Labour Day as a “last weekend of Summer” marker has had a fun curve in my life. Obviously, for most of us who went through the Canadian school system, it rings extremely true, as classes fill up again tomorrow. Then as we get to adulthood, you lose that two months of freedom, but the “summer line” moves a little forward, as you begin to treat the seasons like the seasons.
For me in my early 20s, once I started to lean more into my hockey writing, the line got pushed even further, with fall only really coming when the pro hockey seasons kicked off, in late September / early October depending on whether you considered training camp or opening night to be the marker point.
And now, with junior hockey taking up the bulk of my work time, it’s back to Labour Day. Honestly, maybe even a little earlier. I could probably argue that summer ended with the second night of Oasis last week, but even amid some work, I eked out just a bit more this week.
What I got up to:
- My ball hockey season ended on Tuesday. I might go out tomorrow to watch the rest of the playoffs, but the Thundercats were eliminated in an evening pseudo-thriller. Kind of a weird game for me to play in, as I had a bit of an anxiety flare up on the way to the rink that didn’t seem to have much to do with anything, but I managed to get myself level shortly before game time. (On a good note there, these are way less frequent than they were a couple years ago). Our group has gotten better by the week in terms of communication, positioning, and decision making and it showed in the games down the stretch. It’s not the most serious league in the world, but for a team that started out getting regularly blown out, it’s nice to see us make strides over the past several months.
- Individually, I’m pretty happy with my own progress – my game hasn’t really gone away from a technicals standpoint, but getting used to playing and running a full sized rink while eighteen months removed from being 340-350 pounds is still a challenge, and one I’ve gotten better with, both physically and mentally. The latter proved itself important a few weeks ago when I played a pickup game after a bachelor party weekend, expecting to be in worse shape, but being so tired that I couldn’t think about how tired I was seemed to unlock a gear that’s stuck since. I want to keep at this. I probably won’t be able to play as often for the next few months due to my schedule, but I’m going to keep working myself out in aways that will keep me getting in better game shape.
- Speaking of hockey teams that I’ve played on at some point, it was great to watch the Beavurritos win a beer league championship on Thursday. I played a few years with the group, which is comprised of much of my core real-world friend circle, a few of my online friends who I brought in on my way out, and some others we’ve all met along the way. It’s still a relatively low-level team, but given that we were quite literally the worst beer league team in the city when we started, celebrating when we wouldn’t be winless in the bottom levels of the bottom leagues seven or eight years ago, it’s great to see the group pull one out now. I stopped playing shortly after the pandemic shut everything down, because by the time things were in full steam I had spun far out of shape. Now that that’s been reversed, I plan on committing a ton of mornings this winter to the outdoor rinks and the odd evening in drop-ins to get back to this group. For now, though, I’m thrilled for them as an alumni.
- Jumping levels, the Royals wrapped up their preseason this week with a pair of wins against North York on Thursday and Friday. After a tough first game, we enter the regular season with a 3-1 exhibition record, which is pretty respectable. It’s nice to have so many returning players and some skilled newcomers. Going through a rebuilding year was a different experience to say the least, but I’m curious to see where we can go this season. Also, a shoutout to Angus Glen Community Centre for letting us use their facility for training camp and the preseason, while Centennial gets prepared for our Home Opener on Friday.
- The weekend was pretty ho-hum. Saturday I went for a walk around my neighbourhood and to Yorkdale to get my steps in and play Pokémon Go (it was Rookidee community day and I still didn’t have one with perfect stats – I do now, though). Sunday, I got around to setting up my Bike Share Toronto subscription (they finally added a bay near my building), biked into downtown, met up with Kelly from Broad Street Hockey (we’ve been meaning to cross paths for years, and I owed her a drink for shipping me a pair of sunglasses I had to warranty-claim from the US a few weeks back), and biked back. Bike Share Toronto is great value if you’re going to and from places near bays at $105 a year – though as someone who, repeating the above notes about getting out and back into shape, hasn’t been on a bike in a solid five years, I forgot how annoying the northbound hills were on the way back home. I’ll probably be treating this more as a last mile and/or exercise option rather than a full, cross-city commute one, but its nice to have in the back pocket.
This week is pretty light on the confirmed schedule, though I’m expecting a lot to happen on the fly. I’ll see if I can squeak in a piece beyond what I’m up to on here in the coming days.
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