September 2011

Sept 27 – The hockey season has now officially started as we went to watch the Minor Peewee AAAs versus Welland last night. The local side was victorious, but it was a near thing (4-3) and it would be difficult to support an argument that the best team won. It still goes into the books as a “W” and it is early days. It is good to go and watch a team in the early season and then go back later on and see if, and by how much they have improved.

I can suggest one major opportunity for improvement in the overall experience. I am sick and tired of being bombarded by “crap” music, played at eardrum splitting levels over a less than quadraphonic sound system. If people think this “adds” to the experience, they’re nuts. When you practically have to shout to have a conversation with the person next to you during a stoppage in play it is simply ridiculous. For those sound fiends, go inflect your pain on someone else, somewhere else. Otherwise you may have found the secret of keeping me out of the rink.

GO Trains – I may have spoke too soon about my ongoing success in finding a seat on the GO Train in the mornings. This morning we were back to cattle car mode SRO with what seemed an inordinate amount of young people on the train. Despite a prime location and being second in the door, there was no seat for me. Hopefully this was a rare occurrence and not a harbinger of the winter!

Body Checking – Still a confusing topic. It truly appears the someone(s) is/are playing games.

So, the OMHA is stating that movement to a Local League to circumvent the OHF non-body checking policy will not be permitted BUT the classification of teams as Minor Development (which has no definition in the OMHA Manual of Operations and only appears as part of the Select League section – 4.5 Select League Teams (Minor Development)) will apparently allow body Checking, even though Select does not allow BC according to the OHF and Select is grouped under House League??

I am confused! On one hand the OMHA issues a fairly direct statement denying the use of a “loophole” while in the next breath there is apparently validation of another that technically also appears to make less sense. Interesting in that the OHF definition of Minor Development (there is not one in the OMHA definitions) places MD squarely in never, never land. See highlight below from the OHF regulations.

I no sooner see the Local League note above when the following pops up on the OMHA web site banner

Now there are apparently background documents associated with this as per my read of the announcement above but so far I have not got my sticky fingers on them. In effect, a casual observer might think that the whole concept of the OMHA’s current implementation of Minor Development (they had to assign a team fee for it since it is not in the book) is simply an avenue to allow certain associations to maintain their body checking house league format directly against the expressed policy of the OHF their parent body.

Sept 26 – Heading into the last week of September and hopefully the weather continues to co-operate. Other than a minor monsoon on Friday night, we had great baseball weather in Niagara Falls over the weekend. Even Friday afternoon’s game in the rain was not bad for temperature, it was just WET.

To show my value to the team, I had one of those half moon “beach shelters” that we got for sun shelter for Ben if he was at an event and we keep it in the car all the time. I got it out at the park and put it up (by myself) thinking it would work fine to shelter Jane and I on our camp chairs.

It worked great – but – not for me. I still had to sit out in the rain as it was more important to shelter Jane (and the scorebook) and the team’s bats and gloves. I was deemed non-essential and voted out of the shelter. At least I can say I contributed to the win and just might get promoted to assistant equipment manager.

Tourists we are not. We went to Niagara Falls and did not even drive by the falls. We did not grace the casinos with our ~~money~~ presence. We did not go cross border shopping and only took a short tour down trash alley when “Bertha” (our GPS) got somewhat confused. We did get a great rate at the relatively new Motel 6 on Stanley and can’t fault it for your basic budget baseball hotel, close to all the places (parks) we needed to attend – now if only they had enough parking.

The team did well in the preliminary games and at 3 – 0 earned a bye into Sunday morning’s championship playdown. It was another of those days where you needed to win five in a row to take home the bacon. Unfortunately, our guys’ bats took a nap at the wrong time in their first game Sunday and they lost a close one 9 – 8. Conventional wisdom says 8 runs is not going to win you too many games in Slo Pitch at this level.

Had fun with the cameras – both SLR and my El Cheapo mini movie camera. A couple of pics included. Essentially I took “at bat swinging” shots of all the guys and they are all posted in two albums on my Facebook wall.

The TouchPad - worked fine at the hotel as I could easily go on line, Google the parks and get maps / directions. If I wanted to be really fancy it prints wirelessly if I needed hard copy. I was also impressed with its MP3 ability, as we used it Sunday AM waiting for the game to start. I could also have run it through the car’s stereo system with a patch cord and blown the doors off, but I never thought of it!

