Conversation with a 7 Year Old

Child:  Aunt Candy are you Jewish?
AC:  No
Child:  Are you a Christian?
AC:  No
Child:  You must be Jewish because you don't believe in God?
AC:  Jewish people believe in God but not Jesus.
Child:  Do you believe in Jesus?
AC:  No
Child:  Are you sure you are not Jewish?
AC:  (exasperated)  No, I am not Jewish.
*****Long Pause*****
Child:  I guess this means you are going to hell.

Hockey

I have this new interest in Hockey and I think it has increased my nerd factor by 10.  It all started this past winter when Ems invited me to see an Indiana Ice game at the State Fairgrounds.  As soon as it started I was mesmerized.  The players zoomed around the rink at supersonic speeds and there was always something  fascinating to look at.  It was extremely helpful that I had a sport savant sitting next to me ( Z )  explaining the rules and why the players were doing things.  I was hooked.

Fast-forward to the winter Olympics.  Did you know that Ice Hockey is one of the sports.  I didn’t until this year.  I watched the games on MSNBC and I began to appreciate the strategies and aggressiveness of the sport.  All of a sudden I found myself looking at the TV guide to see when the USA  team was playing and before I knew it I was watching every leg of the competition.  I quickly realized that live sports are far superior to DVR’ed sports.  Who wants to find out the winner before they are done watching the game. 

As I was watching I would get all excited while I was rooting for team USA to win.  I yelled at the TV as they scored great goals and I booed when a player from an opposing team gave USA players unnecessary hits into the boards.  I was quite disappointed when USA was matched against Canada in the final Olympic game and lost.  They had my hopes up after a spectacular last minute goal that tied the game, but alas Canada took the gold in overtime.

After the Olympics concluded I knew I needed to learn more about the NHL.  I tried to find a hockey for dummies website but the best I found was an entry on Wikipedia.  I was doomed to look at ESPN and be perpetually confused. 

I felt the desire to watch more games on the TV but that also proved to be a bit difficult.  I discovered that most NHL games are telecast on a little know network called Versus.  Seriously, I didn’t know that this channel existed until two months ago.  Strangely there is an existing NHL channel but they didn’t get the contract to show the games.  WTC (see The Big Bang Theory to understand this reference)!  That makes NO sense to me.  After some searching I found out the NBC shows games occasionally on the weekends.  Sometimes!  Boo...there were no semifinal games on this past weekend. Then you are at the mercy of the network.  You don’t get to choose what team to watch.  So that left me blocking out my Sunday afternoons to watch whatever team was thrown in my face.

I began to realize that I needed to be more emotionally invested in this sport.  I needed a favorite team to root for.  But, how was I to decide upon a favorite team?  Proximity?  A great player?  A friends favorite team?  How do you choose such a thing?  I asked a few sports loving friends how they chose their favorite team and most of their responses involved loving their favorite team since childhood.  Coincidentally they appeared to be a team located near where they grew up.  Hmmmm….did this mean I needed to be a Blackhawk fan.  I didn’t feel any special affinity toward the Blackhawks or any of their players.  I am not sure yet.  One of my ideas was to see who won the Stanley Cup and become their fan next year.  I don’t think that this plan is without merit. 

Readers of My Dinosaur Life, how did you decide upon your favorite sports team?

Three months into this new interest I find myself checking espn.com every day.  I want to see who is still in the conference semifinals.  Who is going to win the Eastern and the Western conference championships and finally who will be the winner of the coveted Stanley Cup?  Seriously, ESPN is now one of my most commonly visited websites.  I even downloaded an NHL app for my phone last week just in case I had a hockey emergency.

I like to talk to people about things I am interested in.  You know…it is VERY difficult to find someone who has the tiniest bit interested in the NHL or Hockey.  It is like the dead sport.  I have tried to talk to a variety of boys at work and I was hard pressed to find someone who was interested. I finally found one who used to be interested but he has let that interest go in favor or more popular sports (baseball….boring).

FYI....when I begin a conversations by telling you how the Blackhawks are doing in the playoffs please be a bit indulgent with me as I already know you probably don’t care but I have decided to tell you anyway. 

PS...the Blackhawks have made it to the conference finals.

Goals

I find the best way for me to accomplish tasks is to make them goals.  I LOVE biking and I wanted to make some summertime biking goals for myself.  I want to make them achievable but difficult.  Last summer I had three goals related to biking:

1.  Bike 500 Miles
2.  Ride a marathon (26 miles) on a single ride
3.  Get up the hill at Crown Hill without walking

Goal 1 and 2 were easily obtained.  I actually rode 700 miles last year and I easily rode the marathon on a sunny summer day.  Actually, the longest trip I went on was 42 miles.  But, I NEVER made it up the hill...booooooo!

Based upon what I achieved last summer I want to make this summers goals more difficult.

1.  Bike 1000 Miles
2.  Bike 50 miles in a single ride
3.  Get up the hill at Crown Hill without walking

I want to accomplish all of these goals by the end of October.  I know 1000 miles is an aggressive goal but I know I can do it.  If my math is right I will need to ride an average of 50 miles each week to accomplish this goal.  I plan on splitting up the 50 miles by riding at least three days per week.

I don't have a specific day set for the 50 mile ride, but I anticipate this being a warm July day with zero wind.  Hopefully, I will be able to convince a couple friends (hint hint) to do this with me and I am sure there will be some Bubs Burgers waiting for us at the end.

I think goal number 3 will take some perseverance.  When I was at Crown Hill last week I had a difficult time even getting up the base of the hill.  Practice, practice, practice!!!

Wish me luck!  And...when I tell you I cannot get up the hill tell me to shut up and just do it!