G.O.S...

This is a new expression that Dad has said alot recently, so much so in fact that one thursday night a few weeks ago my sister called to tell me that I had to use it. What does it mean you ask? Getting Old Sucks - and it does. Dad told me years ago that you may have to get older but you don't have to grow up.

My last post, that awesome poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson - I was in a very thoughtful mood on friday and that poem really seems to flow nicely into this blog - I think that Ulysses was thinking the very same thing - Getting Old Sucks - now here's a hero from the Trojan war, who has returned home - he was also known as Odyesseus - he's been through alot and now he's home but he has an ache to continue his journey, although the entire time he was travelling all he could think of was getting back to Sweet Penelope and his son - now that he's back he misses the way things were - he's looking to set out again and have more great adventures. He had to go through those trials (or his Oddessy) to appreciate his home, and now that he's home the peacefulness of it all is making him appreciate his journey. He's decided to leave his son to reign over his people, afterall, his son has never known any other life, and for our hero the water is wide and he'll always be seeking it's edge. I think we all seek what we don't have, until we get it, then set our sights on the next thing that we want or need - human nature? maybe... But what happens when you want what you've got?

Last Saturday I stepped down as Captain of the Loyalists- it was way harder than I had imagined, 12 seasons at the helm, hundreds of games won and lost - I don't like when things end, but I do enjoy the fact that all I'll have to deal with is playing. I also hurt my leg on Tuesday Night, so I'll be sidelined for a few weeks, to recuperate and get ready to set sail again.

Sophie and Nic are great - adjusting to 3 meals of Solid foods a day and almost learning to Crawl, she can sit up by herself for awhile, but usually ends up on her side. She is also "talking" alot more (if I "talked" like that people would ask me - "What's with the screaming?") and we are eagaly awaiting her first English words - I'm sure the dogs have understood some of what she's saying now. She's 23 Weeks old - and getting older, so I guess in her (our) case Getting Old Doesn't Suck not even a little bit...

ULYSSES...

ULYSSES

It little profits that an idle king,

By this still hearth, among these barren crags,

Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole

Unequal laws unto a savage race,

That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.

I cannot rest from travel; I will drinkLife to the lees.

All times I have enjoy'd

Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those

That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when

Thro' scudding drifts the rainy

HyadesVext the dim sea.

I am become a name;

For always roaming with a hungry heart

Much have I seen and known,-- cities of men

And manners, climates, councils, governments,

Myself not least, but honor'd of them all,--

And drunk delight of battle with my peers,

Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.

I am a part of all that I have met;

Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'

Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades

For ever and for ever when I move.

How dull it is to pause, to make an end,

To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!

As tho' to breathe were life! Life piled on life

Were all too little, and of one to me

Little remains; but every hour is saved

From that eternal silence, something more,

A bringer of new things; and vile it were

For some three suns to store and hoard myself,

And this gray spirit yearning in desire

To follow knowledge like a sinking star,

Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

This is my son, mine own

Telemachus,to whom I leave the sceptre and the isle,--

Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfill

This labor, by slow prudence to make mild

A rugged people, and thro' soft degrees

Subdue them to the useful and the good.

Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere

Of common duties, decent not to failIn offices of tenderness, and pay

Meet adoration to my household gods,

When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.

There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail;

There gloom the dark, broad seas.

My mariners,Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me,--

That ever with a frolic welcome took

The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed

Free hearts, free foreheads,-- you and I are old;

Old age hath yet his honor and his toil.

Death closes all; but something ere the end,

Some work of noble note, may yet be done,

Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.

The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks;

The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deep

Moans round with many voices.

Come, my friends.'T is not too late to seek a newer world.

Push off, and sitting well in order smite

The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths

Of all the western stars, until I die.

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;

It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,

And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,--

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

- Alfred Lord Tennyson

You Can't Win Them All...

