My Slice of Heaven Returns...

When I last left you I had threatened to head out for a fishing weekend. Well, my good friend fell ill on Friday night and canceled on me. He is going to be alright and there will be other weekends to snag a few fish so no worries.

With my fishing trip canceled it offered me the opportunity to head on down to Lake Havasu City on Saturday for the grand opening of a new facility to enjoy the recreation of hockey. The photos below are of the new digs. Some work still needs to be done but I am a mere few weeks away from returning to play the game that I love so dearly.

You won't find me in any of the pic's, but I did suit up as a goaltender (I was the only such person geared up for the job) and managed a few spurts of effort. I have not played since the last facility was closed down in May of 2005. Since then I've packed on about 20 pounds and barely fit into my equipment.

There were players of all ages that came out on Saturday to enjoy the new rink. There was never an organized effort to play a game because of the wide variance of age and skill, it was mostly just a time to skate around and shoot some pucks. Each time I headed out to hone my craft as a goalie most of the skaters took pleasure in showing off their slap-shots and wanna-be Wayne Gretzky moves. After nearly two years without playing experience many skaters probably felt a lot of confidence. Well once I get back into the swing of things I'll be sure to shut down the opposition like I used to be able to do (I took notes of who was scoring at will while I could barely breathe from exhaustion after about 30 or 40 shots.

I also managed to play goal for a group of kids probably in the 11 to 13 years old age group towards the end of the afternoon. They played a half-rink game and gave me their best shots... and scored some goals.

Adult leagues look to get started up again in a couple of weeks on Wednesday nights. If you are in the area and want a few laughs come out and see me. The rink is located at Sara Park and I hope to see you there.

My good friend Bill Beckman teaching his daughter how to skate.

This is where you'd find me if I wasn't trying to catch my breath on this fine day.

Photo of the floor (still needs to be sealed) and some play action. The kids are pretty good.

More play action, notice the goalie on the other side... he lasted all day but he also was velcro strapped to the pipes. Word is he was tougher to score on than I was.