I did manage to get WordPress setup on the TP and managed some content on the 24^th. However, with the limited equipment / software and gadgets I had on hand in NF, (no card reader / limited graphics software) I had to use both my Office notebook and my TP to get a photo up. The “Just Type” application on the TP is not a bad tool.

Angry birds – On the TP - have figured out some of the basics and had reached Level 12 and was somewhat stuck. Andrew shows up at the room, picks it up, laughs at me and blows it up with one sling. Then he tells me “You know if you do this, the bird divides into three - right”! Aaaarrrgh – Nope – I did not (and never do) read instructions – perhaps a mistake. It is a fun time waster but you have to mute the music after a while or you will go mental.

A Storm of Swords – I am now into book 3 of the “A Song of Ice and Snow” series. Two thousand pages down, several to go. I have now officially lost track of the cast of characters from all the Lord’s houses and their bannermen and who is affiliated with who. The book chapters are never sequential in terms of continued reading, they are set up so that each chapter switches focus to a different character and their point of view about what is happening in “their world” at that point of time which may or may not be the same location, events or timeline that was the content of the prior chapter. Yikes!

Oh No! The Wildlings have Jon and the dwarf is deposed as The Hand! Read – Read – Read!

Just a reminder – this Saturday is the annual Tim Hortons Coaches Helping Coaches (THCHC) event at the Air Canada Centre. They keep sending me registration notices – even though I am already signed up. Guess what – I will let you in on a big secret. You don’t have to sign up, just show up and you will be in. There is no check on registration, it just helps them plan the coffee and dough nuts and giveaways. Go if you can. It is always worth hearing a Leafs pep talk. Plus, you might win tickets to see my mighty Wings versus the Leafs in exhibition play that night.

GO News – A new nicer, friendlier GO or just a boo boo? This morning while waiting groggily on my Clarkson platform, GO Voice comes on with an announcement “Please make sure you have your tickets”! What’s this I ponder? A tip-off that the GO Cops are going to hit the train? Sure enough, for the first time in quite a while, we get checked. Wonder if that was intentional, or the GO Cops for this run just did not want to have to write any tickets?

Hockey – Minor Peewee AAA play tonight at JC Red. Mayhap we will mosey over for a look.

Sept 24 – Saturday in Niagara Falls and day two of the provincials. The boys are 3 – 0 with two wins Friday, the second in rain, rain and more rain, and a good solid win this morning.
I was going to post the Friday games last night but in trying to setup WordPress on my TouchPad I could not remember what my log in was and ended up needing a password reset. I waited until after today’s game to log in on my PC and get the access update.
I took a bunch of video and for today’s game did the tripod thing for video and wandered around for some pics.
Now it is 2:45 in the afternoon, cloudy now but so far no rain today and we are waiting to hear what happens next.
Late news flash coming in – Andrew’s Facebook says the guys are 3 – 0 with a bye until tomorrow. No more BBall today! Darn. However, good news we have made it through to Sunday.
Now it is back to trying to figure out the technology I have on hanfd.
I will post this from my notebook and then see if I can access / add from the TouchPad.

This marks five days in a row of blog content. Given my recent history, that is nothing short of amazing. But never fear. I think the streak will likely stop tomorrow. Tomorrow is another Friday off and the first day of men’s Slo Pitch provincials in Niagara Falls. Andrew has a game at 11:15 AM in Chippawa and after that the schedule is “unknown” We are heading down in the morning and hope to enjoy a long, warm, sunny weekend of baseball. Originally the long range forecast was talking sun, but now it seems wet is the word so we will have to see how much fun that is.

In any event, I may try to post on WordPress as I have downloaded the app to my spiffy new TouchPad and can theoretically blog from it as long as I can get hooked into WiFi somewhere (hotel is supposed to have it) and figure out how to make it work. So far things have been going well with the TP as I have downloaded a bunch of apps, setup accounts as needed and last night loaded a bunch of MP3s. Hve not got the video stuff quite figured out yet.

Blog is also short tonight as we are off to Niagara Falls tomorrow morning bright and early and it is late and I still have to pack. Apparently “Team BBQ Bringer” has also been added to my official duties so I need to do that packing in the car as well. What was I thinking when I bought that stupid thing! I should have known this would happen.

I think my coolers have already disappeared as well, so where am I supposed to put my beer?