Dad used to say this alot when I first started to play with the Loyalists 16 seasons ago, he hasn't had to say it much recently, but last Saturday, he could have - we lost to the Trojans 27-24 - I missed a kick on the last play of the game to tie it at 27, that sucks - what sucks even more is that I was sucked out during the game, I didn't seem to have any energy (Lack of Sleep, Not a good B'fast - I don't know) but I do know that excuses are like assholes, everybody has one - excuses are easy to use and to blame - but all it does is shift the responsibility away from where it truly belongs - squarely on our shoulders.

Losers make excuses, Champions make commitments ...

So we get over it, we look ahead to this weekend's tilt against Halifax RFC (Cougle's Team) - The Peter Dickson Cup. Peter was a former captain of the Loyalists and a coach of Halifax RFC - he passed away from cancer almost a decade ago - so our two clubs come together once a year to celebrate his memory by playing rugby. Should be a good game, I know that the Loyalists have something to prove to ourselves.

How is Sophie? She's awesome as always - the Solid food experiment is going better - I don't know if she read Superfudge in the womb but "Eat it or Wear it" seems to be a motto of hers.


Big congrats to Heather and Troy Shears who recently got married in Australia in the company of Big Simon (He was their videographer) - This is Sophie's first exposure to Oz culture.



Malcolm is correct - you can't win them all, and nor should you, because there are some important lessons that you can't learn from winning - Like You Should Try to Win Them all...

I HATE LOSING!

Tractors and Equipment...

This was a magical place - I haven't really thought about it in a long time, but I heard this JCB Song on TV and it reminded me of being little and driving loaders or just hanging around over at the shop. Some of the very cool things that I remember best are "no running on the concrete" , the fact that they had a very old very cold pop machine in the shop out back, and once a year Mr. Chet Campbell would host Family Fun Days where all the employees could bring their familes and eat BBQ chicken and drink pop that was kept cold with ice in the bucket of a loader -but my most favorite thing was this huge ball - they called it a world ball and it was made out of canvas It stood about 10 feet a round and was pushed all around the horse paddock (what is now the Superstore Parking Lot) while all of the kids chased it around - moments of pure bliss - many good times at T&E. It was truly a family place, My Grandfather and Dad both worked there and there were always lots of kids around, the Campbell's (Chris, Andrew and Jill) and The Rust's (Cam, Dana, Christie and Terry) stick out in my mind - good times. It's nice to think of where you grew up, when you start to think about where you want your kids will grow up, and I can only hope that Sophie has as much fun visiting me at work as I did visiting Malcolm (although I doubt it, because there's no Cool tractors here afterall)

Home Again, Home Again...

A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it...

Now Malcolm never said this, he might have read it somewhere but a guy named George Moore actually said it - I was thinking that this was a perfect quote because Simon - the world traveller has set down some roots - he bought a place in Devon and became a homeowner today - Congrats.

In my opinion "home" is where your family is, so I've had many homes over the years - at first we lived at two houses down the street, then we moved to what I now refer to as my parents house, but That's what I think of when I think of as my boyhood home - my other boyhood homes were Peter's House and Donna's House - because that's where I spent most of my time, with my adopted brother and sister. Now I have two homes - the one I live at with My Girls and My Dogs (I love our place, and most of the time there's no place I'd rather be) and The Clubhouse, which gives new meaning to playing a Home Game and Home field advantage. I think that this opinion of the clubhouse is held by many, who, have over the years have adopted our own little piece of real estate on the river as at least their second homes, many have raised familes, met wives, laughed, cried, celebrated life and lives well lived - if that's not home, then what is.

This weekend the Loyalists are all at home and it should be a dandy as we host the Trojans with all three teams - women Kick off at noon, Men's 2nds at 1:30 and the 1sts at 3pm.

Come on out - We're having a homecoming...

G.F.Y....

This is a Double Acronym - It goes out to the idiots who stole the Stump Hound from my parents driveway last week
Good For You - My parents won this Stump Hound - a 250lb chainsaw carving of Hound Dog from the SPCA a few years ago - it's heavy and awkward and was an eyesore initially but has found it's place at the top of Malcolm and Nancy's driveway, and now it is like an extended family memeber, or like one of the dogs that doesn't get to come in the house. I think it was Wednesday night some brainiacs decided they would steal it, and DRAG it to their place - well they soon realized that it is as heavy as a TREE TRUNK and at that point they abandonded it at Queen's Square where the Police promptly found it the following day after my mother had reported it missing.



