Please note that you can
SUBSCRIBE below to this Blog if you enjoy the photos and the accompanying
stories.
I certainly hope you enjoy
my work which is displayed here, perfect or not. Comments are graciously accepted at aljbourassa@gmail.com.
NOTE that you may click on
any photo for an ENLARGED VIEW.
Also please see my
artworks for sale at http://saccc05.tripod.com/
All work is COPYRIGHT
protected and may not be used in any way without purchase, or without my
permission.
Friday January 17, 2014
I had made a brief stop at my old workplace again and asked one of my bosses about the upcoming hockey weekend for the Okotoks Bisons Junior B Hockey Club because it showed 3 road games on their schedule. Jay McFarlane is the GM of the club and I used to be a former Director. He said they were leaving on the bus at 3pm for Medicine Hat and that I could join them if I liked.
I called my brother Laurent who lives outside of Medicine Hat in Redcliff and asked if it would suit him if I made the trip. He said he had nothing planned so I hopped the bus with the team. Frankly I am tired of traveling for a while so the bus trip of 3 hours was not really fun.
I could not figure out why the coaches were dragging along a piece of plywood with a red cloth over it but it quickly became evident that this was their poker table to be placed on the armrests of the seats, covering the aisle so that 6-8 players could partake in losing money. I am not one of those, I am a poor gambler.
The arena is way on the east side of Medicine Hat, the Kinplex, and I recognized that it was next door to the Cypress Center where we showed our Eleggant Hooks at a trade show many years ago.
We were told there was a beer gardens in progress to day and we discovered that this was heartily frequented by two teams of wives of the military at the Suffield training base. It was pretty obvious that almost all the women were wives of British soldiers. Surprisingly they said they actually play hockey and were bussed in today by the Medicine Hat Cubs hockey team as a promotion. They were good sports.
I spotted 2 gals sitting by themselves and one of them had the nickname "Frenchie" on the back of her jersey so my curiosity got the better of me. It turns out that they were indeed French gals from Quebec who spoke very little English. One's last name was Ratte and the other one was a Proulx, to whom I might be related, especially when she said that her father knew folks in Legal, Alberta. Anyway it was nice to practice my French a little.
The game itself between our Bisons and the Cubs was a good affair, with the Cubs carrying the play for the first 10 minutes and then gradually the Bisons took over. Period scores of 1-0 and 2-0 soon ballooned to 5-1 as our goalie lost his shutout bid with 5 minutes to play.
The bus ride home was not any more fun as I tried to nap all the way, arriving home at 2:30am.
My computer setup in Canada is really inferior so it takes a tremendous amount of effort to process these photos and then get them to upload to this Blog.
 |
| People enjoying the sunshine on the outdoor rinks |
 |
| 1/2 of the Okotoks Bisons were picked up in Okotoks |
 |
| The ubiquitous poker table for the coaches |
 |
| An endless train on the bald prairie going the other way |
 |
| A sunset with an oil pumpjack in silhouette |
 |
| The beer garden at the Kinplex in Medicine Hat |
 |
| The Suffield women's hockey teams |
 |
| The "Frenchies" Proulx and Ratte |
 |
| The Medicine Hat Cubs in black dictate the early play |
 |
| The Cubs goalie makes a breakaway stop |
 |
| In this sequence, the Cubs get a close-in shot |
 |
| Our goalie has the puck right between the pads. |
 |
| and he keeps the puck out of the net. |
 |
| We set up for another shot at their goalie. We win 5-1. |
