It's getting closer. 10 days until the first exhibition game. Live football at Taylor Field!! Nothing is better. I love to watch games on TV from every league but nothing compares to being part of a loud crazy Taylor Field crowd. Game day is a long day for me. I usually start getting ready at least 3 hours before kickoff. I paint my face, put on the jersey, pants, shoes, Rider flashers, then the mohawk. Then I double check the batteries in my lights and start loading up the utility belt. The camera(with fresh batteries and spares), smokes, money, tickets, cell phone, and extra batteries for my lights all have pockets in the belt. And I have a separate small pocket inside a larger pocket just for beer tokens. Then I attach one pompom and my airhorn to the loops on the belt. When that's all done it's time to don the cape and check on the neighbours. We usually hangout with them for a little while and try to convince them to come tailgating with us. They usually lame out and stay in the backyard. With 2 hours before gametime we grab the Rider flag and make our way to the Armouries parking lot to tailgate with the riderfans.com people. You never know who will show up there. We've seen anywhere from 15-150 people there depending on the weather and the game. Sudsy and Nugsy are always there representing Saskatoon. It took those two guys driving in from Stoon every game to get the tailgates really rocking. If you ever get the chance check one out. After hanging out there for a while it's time to hit the practice field. I usually grab a pregame beer and walk through the crowd and listen to the band for a couple of songs. That's just about when everybody decides to take pictures of the freak. I never have a problem posing for pics with anybody at a game. I tried to keep track of picture requests at a game last year and ended up with between 30-50 different people asking. And that's not counting the people who just click a shot of me without them being in the pic. Lots of flash bulbs by the end of a game. But that's OK because I'm a media slut. I make it on TV at the games pretty much all the time. Probably more this year with our season tickets being front row. And I love the Maxtron and it loves me. I missed being on it one game last year. And I was the very first fan to be on the Maxtron. No matter what you might read in Terry's book "Rider Pride on the American side" available from the Rider Store in person and online. If you haven't bought that book yet hurry up and do so. It's a good read, sorta like having a conversation with Terry. He's a great guy and one hell of a Rider fan. Lots of people we know are mentioned in it, but even if you have never met any of these people the book is well written and a new perspective on Rider football. Buy it!!!
And if anybody actually reads this and knows where to buy the Prince Albert Herald in Regina let me know. They are running an interview that Nicole Josin did with me to kickoff their Rider coverage for the year. It is supposed to run on Saturday May 27. I'm looking forward to it. They are supposed to be using 4 pictures of me and my family. So my son is looking forward almost as much as me. He is a media slut in training, he has already been on the cover of the Regina Sunday Sun and the Maxtron. He has never met a camera he didn't like. And unlike me he is cute.

Traing camp is here!!! The long winter is over. But if you were at practice on Sunday morning you wouldn't think so. Damn that was cold!! But there were still some diehards out watching. I only stuck it out for an hour and a half. But that hour and a half was sweet. Just seeing the team out on the field warmed me up a little bit. There were some standouts and some guys who won't ever see the a pro game except in the stands. I'll write more later.

Dandelions suck!!! I hate weeds of all kinds but dandelions are the worst. And they are even worse when you spray for them and get down and pull them out and then you look at your neighbour's yard and see the bumper crop she has. I mean this "lady" couldn't grow them better if she tried. Is there money in dandelions? That is the only reason I could see for having that many and not doing anything about it. She can't even use the excuse that her house is a rental, she owns it, I rent mine. But even though I rent I just can't let the weeds take over. Weed control is cheap and easy theses days. Walmart has Weedex for $14.83 or something close. One jug did my front and back and my good neighbour's front. I did his front yard because he lent me what he had left to do part of my back yard.
But this "lady" is the neighbour from hell. She used to have 3 dogs that would bark all the time. Morning, noon and night. But if you said anything to her she lost it on you. In the winter she shovels the snow from in front of her garage onto our parking space in the back. She pretty much buried one of our cars last year. I mentioned it to her and got blasted. She built a new fence last year. And knowing we had a small dog she left part of it down for half a day without telling us. My dog got out of the yard. Who checks the neighbours fence on the other side of your house before letting the dog out? I finally got my dog back after almost getting hit by a car on Elphinstone. Again I mention it and again she loses her itty bitty mind. She used to come into our yard and break anything that was touching her preciuos little fence, rake, shovel, lights, you name it. Evil bitch.
We can be sitting outside in the summer having a couple beer and getting some sun and she yells to shut up. I'm talking 3 people at 6 O'clock. No tunes. So what is a man supposed to do? Call up some more friends and bring the freaking big stereo outside. Well that's what I did. We have decided to ignore the evil one and if she gets in our face then we will do everything we can to piss her off. We tried being nice and that didn't work so now it's push the limits of everything legal and teach her a lesson.

