Wednesday, February 24, 2010

On The Bright Side…

Everyone knows that the optimist sees this glass as being half-full, and that the pessimist sees it as being half-empty. I’m an Engineer, so naturally I see the glass as being twice as big as it needs to be. A joke that I found on the internet says that a drinker would see that the glass needs more ice. And, here’s another one: a physicist would say that the volume of this cylinder is divided into two equal parts; one a colourless, odourless liquid, the other a colourless, odourless gas. Thus the cylinder is neither full nor empty; instead, each half of the cylinder is full: one half with a gas, one half with a liquid. (That’s certainly something that Dr. Sheldon Cooper would say, eh Rebecca?)

Now, while I am not very optimistic about getting much quality skating time on the backyard rink this year, I am still able to look on the bright side of things. Here, then, are some benefits of experiencing crappy weather for building and maintaining a backyard rink:
  • no “double-shoveling” (driveway plus rink);
  • more time is available to watch the Olympics;
  • lower power bills (no shoveling, flooding or skating at night means my elaborate and complex lighting system isn’t being used);
  • no iced-up pants and gloves while flooding (which is clearly a direct result of not flooding at all);
  • less money is spent on hot chocolate.

Actually, that last one is kind of sad – it sure is great to spend some time skating then come in for some hot chocolate and cookies. It’s just not the same to splash around in puddles on the driveway or play in the mud then go inside and sip a hot beverage. What a messed-up winter!

Friday, February 19, 2010

Mandelbaum! Mandelbaum!

In the classic 1980 movie “Airplane!” there is a running gag where tower supervisor Steve McCroskey, played by Lloyd Bridges, has a hard time dealing with the stress involved with the unfolding events and says, “Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit drinking.” Then it’s “Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking,” and “Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue,” and so on. Well, let me say that it looks like I picked the wrong winter to start blogging about my backyard rink.

This is usually the best time of year to use the backyard rink; however, we have had an unbelievable run of high temperatures this month, and what little ice and snow we did have is melting more and more every day. We are actually getting late-March weather in mid-February, which is great…as long as you’re not trying to build a backyard rink.

According to Environment Canada, this year we have had almost two straight weeks where the maximum daily temperature has been above zero. They also say we have over 20 cm of snow on the ground, but I can tell you that there is essentially zero snow on the ground in my backyard. The forecast for the next week is also predicting above zero highs. To put this into a historical perspective, the average temperature for February 2009 was -7 C, with about 80 cm of snow on the ground. February 2008’s average temperature was -10 C, with upwards of 100 cm of snow on the ground. February 2007 it was -11 C. February 2006, the inaugural season of my backyard rink averaged -10 C. There wasn’t much snow in 2006, but the ice was great, as you can see in the picture on the right of this page under the list of previous posts.

Even though all the forecasted highs for the near future are on the plus side, the night-time lows are mostly on the freezing side. So, just like another memorable Lloyd Bridges character – Izzy Mandelbaum from Seinfeld - I’m not giving up. Even if it is only for a few minutes on slushy ice, somebody from my family will skate on the rink this year. As Izzy says, “We're gonna take it up a notch. It’s go-time!”

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Frozen Bodies (…of Water): Part II

At this time of year all across Canada and the northern USA, pond hockey tournaments are being held. Probably all of them were inspired by the World Pond Hockey Championships in Plaster Rock, New Brunswick. As stated on their website, “the event has caught the imagination and triggered the emotions of hockey enthusiasts worldwide.” They aren’t kidding, as players come from literally all over the world every February to this tiny village for the experience. I have been lucky enough to play there on two occasions.

My team was comprised of me, my father Bob, my brother Jaimie, and my cousin Mike. We finished second…in every game except one. I think we could have won at least our first two games if we had any idea of how to exploit the rules that were in place. Since the rules stated that goaltending was not allowed, we decided to try playing in a box formation and not get too close to our net, for fear of being penalized a goal for “goaltending” (as per the rules). You can imagine how this strategy worked, and we were beaten by teams with inferior players before we figured out the nuances. After that, we were simply beaten by teams with superior players.

We came away from the experience with some notoriety; along with a couple of newspaper articles about us, a picture from one of our games appeared in a “special” advertising section in the March 8, 2004 Canadian edition of Time magazine.That’s me, and I’m either scoring a goal or perhaps missing a field goal wide left. Take a look at our team’s jerseys; since we were a family team and our family name is Kane, my father dubbed us the HurriKanes. So I drew up a simple logo: a big “K” with maple leaves, shamrocks, and the four playing card suits inside it (we Kanes sometimes play a little cards). Dad superimposed it over the Carolina Hurricanes logo, and the rest is hockey history.

On our second trip there two years later, the highlight - besides our epic victory - was playing against Brian Skrudland’s team, the Calgary Rustlers, in the pouring rain. Before the game, as a crowd started to form around the rink to see the Stanley Cup winner, I skated up to some kids and asked if they were there to see me play. There must have been at least 2 inches of water all over the ice, and Skrudland was the only guy who could carry the puck through the water. (Try stickhandling in a full bathtub sometime to see what it was like.) All of us were completely soaked. Skrudland was cracking jokes about the conditions throughout the game; he was humming the theme from “Jaws” and commenting that even as a former Montreal Canadien he wouldn’t take a dive on a day like this. At the end of the game, he gathered the two teams together and got us to skate quickly across the ice, pile on the brakes, and send a tidal wave splashing over the spectators. Anyway, we kept the first half close at 5-2, but the Rustlers managed to beat the HurriKanes 17-5. He was such a nice guy that I almost forgave him for game 2 of the 1986 Stanley Cup Final. (Actually, no I didn’t.)

Our trips to Plaster Rock were two great experiences on outdoor ice, as anyone who has played there will tell you.

Friday, February 5, 2010

YouTube Ice

Here's an excellent time lapse video of a backyard rink being built. It was done by a young man in Massachusetts named Ross Bergen.



Great job!...I gotta get me a big honkin' tarp.