A weekend in Parentland

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4k tv, AUS Hockey, diet, exercise, family, fitness, general, hdtv, hockey, junior hockey, kids hockey, training, working out

It was a pretty decent weekend, all things considered. I had two grueling workouts, we bought two TVs, Chris came home for the weekend, the peewees had TWO big wins and we had a couple nice meals.

If it wasn’t for Pad getting crosschecked in the mouth Friday night with 90 seconds left in the game, I might have elevated the weekend to great. But that’s how it goes in Parentland.

On Friday we replaced the late, lamented family room TV with a new 49-inch LG 4K model. I honestly wasn’t in the market for 4k — new technology with four times the resolution of a 1080 screen — but the price was good, we like LG, Chris approved and the rest is history.

Five for Friday: Vol V

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AUS, Black Friday, cooking, cycling, dalhousie tigers, diet, exercise, family, fitness, hockey, running, training, tug of war, working out

Some things are old. Some things are boring. Now you can have both in the same place. Welcome to Five for Friday.

Item 1. A couple notes about the Athlete Training Centre, where I work out. There is an open house there tomorrow from 1p to 5p and if you live or work on the west side of greater Toronto and have an interest in getting fit, come take a look.

The bad news tomorrow for the regulars is that the morning 9a class is cancelled owing to the elaborate preparations for the open house. And given that I have a peewee hockey game to help coach at 315p and another pair to convene after that, I won’t be taking part in any of the demos. That’s probably good news for the ATC.

Sonny’s Dream

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AUS Hockey, canadian politics, competing, diet, exercise, family, fitness, general, hockey, music, ron hynes, sonny's dream, training, working out

Sonny don’t go away, I am here all alone
And your daddy’s a sailor, and he never comes home
And the nights get so long, and the silence goes on
And I’m feeling so tired, I’m not all that strong

— Sonny’s Dream, by Ron Hynes

 I’m foregoing the usual Five-for-Friday with a musical interlude.

A guy you’ve never heard of from a place you’ve probably never been who is famous for a song I’m guessing you don’t know the words to died yesterday. I owe him much.

I never met Ron Hynes, the Newfoundland folk singer who among hundreds and hundreds of songs wrote a barroom howler called Sonny’s Dream.

If you read the lyrics sober, it is a profoundly sad and moving song about a young man trapped in the service of his mother, long abandoned by his father for life on the seas. She implores him to never leave; he stares down the road to the cities he’s never seen and dreams of something better.

If you sing the song in a pub in a less-than-sober state, you will make friends, have a grand time, completely miss the sadness of the song, and possibly marry someone you sang with.

Where I sweat: The ATC

Tags

ATC, Athlete Training Centre, AUS Hockey, AUS sports, competing, cycling, teamwork, training, working out

With an assist from my wife and one of my best friends, the Athlete Training Centre probably changed my life. For sure it changed the way I live my life, so. Close enough. This is a true story and if you’ve been thinking about fitness you might want to read it.

This is a long read. Get a coffee. I’ll wait.

I mentioned a few days ago ATC — where I work out — is having an open house later this month (Nov 28, 1p to 5p and more info here). If you live in the west GTA, it might make sense for you to check it out.

The Athlete Training Centre is a gym, not a health club. High-end athletes from numerous sports train here with the goal of maximizing their fitness. Created to service elite pro, national-level amateur and college athletes, ATC now also offers a program for ordinary adults who aren’t elite but want to be fitter.

Sometimes the worlds collide and I’ll find myself sweating on the turf doing sprinter situps next to a member of the Canadian world champion field lacrosse team across from a working mom of three. He thinks nothing of it. And neither do I.

Welcome to ATC.

A reassuring voice will be missed

Tags

AUS Hockey, AUS sports, Bill McLean, dalhousie tigers, hockey

When you first start a family, it is inevitable that someone is going to tell you to enjoy every minute because the years pass in a blink of an eye, or some other cliché. And it’s almost true.

Two decades is 20 years whether you’re sitting on a desert island or enjoying watching your family blossom. Beyond the feeding, clothing, and care, parenting is about making sure your kids are loved and equipped with the skills to go out confidently into the world on their own.

And when that day comes, you hope that the people they meet will look out for them. We are all battle-hardened veterans of parenting wars, and we all regard our kids as fragile cargo.

We have been fairly lucky. Our boys had the luxury and privilege of living in a comfortable, safe, home in a nice town in a great country. They made solid friendships. They got educated. They played sports, learned the value of teamwork and joined social groups. They learned right from wrong. They are confident, smart, fit, handsome and *just* worldly enough.