I wrote a little piece on moving forward, in which I explained my recent absence. It boiled down to, “I was busy with the kids, and exhausted from the battle with my demon.” I was so wrapped up in the battle I couldn’t plot a way out, but then a funny thing happened.
Then a funny thing happened.
I love hockey (I may have mentioned that, somewhere along the way). Sadly, as a single income family, we simply couldn’t afford to put any of the boys in hockey these last few years. Now that wifey is working, we’re catching up a bit, with skating lessons, but I think the mold is set, and none of them (except maybe our youngest) has any real interest in organized play.
The good news is, they love getting out on the pond with sticks and pucks, and playing a little shinny with ol’ daddy.
The bad news is, after a brutal start to winter, back in November, the weather turned warm, and the ponds haven’t frozen up yet.
The worse news is, Karen decided that the best skating ponds in our neighbourhood should be made off limits. We had a decade of unauthorized fun, and Nazi bitch Karen simply couldn’t allow that.
No one likes you Karen.
Fortunately, there are ponds over which Karen has no sway, and we’ll be to play on those, presumably next week, as the overnight lows are in the minus double digits. Unfortunately, those ponds are less accessible, and not as nice. Fortunately they’re good enough, and fuck Karen.
But I digress.
Because we can’t play actual hockey, we play road hockey, and we have a tennis court close by that we can use for that. Yesterday, I took the boys out to play a little road hockey and I rediscovered a few things.
First, I love hockey. No, seriously, I LOVE HOCKEY, and I miss the hell out of the game. I’m really looking forward to the end of the fascist twats’ grip on our lives, and a return to some semblance of normalcy, so I can get back into old fart shinny.
Next, I’m really, Really, REALLY out of shape. At least hockey wise. That first game back, whenever it happens, is going to be holy fucking hell. Oh, well. That won’t stop me.
Third, I need to take some of my own advice. I hit at least four of the points I natter on about with that little game of road shinny with my boys. I:
- got out of the house
- got some exercise
- spent time with my kids
- disconnected from my problems, and did something else
For two weeks I’ve been going through the motions, disconnected and tired. All I’ve been able to do is put on a brave face so I don’t spoil the magic of Christmas for my family.
What I needed to do was to go straight at my depression. Yesterday, I did so, and had my best day in weeks.
