New practice goalies at the rink.

They probably could have beaten us in our game this week.

But at least I didn't let in the first shot. Instead, I let in the 17th, about halfway through the game. It was a well placed shot, off the bar and in. And we scored this week! On our 14th shot, with just a few minutes left in the game. Unfortunately, in between those two goals, they got another 17 shots and managed to score 3 more goals after some defensive mistake and me not playing as well as I could have.

But we did manage to score a goal, which was a nice change from last week. However that goal was a surprise as the team actually looked worse and performed worse overall.

At least there's plenty of room for improvement, right?

And here we go again!

First game of the new season, and both teams started out slow. I think they were really actually slow, too, and it wasn't just my impression compared to the faster guys I've been playing pickup with over the break.

So with things slow I didn't have to make a save for the first few minutes, then there was a play in the corner and a pass out front of the net where I moved to make the save on the obvious quick shot. But there was no quick shot. Instead, they messed around with it for a few seconds before getting a shot off, and my efforts to save the quick shot had me out of position by then, and after one shot, we were down 0-1.

And that was how the first period ended, and then the second period, and then as the third was getting close to ending with the same score, we took a penalty. Killed it off with about a minute to go, but then we couldn't get possession of the puck, and I wasn't able to get to the bench to try to score with the extra attacker.

We did create a couple of good scoring chances. The best was in the second period on a two on one break with a pass to a player looking at an open net with no one covering him. But the pass was a bit behind him, and when he tried to adjust, he fell down instead of getting a shot off. Hopefully, as the season goes on, we'll be able to look better on offense than we did tonight.

I was personally frustrated with myself letting in the goal due to not properly adjusting to the speed of the game. But in the end, I had some other good saves, and while we recorded, I think, 18 shots the other team registered 30, so one goal against and losing by just one in that situation is pretty good.

And it was certainly fun to be out playing in a league game again, with plenty more chances to come for better outcomes.

Another year done. And apparently one I should have said one more word about.

But, oh well.

I can see some rough patches and certainly the noticeable downturn in the last couple months since I was laid off, but overall pretty good I think. It seems to be a good thing that the average mood for the year has been on an upward trend since the 2019 low-point.

I am hopeful for good and lasting changes in the new year and improvement going forward, we will see if that materializes or not. I'll do my best to make it happen of course but not everything is entirely up to me.

How many tips have you received from tumblr

Exactly as many as expected, zero.

I had forgotten the thing existed all together until I saw this message.

Shut up, Wesley!

Haven't been on tumblr a while.

Here's a big part of why:

Open app, scroll to look at a few posts on the dashboard.

Click to look at the notes on a post.

Read notes, then press back to return to the dashboard.

Dashboard reloads back to the top.

Close app and refuse to open it again for a few days.

A few days later, repeat entire experience.

It seems they're letting clueless people vote though.

Mountain Region Quarterfinals

Arizona vs New Mexico

Not sure if I was supposed to take into account that half are on major busy roads I'd never want to live on, but I did.

As has been requested we are doing Albuquerque this morning

A tasty family tradition for this time of year.

Made 16 gallons this time.

Where are the rest of their bodies? Is this a vacation only for assistants to bad magicians who aren't able to put them back together?

Due largely to our upset win last week over the first place team, the playoffs worked out to the winners of this week's games facing off for the championship. One might believe that opportunity would result in our team coming out with a repeat of the wonderful energy we started with that got us that win last week. However, in practice, it may be difficult to be more wrong.

The team came out playing poorly, so poorly that instead of three goals at the end of the first period, we had only three shots. The other team, if I recall correctly, had 18. A decent number of those shots were pretty high quality and some great scoring opportunities. I was feeling pretty well though and playing well and it was a scoreless tie after the first.

The second period was pretty similar for the majority of the period. But as we ran towards the second intermission, I made a slight mistake blocking a shot with my stick. It bounced over my shoulder and then within about an inch of the post and into the goal. We were down 0-1 at the end of the second as a result.

The third period started not that much differently than the first two. Until they got a faceoff win and a shot that I was screened and didn't see at first that was then slightly deflected to go over the same shoulder and in the goal. For some reason being down by two seemed to wake the team up and they played significantly better the rest of the period, enough so that the last five minutes or so of the game were played pretty evenly. We managed to score a goal off a faceoff win and quick shot of our own and then had some offensive pressure in the last couple of minutes. I went to the bench to try to get more pressure to score with a sixth skater, instead they almost immediately gave up possession and after a few desperate defensive plays gave up a goal in the empty net to lead to a final 1-3 loss.

It was frustrating to lose the game, especially as I personally felt I really should have saved the first goal against. It felt pretty clear early on that the only chance we would have to win was if I had a shutout, and I worked towards that goal successfully over half the game, facing a large number of high quality shots. Based on the way the rest of the team was playing we could have really been down by half a dozen before I let that one in, so it's a bit unreasonable to be too hard on myself.

It was alright we lost in the end anyway because I will be out of town for the game next week and would have felt really bad if that was the championship game I would be missing. With this loss, they'll be playing in the consolation game, which is often used for players to try out different positions and otherwise fool around.

