Tuesday, June 2, 2009

teamwork

I'm not much of a hockey fan. Yes, that's terrible, especially during the Stanley Cup finals, but I might as well confess. My son Phillip, on the other hand, is hockey fan enough for both of us. Not only is he a hockey fan, he's a Maple Leafs fan. Gotta hand it to him, he's got guts.

I'm half watching game three of the finals. The Penguins just scored, tying the game two to two. "Who scored?" my daughter asks. "The guy with the beard," I reply. "They all have beards," Phillip says. "It's the play offs."

I'm actually quite proud of Phillip. He sticks to his guns, in spite of all the Leaf bashing that goes on. He showed up for a gun safety course proudly sporting a Leafs ball cap, and took a good ribbing from the instructor. The next day he arrived with a Leafs ball cap, Leafs hoodie, Leafs tee shirt, Leafs watch . . . he wasn't going to take flak lying down. Especially not from an infidel.

I try to be a good sport in the winter, and spend a lot of quality ice time making a fool of myself, while Phillip and his friends skate circles around me. They're only young once. When I come home battered, bruised and soundly beaten, it seems that I'm only middle-aged once too, but I guess that doesn't count.

The Penguins are holding the Red Wings off. Phillip isn't really a Penguins fan, but it appears that anything is better than the Wings getting the cup again. And apparently there are at least three Canadian Penguins, one from the Thunder Bay area, which means the cup will come here if they win it.

Locally, it's time to hang up the hockey stick and pick up the soccer ball. We had a rip-roaring game again tonight. Teens against dads as usual. They thought they were going to smear us, but we held them off to a 2-2 tie, mostly because we had a large number of pre-teens on our side. Shin-kicking, leg-tangling, boundless-energy imps. They successfully slowed the teens down while we went for the jugular. And that was with the handicap of having the fire chief on the team. I'm as much of a klutz on the soccer field as I am on the rink. Click here to see a good example of my style of playing.

Hey, wait a minute. This blog is supposed to be about fire fighting. Didn't you read my first entry? Fire fighting is all about teamwork I guess. And there are a few firefighting klutzes out there too. Click here. No, it wasn't me, or anyone I know.

The Penguins scored again, taking a 3-2 lead. Phillip is happy. Even if they lose, at least they gave it their best shot. If that isn't true Northwestern Ontario firefighting style, I don't know what is.

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