Yeah, I know the cliche, "Time flies when your having fun," or busy getting old, or raising kids, or just sitting around doing nothing. For me, the time has been flying high, far, fast and wide. It's HOCKEY season at my house! For me, this means practices four nights a week for the two out of three kids I have that are playing hockey. It means every, and I mean every, weekend we are following the GPS to some new hotel in some new little town,finding the back roads that lead to a Dunkin' Donuts Coffee Shop, eating and enjoying the continental breakfast,and locating a pizza place that we can call our new favorite!
It means the eight hockey sticks, new and old must lean against the wall in our doorway until about mid-March, so that every time we open or close the front doorway, they rattle against the inner wall, sometimes falling with a loud crash that makes your heart skip a beat. It means the smell, the superb aroma of 'The Hockey Bag' as you enter my home stirs throughout the air like a men's locker room. Yankee candle has nothing on me! The cans of Fabreeze are empty and discarded around the house because it must be easier to ditch it behind the cactus then to just toss it in the recycle bin. I try to keep the stench generally located in one area, however, there are the special times when my daughters think it is time to 'Air Out' the bags, and it is at this time when all items are laid out,well, usually scattered all over the floor, usually blocking all emergency exits. The shin pads,the shoulder protectors,the jerseys, the girl jocks,the many colored rolls of tape, and let us not forget the smelly socks and helmets with the mouth guards hanging from them like a Christmas ornament would hang off a tree, or mistletoe might dangle over your entryway.
You know it's hockey season when you always have a blanket in your car. Ours is a bright blue one with Sponge Bob Square Pants on it. At some point it makes it's way in the car soon after the fold up chairs from soccer season have made the way out. It is this blanket that is the core of warmth. It is the 'Togetherness Blanket' as our family shares it at the freezing cold arenas. We all sit much closer during hockey season, as the metal bleachers are frigid on our rears.
I must say I love Hockey season, even with all the extra layers of clothing and it's hat tricks, icings, and chuck-a-pucks, but I also am very thankful for my other daughter who is on the basketball team. She offers me the nice warm indoor wooden bleachers to defrost my bones. My cheering doesn't change,so whether it's 20 degrees, or 70 degrees,I'm every bit as loud!
Time is flying by for all of us. We must be careful what we wish for, for soon life will be over and our loud cheers will be but a distant memory of the past. We need to go to every game we can, to root the loudest we can, because if we don't, what is it all good for? There will be plenty of time at the end for peace and quiet...
