Go Climb a Rock

Inspired by our time in Ohio, N and I went to the indoor rock climbing gym and had a blast. Now when we were visiting R’s parents, the heat was excruciating. I fully acknowledge that I’m a big whiner and a baby, but man was it hot, and humid. I’ve spent time in the south in the middle of summer, and I’ll tell you right now, it is no different in Ohio. We did, however, manage to temper the situation by living in the city pool.

It was a nice pool, though not unlike most city pools that you see, with lanes for swimming laps and a shallow end for wading. The pool in Ohio, however, had some other nice features. There was a slide, which the kids loved, as well as a rock climbing wall in the deep end. The way it worked was you climb the wall, and at any point along the way to the top, or if you make it to the top, you can simply let go and fall in the water. It was a ton of fun.

We all gave it a go, and initially made it up about 1/3 of the way before falling in, but we enjoyed it. I watched the teenagers do it, and they were good. Almost all of them made it to the top, especially the girls, who climbed with no problem. At some point, I decided that I’d like to make it to the top before we returned home.

We ended up at the pool almost every day, so I had plenty of chances to practice my climbing, and by the second day, I actually got to the top. What was nice was the teenagers watching me were encouraging me, though it was mostly the girls. The guys couldn’t care less if an old man climbed to the top. Anyway, it was fun, and by the last day, I was pretty confident with the climb.

When we got back home, A was away at video camp, so N and I had lots of time to hang and do things. One idea that came up was the rock climbing gym in Quechee. It used to be called the Wall, but then it closed and reopened as the Green Mountain Climbing Gym. It’s a nice way to practice climbing, and it’s not cheap, but not expensive, either. I wasn’t going to climb, it was just N, and I was the “belayer,” which is fancy climbing talk for the guy who holds the rope. It gave me a good chance watch N do his stuff, and he did a great job. In fact, he made it all the way to the top by his 4^th climb. To give you some perspective, it’s about 3 stories up, and if you’ve ever been that high, hanging from a wall, no less, it can be pretty precarious. N did a great job, I’m proud of him.

He did about a dozen climbs and then we were done. I’m glad he enjoyed it, and I think A would like it, as well. It’s a nice activity to do when it’s ugly outside, or for that matter, painfully hot. Yes, it gets that was up here, though not nearly as bad as the Midwest.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to (adam) THEO for the pic.

Guy’s Days Out

Since A has been at video camp all week, N and I were hanging out and spending the day together, trying to stay out of trouble. It’s fun just hanging with the guys because we get to do guy things like play sports and eat guy food. One day we went to the driving range and N got to try out his new clubs, or rather, his old clubs with the snazzy new grips. The owner of Amy’s Range, Amy, was telling us that the grips on some of his clubs were adult sized and made it harder for him to grip. He was choking up to make it easier.

She said they made junior grips and she ordered them for us and even put them on. They’re actually really cool looking, and I think N is excited about them. Now I’m not a golfer (I just play one on TV), not like N, but one thing I do enjoy is going to the driving range. I just bring a driver and hit them as far as I can, but N tends to use his different clubs for different drives. He’s just like a pro.

It’s fun, and the driving range is covered, so even though it’s hot, you can get some shelter from the blazing heat. Plus, the range is ideally located near such manly destinations as Home Depot and Ziggy’s Pizza, as well as Fore-U Ice Cream, but we’re not eating ice cream these days (boo-hoo!). After the driving range, we went to Ziggy’s Pizza, which isn’t part of our new eating plan, but sometimes you just have to break the rules, especially with kids. It was nice because not only was the place air conditioned, but the Olympics were on.

After lunch, we got some chocolate at the Lindt store, then picked up and went home. It was a nice day of male bonding. You just can’t put a price on those moments.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.

Tomato Crazy

Our tomato plants are growing like crazy, not to mention our squash. We’ve even harvested the first fruits of our labors, a few tomatoes. How cool is that? I can see tons of green tomatoes on the plants, I just don’t know when they’ll ripen, though I guess green fruit is a good start. One of the plants, the Mortgage Busters, actually collapsed from the strain. I’d been told by a number of people that the tomato cages are useless, and I’m inclined to agree, though with some diligent intervention, you can lessen the blow.