FYI - Stump Hound is back where he belongs - guarding the backyard, he's got some new scars (Three blocks worth of Drag Marks) but he's had an adventure and we often come back from the good adventures with scars - I know I always did.

My parents have alot of faith in the world, Their house has always been open to anyone that wanted to stop by - so much so that many of my friends (Their adopted kids) would stop and take naps there between classes at UNB, or stop by to borrow some bacon late at night when the urge struck. Dad would lend anybody anything that they needed and asked for, so it really sucks when someone violates that trust - and for that you can use the other less polite version of this acronym...

Yes Please, Thank You and Excuse Me...

Are we as polite as we should be? I was thinking about this alot recently, but it was really brought to my mind on Saturday Night at the Bulk Barn - I was browsing candy (Mike and Ike's I think) and this guy bumped into me, I'm not a huge guy, but I would hope that someone would notice if they ran into me, this guy didn't seem to, I of course was very quick with an "Excuse Me" - he hardly looked at me, anyways that bothered me, but I got over it, maybe he was just a rude guy - whatever, I still got to eat candy.

I was hard wired early on that you should hold doors, say the magic word (Contrary to popular belief it isn't "Now") and thank people that do nice things for you like let you go at a crosswalk or let you merge into traffic during the 15 minutes of rush hour we have in Fredericton.

I think we should all make an effort everyday to be nice, to do nice things and be polite about them - maybe at the end of the day it will catch on again and we will all deserve to eat candy...

It's a Spoon not a Shovel...

This was a common phrase heard at the MacAfee house while I was growing up, as I was a growing boy I enjoyed eating, and eating fast - I don't know where this came from - I remember dad telling me when he was growing up (With Three MacAfee Sized Brothers) that If you didn't eat fast you didn't eat much. I had no worries, My sister Megs is eight years younger than I am, she never really put any pressure on me at the dinner table, and Simon still eats slow - so he wasn't a threat - I guess that I've always had an impending sense of urgency - I like getting things done so I can move on to what's next, like eating dinner so I could watch Star Trek for instance.

Sophie is starting to eat rice cereal this week - Her first introduction to real food - should be fun.

I have been on Vacation this week and it' s been nice - We went to Moncton, ate at St. James Gate and Drank some beer with Jenn and Trev - besides that we've been hanging around Fort Awesome, I think I'm going to get ambitious and attempt to put a patio down tomorrow - should be interesting.

The first pictures of Emma showed up today - They were awesome.

There seems to be alot of Girls being Born - This bodes well for the Jackman Boys in a few Years.

If You're Going to Play, You Might as Well Win...

I remember Dad telling me this at siome point when I became involved with competitive sports - I think it fueled my natural tendancy towards competition, and as I later learned - I enjoy winning, but more importantly, in things that mattered to me, I HATE TO LOSE.

To actually come to this realization you have to lose alot, and I have - I also came to the realization that - I LOVE TO COMPETE.

We (The Loyalists) played our first New Brunswick Rugby Union league game on Saturday against the Belleisle Rovers - The game was fun, we played hard and finished well, they played hard and never gave up - in the end the scoreline of 60-20 wasn't really indicative of the match, but in the end we are now 1-0 and have gotten off to a good start to our 2006 campaign.

On the Sophie front - today we were visited by My cousins Jamie and Jen, my Aunt Rhoda and Jamie's fiancé Danielle, it was nice for them all to meet Sophs for the first time speaking of Sophie, she's turned into quite the little jumper - the video was nothing - I think she'll be trying out for the 2024 Olympics, that is if they sanction the Jolly Jumper as a medal Sport, hey ballroom dancing is, can jolly jumping be far behind, but as malcolm says - If you're going to play, you might as well win...

