Oct 29, 2012
When you think of California and Waves, I’m pretty sure the last thing that comes to mind is ice. But when Un-Son Number One gets his skates on, that’s all that matters.
Ethan on Ice
You’ve often read about our Second Family. We do so much together. But there are some differences. I can’t get them to watch the Yankees unless there’s a bet, and they’re still working on over three years of teaching us about hockey.
I discovered something yesterday: if they had tried to teach me while at a live game, I would have learned much quicker. The tiny puck on a TV screen does not do justice to the Game.
Ethan plays Winger for the California Wave, an amateur hockey league that practices and holds their home games at the Center Ice Arena in Ontario, CA. And yesterday, this proud Un-Mom got to watch him play!
I would love to tell you terms and plays. The truth is, I still know very little. I know a hat-trick means one player scores three times in the same game. And if the puck enters the net past the Goalie, even if it rebounds it’s still a goal.
The amateur league games are free to watch, which also makes it an even better family affair. Since warm air rises, we sat on the upper level and looked down on the ice. Julie, Jeff and Elisa had to suffer in the score box. Their bodies will chilled but the teams were hot!
Hockey is a very fast-paced game, and the score was 1-3 before I glimpsed the first goal. The action doesn’t just stay with the puck. There are players crashing each other into walls, the whoosh of skates slicing up clouds of icy dust, and burly tumbles all in pursuit of that little black disc.
Wave vs. OC Hockey
Chasing that Puck
Fight for the Goal
Defense!
Third Quarter Start
It’s exciting, challenging, and over way too fast. Even though the Wave played well, The OC Hockey Club took the game at 5-7. A minor disappointment for such a great team.
I’m glad there’s another home game in two weeks.
In the meantime, I think I’ll do some light reading.
[AMAZON AFFILIATE LINK]And Frankly, My Dear… that’s all she wrote!
Jul 12, 2012 |
See that? That’s a Photo Grab I took from Weather.com in the middle of the afternoon. Ridiculous, isn’t it? And that’s not the worst of it. It actually got hotter! It reached 107 at my house today. In fact, I started writing this at 7:15 p.m. Wednesday evening, and it was still 105.
Some of my friends who live about five miles away as the crow flies are reporting temperatures as high as 112! The weather report has said today should be the worst of it. Along with slightly cooling temperatures, we’re also now in the running for a few isolated thunderstorms. While thunderstorms are fantastic entertainment, out here they’re dangerous.
Lightning ignites too-dry brush and wild shrubbery. Rain sits atop drought-parched land and instead of soaking in, causes the all-too-familiar flash floods. Either situation is generally a cause for alarm out here, but to have both… no wonder we’re in the midst of a Special Weather Warning. It’s supposed to run for several days.
It’s sometimes hard to live in a place where humidity is so absent that even 5% can make you feeling like you’re swimming in a vat of Jell-O. But once the rain actually falls, there’s this great smell… it settles the dust, and there’s just this smell of dirt and sand and water and pollen and… it’s wonderful. The trees are greener. The shrubs and flowers are fresher. It’s the kind of smell that makes me sit out in my PJs in the early morning, and let the rain drop into my coffee as I take it all in.
Yeah. I’m hoping these are those kinds of clouds.
But before the clouds came in, we had sun. And heat. And a lot of it.
And since our Beach Trip was postponed, and we had nothing planned for the day, in the middle of the hottest moment of this heatwave, we decided to try something I haven’t done in about 20 years.
We tried to fry an egg on the driveway.
Because the driveway has a slight slope, once Dot cracked the egg, it ran a bit.
Five minutes later, it looked the same.
It wasn’t really hot enough to fry an egg. So Dot decided to take a stick and scramble it.
I did another little science experiment and put one ice cube directly on the pavement and a cup of cubes next to it to see if they’d melt at the same rate. They did!
The ice melted. The egg didn’t cook.
But the clouds are coming in, and we had a lovely sunset.
And Frankly, My Dear… that’s all she wrote!
Sep 13, 2011
by Molly Jo Realy @MollyJoRealy
Another Writer’s Digest Community short-short story from last year.
Time to Say Goodbye . . . A New Beginning.
She closed the door, closed her eyes. She heard only the clicking of the lock falling into place as the only thought was her repetitive mantra, “Never again…”; racing, disorganized, scrambling any other sense of composure she may have had earlier.
Keeping her eyes as closed as possible, she stumbled down the hall toward the Living Room, and laughed a cynical laugh as the traces of death still surrounded her. Photos of an old love, letters from once-known strangers. Boxes and piles of chaos, the remnants of a past life.
She reached for her wine and after two thoughtful sips and a primal scream, tossed the remainder out onto the debris, leaving a poetic stain of red, dripping as though her lifeblood itself was pouring out of her.
She turned to the balcony door and stood just inside, her long shadow tracing awkwardly over the mess. The City roared beneath her, away from her; giving a false animation and electronic life to everything outside. There was no distinct sound she could clarify. Just… noise.
She returned then to the interior, listening only to the pounding inside her as it grew louder, stronger. Chilled by a life of unfeeling, she reached for the matches over the fireplace and watched as she struck them, one by one, over and over. Finally, one took flame and she gazed at its beauty, ever-changing yet always present, and knew what she had to do.
She watched in eternal slow motion as the small flame fell to the floor, opening a roar of wonders as it grew and ate and devoured all she had left. And she stood there. Watching with great intent until it pushed her back to the window, back to indistinction. There would be nothing left to save, even if she’d wanted to.
The heat pressed against her, and she relished its warmth. It had been too long since she felt… warm. She stood as her body purged itself of impurities. And longed to save herself.
In a flash, overtaken by bright, hot, licking tongues of flames, she opened the window into a collision of fire and air as both roared for her affections. Scrambling over the edge, she closed her eyes once again and allowed herself to slip into a familiar sense of the unknown. She knew only she could always start again.
And Frankly, My Dear… that’s all she wrote!
