My Birthday (older than the hills)

I remember my mother at Christmas would save up purchases we needed but would wrap them up and give them at Christmas. Things like tooth brushes, socks and pyjamas.  They are ‘gifts’ technically but we’d have got them  anyway. As kids a gift was a toy. But looking back we appreciated the unwrapping and it filled out the gifts under the tree.  I noticed my sister in law Adell gave the boys 'nail clippers' at Christmas. It's a family thing. Touching.
I needed a new mattress. . Even if it was placebo I ordered a Sealy Posturpedic Mattress from the Bay . It arrived before my birthday.  I love it.
I think my parents died because they just became tired.  A new mattress can stave off fatigue. Extend life.  The flowers of spring also were kind enough to appear with renewal of hope and increased faith despite a last ditch dowsing with snow.
 I also have the capacity to ‘write off’ as a business expense new technology I use predominantly for work. So this year I upgraded my iPhone 7s to the iPhone X with faster processing and more data space. Having closed my office where the computer was the principal tech I’m working out of three clinics,  carrying much more about, and depending more on my iPhone.  Laura gets my hand me down phone.
 Friday we were at one of my favourite places, Apple Centre . Pacific Centre.  I now have a new phone.  Laura  had my iPhone 6 and now has my iPhone 7s.  Nonetheless I really like the iPhone X and Laura loves the iPhone 7s mostly because it’s rose gold (ie pink).
At the BC Sportsman Show I bought the real "toy", the adult 'boy toy".   Porta Bote folding boat which I’ll be able to attach to the side of my RV to free up storage. My kevlar canoe is in consignment and will pay half the new boat. I love the ‘trading up’ capacity which comes with aging acquisition, being able to have something to ‘trade’. I remember the raw expenses of younger years.
Laura bought us Han’s Chinese take out and we had terrific time watching Miss Congeniality with Sandra Bullock at home. Gilbert and George were delighted with the company and the treats.
Sunday morning was special. My friend Barry plays organ at the All Saints Anglican Church. I’d missed his organ concert at Christ Church so was pleased to be able to hear him play piano and organ in church.
Laura and I met Kevin and Anna and the God kids there. We all enjoyed the service. The minister is a godly man. He reminds me of Dr. Lam the EMAS colleague who was always so kindly and caring.  I love Christians for reminding me of ‘my utmost for his highest’.  There’s a humbling aspect to their presence.
It was all round a positive experience. Even better was coffee after and meeting Barry’s psychiatrist mother in her 90’s and a friend of Dr. Willi Gutowski, my admired Christian psychiatrist mentor.  We had cake and coffee chatting while the kids crayoned.  Everyone  was terrific.  Jesus was happy there.
After it was a great time with the god kids at Swiss Chalet at Lougheed and Boundary. The restaurant and staff were welcoming of the little munchkins.  Kendra is so sweet.  Alex and Isaac and Kendra were listening to their mother which made for a good  time for us adults. We could chat about plans and futures. Kevin’s father is dying.  Hee had been back to the maritimes and would be returning in the coming week with Anna.  We talked of family,  death,  God, photography and our choice in cars. A regular mutual appreciation society.
Laura and I spent the afternoon at home. I walked Gilbert along the trails. Later she walked him on the cement walk. We watched more movies on tv and read books.  I”m enjoying Orphan X and a Jordan Peterson book I ordered from Amazon.
Laura liked my new mattress.
She gave me chocolates too.
On Monday night Dave, Mack,  Shane and I took the sky train to BC Place. I”d got tickets for the Canucks versus the New York Islanders at the Simon Frazer Pipe Band Robbie Burns Dinner gala and fund raiser.  I love supporting these incredible young people.  We were all delighted with the seats behind the goal.
It was 4 to 3 with the Canucks winning in overtime.  We got to see that goal up close , along with other.  Markstrom is a great goalie.
Mack had got me a foot long hot dog.  Dave had got us white spot chips.  It was great game night with a feast included. I loved the Zamboni machine.  The anthems and hostess and music and wave were all fun.  I was reminded of the days as a kid in Winnipeg shovelling the snow off the rink in 40 below before playing a game out doors. Several of us had known that experience between 6 and 12 years old. I played pick up til 16 or 18 and ‘old timers league’ in my late 30’s.  I actually skated last a few years back.   That night I dreamed of scoring the winning goal, stealing Liepsic’s glory, a legend in my own mind.  I also fell in love with the young ladies who skate on the ice pushing shovels.  Somehow in my dream I was a young guy again and they were admiring me as I drove a big zamboni machine.  I can't remember a dream like that in years but it really was something to see that overtime play off and watch that incredible score.
I know the guys through our dogs.  Gilbert’s friends.  Emory is Dave’s dog. Max is Mack’s and Hank is Shane’s.  Mack had been driving the snow plow the week before. Shane drove a truck starting work at the ungodly hour of 5 am. Dave works heavy machinery. But we all like the Zamboni.  What a wonderful machine.
All that was missing at the Hockey game, our best friends.
I like the sky train too having never taken the new Burnaby line.It really was impressive. No sense taking a car down town for concerts and shows and games.  The sky train was perfect.
At Royal Columbia clinic Dr. Waterson, Belinda and Karen gave me a fruit cake and at Docside Clinic , Dr. Horvath, Mari lou, Judith and Jerry gave me a chocolate cake.
My nephews and sister in law sent cards and phoned me to wish me well. I got great emails from so many friends.  I felt loved.