One problem we are seeing is the arrival of the tomato hornworm, or whatever it’s called. The things are voracious eaters of tomato plants, and they are huge and menacing, if not a bit impressive. I must have picked off at least a dozen, and you figure those are only the ones you can see. There must be a bunch hiding out in the foliage. You do the best you can with what you got, and I ain’t got much.

All in all, things are moving along nicely. I’m hoping the tomatoes will ripen in the next few weeks so I can freeze or can them, but we’ll see. You can’t rush Mother Nature.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.

Hockey Pucks

One thing that seemed to make our last vacation trip a bit more interesting, at least for the transit portion, was the quest to obtain hockey pucks. I know for N, and of course for hockey crazed dad, it made the journey a bit more fun and gave it another purpose. We even went out of our way to get them, and though it seems frivolous and maybe even a little silly, we pulled it off, much to the chagrin of other (one other) person in our entourage.

This whole endeavor began in Montreal, the hockey mecca of the world. We were touring the shops and noticed plenty of Canadiens memorabilia, much of it exorbitantly expensive. Pucks, however, were not only manageable, but kind of cool. Plus, they’re unbreakable and easy to store and transport. Say no more.

After Montreal, it dawned us that we’ve been to other cities with NHL teams, and we were probably going to visit others. We’ve missed a few opportunities, Boston, New York, New Jersey, and Phoenix come to mind, but with the exception of Phoenix, there’s a good chance we’ll visit all those towns again. During this current trip, we were headed to Ohio by way of New York, so we figured we’d try Buffalo and Columbus.

Now as is often the case, I don’t always get wholehearted support for my ideas, which may come across as a waste of time. I can’t dispute this completely, but sometimes the best things in life aren’t necessary, but still enrich our lives, right? Besides, stopping in Buffalo wasn’t a complete stretch because we were passing right through there. It just meant modifying our plans a bit. With a bit of haggling and overcoming some initial resistance, the desire to obtain NHL pucks was finally agreed upon, albeit begrudgingly.

This was complicated by the fact that we didn’t know where to look. We had to stop halfway on our trip, and Buffalo was halfway, but where do you get a puck? The Buffalo Sabres played in downtown, and they have a gift shop at their arena, but it was closed on the weekend that we arrived, so we had to look elsewhere. There was a big mall with a sporting goods and I’m sure some sort of team memorabilia store. There are two teams in Buffalo, the Sabres and the Bills, so you figure there had to be stores selling their gear.

Anyway, we got to Buffalo late, and the next day, the stores didn’t open until 10:00, which meant waiting for about half an hour after breakfast. This proved to be way too long for some of us as it was imperative that we get back on the road and over to Ohio ASAP, so we left. The idea was that we’d stop on the way back, but I’ve learned from experience that these plans never work out. You have to deal with something when you can, because in the future something else is going to stand in your way.

The one consolation was that Columbus has a team, and they might have Buffalo pucks, as well. Getting the Columbus hockey puck, however, was going to be a challenge, as well, and I wasn’t sure if everyone was going to be on board with this one. I was going to drive up with N at some point during our stay and take care of business, but it was about a 1.5 drive one way. We figured it made more sense to go on our way home, since it was on the way, sort of. Once again, I thought putting it off was a mistake, but all that driving during our stay did not appeal to me. Either way, on the way home, we stopped in Columbus, and I have to say, it was a nice visit.

The area around the arena seemed like part of a rejuvenation project, with all sorts of development and nice restaurants. Nationwide Arena is brand new, and the shop was open. Now the Blue Jackets are a new expansion team, they may be 5 years old, and the guy working there was not that enthused about their prospects. He kept talking about how they never sell out and didn’t seem too optimistic about the team’s chances in the near future. I know they just traded their superstar captain (Nash) to the Rangers, so things were looking even bleaker.

