paulnet

Coaching here in northern ontario can be gruelling.  Our only 2 league opponents are both 2+ hours away and we travel to games on a school bus.  Sleeping on a school bus is not comfortable.  Tonight on the way home, I put both my arms up on the seat in front of me and rested my forehead for close to an hour’s nap.  I woke up and both of my arms were alseep too.  It wasn’t the best.

Fortunately, the trip wasn’t bad because we picked up our second win of the season, 57-48.  57 is good offensive production for a junior team.  We have 2 league games left and the playoffs are on February 19.  It’s been a fast season.  Well it is and it isn’t.  I know though, that after the 19th there will be a void in my life where coaching once existed.  I really enjoy it.  I’ve been to 2 weekend tournaments in the last month, both of them successes in that everyone got to play a lot.  Highlights included a win at the Thunder Bay tournament and a double overtime thriller this past weekend.

Groundhog day, like halloween, is a day to indicate that we’re (roughly) halfway through the winter season.  I’ve been ice fishing as much as I can.  Even with my snazzy -60 rated boots that I bought at christmas, anything less than -10 is just too cold for me to stand out on the ice for very long.  I’m hoping to go this friday night for a few hours.  I’m still trying for my first lunker pike of the year, it hasn’t come yet.

So with my trip home at march break, I decided to pick up some tickets to watch sports.  I’m going to the Raptors-Hawks game on March 17, and the Leafs-Devils game on the 18th.  I’m pretty excited about it, the tickets just came in the mail this week.  It’s been a very long time since I’ve been to a Leafs game, and 11 years since I’ve been to a Raptors game.  I couldn’t turn down the opportunity.

I haven’t downloaded limewire on my computer yet but I have been introduced to the grooveshark website.  I reccomend it.  Free streaming music of all kinds, it remembers your playlists between uses, and it has an extensive library.  It is easier to use for me than last.fm. Gems I’ve discovered include a cover of Don’t go back to Rockville by 10,000 maniacs.  I’ve also been listening to a lot of Goo Goo dolls lately.  Brings me right back to my teens, listening to 103.3 out of Buffalo (they are both western new york artists.)

 Snowmobile tracks everywhere.

 

A very small pike.

First Walleye of the year.  Note – Walleyes are not a good fish to lip – sharp teeth

Back in the swing of things, I took a pile of photos this week and here are some to share.  Man I love my little camera.

The walk to school.  Once I turn this corner and can see the students mulling about the front of the building, things get pretty real for the day.

The only pre-season football game of the season.  We played our closest equivalent of a cross-town rival (2 hours away) and won 12-7.  Beautiful weather for a game.

Went fishing 3 times this weekend.  I caught 1 fish.

Here is the fish I caught.  A sauger, maybe 10 inches long.  Barely twice the length of the spoon I was throwing.  Just one of those days.

The water calmed down and the sunset was beautiful on Friday.

It was a full moon on Friday. After consulting an online full moon calendar, I found out that New Years Eve is a full moon and blue moon (the second full moon of a month.) Watch out!

Visited my friends undeveloped shorefront property on Saturday.  Beautiful place.

Fished the shore, had to avoid many overhead tree obstacles to get my casts out.

Campfire was great, along with a bottle of Peller Estates French Cross merlot.  Out of a plastic beer cup.

Flat rock on Sunday night.  The lake was active and I could hear Jetskis and boats enjoying their last kick at summer.

Once again, didn’t catch anything but still had a good hour on the shore.

It’s nice having this new laptop.  It’s such a breeze to work with, It’s one of my better purchases of the summer.  For the amount of time I spend on a computer though, most people would probably say that it’s about time.  I still need to expand my repretoire of web browsing, but at the same time not everyone publishes their writing so that makes up for the fact that I really only visit 5 or 6 different sites regularly.  One thing I would like to figure out on this computer is how to get spell checking integrated through everything so I will get the red squiggly when I spell something wrong.  I’m okay at spelling but typos do happen. 

Last night I finished Rodney Dangerfield’s autobiography: It ain’t easy being me.  Those that know me best would be surprised because reading books is pretty uncharacteristic of me.  It was a pretty easy read though, a real page turner, possibly a primer for more reading to come.  I guess though, since I don’t seek out movies and I only watch 3 or 4 different tv shows, I need to fill the time with something.  After reading his book, I’m definitely inspired to watch Easy Money, Back to School and Caddyshack.  I probably watched all of those as a kid, but I can’t remember them and they’ll hopefully be better now.

Went fishing today on Rugby lake.  Today in a boat.  It was a lot of fun, but we only caught 4 fish. 

It was a very fast boat.  The nicest fishing boat I’ve ever been on.  Livewell, minnow compartment, everything. It could easily go 50 mph.  One of the top three boats I’ve ever been on, along with Troy’s Air Nautique wakeboarding boat and of course the Whirlpool jet boat on the Niagara river.

My pike.  Caught on a minnow and jig head.  Approximately 4 lbs.

My Walleye.  I didn’t weigh it but it is now cleaned and ready to eat for lunch tomorrow.

The White Stripes – Hotel Yorba - Well if I’m the man that you love the most you could say I do at least

The Strokes – Reptilia – “you sound so angry just calm down, you found me”

The Kinks - All day and all of the night