Today I’m blessed and too frequently I don’t keep my head in the same room as my ass. I lose my joy to resentments about past or worries about the future. I’ve one step in the future and one step in the past and i’m pissing on my day. I keep fighting this and am thankful for friends and birthdays to get my head our of my ass. I really felt loved and felt that I wasn’t alone and that it was going to be  alright. It’s good to be a year older.
Thank you Lord.

Hockey: Canucks versus Oilers

The guys and I went to a hockey game with the Canucks playing the Edmonton Oilers.  The Oilers won 2 to 1.  There were a whole lot of zealous oiler fans at the game.  After the Fort McMurray fire and the second time the Federal Liberals, the time Justin  Trudeau, just like his father, Pierre Trudeau,  had thrown the province of Alberta under the bus. The Trudeau energy decisions as always ruined the western provinces for the sake of Quebec.    Quebec had taken 45 billion in transfer payments but now wouldn't even allow a pipe line to cross the province so Albertans could keep their jobs.  Hence the Albertans, Canada’s own uncared for refugees, were migrants to  British Columbia.   So it was kind of good to see these Canadian refugees, displaced and betrayed, cheering their home team as they no doubt wondered when, if ever, they would get back to Alberta.
Hockey has always been dear to me. I grew up playing it with my brother.  My nephews in Ottawa are big Senator fans. Whenever I visit at Christmas  NHL hockey is playing on the television.
When my brother Ron and I were kids, we’d walk to the outdoor rink through waist high snow. We’d shovel off the rink to play. There’d be a wood stove we’d sit around in the old club house putting on our skates. I’d always have freezing toes. My mom would help me get my skates off and warm my feet holding them in her hands.  Boris Tyzuk and his father were always there.  Other than the coach it was always just Boris and my mother who seemed to be there cheering us kids on.  I’ve always thought that explained why Boris became a Rhodes Scholar and I ended up in Medical School. We were just like any other kids but we sure had a whole lot of love and support from our parents.
Walking home with my brother, my mother always had a Wagon Wheel she’d give us for the walk home. I’d be so tired. I played hockey age 5 to 12. My brother played till he  was 16.
Hockey Night in Canada was a great time. My brother and I would put on our hockey sweaters, mine the blue Toronto Maple Leafs and his the red Montreal Canadians. Back then when we were kids Quebec was part of Canada and not separated by Trudeau’s polices.   Dad was in high spirits. We’d all be shouting at the game. Mom would have pop corn or mandarin oranges, always thinking of what would make her boys happy. She was as much a hockey fan as the rest of us and the whole family shouted at the TV screen, so much so that the dog would start barking.  Dad would be laughing so hard and we kids would be squealing and Mom would be trying to keep order while laughing herself.  Sometimes in intermission Dad would roll off the couch and start wrestling and tickling us kids. Naturally the dog would join in.  Bedlam in the Hay home until the intermission ended and the hockey game began again.   Dad always had the couch. Mom had her comfortable chair.  Ron and I usually sat on the floor up close to the tv.  It was in black and white in those days.
Later I’d play in the Old Time League in the country, in the Comox Valley. A former NHL hockey player who had had a few cardiac bypass operations would skate circles around us at supersonic speeds. It brought home better than anything could the difference between amateur and professional.
The Canucks and Oilers are the best professional teams.  Tom was talking a week before of the incredible playing of the new Oilder player, McDavid.  “He’s the new Goreski. I’m looking forward as much to seeing him play as I am to the game.”  Watching McDavid play surely was worth the price of admission. Dave loves hockey too. His eyes never left the game once the puck was dropped.
I love  Canuck’s Sedin brothers. Watching them skate and stick handle is like watching ballet on ice.  The game was so well played by both teams that it took on a choreographed quality.  Getting the puck, passing, skating, lots of shots on goal and great saves by the goalies. The Oilers  just had the edge.  Miller, the Canucks goalie, was terrific,  only letting one shot through. The other goal was on a power play when no one was in the Canucks goal.
James and Kevin, a couple of fathers of young children sat together while I sat between Tom and Dave, a couple of older guys like me.  We’d hear the young guys screaming their heads off at times.  It’s amazing the energy at a hockey game.  Great music.  Lots of fun filming that showed up on the big screen. Michelle sang O Canada so beautifully I had tears.  We all stood and sang along.
I love Zamborni Machines. Just watching them cleaning the ice and all the young kids coming out with shovels warms my heart.  Then the kids there with their parents.  It’s such a family event, hockey games.  And this one was so close to Halloween that a whole lot of people came in costume and the best won a contest they richly deserved, the girl a perfect zombie if she wasn’t so beautiful. Dave and Tom and I liked Wonderwoman a whole lot too.  She was with a guy.  All we could for was some major crime happening so she would  rescue us.  
When people talk about Canadian culture and multi culturalism like Canada is an uncultured place, I point to hockey.  America has its football. The rest of the world has it’s soccer.  Canada has hockey and the game defines us.  I believe it’s the greatest game in the world and there’s a philosophy, theology and poetry that affects the northern soul playing it but also just watching it.  Admittedly cave men played soccer and football but hockey like baseball involves a tool so it didn’t develop until people were far more advanced culturally  mentally. There’s teammanship in other games. Yet hockey is extremely  fast. Only polo with horses is faster.  It’s highly dangerous too and not at all for politically correct easily offended not yet off the breast sorts of adults.  Girls play hockey but it is akin to rugby in it’s contact capabilities. Everything about hockey is marvellous.  I truly believe it’s God’s game. In Canada we say, we’re not doing something till hell freezes over.  A true Canadian, a man of high culture, will skate his way through any challenge.  
All too soon the game was over. It was great to get together with the guys.  I’ve been going to Canucks games over a quarter of a century, given the cost, maybe one or two ever year or so.  This group of guys make it a whole lot of fun.  Looking forward to the next time.

