The Skating Sessions

I woke up this morning and had one of those "oh god, did I really do that last night?" moments. Only this time it wasn't peeing in the ladie's room while intoxicated (I'm kidding mom. I never did that...while intoxicated). I was thinking about getting home from hockey last night and writing a blog that was a bit too dark. But, dark happens.

Life is funny, I don't mean ha-ha
It's not always sunny,
when it needs to be
Life is frightening, nothing lasts forever
Life is
hard -

Life is Hard, John Mellencamp

...see, I told you. I can give you any lyric for any mood. It's my "Gospel according to John."

I was caught off guard in the response the post received however (people do actually read this thing). Today I heard from an old friend, some newer friends, and some family. Thank you to everyone for making their comment, email, or call. Things always seem better after you hear from friends.

Danny had a haircut and 6 pages of math homework tonight so skating was out. Caroline had gymnastics and homework so skating was out. But after the kids went to bed, I went into the basement, grabbed my skates, 2 Molsons, my Bruins sweater, and hit the ice. The ice was good and my mood got better. Then I sat under the lights, on the bench I made, and had a cold one. There is something great about the cold, the dark, only the sound of your breathing, and steam rising off your body.

My friend Jerry from Naperville, IL is right: "if I didn't build the rink I'd be miserable." I was, but then I had a little skating session and now I feel much better.

- An added bonus. A friend of mine built a rink this year, and I just found out his son skated on it for the first time today. What's pretty cool is that Phil has thought about building one, but my article on backyard rinks motivated him to finally do it this year. Congrats to the McCabe family.