Sept 21 – Parade is cancelled, bandwagon jumping is again a recognized local sport and the Leafs lost - bad. This is despite drawing almost twice as many fans to a 20,000 seat arena for a meaningless pre season exhibition game as the Blue Jays managed to drag into the 50,000+ seat concrete convertible for a regular season game at likely less than a quarter of the comparable admission price. Welcome to Toronto – the centre of the universe.

Resources & Info – While it may seem like a plug for my employer, parents, coaches and kids should check out and sign up on the “Canadian Tire Hockey School” web site. It is free, provides a number of resources, and covers all interest groups. There are clearly some commercial aspects to it but that is secondary to the content (and there are some good deals).

Right now there is an opportunity to enter the 2012 Canadian Tire NHL junior Skills contest that could lead to a local competition or National Championship competition at the NHL All Star weekend in Ottawa. If you think you have a budding star – sign him or her up for a chance at the competition. The site has details on the competition and a list of the local events. It is featured here and is also on the NHL site.

Another “silly” feature of the Canadian Tire Hockey School site is that you can create your own hockey card”. It is just a “fun” thing, but isn’t fun what it is supposed to be all about?

Body Checking - versus Body Contact - With all the bruhaha going on for this topic, for those of you confused by the difference, here is an article excerpt that purports to be the Hockey Canada definitional difference.

ACCORDING TO HOCKEY CANADA, the difference between bodychecking and body contact is defined like this:

Bodychecking: an individual defensive tactic designed to legally separate the puck carrier from the puck. This tactic is the result of a defensive player applying physical extension of the body toward the puck carrier moving in an opposite or parallel direction. The action of the defensive player is deliberate and forceful in an opposite direction to which the offensive player is moving and is not solely determined by the movement of the puck carrier.

Body contact: an individual defensive tactic designed to legally block or impede the progress of an offensive puck carrier. This tactic is a result of movement of the defensive player to restrict movement of the puck carrier anywhere on the ice through skating, angling and positioning. The defensive player may not hit the offensive player by going in the opposite direction to that player or by extending toward the offensive player in an effort to initiate contact. There must be no action where the puck carrier is pushed, hit or shoved into the boards.

Sept 20 – With their commanding 4 – 2 win last night, the plans are underway among the Leaf Nation faithful for a 2012 Stanley Cup parade. Lest one forgets, for some reason the Leafs have almost always seemed to have Ottawa’s number (a happy circumstance for one scribe) and the Bytown Boys are not near the team they used to be. Whatever, I did watch a few minutes of the game and hve two comments. For an exhibition game, both teams seemed to be skating hard – not just going through the motions and two, there seemed to be a lot of “blown tires” – the ice?

TV Time – The new shows are running. The PVR worked last night as requested and hopefully will do so again tonight as NCIS (both original and Los Angeles) returns. With all the breaking shows, I will have to check the PVR’s hard drive capacity, especially if recording High Def versions and plan my “watch” schedule accordingly to make sure a “good” event does not get over written by some “junk”. Managed to watch both season openers - 5 O and Castle so we are current and space is being managed.

The Rogue – for those long time followers of my blog (my sympathy) going back to the 2008 US Presidential election, you know that I have a less than stellar opinion of the capabilities of Sarah Palin in a number of areas, not the least of which was her qualifications as a potential “Superpower Leader”. One of my September 2008 comments was:

An opinion that seems to have been shared by Joe McGinnis who has written a clearly unauthorized biographical novel. It is being referred to as not a biography but often as a character assassination. The book and author have received a lot of press – both good and bad, but the consensus seems to be that regardless of your point of view and opinion, this book and its “revelations” will wipe Palin off or the political landscape. We can all relax and breathe a sigh of relief on that front.

Her next move will likely be to milk the rubber chicken circuit and talking heads circus post the book release to present “her story” and rake in as much green stuff as possible. The book will be a best seller so she will likely have a pretty good haul. I may even have to go for it as part of my “non-fiction” quota.

Blogitis – I re-orged the archive files in my web site the other night to make the navigation cleaner and I thought clearer. It looks like that may have created some “slow loads” when first navigated so I will have to check that out. Meanwhile on with the show.

Oh Oh – Another no win situation for the CBC. October 6^th is Ontario election night – a fairly significant event for some people. It also happens to be the Leafs home opener, a CBC media property. What to do, what to show? Apparently this is currently being pondered by the big bosses on front Street (north side). No matter what they do, they will catch flack on this one.

