Hey Everyone
First of all an apology goes out to the loyal readers here. I will try to make more frequent and interesting posts but work at school has kept me extremely busy ( we are in the midst of exams and closing out one semester and beginning another) and also there did not seem to be a whole lot blogworthy to write about. As the evening started out last night you could have called me Johnny Blackcloud. I received my first officiating assignment at the local arena and being about -40 with the wind chill and the rink being a fair distance away I decided I would call the local cab. But alas to no avail, they didn't seem to be answering the phone. So I hauled on my togs and wended my way up towards the rink. Actually if you dress properly the cold is not that bad. It does not seem near as cold as -40 would down in the Maritimes because the cold it so dry up here. After getting to the rink, digging through and finding an XXL sized referee top I was ready to go. Because it was so cold I left my snow pants on. As I went out on the ice I realized I should leave my keys in the officials room. As I dug in my pockets I realized I had lost my keys somewhere between leaving home and going out on the ice. I searched everywhere. Maybe I put them in my coat. They were not anywhere to be found. This is a disaster as the keys to the school, my house, cabinets in my classroom, and even keys to my classroom were all gone. All I could think of is how much it would cost to change all those locks and give staff new keys. I was almost sick. I had no time to dwell on this as there was a game to be officiated. Thank God Mike ( he works at the GN) arrived to help. He is a level 4 official and I am a mere rookie. I hope I don't have to do a game by myself in a while. Well it is about 4 minutes into the game and play goes into the corner. I get tangled up with the puck and the next thing I know is the plastic that holds the blade to the boot on my skate snaps. I am like a cow on ice. It was almost surreal. I have never had anything like this happen before. Off I go to the dressing room as and Will fetches me another skate. The problem is they are a Bauer Supreme and they are much narrower than my CCM Tacks which happen to be heat molded to my foot. Also as with any bad luck there also seems to follow shortly after some good luck. When I went down with the blown skate my keys must have fell down between the ski pants and my jeans. I was on cloud nine. I managed to get through the game ( with much thanks to Mike) with only a few blisters because of the odd skate. I think we get paid $15 per game. I don't know if there is a harder way to earn $15 and I really don't want to find out. As I sit here and blog about last night, some questions and observations come to mind.
1) At first I did not understand why no one was playing with a half visor like I do. I realize now that not only do they fog up, they frost up. Near the end of the game I had to flip my visor up so I could see. There must have been a half inch of ice on the inside. Visors are definitely not suitable for play in the North that is unless there is some way to prevent this "freezing up"
2) My skates were not use to being out in such cold weather and thus cracked. They are a SL-2500 blade so I do not know if that makes a difference.
By the way does anyone that reads this know of anyplace in Iqaluit that might be able to replace my blades? I know I can get it done down south but someplace a little closer with a shorter turn around time would be best.3) Make sure of your keys. ( self explanatory)
Till later
Blake
