Sunday Thoughts On Avs And Other Stuff

Has this felt like the longest off-season, or what? It’s only Aug. 4, too. Many weeks to go before a real Avalanche game happens again (and, no, I don’t care about preseason games).

So, there’s not much to do, as far as this site goes. I like to sometimes just use it as a place to think out loud, about a lot of things, so please allow for this indulgence:

• I’m sitting watching a documentary from 1998, called “The Farmer’s Wife”, which I used to have on VHS but now it’s on Amazon Prime. Wow, this is taking me back to that time when I really got into watching it that year, on my old console color TV while living in an apartment in Lakewood. It’s the story of a couple from Nebraska, who are farmers, with three kids, and them trying to get by financially and otherwise. I recommend it.

• I respect farmers so much. That was the principal occupation of most Americans way back when.

• Another highly recommended documentary: “Two American Families” - a deep look at two working-class Milwaukee families, one white, one black, and how they have tried to keep up. The look at their lives spans from 1991-2024. Really great doc.

• I had my fourth surgery in about nine months on Thursday. It went well, and there’s some hope that things are looking better for me. I don’t want to get into what the thing is, but it’s pretty serious.

• Yet, I don’t live in fear like I used to. I was a world-class worrier until I was about age 57, but I’ve learned how to stop worrying about things out of my control and to just be grateful for what I’ve got and what I’ve been able to do.

• Does that sound a it pollyanna-ish? Yeah, I guess. I’m still an insufferable prick at times (behind a wheel, I’m still that way), but I FINALLY learned that life isn’t all revolved around ME and my problems. All of us are only here for a short time on this mortal coil, so why worry so much? Too bad it took me so long to realize this.

• I’ve had such a life of extremes - a poor, picked-on kid, severe anxiety problems as a 20-something, then success in the sports media business beyond my wildest dreams followed by a time of arrogance and entitlement, followed by pretty much losing it all, then coming back stronger than ever working for myself, followed by health and some other problems, followed by … now, where I have learned to just do the best I can and be as good as I can to the world and try to, in some way, help others.

• I am not in the Avs’ press box anymore, but I still have dreams all the time that I am.

• If these are the pleasant dreams I could relive, I’d go with…

• Looking out the window of the Avs team plane, coming back from a road trip (LA is one such memory) and seeing the lights of Denver and wondering how the hell I ever was in such a position. (I often flew with the team from 1995-98 or so).

• Another of my favorite travel memories: I think it was 1997. I woke up at my apartment in Lakewood one morning, then went to DIA for a flight to Edmonton for an Avs-Oilers game that night. I got a ride back on the Avs team plane right after the game. So, I was back in my own Lakewood bed in that same “day” (well, not technically). And I just remember thinking, “I was alone eating cereal in Lakewood only a few hours ago, then I was in Edmonton in a packed arena watching NHL hockey in a great Canadian city and writing about it, then I was back in my own bad that night. Crazy).”