IPv6Freely

I’m in Missouri right now and the number of people who still say it’s a media driven hoax still is staggering. It will be VERY real for them, soon enough. Hell, my wife and I may very well have brought it here with us, who knows.

I'm currently in Missouri in my wife's home town. I've heard THREE people today saw it was media-driven nonsense. Her mom said "the obama swine flu ended up being nothing" so why would she believe this? The people here are absolutely oblivious to what's going on in the world around them. It's crazy. I wish I could force them all to read this: https://www.boredpanda.com/coronavirus-outbreak-stages-italy-jason-yanowitz/

My former team is forfeiting tonight’s game and not showing up.

Ours is still open. We just got an email that the rooms will be sanitized between games and to keep gloves on in the handshake lines. Yet our softball leagues, a sport which requires just about zero physical contact with other people, have been canceled. It honestly makes little sense for them to continue.

I have trouble with my skates after pants too. Some rinks worse than others (a lower bench in the dressing room makes it way easier). I was definitely doing the two bottle thing for quite a while. Like you said, one water (more ends up on me than in me), gatorade (that I actually drink), and yeah definitely something for on the way home.

Nice! Have fun. And don't try to kill yourself out there. The first pickup I ever played in the guy who runs it said to not even go down very much. Just get used to the skates, the shuffle, the angles, and having people firing pucks at you. I might even ask them if they could try to take shots from a distance and not try to deke you out of your jock for your first go. But whatever you feel comfortable with. Consider bringing a second water bottle - you may need it! Have fun 😄

My wife has Fibromyalgia.

Gorgeous.

Batting last in the order and sitting every inning when our team is fielding is totally my idea of a fun beer league softball game. Glad I drove the hour+ in rush hour traffic to get there!

To clarify, yes there is an event hotel with a special rate. While it’s not strictly REQUIRED to stay there, you can potentially really jam up JR if you don’t.

Wow, really? And it was actually made oversized for goalie steel 😆

What about the MSH pouch?

If its a place you haven't been to I would suggesting coming in on Wednesday so you can do the tourist thing and explore. There's usually at least a couple other MSH'ers around. In Pittsburgh we went to a Pirates game and the Warhol museum, for example.

So this is True's non-custom retail model? I wonder how well they fit. I'd likely be happy with non-custom on something with the mold-ability of the Mako.

I'm out this year unfortunately 😞

Well, the season finished yesterday. I haven't played in that league since September I think. I've played in maybe 3-4 pickup games since then, as well as Winterfest. I also subbed for a league game at the other (20 minutes closer) rink. I definitely miss playing. I've been tracking my old league. The top three scorers all had more than double the goals of the person in 4th place. I get beer league stats don't matter but when it's THAT glaring... yikes. I had an email exchange with the league director as I was trying to figure out what to do: Me: Him: Me: Him: Okay, so theoretically that should make the decision easy. I asked the director (who I have a good relationship with) to try to find me a team for their next season, but he wasn't able to before this one finished so I had to make a decision. I had played in the Anaheim Ducks Throwback Classic tournament (that we won our division) and that was great, and had a bunch of guys from my old team. They all said the same thing - that the league was broken, that the director doesn't care and won't fix it, and that they are considering switching to the other rink full-time. They said it could all be fixed if the director ever actually watched one of the games (and saw how ridiculous it is to have a guy skate around dangling everyone, going right to the net, and then deciding to NOT shoot because he knows it would go in and wants to pass it off to one of the other guys to score instead - as if that makes the eventual goal less irritating). But they got rid of the D4 division there so either these guys play in our division or he loses their money which obviously he's not gonna do. So anyway, today I got a text from the captain. He said they all talked after the season ended last night and decided that everyone is going to be in for one more season to see if things get better since apparently they're just going to give us a couple D4-level guys so we can be competitive. I don't think THAT'S the solution but at least it makes it more eve, I guess. I asked him if the guys I played in the tournament were going to play this season too because they were considering leaving, and he said he was considering leaving too, but they all decided to give it one more shot. So from the sounds of it, if things go to shit again, he's planning on moving the entire team to the other rink (again, 20 minutes closer to me), so that's actually kind of the best case scenario for me. So... I agreed to join them. Because if it sucks again then I get to stay with them when they move. If it doesn't suck, then it doesn't suck. I think just about the only major downside is I've taken up softball and now play that Sunday mornings. So my Sundays are basically 100% shot now. But... I have an MRI next monday for a suspected labrum tear in my throwing shoulder so my short lived adult softball career may be over pretty quickly. So then it won't matter anyway. As for other life stuff... my job just gets worse by the day, and I can't relocate to take another job so I'm stuck. I think that's the most frustrating part. It also always blows my mind how many people are able to just up and relocate when they have a spouse. How? Do they not work too? I've also gained a shit ton of my weight back, 50lbs of the 70 I lost initially. And eating like crap. And haven't been doing much hiking. And my wife's health isn't great either so it's really difficult for me to find the energy to do anything. I kind of want to buy some new pads or skates or something. That might boost the excitement to play a bit. We'll see how it goes.

I think I’m going to go get scanned for new goalie skates. Does anyone have experience at either Pure Hockey in Anaheim or Hockey Monkey in Irvine? It’s about an hour away either way. I just want to make sure the fitters are competent and they use the correct techniques when baking.

Can you PM me pictures of the RBZ shoulders? Both in general and of any wear spots, if any. Thank you!

Yes, Frontier sucks.

Okay guys leave the VT stuff in that thread. We don’t need to rehash why it’s meaningless every time it gets brought up

I’ve had mine for almost 5 years and have had no issues. Just some normal wear.

As far as sticks, brands do their own measurements which is pretty stupid. The "standard" way to measure (if youre talking to other goalies) is from heel to paddle, measured like this: It's going to be all a preference thing, but the paddle length changes where your blocker is. These days, the position of your blocker and stick while in the butterfly matters a lot more than when in your stance (though plenty of people will argue that I'm sure). I'm 5'8 and use a 26" Warrior, which I think is more like 27.5 actual inches (I don't have it in front of me so I can't remember). Or, at least i did until I started cutting a custom grip shape into my paddle - now I use a CCM 27 which is about the equivalent of a 26 after I cut my grip. You can ignore all that, though. I also started cutting off a couple inches from the shaft just because I find stickhandling easier, but again that's not something you should worry about yet. As far as type of stick, I still think foam core sticks (thin wood paddle filled with a lightweight foam, usually with a wood shaft) are still by far the best feeling as far as pucks hitting them, and there was a point where composite sticks were more expensive than their performance warrants but nowadays you can get composite for under $100 so that's the route I'd go if I was you. Avoid wood sticks - they're cheap but good god they are HEAVY. Just like me starting out with pads with leather straps so I don't know any different, which meant I didn't need to get used to something different, I would do the same with sticks if I were you. Start with a composite just so that's all you know. That's the future going forward anyway.

Well, that’s no less a scientific analysis than the other rating, I guess.

Oh yeah no question it’s the heat!

It happens when you only skate out 2-3 times a year 😉