Clash of Kings - Have almost hit the 700 page mark with about 200 to go in this, Book 2 of the Song of Fire and Ice series (Game of Thrones remember). So far the plot and characters keep you engrossed and after more so I hope it keeps up. Seems there are quite a few folks hooked on it the same way so it is not just me - I would have been worried if it was. My only concern (well at least one of them) is that I feel like I have to set up a "Murder Board" like the cops do to keep track of who is killing who, who is aligned with who, who all the families are with their associated Lords and Bannermen - etc. It is a majorly complicated cast of charcters to just read about, let alone the mindset it took / takes to write the chronicles in the first place. No wonder George has been at it for 20 years or more.

Bookmakers are likely posting lines on which comes first - the end of the story or George punching out.

Sept 19 – Monday of another short week. As September moves along I seem to be getting up in 0: dark hundre4d military time. At 6:00 AM this morning it was basically almost pitch black. When it did start to “lighten” it played out the old saying – “red sky at night – sailor’s delight. Red sky in the morning – sailors take warning. It was definitely a very red sky this morning that suggests some not very nice weather coming in and the forecast is not that great. Running around this weekend I seemed to have picked up a bit of a head cold so hopefully I can shake it quickly and move on.

Smile Cookies – This week is smile cookie week at Tim Hortons. Smile cookies are available at $1 each and proceeds are directed towards a local organization. For the Halton Region, Tim Hortons has identified the Halton Learning Foundation as the designated recipients of proceeds. Given that it is hockey time again and the rinks are up and running there is no excuse to not going to Timmy’s, so get out there and buy Smile Cookies! The one’s I bought downtown today will benefit the Children’s Breakfast Clubs.

Buckle Up – Sit back, buckle up and get ready for the onslaught. The Mighty Maple Leafs take to the ice tonight for their first game of the 2011/12 season (yes it is exhibition but that doesn’t matter to the Leaf Nation). The content starved media, print, broadcast, cloud and direct are all swarming over it like a plague of locusts. What will be the upshot of tonight’s crucial tone setting game. Will the lemmings be headed over the cliff, will plans be made for a high draft pick, will play-offs be considered a lock, will the parade be planned.

Other options – will the pool start on when Wilson gets canned or on what date the Leafs will be declared to miss the play-offs.

New Seasons – are not limited to the Leafs and the NHL. Tonight also marks the first airing of a number of the new season shows on TV. Hopefully the PVRs are all set correctly since no one actually watches these shows “live” do they? How do you skip through the commercials if you don’t tape it? Two of the shows on the Moorehead PVR tonight are Hawaii 5 O and Castle. We started watching Hawaii 5 O and book ‘em Dan’l to see how it stacked up against the original with Jack “the Hair” Lord and James McArthur and ended up considering it good entertainment. Castle on the other hand was suggested to me last year as a show I might like and I downloaded and watched a couple episodes and then we blasted through the first three season and got a number of other folks hooked on it. I don’t know how many people realize it, but in the periodic poker game shown in the show the participants are actually the real authors – including Stephen Cannell who passed away during one season and had “his” chair left vacant for a year. Not a bad drama – for mindless entertainment.

The only problem with picking up a series to watch from downloads is that in the download world, you can pick-up a complete season or several and then blast through two or three a night and watch a season a week. Then when you catch up, you are stuck with one episode a week which seems ridiculous.

In addition to the two mentioned above, we are also plugged into the two NCIS, three CSI, Blue Bloods, Criminal Minds, and now The Big Bang Theory (My Man – Dr. Spencer Cooper just won an Emmy). I think I forgot a few and we have not zeroed in yet on any new series but we will see. I think Chicago Code and Bones did not make the renewal cut. Not surprised with the code, but I did enjoy some of the humour in Bones – maybe I just missed it.

Sept 18 – The Dunmore tournament is over – at least for our guys. They had a win on Friday night and two more Saturday to go 3 – 0 coming into Sunday. Alas – single knockout – they lost their first game at 9:15 this morning and that’s a see you later – come back next year. Not a total write off as I did get one of the official tournament hats from the team and got to play with Ben for the first game yesterday and again this morning.

