Okay, I’m addicted. And that’s the reason things have been sparse around here lately.
What am I addicted to? NHL Center Ice. In eight of the last 10 days or so, I’ve spent anywhere from two to four hours a night watching hockey on TV. The two days I missed were because I was at a Stampede game. I must confess, though, that one of those nights I returned home and switched back and forth between the U of M-Colorado College game and an NHL game for a while.
Last night and tonight are good examples. Last night Buffalo and Carolina played at 6 p.m., both teams with former Stampede players on regular shifts. Then the Minnesota Wild and Calgary Flames played at 8 p.m. Tonight its the Devils-Rangers at 6 and the Wild-Oilers at 9. I can’t/won’t DVR the games because when I check my fantasy hockey teams in the morning, I know how the games ended. So, I end up tuning in and watching most if not all of a game or two each night.
This is coming from a guy who for the last several years generally watched maybe four hours of TV a week — and most of that on the DVR to “zap” commercials and the like. While my wife is highly tolerant of my addiction (particularly when we’re on different floors of the house), this is far too relaxing and too much couch potato for me. I may have to adopt a rule of watching the first period of any hockey game from the treadmill. At least that way I’d get some exercise — or not turn on the games until the second period.
Imagine what it would be like if TV actually were good. It would be the end of everything we know.
Marvin Minsky, quoted in The Media Lab
Erm…. having grown up in a hockey family and then finding, much to my dismay, that my 15-yr.-old shares the same passion (I did try to steer him elsewhere and failed), I can certainly understand the switching back and forth between hockey games. Our winters are passed watching game after game (there is an endless array on here for months and months … in both French & English – what can one do but subscribe to the beloved Montréal Canadiens games?). I have ended up watching more hockey games than I care to admit, although to preserve my sanity, I’ve taken up several different embroidery, collage and paper projects & escape to another room to read or to write. Somehow, over the course of a season, I become well versed in different NHL teams as well as the junior Canadian teams … I figure if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. My son appreciates my effort and, in return, he actually helps out around the house without a single word coming from me. Seems like a good exchange.