Tag: Hockey

I Foresee a Bad Day Ahead

I don’t know what’s going on with me today, but I have a bad feeling about this. About everything.

I am working from home for the first time this week and it feels glorious. I have a deadline today that I should be able to meet easily. Why then do I feel this sense of impending doom? I went through all of the email from my half day out of the office yesterday and I just sense that I am going to be pecked to death by the universe today.

We are going to Vermont tomorrow to see the kids. Maybe that’s the reason I feel off today. Maybe my heart is already driving North and as a result the rest of me is just pissed off that we still have a full day to go. I don’t know. We’re going to meet up with the kids for an NCAA hockey game. UMass Lowell (both my and my wife’s alma mater) at University of Vermont (my step daughter’s alma mater and employer, and my step son’s current school). It’s going to be fun, assuming Lowell cleans Vermont’s clock. Both teams are doing well in the early going. I am hoping for a fun game. Unlike the Bruins game last night where they lost in Dallas 7-2. I am just going to make pretend that game didn’t happen, m’kay?

I don’t know about this sense of impending doom. Hopefully I work myself out of it. Wish me luck.

Eight to Two

The Bruins lost to the Carolina Hurricanes last night. The team with the zillion dollar goalie lost 8-2. Eight to two. They gave up eight goals. Eight!

The way things went through the first month of the season I really didn’t expect a win, but eight goals? Eight?

Today is November 1st. We’re a month into the season. It’s too late to be thinking that the Bruins are just off to a slow start. It is starting to feel like maybe they just… ya know… suck.

No defense… no offense… no goal tending?

Is this going to be a long season or something?

The Horror

Last night the Bruins lost to a team that has been playing pretty bad this season so far. They got shut out.

In the World Series, the fucking Yankees, who were trailing 3-0 in the series, beat the Dodgers to stay alive.

Basically, it was the worst pro-sports night imaginable for me.

The horror… the horror… the horror…

Lunch Break

I am just about to wrap up my lunch break on this fine Tuesday-in-the-office. I have a few minutes before the next thing starts so I figured I’d come here and write something… anything…

Unfortunately, I have zero inspiration for any topics at all. Way to have an empty brain, Robert. Ugh.

So… here’s a topic. If the Dodgers win tonight they will complete the sweep of the Yankees and win the World Series. I freakin’ hate The Dodgers with the passion and fury of a thousand burning suns. Fortunately I hate the Yankees even more (with the passion and fury of a million, million burning suns) so that’s actually a good thing. As a lifelong Red Sox fan, watching the Yankees lose is fun for me. Watching them get humiliated by their (former) cross town rivals, The Dodgers, is even more fun. The only thing better would be watching them lose in humiliating fashion to The Red Sox… like they did in 2004. ‘Member that? Yeah, I ‘member!

What else I can I write about… hmmm… oh, here’s a quick topic worth mentioning. My step son, Harry, has been trying to get me to watch Better Call Saul for months now. He’s actually taking a class on the show at UVM and has been rewatching and loving the hell out of it. I told him I would start it this week, and last night I did. One episode down. Who knows how many to go. I did not see the twist at the end of that first episode coming, but when it happened I was all shit-eatin’-grins. I have to work episodes in around the shows that are currently airing, though most of my watch list is ending in the next week. There’s Daryl Dixon (which has been a little disappointing this season but this week’s penultimate season two episode was good) and The Penguin (which is excellent) and Only Murders in the Building (which is always fun) and Agatha All Along (which took a couple of weeks to suck me in but has turned out to be really good) and What We Do in the Shadows (which kicked off with three episodes last week, all of which were excellent). That’s a lot of TV. I’ll get to it all, somehow.

What else, what else… the Bruins have been pretty mediocre to start the season. They play Philly at home tonight and Philly has been pretty bad. Here’s hoping the offense wakes up. Also the defense. Also the goaltending. Yeah, it’s been a long first nine games here in Bruins nation. The same cannot be said for my old school, UMass Lowell. I actually saw a poll last night (I think it was US College Hockey Online’s poll but I’m not sure) that had them break into the top 20 teams in the country. They are 4-1 overall and 1-0 in Hockey East. The spanked Merrimack College last weekend (that’s my brother’s old school. Sorry, John). I should pay closer attention to my alma matter. Did I spell alma matter correctly? Google tells me I did not. It’s alma mater. There. Better.

Okay, folks. Time to go join a conference call or two. Hope you’re all having a good Tuesday afternoon. I hope you all had a good lunch. Hang in there, folks. Talk to you later.

Random Sunday Night Thoughts

This week’s episode of The Penguin doesn’t launch for another 40 minutes so I am going to write a blog post to kill some of that time.

You ready?

Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith posted a picture on instagram today (at least I think it was today) that was taken backstage at a Maiden show in Toronto. In the photograph is one Mr Alex Lifeson who apparently is an Iron Maiden fan? Larry and Mike and I are going to see Maiden in less than two weeks. Do you think there’s a chance that Alex Lifeson will be at that show too? I hope so! I think it would be the best thing ever to watch Big Al air guitar to The Trooper. That would freakin’ rule.