TouchPad – has arrived! What a neat devise. I am just figuring it out but I have got it defaulting to my wireless home network. Have to try a remote link yet. Internet is hooked up, as is my Facebook, You Tube and Gmail account – tested and working – the usual minorhockeyfan@gmail.com . I have also setup my HP account and downloaded a few free apps like the National Post, USA Today, ESPN Sports, WordPress, a weather app, a radio station app and a music player to name a few, plus a couple of simple games including Angry Birds just to learn how to use it. I can roam the house with it, lounge on the deck and not lose my signal. In my case the two finger stretch and enlarge feature is great and the resolution of the screen is awesome. The stereo sound from the internal speakers is pretty good but I have to find an audio app that has better volume control features. Maybe the WebOS update I am currently installing will deal with that but video is great.

It comes with a free Box.net feature that lets you set up an on-line account (or cloud) for up to 50 gig free which is one way you can transfer files. The normal online freebie is 5 gigs so this must be a deal HP set up.

I have not tried out the internal camera yet but I still have lots of playing to do.

I would have to say that this is a great tablet, and it does play Flash and has a lot of features that I think stack up well with the IPad. An interesting and tough call for HP to pull the plug on this.

Sept 16 – Another Friday off - the streak continues - but it is turning cool out there. No “sunning on the back deck” today. Apparently there are plans afoot for another Friday work furlough to Grandma’s house in Rockwood. Holiday?

Subway – it took until Sept 15 – evening, but I finally caught a ride on one of the new ~~Red Rockets~~ – ~~Silver Streak~~s –whatever they will be called subway trains. I ended up leaving work late and maybe that is why I caught it. They do feel more spacious, the doors are wider, the sound systems seem to work, the electronic maps are an interesting albeit likely relatively useless and maintenance prone gimmick and people do seem to like wandering up and down through the cars. It was interesting to look around (I am a people watcher remember) and see and, or here others making comments or looking around as well. They seem to be being very well received so let’s see how they stand up in service and hopefully the graffiti morons and malicious pranksters will leave them alone.

Winnipeg Jets – in earlier drivel I had suggested I thought that the new Jets should just carry on with their former logo.

Then when the new one was revealed I kind of waffled and suggested it was not bad and that it would likely grow on me and ergo - ?I was OK with bit. As per image below.

Now there are getting to be some actual jersey shots popping up in the media and I am back to my original POV. I suggest that the old logo could maybe do with some updating.

However, when I see the new flavor applied to the sweaters, it makes me think it looks to much like a kid’s action figure super hero logo. “Captain Jet” with his super power rangers. I think I would actually like the signature line they show in the picture above better as the logo than the actual logo but, I guess it is what it is and let’s see it in action.

TouchPad to go – In the continuing saga of my pursuit of the illusive HP TP, it looks like my internal source at HP (cleverly disguised as #1 son) has come through. I have been reliably informed that the secret packages containing my 32 16 Gig TouchPad, my spiffy new TouchStone inductive charging stand and deluxe TouchPad armour plated cover have been delivered to the designated off-site location and will be transferred to my possession at a secret Ball Park somewhere in Etobicoke this evening! Then the only remaining question is “What the Heck am I going to do with it”?

Point of clarification – for all those politically correct readers (if I have any) and any family and friends long-suffering enough to continue to read this trash, my ongoing reference to #1 and #2 sons is simply a birth ordinal characterization and does not have anything to do with anything. You know me, I would never risk hurting anyone’s feelings. To round out the set, I have #1 Wife, #1 Daughter-in-law, and #1 Grandson in my ordinal collections.

Slo-Pitch – Hopefully we get some warm(er) and sunny this weekend and next. This weekend da boys (#1 and #2 same team) are playing in the big Dunmore tournament – headquartered at Centennial Park in Etobicoke and next weekend is the Provincials in Niagara Falls. Current plans are for us to catch some games this weekend and then Jane and I plan on hitting the Falls for next weekend. Jane has to go as the Team Mom and Official Scorer and I get dragged along as the token something but I try to take some pics or video just for fun. I have not been to NF as a “tourist” for about 106 years so I am not sure what we plan to do other than baseball. Hopefully this is not just an excuse for some cross border shopping! Note – I do not plan to climb over any fences or guard rails at the Falls – sorry!

Sept 14 – A busy week with Sport Oakville last night, a business dinner tonight and a corporate function tomorrow. Good thing I have continued my “I don’t work Fridays” plan through this week and hopefully next week as well.

