Mid Life Hockey Crisis

I'm proud to say that I am officially going through my mid-life crisis.
I guess it should have happened when I was forty, but for some reason it never did.

Well, at almost fifty two I can feel it in my bones, and maybe thats why I am even trying harder to do the things I did when I was seventeen years old.

I carry my hockey stick, hockey gloves and skates with me when I go to lunch at my office every day. Finding myself shooting hockey pucks at concrete walls in school yards or low fences in the "skate dancing" area of Central Park during the hottest time of the day. Getting the strangest looks from other associates on the elevator in my building along with little school kids and German tourists at Central Park.

"You play hockey at lunch?"

"Well, you got to have fun you know"
is usually my standard response.

And I got it down too.

I was telling my cousin Pete that I developed this technique of shooting the puck as hard as I could at the high curb in the skate dancing area of Central Park, and then making a goalie save with my forward stick when it deflects back at me.

Real sad stuff you know, but at least I'm doing what doctors say you should. Get that 30 minutes of exercise every day even if it means looking like you are totally insane in Central Park or some school
yard downtown.

I know, I know, I should just ride my bike to work more often.
But then again there's something just so wacky and crazy about playing hockey at lunchtime that won't let me go. Maybe it's my own Catskill trailer "Meth" addiction that I just can't break. And now I'm even thinking of wearing my hockey jersey when I do it,
because up to now I have just been using t-shirts.

Hey Charlie, how about a transfer to Central Park?
You shoot lefty or righty?
Maybe we can hide the net in bushes behind Strawberry Fields?
No one will notice, I promise.

Oh, and buy the way Bernie Parent was my favorite goalie
when I was growing up. And maybe some day I'll tell him that.

Ronnie Lopez
Mopar195@yahoo.com