Champions!

For a team that was beset by internal squabbling all season, my daughter's Midget BB team won their tournament in Brampton today.

Congratulations, ladies. The championship game was one of the most exciting games I've seen played in years. You wanted it, you deserved it, and you got it.

The Eyes Have It

Back in 1990, I had RK (Radial Keratonomy) surgery to correct my short-sightedness (insert joke of your choice here). Anyway, and since back then laser was in its infancy, I decided to go "under the knife".

The results were astounding. I went from -7.5 diopters in both eyes to 20/20. As someone who was chained to glassed from the age of eight, it was a miracle.

When I had the surgery, the doctor (Dr. Karas of Richmond Hill, Ontario) told me that by the time I was in my mid 40s, I'd probably need reading glasses. He was right, 'cause 15 years later, I did.

I got to noticing, though, that things were getting progressively worse in my right eye - from a lens correction point of view. So a few months back, I looked up Dr. Karas and went back for a consultation. He told me that my right eye had "over-corrected", and that he had a procedure for correcting the correction. I went back a couple of days ago for one last Q&A, and I had the procedure today.

The surgery took all of five or ten minutes, and involved the doctor suturing around the cornea, and then pulling the sutures "like a belt" in order to reshape it. (It sounds considerably more disgusting than it is).

Anyway, that was this morning, and here I am late at night typing away with no glasses.

Astounding.

Kids Hockey

I'm about to embark upon coaching my 10th kids hockey team since the 98/99 season. During this time, I've coached my eldest six times, his brother once, and our daughter twice. It's the middle one's turn again. He's 17, and will be playing his second year of Midget "A" in the GTHL.

This is tryout time - a time of year I loathe completely. It's bad enough that I might be put in the position of telling some kid he's not good enough to play for us, but the absolutely worst part is the parental politicking that goes on.

Actually, it goes beyond parents, and into some "adults" that are part of the show too, be they other coaches, managers, and/or club owners.

My daughter has a t-shirt from one of her tournaments that reads: "Hockey - invented by men, perfected by women".

I'd like to add a third line to that: "...and screwed up by adults".

Political-type blogging

When I decided to start his blog, I didn't have any specific thing in mind to write about. Rather, it (the blog) was just supposed to be a way of recording some of my thoughts on a semi-regular basis.

One of my favourite sites is http://www.steynonline.com - Mark Steyn's excellent web page. For those of you that have never been there, or seen any of his writings, go. Now. Regardless of what political stripe you are, I suspect you'll enjoy what he has to say, if even for the way he says it. I first encountered Mr. Steyn in print during his National Post days. He has written at post-9/11 column calling the North American media (in particular) to task for mindlessly repeating "brutal Afghan winter" stories without ever having checked their facts. The column was hilarious, and I've been a fan ever since. At one point, he had the "Brutal Afghan Winter Watch" on his web page, where, in February, it would show 72 and sunny in Kandahar, and -5 in New Hampshire. Great stuff.

If you haven't read his "It's the Demography, Stupid" thesis, you can do so here: http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007760

Mr. Steyn has some coherent views on the world, and with those views, gets called to task on a regular basis. (He alludes to death threats - I wish he'd post a collection).

Sometimes, his letter writers bring attention to some really interesting "gems" on the web. An absolute classic can be found at http://www.prophetmuhammadforall.org/webfiles/iandi.doc, where, among other things, the author tries to convince us of the deep-seated reverence that Islam carries. It's a beautiful story - one that has a young woman (who has given birth to and suckled an illegitimate child) - turning herself in to be stoned to death for her sin. Truly heart-rending.

In the future, I suspect that I'll be going on and on about the stupidity that's in full-force in/on this planet.

I wonder if this is going to be a political-type blog after all?

Insurance, Part Deux

Well, after a fair amount of agonizing (or as much as I could in a 24-hour period), I've decided to put my son's car accident through the insurance.

This may cost a small fortune in the long run, but I guess I'm buying peace of mind.

The alternative was, of course, to just pay the damages to both vehicles out-of-pocket, thereby leaving the insurance company none-the-wiser.

But I got to thinking - what happens if the other party comes back and says "I'm off work now because of this", or "there was hidden damage to the car", or any other multitude of aggrieved person's aggrievements. Quite frankly, I've worked too long and too hard to flush my family's future down the financial toilet over a couple (alright, more than a couple) of grand.

I've been on the road for work all week.

I got a call last night from my wife telling me that our son was in a car accident. Thankfully, everyone was ok. It seems that while he was driving his friend home, they realized they'd forgotten something. Rather than pull into a driveway to turn around, he pulled a U-turn in the middle of the (residential) street.

T-bone city.

Initial estimates put the damage at $9,300.00 (CAD). For a Volkswagen Golf, this is about 1/2 the value of the car. We're insured and all that - insurance for three cars and four drivers (our other son drives too) runs about $10,000.00 per year.

So here's the dilemma - do we put through an at-fault claim (and watch our premium skyrocket), or do we just pay out the $9,300? I'll be looking into the economics of both, but I have this sneaking suspicion it's going to be cheaper in the long run just to chew the 9,300.

"Insurance" is such a scam.

I've noticed, over the past few years, that I've developed the need to start writing stuff down.

I'm not sure whether this is due to advancing age, or whether I believe that what I have to say is profound in any sence. I have my doubts about both, but like millions (?) of others "out there", I figured this is just as good a time as any to start one of these things up.

I don't think I'll end up as prolific as some of my favourite bloggers, but, you know, "Rome in a day..." and all that.

If you've ended up here for some reason, then welcome.