We are getting ready for Olympic hockey here on the island.. The games will be on at our place, live. I expect we and the Y’s  will need long naps in the afternoons of game days. Who will know.. it’s just us here … We will be living on Sochi time for a couple of weeks.

I like to watch hockey on TV in moderation.. It wasn’t always like this. I grew up in a non hockey watching house.. (apologies to my brother) but with the odds 4-1, hockey lost every time. Then I met E.

I remember one of our first evenings living together, I expected my dream of domestic bliss to be fulfilled. We would share a Saturday night bottle of red wine looking dreamily into each others eyes and discuss our perfect future filled with perfect children on a perfect street in a perfect house and of course how much he adored me…. I open the wine and walked into the living room.

E was reading the sports section of the newspaper. The Montreal Canadiens were on the French channel of the TV ( with the sound off)  and the radio was on and tuned into the Canucks game (in English).. He was drinking a beer..

At the time hockey night in Canada was one game at 5 pm on a Saturday night.. The Canucks might be on one other night of the week… So we agreed.. He would watch Hockey night in Canada, all TV broadcasts of the Canucks games and the playoffs of every other sport. (ie. World cup, Grey Cup, World Series)… I am nothing if not reasonable.

Now the Canucks are on just about every second night.  Hockey night in Canada is two games each week and then there is the Olympics…. As the boys were growing up, they each had at least one game and a practice each week and E played in his rec league Monday nights. I have spent thirty-four years surrounded by hockey. (I still don’t understand icing).

The headline of the newspapers sports section  that saturday night was “Indi likely if Bus moves Kings”… What the hell was that supposed to mean? I had no interest in understanding any of it.. I realized though that I would rather be with him watching hockey than be just about anywhere else. As our kids became fans it followed that I just enjoyed being in the same room as my family, while they watch something they enjoyed watching together (hockey not Disney).. During games, my mind wanders to summer gardens or often I  read a book but still,  I am there in spirit while they watch the game. I have been known to get involved in critical games and have been heard screaming at a ref or two…

When Olympic hockey comes on next week, you can well imagine us and the Y’s.  Four of us sitting in a room lit by the 42 inch LED (28 watt) HD TV in a cabin hanging off a cliff on an island in the middle of the ocean. Four Canadians whose screams will be heard across the water as Crosby scores again. We will enjoy the games for the sport of it and for the fun of watching it together.

The picture of our domestic bliss is pretty much the same as when I came into the living room in 1980 but now I am realistic and he is

drinking red wine.