Canucks vs Coyotes Hockey Game, Rogers Stadium, Vancouver

What a great night with the guys.  One day Dave and I were talking about Harleys and hockey.  That got me thinking about going to a Canucks game.
I hadn’t been since the 2011 Vancouver riot.  I’d been so disappointed and ashamed of everyone that night. Were it not for the incredible Vancouver police things would have been a whole lot worse. The next day I loved that the good Canucks fans got out and helped clean up the damage the ugly had caused.  It kind of turned me off the big hockey.
 My friend James, who really loves hockey and is a true Canucks fan told me, “It’s really a whole different team from then.”  New coach, new goalie, new attitude.  I figured I shouldn’t hold a resentment.   Besides I wanted James and Kevin to meet. They’re two of my favourite fathers with kids the same age. So next thing Tom, Steve, Dave, James, Kevin and I are going to a Canucks game.  Tom, Dave, Steve and I are the old guys.  When I saw the team they seemed so young.
We had seats in the Canuck fan section right by the goal. The Canucks scored 5:0 against the Coyotes.  We had the Coyote goal in front us during second period so saw three of the best goals in the history of hockey.  In the other two periods we’d watch  Eddie Lack do amazing saves that had us and the whole packed arena standing and applauding. It was a special night of sports.  Good camaraderie and just plain fun.  James is right. It's a whole new Canucks team that's now going to the play offs.

Here’s James and Kevin wearing Canucks sweaters.  We arrived early so I got to have a hot dog and poutine dinner served to me at my seat by a very sweet young girl.  I confess I loved the service.  Hockey was never this classy when we played on the frozen Red River as kids.
 
My friend Anne told me that men thought she was the sexiest when she was dressed in an apron.  I confess I hadn’t realized that but I really do like women in aprons.

Eddie Lack is incredible.