One Night, Two Adventures
Adventure Number One:
So, last night, on a bit of a whim, and with some prompting from my secretary, I took Hunter and Emma to see our very first live NHL game. We saw the Anaheim Ducks play the Nashville Predators. It was tons of fun. My firm has a suite at the arena that’s mainly for “business development” (i.e., schmoozing clients) but if no one is taking clients to any particular event (which seems to be the case fairly often) then any attorney that wants to can use it.
We had a great time and Hunter and Emma really got into the spirit of it, cheering whenever the Ducks scored or had a great save. I did my best to explain the rules and everything else I knew about the game but I’m not sure how well I did. I don’t think I lived up to my Canadian heritage very well. “Daddy, why did the referee blow the whistle and make everyone stop playing?” “I don’t know, son. I don’t know.”
Is it just me, though, or is it weird that the Ducks started out as a marketing tie-in for a Walt Disney movie? And how weird is it that they won the Stanley Cup last year? Anyway, it was a great time. We watched the Ducks beat the Predators 3 to 1, we ate some nachos, took some pictures, and when it was all over, headed out for the approximately 20 minute drive back home, which leads us to…
Adventure Number Two:
It’s 10:00 o’clock at night, we’re about half way home and cruising along the freeway when I look down and notice that the tachometer on the dashboard is showing 0 RPM’s. I realize this would only happen if the engine is no longer running (hey, I’m a bright guy). I test my theory by pressing down on the accelerator and, sure enough, nothing. We’re in the car pool lane but, fortunately, we’re right at a spot where there’s a wider than usual median on the left. I pull over, we glide to a stop and I put on the hazard lights.
This now is where a nice mix of modern technology and good people turns something that could have been a really big problem into a bit of an inconvenience. I call the highway patrol on my cell phone and get a really helpful officer on the other end. He gets our location, dispatches a patrol car and then conferences in a AAA dispatcher. The woman at AAA was really helpful, too. She orders a tow truck and tells them it’s a priority call, figures out the closest repair shop to tow us to and orders a cab to be at the repair shop to take us home.
Hunter and Emma were great, too. They made a contest of who could spot the police car or tow truck first and then compared notes with each other over everything they’d have to tell their friends at school the next day. As for the car, we’re still waiting to get the whole story on what caused the breakdown. At first the mechanic thought it was just a problem with the distributor, but they replaced it and it’s still not working so they said they’ll dive back into it tomorrow and see what they can figure out. Yikes! We’ve had this car since our BYU days and I’m really hoping we can squeeze a few more years out of it before it totally bites the dust.
So, basically, it was just another day around the old homestead. Mostly fun, with just a little bit of crazy thrown in to make things interesting.
I’m sorry, I’m still stuck on the first sentence where you mention you have a secretary. 😉
I’m just kidding, I know you have a heavy duty job, so of course you need one, it was just weird reading that sentence knowing my brother had typed it. And hey, I love hockey! I have many a fond memory of watching games with Unc, and lots of Don Cherry jokes too eh! And also lots of Wayne Gretzky jokes too, let’s just say we weren’t fans. Although any and all hockey knowledge has long since left my brain, so I’m not much help either, and I too am a shameful example of Canadian heritage. And I’m glad you had a night of fun and adventure with Hunter and Emma, that you made it home safely, and with some fun stories to tell the next day!
While not knowing much about hockey may have let your canadian heritage down, I’m pretty sure not knowing much about any sport lives up to your [insert last name here] heritage 🙂
It all depends on which part of the [insert last name here] family you come from. All of my family are HUGE sports fans. (Kind of a natural with 5 sons!) We even have a yearly family hockey pool that is active madness every season. Last year I came in 2nd place – I was beat by Dan! (This year I’ll be victorious!) Grampa was also a big sports fan, but I think some of us were soured because of his obsession with golf, both playing and watching it on TV. I guess it just shows which side of the slice of bread you’re buttered on.
Sure glad this car incident happened to you AFTER the game, instead of BEFORE the game. Makes the adventure a little less painful and much more exciting! Hope you’ll post what the final diagnosis was with the car. A real puzzle!
I LOVE HOCKEY. I am so glad you had FUN. I am sorry about the car troubles.
I’ve never been to a Hockey game…the closest I got was watching one team practice..one of my friends had a boyfriend in the team.
I was so worried when I first saw the picture. I thought you were in an accident and I was relived it was only car troubles. Glad everyone was safe.
We are sooo Jelous!!! in A box??? for Free???!!! We had to mortgage Aphra to get Cunucks tickets, and that was only after bribing a season ticket holder to part with a few games…. But I am glad you enjoyed it!!! and be 20 min away from the arena??? seriously.