Official End to Summer

Oh, hi! Yea I'm still alive, I know you were all so very concerned. I hope everyone is enjoying their summers as today marks the official end to mine. This afternoon a group of 9 young men join the folds of Maine hockey as our class of 2017. They come from all over and for the next four years Orono is home. I haven't met any of them yet apart from emails so at least I know they can read (or have helper monkeys.) But enough about them, this blog is about me so I am going to tell you what I have been doing for the last 6 months or so since we last crossed paths on the interwebs.
If memory serves me right my last post didn't even finish out the season. As you can imagine things got a little crazy towards the end of the year with tight games and some big ups and major downs. We ended up getting swept by UMass-Lowell in the first round of the Hockey East Playoffs. Not how you want to end a season but not everyone can be a winner. The highlight though was when we went to UNH in the last weekend of the regular season needing a miracle to make playoffs and getting it done. We hadn't won at UNH in a long time and we did not only that in the first game but in game 2 managed a tie in a very hostile barn.
Shortly after the season ended the real "excitement" started and brought us to where we are this morning. Twelve year Black Bear coach Tim Whitehead was removed from his position and Dennis "Red" Gendron was hired on after an extensive search. With a new coach comes new staff and we are happy to welcome back as assistants Jay Leach who was here in the early years of the program, and 1999 National Championship winner Ben Guite. There is a lot of excitement around the team right now, I know I can't wait for puck drop. I do wish I had one more month of summer though.

Kick Ass the Kia

So that's what's new with hockey, here is what I did on my summer vacation, which I know is what you all are dying to read about. I started my summer by sleeping for 2 days straight, which felt amazing. Then I moved to the couch and watched a lot of netflix, and am still watching a lot of netflix. I made a trip home to NY in April and saw the family and some close friends. Every time I go back to East Greenbush (just across the river from Albany) I always get this twinge and realize why I moved to Maine. I love NY, and especially the capital region but there is just something about Orono. In May, I took a trip north to my favorite hide away in Medway Maine. A great campground owned by my second family. I also went back home for a planned military memorial service for my grandfather who passed away this past December. If you ever get the chance Saratoga National Cemetery is absolutely beautiful and is worth a swing around.
In June I said goodbye to a long time friend that has been around since 2001. I got rid of the blue jeep and upgraded to a brand new car. I made the switch to a 2014 Kia Forte that is smarter than I am and gets better gas milage too. Other than that June was pretty boring. I think I played some golf and that was pretty much it.

Hole 9 Martindale CC in Auburn Maine. Home of  http://shawnwalshgolf.org/

July started to pick up, I took a week of vacation and made the trip back to Katahdin Shadows Campground and helped with their annual Halloween Weekend festivities. During the week I helped build a haunted maze, played with nail guns, lots of spray glue, and even got to dress as a monkey and make adults cry. It was awesome and I can't wait to do it again. When I got back from my time away it was right back in to the swing of things with two weeks working our hockey camps. I got to spend a week in the dorms, and then a week helping drag 11 year olds around campus. And that brings us to today.

View from the shore at my friend's family camp

So moving forward I think I will be doing a bi-weekly update on here until the season starts going and then I hope to have at least one a week for you guys. I don't know if anyone actually reads these but either way it gives me something to do while laundry is spinning. So enjoy your last few weeks of summer and be jealous that I have AC in my office in the form of a 200'x85' sheet of ice.