Sensitivity – with the way that MOHA’s decision to baseline cognitive test Atom and up players was picked up by the media, it is clear that this is very much a top of mind issue in Canada and even, as was pointed out elsewhere, in the US with the ESPN pickup. The testing plan is a good idea, but the cynic in me wonders how long it will take some university or health care researcher to come knocking on MOHA’s door and want to use the baseline data as the precursor to a study (that is if they have not already done so). Suggestion - Get them or someone to pay for a post season test of all of the same players to see what impact there has been to overall cognitive functions across the whole group – not just the results in cases where there is a concern that the “bell has been rung”. This presents a good opportunity to capture some real data across age groups, “level of play”, and contact versus non-contact participation. If it was worth $65k (I suspect from the “reserve” not operating funds) then maybe it is worth another $65 k to close the loop. The other question becomes- How long is the baseline value valid – does it need to be repeated pre the 2012/13 season to maintain relevance? Since the “reports” are data driven against database norms, not individualized personal analytics, one should be able to negotiate a volume rate reduction as well.

An acquaintance commenting on the situation shared some of my own opinions about hockey being the bad poster child regarding concussion impact and damage to participants. There is no doubt concussion in sport and hockey specifically is a serious concern – fuelled by situations like Sidney Crosby’s [potentially career ending injuries. Yet it seems like other sports get a pass and continue to fly under the radar. My pet examples are football, where the helmet can be a lethal weapon, rugby with basically no head protection and boxing, amateur or pro, where the head is literally a target for blows and good head shots get rewarded in scoring. The other example that was thrown up to me (since I would never have considered it based on my public commentary) is figure skating – high speed, sudden movement and no protection (Helmets! – Never, it would impact the aesthetics).

Kudos to GM – Speaking of Head Games – kudos to General Motors who are offering a free Bauer helmet as part of their Chevrolet Safe and Fun Hockey program. Locally the only “glitch” is that the MOHA limits enrolment in the Timbit division to primarily 6 year olds – they don’t qualify! GM’s program is directed to 5 year olds (birth year 2006). They also stipulate that the child must be registered in a Hockey Canada program – i.e., you need to send in the name of the Minor Hockey branch and Minor Hockey Association to qualify (see the form). This means that 5 year olds who can’t get into the “sanctioned” local program cannot use registration in other programs like those offered by Ice2Ice, The Wave or Canlan to qualify. That is unfortunate, especially as the neighbouring centres do take 5 year olds and a “free” helmet is both a meaningful $ saving when outfitting the new kid and ensures that an older sibling or other source used bucket is not used which enhances the kid’s safety.

If you have or know of a five year old registered for hockey – apply and get the free brain bucket. It’s a great deal.

Congrats – to the local prodigal who has returned to the Red / White and Blue. Contrary to popular belief, hard work and belief in yourself can get you places. Glad to hear things are going well and it may convince me to go watch a Blades game – but only if Morley is on the door and I can slide in for free. I should tell you what some of the ~~complaints~~ comments we got were when we proposed and brought in the initial AE teams! Did not turn out so bad – Eh! How many are there now?

Sept 12 – back to work today and despite the increased horde ensconced on the Clarkson platform I still managed to get a seat on my morning GO Train – but just barely – I had to trample three old ladies to get it and it was one of those cramped legroom seats. We will see how this continues to play out. September is going to be a challenge anyway as I play Russian Roulette with the ticket punchers / ride police. Normally I have a monthly pass that means I simply walk on – no ticket punching. Since I was going to miss so many days this month I just bought the 10 ride tickets. That means I have to “punch” the ticket each time before I get on. If you forget, you are fair game for the random ticket police checks. They typically have no sense of humour or sympathy and seem to enjoy their game of “Gotcha” .If you forget to punch and get on the train and then remember, it is a nerve-wracking – “Will I get caught” ride in or out of Toronto. Hopefully I will be OK – I have no interest in ripping off free rides – I will likely simply forget as I usually never have to.

9/11 – as has been said by many, it is hard to believe that it is ten years since that day and the events that transpired. It is one of those days that you will always remember where you were and what you were doing when you first heard or saw what was going on. If you are of an age, it fits in with Armstrong and Aldrin’s landing on the moon and the assassination of JFK. Watching some of the TV docudrama still sends shivers down my spine and makes you shake your head about what people went through – survivors or not. I still “marvel”, an entirely inappropriate word of how the two towers collapsed as they did, almost identically although that part should not be a surprise. They were built to rigid standards and when they survived the initial impact, I think everyone thought they would stay standing but would be obviously severely damaged. To collapse the way they did was unthinkable and That mindset may have contributed to some of the loss of life – especially among the rescue teams. What is also tough is information now coming out about such challenges as the inadequacy of equipment that was available to the Emergency teams – e.g., ineffective radios and masks. It sounds like improvements were made – after the fact so let’s hope we never have to see another similar episode.

