January 02, 2005
Happy New Year 2005
Another year survived – just.
As always, I’m grateful to God for allowing me another year on this side of the sod. I’m grateful for the friends I have and the family that surrounds me. Work has been steady, the house has stayed upright and tennis has been, well it’s been fun lately.
Most days and nights on the court I feel like I could play until well into my 80s. Then comes the next morning when sometimes it feels like I’m walking on two broken feet. At times like those I begin to think that perhaps a less high impact sport is in order. Alas, I know of no curling leagues down here.
On a whim one evening I did a bit of googling for one of my hockey heroes from the past, Esa Tikkanen. He played on those awesome Edmonton Oilers teams of the 80s with Gretzky, Messier and Kurri and teamed up again with Messier to win the Stanley Cup for the New York Rangers in 1994. He was usually assigned to the other team’s best player and was tasked with pestering him, denying him the puck or just instigating something to get the other player into the penalty box. On the ice, Tikkanen employed a language dubbed by Gretzky as “Tikkanese” – a concocted pidgin of Finnish, Swedish and English. The last I had read of him, his knees were shot and he had hung up his skates. Then to my surprise I ran across this article on the web: Esa Tikkanen's indecipherable hockey journey continues in South Korea. If it’s possible for Tikk to play after 20 years in the NHL, who am I to complain about a little soreness the morning after…
However, the year just passed wasn’t all fun and games with a little work on the side. Sometimes it just seemed like ten shades of suck. Like losing Steve Gaissert to cancer this summer, or almost losing Denise around Thanksgiving.
Steve and I were stationed at Eglin AFB together back in the 70s, busy helping catalog all of the junk in orbit around this rock when we weren’t cruising up the coast highway in his red Triumph TR6. He was a good friend and I’ll miss him and his humor.
The part of most marriage vows that kinda gets glossed over during the ceremony is the second part of “for better or for worse.” I hope that I never have to spend another week like that again in my life – work all day, rush home to get Bailey fed then tear across town to spend time with Denise at the hospital. It was a test of faith and of stamina, but the prognosis is good.
So I start off on yet another year. Hopeful that events will unfold to my liking but experienced enough to know that life can change in an instant. And when things get to the point to where they’re almost too hard to bear, a little zydeco on the stereo can usually brighten my mood.
Best wishes to you, dear reader, for a happy and prosperous new year!
Posted by mjwoods at January 2, 2005 11:42 PM