasn’t into it. We didn’t even watch Hockey Night in Canada at my house. My life went on without hockey.

Later on when I was living in Bancroft, Ontario, I realized that if you weren’t going to go to the Arlington Hotel on a Saturday night, there wasn’t much to do except watch Hockey Night in Canada. I thought my life would be enriched if I could learn to like hockey. So I did. Now I live in Ottawa so I’m a Senators fan.

The Senators

God they are awful this year.

As someone whose hockey credentials are that they have never actually played a game and they have weak ankles, I have a few opinions about this terrible team:

• They never control the puck. They seem to think it will be ok if they allow the other team to control the puck most of the time. Then when they happen to get it, they think they will will launch an explosive attack and score.

  This would be a reasonable plan if only it worked. I think coach Bryan Murray should have taught them puck control.

  The defence is horrible. This team only has one good defenceman, the often-injured Wade Redden. The others (Volchenkov, Meszaros) are works in progress.

  Redden showed up at training camp out of shape and immediately suffered a groin injury. Once he was over that he suffered a chest injury.

  I think Redden let his status as Number 1 defenceman go to his head. He thought he was hot stuff so he didn’t need to work out in the off-season. If I had just been awarded a 6 million dollar contract I probably wouldn’t work out in the off-season either. But I also wouldn’t show up for work. I’d just take the money and run. Maybe I’d go live in Goa.

  This year’s Senators are badly coached and badly managed. They might not even make the playoffs. If I were the owner I’d fire the coach, fire the GM, fire myself, and try and get this thing back on track.

  I might just stop watching. I’m a fair-weather fan anyway. I only like my team if they’re winning.

  The Mayor

  
  Many of the people who voted for Mayor Larry O’Brien did it because he promised a tax freeze. Now the old chromedome says he might not achieve a tax freeze after all. He says that when he promised that, he really just meant he’d try his best to keep the taxes down. He didn’t really mean to ‘promise’ a ‘freeze’. So don’t blame him if taxes go up!

  Mayor Larry should just resign now. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. This is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

  And now for some good news

  
  I like the story about the world’s tallest man saving the dolphins. You can read about it here:
  Man saves dolphins

  At 7’9″, he’s so tall they can hardly even fit him in the picture. I’m so glad he is using his power of tallness for good and not for evil.

  

  ]]> http://www.robink.ca/blog/my-life-in-hockey/feed/ 0 http://www.robink.ca/blog/issues-of-the-day/ http://www.robink.ca/blog/issues-of-the-day/#comments Thu, 09 Nov 2006 06:49:16 +0000 Robin Kelsey http://www.robink.ca/blog/issues-of-the-day/

  The municipal election

  Chiarelli is tired. Time to go. I’d like to see small, earnest, left-leaning, openly gay Alex Munter get a chance.

  
  Alex Munter

  I find Larry O’Brien kind of scary. I think it’s the eyebrows, the pointy ears, and the shaved head.

  
  Pointy-eared chrome-dome Larry O’Brien

  So vote for Munter.

  The O-Train

  The train needs to run east-west. North-south is foolish. Nobody lives there.

  But we should keep the one we’ve got now. It’s useful for Carleton students. And it should be extended across the Ottawa River on the Prince of Wales bridge. That would get some of the Gatineau buses off of Rideau Street.

  O-Train updated, November 12:

  Eureka! I’ve solved the problem of how to get the trains through downtown without a tunnel. We run them on the Sparks Street Mall.

  This so-called “mall” has been a lame duck since day 1. There have never been very many pedestrians on it. Businesses complain that they can’t make it there because shoppers can’t get there by car or public transit. Now there is hardly anything there except for tawdry tourist shops. Nobody lives there. The best thing about it is the CBC.

  I propose running two LRT tracks down the middle of the Sparks Street Mall. There would still be room for sidewalks. This would solve every problem: It would get the trains off of Slater and Albert, and it would revitalize Sparks Street. Shoppers would be able to get to the businesses and not only that, it would draw walkers, because people love to look at trains!

  Is this brilliant or what? Maybe I’ll write a letter to the editor about it.

  Afghanistan

  
  Get out now. We’re fighting on the wrong side. Let the Taliban have it.

  Iraq

  
  Same as Afghanistan. Get out.

  The Sens

  
  Fire the coach. If your kid’s entire third-grade class fails math, do you blame the kids or the teacher?

  Fire Muckler. We could have still had Chara, Hossa, and Havlat. Not to mention Hasek. The guys we’ve got now are soft and they don’t want it enough.

  And in conclusion…

  
  I’m glad to have had the opportunity to clear these things up for you. If there are still any questions I hope you will feel free to leave a comment. ;)
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