It is also interesting to note the differing perspective between “man-made” and natural disasters. While absolutely not downplaying the approximately 3,000 casualties at the WTC, it was an interesting factoid that this past weekend marked the 6 month anniversary of the major Japan triple header disaster (earthquake, tsunami and nuclear) with over 20,000 dead or still missing and it hardly merited a mention.

From the “stupid file”, authorities were on super alert in case of any terrorist activity linked to the 9/11 anniversary and two commercial flights ended up with fighter jet escorts (ready to shoot them down) based on some internal passenger activity that was deemed suspicious. At least one of the two was apparently triggered by some washroom action where a couple of folks were trying to enrol in the “Mile High” club. Idiots!

TouchPad – “Hallelujah”! It looks like my “source” at HP is going to come through. Seems that yours truly is going to be the proud owner of an HP TouchPad. That’s the good news. The bad news is twofold. First it will only be the 16 Gig. Model – no 32s available (but my kinfolk tell me I don’t need the 32 Gig. What do they know about my needs?). It does save me $50 but the second bad news is that I am also coughing up for a discounted TouchStone (stand and non-plug-in charger) and a cover. It is not here yet but I believe the orders have actually cleared this time.

Now I just have to think about what I am going to do with it and look for apps – like what is it – Fighting Birds? Turns out WordPress has ported an app to it so maybe I will have to start a mobile blog component for my base blog! Not ruddy likely.

Future Shop – “Thumbs down” to FS and a comment that if were not for bad luck, I would have no luck at all. When we got back from vacation, I found out that the in-law side had decided to act on a casual suggestion I had made and get my Mother-in-law a pair of wireless headphones. Since her hearing has deteriorated we thought this would allow her to listen to TV at a volume level acceptable to her without blowing the ambient decibel level. So, since it was my brilliant idea – I got tagged with pick’em and get’em.

Off to the PC. Retail searches, buyer reviews, Brand specs, yadda yadda, yadda. Decided lower end even brand names not the way to go. High end is ridiculous pricing so picked my favourite from the pack and called a non Future Shop store (only source for it) and found it was on-line only. Since I wanted to get and set-up for Saturday this was a non starter so I went to plan b a nice model from FS. Bought a pair at the store by Dundas and Winston Churchill, and we toddled off to Guelph to install / train. Get there only to find “a piece missing” from the box. Not happy. Get to the local Guelph future Shop in time to make an exchange before closing but now that I am wiser, announce that I am not leaving store until I check it. Guess what? Same piece is missing! Even less happy now that I have wasted a trip to Guelph and the FS there only had the one pair! They wouldn’t even let me trade up (same price) to the next ones – I tried – even if it had all it’s parts.

Back to Oakville – ordered my first choice on-line like I should have done in the first place. Got confirmation tonight it has shipped – hopefully it works and has all the parts.

Sept 9 – For those of you foolish enough to think I would actually have the time and energy to post on MySpace while on vacation – shame on you! It did not happen.

Friday afternoon and back in town it is hard to believe how quickly the week passed. Collingwood is a nice town with lots to do but I have stroked Cranberry Resorts off of my RCI Time Share swap list. This was a three strikes and you are out game. While there was nothing horrendous about the experience the quality of the facility and service levels fell short of what we are looking for and expect. The condo was tired from a décor and amenities standpoint and the rec centre / games room was somewhere in the next county and poorly equipped. The units did not have convenient BBQ facilities (a must) and if I had not taken my spiffy new Cusinart portable there would have been a major insurrection. The portable (a fold-up unit) worked really well and I am happy with it.

The units only had archaic CRT TVs – no flat screen HD and only one VCR/DVD that did not play DivX anyway. One bedroom had a TV (no VCR/DVD) and the other had zip. While this may sound petty, it is not what is expected in a resort property and hence Cranberry is “off the List”.

Wasaga Beach - after the Labour Day weekend is a hopping spot. I think you could burn the rest of it down and no one would notice. Look at the thousands and thousands of avid beachgoers. It was hard to move around.