It was a pretty fun season, though, with some friendly and fun guys on the team. And I already agreed to stay in this lower league again next season as it lets me play with my dad, which is fun and something I know he really enjoys.

I was not feeling very optimistic when I got to the rink and learned we were missing our best defender and one of our forwards, and the sub we had was a forward. The lines the captain had put together had a defensive pair that looked like it would be a huge amount of work for me. But then one of our forward unexpectedly didn't show up and one of the guys set to play defense was moved up and we went with just three defenders, but two of those are the ones who know what to do back there.

Then the game started, and the team just seemed to click. They played better than they have all season so far. We scored on an early breakaway and then two goals on solid offensive sustained pressure. We were up 3-0 by halfway through the first period, and I had barely had to do anything.

After that, we came back down a little bit but still were playing better than usual and controlling the puck most of the time. There was a stretch early in the second period where the other team was trying hard and getting some shots, but nothing too difficult to stop. We weren't really creating scoring chances for ourselves, though, and the score stayed 3-0 until late in the third period.

Then, the other team pushing to try to start a comeback combined with our three defenders getting tired and starting to make some more mistakes. They left a guy open on my right side, and the puck came to him. I pushed out to pressure, and he shot to go over my shoulder. I pushed up and got my shoulder mostly in the way, but it just knocked the puck up into the air, and unfortunately, it fell back down and bounced off the post and in the goal.

Not too long later, they got a faster skater behind our defense and got the puck to him. It wasn't the first time that happened in the game but this time he came in and got a nice shot off, right under my arm that I wasn't able to lower fast enough and it was 3-2 with like 3 minutes left.

After that, we did a better job not giving up those types of chances again. As time ran out they pulled their goalie and we managed to get the puck and tried to dump it to their end, they partially blocked it and slowed it down and the player who was pushed to forward from defense skated to it faster than anyone else and scored into the empty net. That meant the final was a 4-2 victory, which was actually a bit closer than we probably deserved considering how dominant we were throughout the first period.

It was a fun game, and it was cool to get a win and play so well. It was a bit frustrating, though, because it wasn't super obvious why the team didn't play even close to this well throughout the entire season until now. It'll be interesting to see what happens next week and if this will continue or we'll play more like we have most of the games before.

Went and voted.

Not that much on the ballot, school board, water and soil conservation board, and bond questions.

Drove instead of walking so that I'll hopefully make more productive use of my time today, have things I should be getting done but having trouble with motivation.

Also, today, I have an interview for the job I was laid off from a couple of years ago. Because clearly, they shouldn't have laid me off in the first place. The posted pay is lower, so I'll have to think about that and see what specifically they offer me. Working for the same company another year and a half saves me from having to immediately pay back the covid loan against my 401k I stupidly took out to cover my ex not paying rent for the house I let her keep living in. That was a damned stupid financial decision all around, but at least she was horribly ungrateful and seemed to make it worse nearly every possible way she could.

Buy anyway, I voted, and someone new had set up the room differently than the last few elections. I thought it worked better, so hopefully, they'll remember and do it like that again in the future.

The playoffs started, and our whole team showed up and was very excited and eager to play. In fact, they started the game with a great deal of energy; unfocused, nervous, energetic, pointless, unproductive energy. And things went about as poorly as you likely have guessed from that description. We weren't able to create many chances and gave up plenty to the other team.

But I played well coming back from injury and thankfully feeling totally fine where I'd pulled my muscle a bit. I kept it scoreless until about five minutes left in the first when they managed to get a pass through our defense to a wide open player on my left side. I reached back to try to stop his shot even though there was very little chance I could get there. But I actually reached a bit too far and it went off the wrist part of my catcher and in.

Then maybe a minute or so later things got even more frustrating as a pass from behind the net bounced off our defender's leg and I reacted as quickly as I could but wasn't able to move fast enough and it went in underneath me for a horribly unlucky goal against. Not long after that, we were able to get a nice pass to create a breakaway, which was nicely finished to end the period with a score of 1-2, and shots of 5-13.

I continued playing well into the second as the team started to improve, maybe because they got tired, I don't know. We never really got to the point of outplaying the other team, but we certainly improved to about even with them. We didn't create enough good scoring chances, though, and the second period was scoreless. The third period was very similar, mostly even play, but they created a few more good chances than we did, and I made all the saves needed, as did their goalie.

As time was running out, I went to the bench to get an extra skater to try to tie the game up. Instead, they managed to get it into the empty net with a second to go, and the end result was a 1-3 loss.

It was a frustrating result because of how the deciding goal was just a bad luck weird bounce, but honestly we played badly enough in the first period that the result was probably justified.

Anyway, the picture was a spin posted outside the junior team locker room. I really like how much time they get to change before the game, I could totally handle that schedule.

Handed out candy and learned what our balloon does when the batteries get too low, after some concern and worry about what might be causing her to act up how she was.

Still had fun and saw some cool costumes and learned new things too.

Clearly the company isn't the same as it used to be.

Last time they laid me off I got almost two months notice, today it was literally stop working at the end of this phone call.