Archive for December, 2005
Celebrating life and death two days before Christmas
Posted by: | CommentsIt was about 25 years ago when my uncle John, and cousins Donny, Dennis and Terry left for an evening of drinking to celebrate the holidays. In the wee hours of the morning Terry’s T-top car left the road and slammed into a large tree — roof first — killing everyone but Dennis.
The boys were all in their late teens or early 20s — such an incredible tragedy. Donny and Dennis were brothers and all of them lived within a few miles of each other.
I remember my Mother waking me up very early in the morning and told me to get dressed. When I asked her why, she said John had been killed in a car accident. I didn’t realize until later that Donny and Terry had been killed as well.
I was young then and nobody expected me to deal with it. I don’t know if anyone even asked me how I felt about it. I’m sure my mother and father did — they are good like that. I was too young for it to really bother me anyway.
Every year since then, my Mother’s family gets together to light a tree on my Grandmother’s yard in memory of John. My Mother has 13 brothers and sisters and they all have an average of three kids, so it’s quite a gathering.
It always makes me think how lucky I am and how quickly things can change.
First winter storm blankets Nova Scotia
Posted by: | CommentsI’m home one day from San Francisco’s warmth and sunshine and what happens? We get hammered with a winter storm. Not just any first of the year winter storm, this was a dandy.
Nicole and Michael came out to help shovel the side deck, which helped out a lot. Actually, Nicole did most of the work and seemed to have a good time doing it.
Twiggy had a blast. She has a habit of jumping in front of you when shoveling snow getting a face — and mouth — full of snow every time you try to clear the walk.
I hate snow. I hate winter.
It’s a dark day for the Bruins
Posted by: | CommentsThere are few days in the Bruins’ modern history that are any sadder than today. Certainly the Ray Bourque trade was a sad day for fans, but everyone knew why Ray went to Colorado and everyone accepted it and were happy for Ray when he hoisted the Cup. However, to trade Joe Thorton is lunacy.
Thorton is one of the premier players in the NHL — he is the guy you build your team around, not trade for three ho-hum players just to shake things up. The Bruins management will live to regret this day.
The Bruins got Marco Sturm and Wayne Primeau and defenseman Brad Stuart from San Jose for Thorton. The Bruins should have held out for the rest of the Sharks team before trading Thorton!
Even the Sharks knew what an opportunity this was. “Players like Joe Thornton don’t come available very often,” said Sharks GM Doug Wilson. Of course they don’t — most teams aren’t stupid enough to trade people like Thorton.
There are a lot of reasons why the Bruins have lost nine out of their last 10 games, and sure, Thorton had a role to play in that. But, if you want to trade someone, take a look at Gill, who has really sucked of late; Samsanov can’t keep the puck on his stick; Bergeron has been in a slump; and put Andrew Alberts back to the minors or trade him for a water bottle or something.
I’ve never had a lot of faith in the decisions of the Bruins management. When they let people like Bill Guerin and Mike Knuble slip through their fingers, you know you are in trouble. Their trade record is so bad, they even go back and get players like Murray that they happily traded away a few years before.
I’m a diehard Bruins fan, but this has really shaken me today. I say we trade Mike O’Connell.
