Sunday morning homily XXVI

Now that the hockey season has mercifully concluded down here in Tampa Bay, one might think that the withdrawal symptoms would be kicking into overdrive by now. Thankfully, that isn't the case.

I suppose taking the past week off from work, a move that coincided with Colin's spring break vacation from school, played a major role. And while we didn't cross everything off of our to-do list, we kept ourselves busy, and out of trouble, by hanging out together.

Sure, we did the hockey thing on Monday, hounding the Atlanta Thrashers and the Tampa Bay Lightning and taking in two periods (A brewing head cold meant I couldn't tolerate the Lightning's lackluster play and the incessant scoreboard-driven cheering any longer) of Tampa Bay's final home game of the 2007-08 season.

As the lights of the St. Pete Times Forum diminished in my rear-view mirror that night, I knew the activities and lessons of the days ahead (some planned, others impromptu) would help with the transition:

~ Helping to teach the Goofy Dude that learning to tie one's shoes is the last official test of successfully making the leap to Big Boyhood;
~ Getting our Indy Car fix at the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg;
~ Teaching him right from wrong, namely that one returns a purse found in an empty shopping cart outside a Wal-Mart;
~ Keeping a promise to fly a kite, even if it was a bit too windy;
~ Giving Colin a personal tour of his father's first tour of duty in Florida;
~ Going to a movie theater and watching Horton Hears a Who!;
~ And, yes, we went ice skating a couple of times.

Now, had finances allowed us to travel to visit family or attend some of Florida's big-name theme parks, I'm sure we would have created a different set of memories. Still, though, I believe we had a pretty fun week of vacation. At least that's what Colin keeps telling me.

Classy Calgary

A nice touch by the Calgary Flames to line up and shake the hand of Vancouver's Trevor Linden following last night's game. Though it hadn't been announced officially, there were few people inside the GM Place last night who didn't know that the contest would be Linden's last in the NHL.

Once the final buzzer sounded, ending the Canucks' season, there were the Flames players, including 50-goal scorer Jarome Iginla, lining up to congratulate the player who many Vancouver fans believe defines the Canucks.

I may be wrong, but I don't recall that act of respect ever happening in other sports.

Looking ahead

After a couple days of getting back to work, my plans for hockey over the next few months will focus on cataloging the past few weeks of hounding and reorganizing all things related to hounding.

I doubt I'll revisit Baseball Mondays, last summer's project that focused on baseball hounding efforts. Simply put, it's just too blasted hot from mid-April to September to stand outside and try to collect autographs.

Instead, I hope to get in more ice skating, especially with Colin, and some fishing. Hounding is only a hobby, not a business. Life is far too short to not have fun.