"Picking up all those forget-me-nots"

When our kids were very young my wife and I would look forward to the weekends to wind down and relax. We would do things like go for rides to different places, but just staying home was the best way to relax. My garage floor became the street hockey rink and the boys would spend a lot of time shooting at a goal I had painted on the back of the garage door. I had an old radio on my workbench and we would listen to a radio station that played old standards like Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Saturday mornings I was coaching at the city rink and would get home early in the afternoon and watch the boys put on some old goalie equipment while they would make saves and shots on each other. Even after the winter hockey season the boys would still go out to the garage to shoot pucks at the garage door. I went through a lot of windows and painted the floor a few times before giving up and accepting that the garage belonged to them more than me. Our driveway back then was not paved very well, so the garage became the best alternative. Years later we had the driveway redone and the games moved outside for my boys and their friends. Playing across the river in Canada kind of took over a lot our free time with traveling along the 401 while I also had to travel Up and down Interstate 81 and around the State for work. Eventually it became evident that I would have to move closer to the office in Syracuse and the boys would find teams to join in Central NY. My sons have also been into lacrosse with the local teams and a team I had coached up on the St Lawrence River. When we made the move to Syracuse my two oldest decided it was time to give a 100% to Lacrosse While my youngest continued to do both. Somehow we still find that the nights and weekends still revolve around one or both of the sports. Friday we were at a Crunch game to celebrate a birthday party for one of the kids on our Peewee team. It was pretty relaxing to just sit and watch some great hockey. The next morning I spent at Syracuse University for a Lacrosse coaching clinic with coaches from SU, John Hopkins, Cortland, and Lemoyne. I was listening to Lacrosse ideas and thinking of how to apply them to Hockey as I usually do. We all finished the evening by watching a couple of games at the Carrier Dome with the boys. This was lot to do on St Patrick’s Day, but well worth it. Both nights ended with a drive home through the blowing and drifting snow. Today was catch-up day, but I still had a chance to sit down read over my coaching notes I took yesterday and listen to some very fine music. Spring is eventually coming so take some good advice: “Just direct your feet............ to the sunny side of the street.”