Tomorrow is Monday. Back to work for everyone. Sad, painful, depressing. All that stuff. I have a small mountain of paperwork to do this week. I need to find a way to not be distracted by other work responsibilities so that I can get it all done as soon as humanly possible. I have the day off on Thursday because I wanted to be home and off the clock in time to run our house’s Trick or Treating.

I have one very important non-work responsibility that I have to take care of tomorrow. Well, two actually. I need to pick something up at the drug store for Jen tomorrow before work. That’s not what I am writing about, though it is important. The thing that I am writing about will also hopefully happen before work. I need to buy five tickets to an NCAA hockey game. UMass Lowell (my and my wife’s old school) at University of Vermont (my step daughter’s old and my step son’s current school). Harry and I went to a game last year. This year Jen and Bellana and Harry’s girlfriend are going to go too. I need to get the tickets in advance because I am crazy and don’t want to wait.

Hockey… as a family… how cool is that?

While on our day trip to Burlington, Vermont today, I took a camera with me. A film camera. Dad’s Pentax K1000 with a roll of Kentmere 400 (black and white) film. I shot about two thirds of the roll. I know for sure that I completely and utterly mangled a few of the photos, but one or two might come out okay. If the weather is okay on Thursday (Halloween) I might use the morning portion of my day off as a photo morning. I keep talking about Boston…. maybe I could go to Boston for a little while?

Okay, we’re now 25 minutes away form a new episode of The Penguin. I think I am going to post this literary masterpiece now and listen to some music until the show is released on the MAX app.

Happy Sunday, everyone. Have a good night.

World Series Blues

It’s bad enough that the Bruins have lost three games in a row and can’t play defense and can’t play offense, but we’re a few minutes away from the start of the World Series and no matter how it turns out a team that I royally hate is going to win. The question is, will it be a team that a hate with a burning passion, or will it be the team that I hate more than all other teams I hate combined?

Some times I just think that pro sports can just bite me, you know?

On the upside, we’re going to Vermont tomorrow and we’re going to see the kids. That’s some first class, grade A good news right there. It’s the weekend and it is a kids weekend. Just like the old days, right?

Happy Friday, oh my brothers and sisters and only friends.

New Stuff

So many software updates this week. I updated my MacOS and now I can run my iPhone from my MacBook. I am doing it right now. the Bruins are going to start about 10 minutes from now and I am listening to the pregame via the NHL iOS app but I am running it from my laptop. Cool. I can’t see myself doing this often… I mean, my iPhone is right next to me. I could be listening straight from the phone, easy enough. Whatever, new stuff is fun.

I am typing this on the Vivaldi browser. Vivaldi took an update this morning and the whole UI has been tweaked. Everything looks different. Does it look better? Eh. Who can say. Different but the same, I guess. It took about 20 seconds for me to get 100% used to the changes and more or less stop noticing them.

I took an update on my iPhone the other day too and now I have a dark mode that can change the app icons. Different, yes… better? Maybe. I like it. It doesn’t really amount to anything, but it’s fun. New stuff is fun.

Now if we could just get the Bruins to win an effing game. They are finally back home tonight but they are playing Dallas and The Stars are off to a good start. How about we get our shit together, eh Bruins? Tonight seems like a good night to start.

Sometimes Sports Make Me Sad

Last night was a crappy night for me being a sports fan.

The Bruins played their first ever game against the Utah Hockey Club. The team formerly known as the Phoenix Coyotes. They lost 2-1 in overtime. That made me sad.

Worse, the fucking Yankees won the American League pennant last night. Thanks for nothing, Cleveland. Now, with the National League pennant still undecided, we are left with a choice for the World Series. Yankees vs Mets or Yankees vs Dodgers… again. Could there be a worse scenario?

Yippee.

Wins

The Bruins beat the Avalanche last night. The effin’ Mets lost to the Dodgers last night. Both good things.

This is one of my two favorite times of year as far as sports go. Hockey is starting and baseball is in the playoffs. The other favorite time of year is the opposite. Hockey in the playoffs and baseball getting up to speed. Good times.

I should also mention, while I am on the topic of good things, I got an email around 2am this morning. My film has arrived at the lab. Sweet.

Stressing Out

Work is stressing me out like mad today. I don’t know why. I have half a mind to crawl under my desk and hide until 5:30. I won’t, obviously, but… damn.

The upside is that the Bruins have a 1:00pm game which is about to start. Good! Unfortunately they are playing Florida… again… ugh. I hate the Florida Panthers. I hate that we can’t seem to beat them anymore. I am also just really tired of playing them all the time. Can we get someone else in here for a game instead?

Hopefully the Bruins will win big and it will calm my stressed out brain a little bit. We’ll see.