Legends of the Fall...

Legends of the Fall

I believe in the tight five,
That unstoppable force that guides us forward
The power that binds those men together
Always pushing as hard as they can
towards an unreachable goal

I believe in the back row
Those souls torn between the power and the glory
Those creatures that hunt in packs,
but often punish and bleed alone
Those magnificent bastards that come out of no where
to teach an uninitiated back why people say “heads up”

I believe in the half backs
The ones that are charged with doling out the riches,
Won by the forwards, and given to the backs
to turn them into good fortunes.
The generals who launch there charges into the fray,
Or play the tactical role until the tides have turned.

I believe in the centers
That dangerous tandem that are assigned to
Furiously breach the gap –
Through slight of hand or speed of foot, or sheer determination
Then act as a wall, so that no man shall pass
Or have the will to after they’ve met.

I believe in the back three
The danger men, the speed merchants,
single minded in their madness for the white line
But also act as the last line of defense
The only thing that stands between glory and humiliation
They know no fear – they aren’t allowed

I believe in our coach,
The one who shows us the way -
Who is charged with the responsibility to show us the possibilities
Warn us of the hardships and the sacrifice that it will take
who does his battle vicariously, never truly knowing
the taste of blood – but still he marshals us on.

I believe in the Loyalists, this band of brothers
Bound together in blood, sweat and dedication
Where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts,
Where believing in each other is the only thing
standing between what we are
and what we can ultimately be, Truly…………
Legends of the fall.

Two Babies and a Pair of Boxing Gloves...

First Things First - Congrats to Tracey and Pete Slipp on the birth of their first daughter Ava Slipp - I know it's a wonderful experience, I'm living it daily - I'm also still waiting on Pictures of my Cousin Julee's second daughter Emma. Lots of Girls around these days - That's awesome.

The Title Expression refers to what a bottle of Dark Rum contains - or so it's been said. (this one probably hold more than that)

I hope everyone has a great New Brunswick Day or (insert Holiday Name Here) Day - Nothing like the last long weekend of Summer - Enjoy.

The Loyalists Kick off our season tomorrow - 3pm at Loyalist Park - See you there.

They Name Streets after People Like You...

Dad used to say this to me when I was being Selfish - fatherhood definately beats that out of you (or Exhausts it out of you), I guess that's why it becomes so apparent to parents when their own kids are being selfish. There is a thin line between Selfish and looking after yourself - you need to take care of yourself, because if you don't and you continue to give constantly, what you are sharing with others isn't always worth getting.

I think that the most valuable thing that we have and one of the easiest to be selfish with is: our time - I heard a statistic that the average American parent spends 20 minutes a day with their child - that's completely nuts.

So we should all try to share our time more freely with those that make us feel good - that way you are sharing but sneakily being selfish because you are getting alot of benefit out of spending your most valuable resource on your loved ones... If that even makes sense?

Hotter than a Fox in a Forest Fire...

Well This is an exression that dad uses to describe a hot day - today is hot in Freddy Beach, It's not even 11am and the Feels like scale is at 34 degrees - and it's on it's way to 40. Last year the upstairs of our house would have been a sauna and I would have to retreat to the basement to get any sleep, but this year we got an air conditioner, it's working overtime today, and the only reason I'll be missing any sleep will be thinking about the Power bill.

I Love Summer, I love the heat (Except at night when I'm trying to sleep) and this coming weekend always seems like the last of the real summer weekends for some reason - We've got our first rugby game, against the Belleisle Rovers who are a great team and the game should be very entertaining - The weather network is calling for 25 and sunny, so it will be a good day for fans as well, if they enjoy sunshine, beer and Rugby.

Sophie is enjoying her first Summer, she has taken to the water without incident, so much so that we now have two pools on our back deck to beat the heat.

The expression in the title isn't quite complete, the fox is missing an adjective, but at least now it's suitible for family reading - if you want to know the rest, ask Malcolm -it's funny and makes more sense.

Enjoy the heat - It will be winter soon enough.