On a bright note, this meant it would be easier to get tickets, and the guy even said the games that sell out are the ones against big opponents, including the Bruins and the Rangers. I wouldn’t be surprised if Buffalo fans made the trek. In the end, it was something to consider for future visits to R’s parents, and they had hockey pucks. They even had the Sabres, which meant we wouldn’t have to stop in Buffalo on the way home, or if we did, we didn’t have to look for pucks. This wasn’t completely in line with our plan of getting pucks in the city of the team, but you do the best you can.

One nice thing that we realized was that N can also get college hockey pucks, and we scored one for the Ohio University Bobcats. Never heard of them? Welcome to the club. It’s actually a pretty big school, and their sports program is fairly competitive. They have a hockey team and even though the arena was closed, a guy working there went to the trouble of booting up the computer and selling us a puck. I love when that happens. Now Ohio State is in Columbus, and they have a really good hockey team, but I wasn’t about to push my luck and ask to go there, as well. Sometimes you just have to be happy with what you got.

The end result of all this is that we can search for pucks on future trips, and we can go to hockey games at OU and maybe even Columbus when we visit. Life is good, as the saying goes.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.

Denied Our Ice Time

It was nice to be back home after our trip to OH, especially since it meant a few more hockey games for dad. I didn’t have to wait long, either, because I had a game on the Monday after our Sunday return. You can’t beat that.

Then again, there was a problem. We were all getting suited up at Thompson Arena when I noticed these young women arriving and going into the locker room. They didn’t seem like adult hockey players, they were too young, they looked like high school kids, and then I saw the figure skating coach appear, and I began to wonder. The guy working there said there was a scheduling problem and the Dartmouth figure skating team was having tryouts for a few prospects. That explained the young women, and it was looking like our game was going to be cancelled.

The guys apologized, but in reality, our pickup hockey games were not going to supercede an official Dartmouth event, no matter how much we bickered or complained. It makes perfect sense, it’s their arena. So we all got undressed and went home. I was bummed we didn’t get to play, but it meant I got to go home earlier and have an early night. You have to look at the bright side of things.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to costagiovanniv for the pic.

Issues With our Cat Sitter

When we go away we have a person, PV, come and feed the cats and clean out the litter. She is somewhat reasonably priced, though not necessarily cheap, and doesn’t seem to offer long term discounts, so when we are away, it can really add up. Now we want to support her because she’s a small business person, and she does do a good job, for the most part, though the last time she came, I thought that she slipped a little.

Now I don’t expect her to spend all day with the cats, but I get a sense she wasn’t around much, maybe she was busy, and when we got back, the litter box was a mess. I had to pretty much clean the whole thing out, which made me wonder if she’d cleaned it at all. It was that bad.

We may have to come up with a new plan for the cats when we travel, especially on long trips, which will cost a lot. Plus, the cats start to lose their minds if we’re away too long.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to ARL and NRL for the pic.

Changing of the Guard

As I delve deeper into the hockey scheduling world, it becomes increasingly clear that I’m either being overly enthusiastic about helping the program or I need to have my head examined. It’s a pretty intense and ambitious job, and I have to offer kudos to BM for the job he’s done. Very well done, in fact. When you get down to it, he’s perfectly suited for the task since he’s in IT and data management, and the process of scheduling hockey games is all about organization and data management.

Either way, here I go, getting in over my head once again. Then again, what else is new? It seems as if that’s the only way things get done in my life. I met with DF and BM the other day and got a clearer picture of what is entailed, and on the surface it seems doable, albeit with clear complications from a logistical standpoint. The problem with working with DF is that he’s so confident and competent and he’s such a doer that I feel so inadequate around the guy. He looks at these challenges as no big deal, whereas I am quaking in my boots. Time for me to man-up and take a lesson from the real thing.

As I mentioned, the meeting went well, I’m a little more prepared and I think the only thing to do is jump right in. I live in fear of doing the wrong thing, but that’s the same issue I’m always critical of in terms of paralyzing people from taking action, so I need to take my own advice and just do it.

This should be good, so stay tuned for more. Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks to Gabriel Villena for the pic.