So....here I am again. The webmaster thrust into the limelight to make sure YOU dear reader, have new content. Be afraid...be very afraid, for Drew has given me carte blanche to post what I want. Even more dangerous than that...the wife is distracted, therefore I am UNSUPERVISED!!! BWAHAHAHAHA!!

*cue the pictures to further set the mood*

   So, I've either piqued your interest or sent you screaming from the website, never to return (at least until Drew does) , what tales do I tell?

   I'll keep it light folks, no worries. I'll probably just give props to the Tampa Bay Lightning (since they are 4 games away from World Dominance) and get out of here.

   Hockey. I first got into the game back in 93 when I was watching The Great One in the Stanley Cup finals. The L.A. Kings succumbed to the Montreal Canadiens in 6 if memory serves (or was it 5?), and although I wasn't hooked, the seed was planted. I would watch from time to time, it was enjoyable if you had a pair of good teams going at each other, but outside of a slight attachment to the Pittsburgh Penguins (always had an attachment for Pittsburgh teams since Steelers Iron Curtain era), I didn't have a "team",  just an appriciation of the game itself.

   Then came the Tampa Bay Lightning (a.k.a. The Bolts). It's always fun to be around a team just beginning (as was the Bucs), but after awhile when the futility hangs heavy, you get to a point where you can't watch anymore. There was the brief flash of glory in 1996 when they went to their first playoffs to lose the series against the Flyers in 6. I was at that game, in the nosebleed seats. They lost 6-1. They got a standing ovation at the end of the game for how far they'd come. (And how satisfying the taste of victory over the Flyers last Saturday to advance to the cup finals.)

   Then came the 4 straight seasons of 50+ game losses. The constant tinkering and trading away of our talent was producing a bleak outlook indeed. Would the Bolts ever stop sucking? The answer would be no, until Torts and Feaster.

   Three seasons have almost come and gone and the Bolts are in the last series for all the marbles. I've seen and touched Lord Stanley's cup, and it is one of the best sports related events I've had. (A close second place to actually touching the pitch in Old Trafford, home of Manchester United, in our last trip to England)

   A buddy of mine had a ticket special three years ago and she took my wife and myself to a game. It was against the Panthers, and they lost 4-3. The Bolts dominated for the first two periods, went flat the last one and lost, and even had a bench clearing brawl near the end as well. That game hooked my wife. Hard. She ended up getting me into the Bolts (similar to meeting back up with an old friend) and we've enjoyed their progress ever since.

   Everybody has their favorite teams for one reason or another and it's enriching to see them succeed. I'm not talking about in some weird personify and internalize your team, making them a part of you kind of way....I'm talking about something far more simpler....almost zenlike. For a few hours on game day I watch I team I like, play a game that's fun to watch, and just enjoy that time. I don't even answer the phone if it rings. I just escape.

   Is my life so bad I feel the need to escape it? Absolutely not...but you should never turn your nose up a few hours of fun when you get the chance. And if you have a few beers while doing it, so much the better. *grin*

   There's no bills, no telemarketers, no job worries, no political B.S., no hustle and bustle of everyday life....just clutching your head and screaming "For the love of everything holy, GET THAT PUCK OUT OF THE ZONE!"

   That's zen...or something close enough to it to count.