Scenic Caves - I also took in the Scenic Caves and the Suspension Bridge – by myself as I could not talk anyone else into it. The bridge was kind of fun with a great view from the centre and kind of an “unsettling” sway in the breeze.

Here is your intrepid explorer after successfully navigating the perilous span. Must be the lens as they say the camera adds 10 lbs. Either they need to update that estimate to 10 kg or someone needs to cut down on the Guinness and hit the gym! Love the hat!

The “caves” on the other hand were a disappointment - there weren't any! I was not expecting the Carlsbad Caverns but on the other hand, I was expecting “caves” not grottos and rock fissures. Having said that, it was a nice walk through the woods with some rock scrambling thrown in and I did enjoy the exercise. There were some great scenic views and I had the Nikon with me which did make the scrambling a little more challenging as I was not inclined to slip and crunch ye olde digital SLR.

More importantly, it was a nice sunny day - did not need to lug the sweatshirt and shorts would have been fine. Also as a post Labour day stroll there was no one around - or almost no one. There is nothing worse that crowds of yammering tourists on a so called Nature Walk.

Hockey – is ramping up for another year. Hopefully with a bunch of positive news and storied to help get over what has been a terrible off-season capped by the Russian plane crash that essentially wiped out an entire KHL team with a number of veteran NHL players and their Canadian Coach. At least one piece I saw interviewing Dave King focused on what is a real issue in Russia – air travel in general. The recent crash is just the latest installment in what has been an open secret for years. Old Soviet era airframes, shoddy maintenance, inexperienced pilots and questionable safety regs have made any type of “tier 2” air travel in the area a modern day version of “Russian Roulette”. Based on this crash, all of the plane model have been grounded which if I recall correctly is the same thing that was done after another recent crash. We may “bitch” about our system, but I will take the extra aggravation if it helps me arrive safely and avoid being a statistic.

Sept 2 - As a warning or blessing, this is to advise that we are off tomorrow to Collingwood for a week of R&R and that I will be transferring any posting activity to my "MySpace" space until I return. Click on the link at the top of the page or on the "My Space" here to go there! That is of course assuming that I abandon my Guinness long enough and coherent enough to post anything. And, you know what they say about "assume".

Friday - By now you are probably sick of hearing about it but I am on another episode of "I don't work Fridays". Clearly a misnomer as it should probably be more appropriately be called "IDWFATO" The addition of the "ATO" is to cover the At The Office qualifier as I am apparently being shanghaied again to Rockwookd to perform a number of duties - plumber, electrician general labourer etc. at Jane's Mom's house as she has decided to list and sell the property.

Game of Thrones - Started into book 1 of the series and have read around 100 pages. Only about 900 to go in this volume and another 3,000 in the other three waiting patiently on the shelf. I think HBO has the second season of the series coming based on Book 2, A Clash of Kings" so I need to get through that before it starts. You wonder how some of these "things" progress. G o T was written in 1996 and really very few people had heard about or bothered with it outside of the "Sci-Fi" community. "Suddenly" 15 years later, it is a bit hit, a popular series and has prominent space in all the bookstores.

New Series - Since I have run out of episodes of "The Big Bang Theory", it has been suggested that I watch "Burn Notice" Apparently a series about a spy who is now an "ex spy" having received his "Burn Notice". Have not seen one episode but apparently it has been around for four of five seasons so rumour has it someone has downloaded seasons 1 and 2 to check it out. Stay turned for an initial review.

Go Transit - This may have been a good time to take a transit break. No sure of the possible ramifications of the potential strike, but it is the back-to-school time of year. How many students are going to be encroaching on my morning Go Trains that have been so "seat available" through the summer and will now likely revert to cattle car mode. That will be the surprise waiting in store for me on the 12th when I have to head back into the "Big Smoke".

New Subway - Another week with no rides on the new train. Have seen it on the other side of the platform twice more (total 4) but as Sinatra sings (or was it Elvis) it was not going "My Way".

Anyway - time to check and pack the assorted toolboxes to do my Mario and Luigi impersonation on the in-law front.

Send mail to Wayne@minorhockeyfan.com with questions or comments about this web site. Copyright © 2004 Wayne Moorehead Last modified: 03/02/12

Send mail to Wayne@minorhockeyfan.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2004 Wayne Moorehead
Last modified: 03/02/12