It’s in the bag and I’ve got this! I’ve got lots of this. I’ve a bag for every occasion! And not just the bags under my eyes. Yes, I am a bagman, but not in the illicit or political sense. Nonetheless, I do have a lot of bags!
Great
minds discuss ideas. Average minds
discuss events. Small minds discuss
people. I discuss bags. Yes. Rambling and
roundabout minds as mine discuss bags.
And sports bags shall be my treatise for today.
It is
snowing heavily today and so it seems fitting to begin with my wintertime
bags. I’ve got a bag for skates. And my skates are not just any skates. Years ago, professional hockey player, Colby
Williams, who is currently with the Admiral Vladivostok of the Kontinental
Hockey League (KHL) in Russia, used to play for the Regina Pats in the Western
Hockey League (WHL). When he was the captain of the Pats, Colby gave me a pair
of CCM Crazy Lights, the Pats standard skate issue at the time. A few years later when Colby was drafted by
the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League (NHL), he gave me a pair
of CMM NHL Tacks, the standard issue of the Capitals at that time. These are the skates I tote in my skate bag.
When there
is ice, I skate at least once a week.
Sometimes I free skate on the open ice in Wascana Park (no pucks and
sticks allowed), and sometimes I play a game of pick-up hockey at the outdoor
rink just a few minutes from where I live.
Factoid: Whenever I skate,
I am in my $1200 (tax not included) CCM NHL Tacks, given to me by Colby!
I love downhill skiing. My very first-time skiing downhill was in 1972 at White Track Ski Resort, just north of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. During my undergrad university years I also skied at other Saskatchewan resorts, Ochapowace near Broadview and Mission Ridge at Fort Qu’Appelle. Over the years I have skied beyond the borders of my home province, at Sunshine, Lake Louise, and Castle mountains in Alberta, at Fernie, Sun Peaks, Harper, Whitewater, Big White, Silver Star, and Whistler in British Columbia, and Mount Alta in Utah, USA.
Over Christmas
I plan to ski Sun Peaks at Kamloops and Big White at Kelowna. This week I’m hoping to get out to Mission
Ridge Ski Resort, at Fort Qu’Appelle, only a forty-minute drive east of my city. "Where you are is where it's at" is my motto!
Typically, into my ski bag I pack my ski parka, my ski pants, my ski mitts and gloves, and
my ski toque and ski goggles. However,
come the first frosty air, I unpack my parka and pants for the threefold employ
of skiing, skating, and running. I wore
my ski jackets and pants for a three-mile run around Wascana Lake just yesterday, as a
matter of fact.
Lately I’ve
re-discovered snorkeling, and, of course,
now I’ve got a bag for that.
In the ‘70s
I used to be a scuba diver with the National Association of Underwater
Instructors (NAUI). To get certified in
scuba, one had to get first certified in snorkeling.
Snorkeling,
compared to scuba diving, is far less clunky. Since I’ve abandoned scuba and become, exclusively, a snorkeler, no more
do I have to lug around air tanks and other heavy duty paraphernalia. Diving, without scuba, is
cleaner and quicker and simpler.
In my snorkel
bag I pack a light wetsuit for summertime dives, a mask, a snorkel, and
fins. Also, I pack a portable
diver-down flag, which I float on the water during every dive. When compared to my scuba diving years, this
bag is small. Back in the scuba days I’d
pack everything currently in my snorkel bag, plus a buoyancy compensator, a regulator,
and some weights.
In my adolescence I played lots of baseball. In my adulthood I've a long history of being the player-coach of the Cochrane Swingers, a slo-pitch team. Nowadays, I only play catch and only on occasion. On a sunny and windless day in a city park, there is nothing finer than a game of catch. And, of course, I’ve got a bag for that.
Lately, I’ve learned to love disc golf. Last summer, as practically every summer, we drove to British Columbia for some mountain hiking. This last summer most of the hiking trails were closed due to the myriad forest fires throughout the entire province. However, the disc golf courses were open! It so happened that the disc golf courses offered the same or similar terrain as the parks, and practically the same or similar amounts of exercise required to navigate either. Also, embarking on a disc golf course costs the same as hiking --- zeroth. And so, began my love for disc golf. In Kamloops I bought three sets of discs from a used sporting goods store. Back in my home city, Regina, I bought two more sets of discs, and played lots of rounds on a course right in the heart of Wascana Park.
My Muay Thai bag is the last I’ll describe.
I have been in and out of martial arts since high school. Sporadically through adolescence and emergent adulthood, I took Karate. Middle-aged, I took Tai Chi. Now I take Muay Thai. My current place for my training is at Ascendant Martial Arts, and I do so every Wednesday.
In every sport I partake, my gear is in the bag. But for the record and as mentioned in the opening of this blog entry, I am not a BAGMAN. A bagman connotes that I am a purveyor of illicit activity, and I am not that.
And I am not
a BAG GENTLEMAN. A homeless woman who
carries her possessions in shopping bags is referred to as a BAG LADY. Logically, according to that definition, I
can rule out being a bag gentleman.
Through the process of elimination, I shall refer to myself as a BAG
GUY.
I am a
sports aficionado who carries a bag of accoutrements for every sports occasion. Being a bag guy offers me the ability to
plunge, pitch, or punch into each of my activities with alacrity. Having a bag
for each sport helps me grok and appreciate the health benefits of sport. For each
of my sports I try to be Spartan in personal toughness, but certainly not with
regard for equipment. I buy the best I
can afford – always.
And what has all this to do with busking?
BUSKING IS A PERFORMING ART!
KEEPING FIT MAKES ME A BETTER BUSKER!
