My deepest apologies to Sergei Gonchar..

When at a gathering of the celebrants of the "church" of St. Mario. (You know the one.. Silver Dome.. In the process of being replaced.. Yeah.. That one!) When at one of these, so called, "services", I see one of the participants from the Russian Delegation not take his chance at temporary hero worship.. Whence this happens, the congregation enmasse, usually shout his blessed chant (in the 4th tone BTW).. "Shoooooooooooot" When he does, and the light to scream "Alleluia" comes on.. We all breathe with a sigh of relief.. When he doesn't, the congregation gets angry, which then the young leader-in-charge, Sid, usually gets the parish upon it's feet.. I sometimes wonder is if we all had a large group of people audibly cheer us on, what would they say? Which leads me to the news below..


Today it was learned that the person whom I spent most of the weekend with, and yet because of said time with her, I spent a good portion of the week walking a bit lighter, moved home again.. While I spent the total of about 14 hours with this person, I couldn't help but want to spend more time with her. Now, before you all ask, yes, I wanted to do and share so much more with this person.. But the fact that a.) I'm in a vulnerable state, 2.) She was in a vulnerable state, and most of all 3.) I had only known her for about three days in real time. I was afraid to take my chance and tell her how much I really enjoyed spending time with her.. Now she has gone home to spend time with her family and friends.. Something unto wish I could do more..

Now I know what you are gonna say.. "It's O.K.. Be patient" I have heard from one person.. "You could explore something Long Distance." or "You need to make yourself a better spouse." O.K.. to me, and in what one friend with whom I have had a conversation said to me, "How can you make yourself a 'better spouse'? Those of us who are in the Psychoanalysis business would prescribe that. The one problem with you is that you know what you need to do, but you lack the proper motivation to put it into effective use. I also know that your overly developed sense of competiton is already doing two things. 1. Turning this situation into motivation, and 2. Making you very angry at those who made this situation possible." Well Phil (and no.. not the one on TV) is probably right. About all of it. I wish I could be back in Juniors again.. I wish there were video replay of all our events after it happened, and you sat with your coaches and watched what you did right, and what you did wrong so that when the situation arose again, you could make the right decision.. Play the puck or play the body, block the shot, play dump and chase or skate it in.. Which brings me back to Sergei Gonchar.. What would the Gonch told me to do..

Probably this:

Shoot the Puck, Rick.. Shoot the Puck!