This Means I've Progressed

Yesterday I played the most fulfilling hockey game of my life.

It was the last game of the summer league, and it was against the team myself and two of my coworkers played on last winter. Those guys are dicks. I was ready to breath smoke.

They took our best forward to play goalie because he is super talented and can do that to, just so we would have an actual game. Also JJ, one of my coworkers and ringer didn't show up because he had the game time wrong.

So I wasn't feeling great when the puck dropped, but as the period progressed it was a close game.

They scored first in the second period, even after we had been getting tons of shots down low off rebounds. I scored my first goal of the season off a lose puck in front of the net, sending it far side. That felt good, tying it up against the team that didn't want anything to do with me. I drew an interference penalty on one of their guys, but we didn't convert.

They went up early in the third, but we answered with 15 minutes left in the game. With about 5 minutes left we scored again.

The last shift I had was like 3 or 4 minutes, but there was no way I was going to let anything happen. Time was winding down, and their captain Todd got the puck near their blue line. I was about 10 feet away as he drifted to the right boards. I glanced at the clock and saw their was about 30 seconds left. There was no lengthy decision in my mind, I just acted. I made a line to where he was going to be and chopped down on his stick and then hip checked him into the boards.

I heard him cry, "Come on" in a high pitched girlie voice as I got up and skated to where the action had continued. We touched up with 20 seconds left and I made my way to the box. The running clock expired and we won.

It was so fantastic. They didn't make eye contact as we shook hands after the game. I talked to another guy they booted from their team because he wasn't "good enough" and he thought they hadn't won a game all season.

So I got the goal, the drawn penalty, the most likely double minor, and the sweet, sweet tears of Todd Lanning. It was awesome.

Gaming the system

I’m constantly told by Conservative coworkers-family-jackasses that there are thousands upon thousands of lazy bastards who are just living off the government and stealing their taxes.

OK, they are playing the system. I concede that and those people do exist.

The revelation I had though came when I was talking to my wife about a person we know who owns investment properties, but intentionally looses money on them to get a tax benefit from them.

How is this any different than the person who has found a way to live off welfare? The person with the investment properties is gaming the system to pay fewer taxes. Is it ok because they are doing it in a more clever way than the person who is able to avoid getting a job. I think that’s pretty clever too.

All the rich jerks who exploit every possible tax shelter, deferral, and loophole are just as bad as the lazy dude gaming welfare. They are making it just as bad for everyone in the middle who just sucks it up and pays what they have to and works.

More Work on the Chest

3.5 hours of color shading. Done enough for now.