Grinder

It rained last night. It rained hard, but we needed it. The yard has been pretty dry near the house, but has stayed soggy near the woods. As the sky grew darker you could almost see everything greening up nicely. Devin had called after his game to say that they had won in overtime. The Cannoneers keep forging ahead. If they lose a game they come back and win the next two. I like that style. If you get knocked down, come back swinging. Tyler and Nic both had disappointing losses Friday. I missed Nic’s game, but Tyler’s was pretty bad: 17 to 1 loss. This weekend has been a nice break to rest up. In our house everything usually revolves around hockey and lacrosse. Nic follows the NFL pretty intensely and Tyler’s been making breakfast for us and he’s been relaxing. I’ve slacked off on the blog lately while I concentrate on work related issues. The Cup playoffs have been a nice distraction, but I seem to be reading very dry programming books a lot more lately. To me they equal getting better at what I do. To my kids they are quite dull. I look at studying the same way I look at hockey. If you want to be the best you have to put in the time and effort, which means studying and working. You can approach anything from the perspective of hockey. Sometimes you have to put in long hours and grind things out, but this only makes you better. Fundamentals play a huge part in both sports and they play a huge part in what I do. Things change quickly in hockey and in the real world. You can’t rest on what you can do or know now. You have to stay on your toes and ahead of the pack. One misstep and you can fall very far behind. When you do get knocked down you need to get back up and come out swinging. If you lose one, go out and win the next two. Try to win because you know you’ve got it in you and you want to do your best. If you lose you should be able to say that you did your best and gave your all. When you’re getting paid to win things are a little different. You have to win. There is no margin for error. That’s what we call work. When you’re not getting paid it should not feel like work. At some point we all have to do some work, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy it. What you do on the ice or on the field is great, but what you do in the classroom will usually have the biggest impact on what your future choices are. There are a few exceptions to almost any rule, but I wouldn’t count on that as much as I would count on hitting the books. I’m still hitting the books every day, there’s always something new to learn. Sometimes it takes a while to figure that out.