A New Season

These days, few things make me quite so excited as the beginning of the NHL regular season. I'm glad to have somewhere to invest my nervous energy and something to follow with interest that has the potential to be quite positive. We decided to go to the opening game of the Hurricanes' '08-'09 season last night, and we were delighted to discover that we could make it to a 7pm weeknight game on time from here when traffic and weather permit, though we plan to do that very seldom indeed. The journey also had the advantage of taking us by a gas station selling 87 for $3.17 per gallon. At home here, it's more like $3.60+ these days, so that was another pleasant surprise.

In other good news, the Hurricanes won, it was the fullest house I have seen in the 11 months I have followed the team and, aside Dan's from missing most of the second period haggling with an RBC Center employee at the ticket window who appeared to be trying to make a spot in the hall of incompetence for herself, we had a nice time and managed to get home before midnight.

As an aside, Dan has decided that earplugs are in order for him at all future games, which was a valuable observation. His hearing has suffered some over the last few months/years, and all of the arena noise is just too much for him, even though there's nothing like a live game and he loves that part. I'm somewhat more compassionate than I might otherwise be to that particular situation because I have a mother with hearing loss whose experience was shared with me some growing up. In fact, I learned enough from mom that I was able to recognize some behavioral signs of Dan's hearing loss before he recognized what was happening and his doctor actually caught the physical fact in testing.

Also aside, a consequence of the ticket window fiasco was that once I went back to the ticket window with Dan to have them fix the overcharge and the wrong seats (among other things), we decided to get some food, and when we headed back to our seats, Senator Elizabeth Dole happened to be right outside the door we needed to go through to get back. She was kind enough to shake our hands and greet us kindly before moving on. It may have been a photo-op, but we had no cameras (only incredibly overpriced Hardee's food) at hand, so you'll just have to take my word on that one.

I'm the last person to find politicians awe-inspiring, but she is a history-maker (the first female senator in NC) and a long-time civil servant who served with five presidents and ran for first lady, so to speak, so given a chance to shake her hand, I will take it.

All in all, it was a fun evening. I'm very grateful for fun times like this one that we get to share. Perhaps it can mark the start of a new season in our lives with more to obviously celebrate... (and I do mean more than just a new NHL season)!