So this year I decided I wasn't going to run a ball team. I was just going to take it easy and enjoy the summer. Maybe even skip a couple of games and do nothing. So I handed the Drunken PigDogs off to Darren to run. He's doing a good job so far. It felt good Sunday to just have to grab my ball stuff and head out. No scrambling around on Saturday buying team beer. Very few phone calls to remind everybody about the games. And it's his job to collect all the tabs that are owing from the week before. We sell beer on the bench to pay for our windup at the end of the year. All I have to do is get the website up to date and keep our forum running smoothly.

So I figured without all the responsibility of running the ball team maybe I would try to play some football. So I joined the Riderfans Summer Touch Football League. It is totally a for fun league. We have guys on our team as young as 14 and as old as me. Yeah I'm the old man. But I can still sorta play. So now with softball and football to play my Sundays are full.

And my son is playing baseball again. So at least two days per week we are busy at his games. He is more interested in making new friends than paying attention on the field. But he's only 6 and he is getting better at the game. We have to get out in the backyard and work on his swing a little bit soon. He is getting the bat around a little slow. But he did the same thing at the beginning of last year. But by the end of the season he was getting on base all the time. His throwing is another story. I have no idea how to get him to throw anywhere close to where the ball is supposed to go. I've tried everything any coach has ever told me and nothing is working. He might be doomed to play first base forever.

So my Sundays are shot and a few weeknights are too. So much for my relaxing summer. But yesterday I got a private message on Riderville asking me to spare on another ball team. So I got Darren to come out and we played. This league is a lot different than the Sunday league. You get to stand there and take pitches until you hit or strikeout. No called strikes or balls. Wow is that easy. I ended up with 3 homeruns, 2 singles and a triple. We won something like 38-22. A real pitchers duel. So anyway we got asked to come out again on Wednesday. At this rate I'm going to lose my 30 lbs. a lot quicker than I planned. And my relaxing summer has barely even started yet.

Well week one of softball is in the books. As usual a double header. And the first game was not good. In fact we kinda sucked. We couldn't hit, catch or run. But we looked good while we sucked. The second game was much better. We fought all 7 innings. I hit my first home run of the year. And managed to strike out 6 people pitching. It was a fantastic game. Until the last half of the 7th. That's when we fell apart. We had a chance to put together an easy double play and instead over threw first base and got no outs. Then we kicked it around in the outfield and let them tie the game up. Then I got ahead on the hitter 2 strikes and no balls. And I threw the pitch too slow and he knocked in the winning run. Oh well 18 more games to go. We have the talent to win at least 12 games this year. We just have to learn to deal with pressure better.

Well it's officially summer now. We sat in the backyard around the firepit drinking beer and talking softball last night. Fuzzy head this morning but I think I'll live. If anybody reads this thing this morning and feels like running around in the sun we are having a softball practice at 1:30 at Pasqua and 15th Avenue. We are short on players so feel free to drop by.

Kicking a football is hard. I found that out last night. Our touch football team has some pretty good players on it. But nobody who can kick. Our D always has to defend a short field because of that. So we had tryouts for kicker last night. I am not a kicker. I averaged 35 yards from a tee. And that was right there with our young athletes. And by young I mean 14 to 24. I could be the father of most of these guys. Nobody had a picture of their mom so I can't say for sure.

We finally got a guy who played soccer to kick the ball right. And he was kicking 40+ yards by the end of practice so we might be OK with him doing kickoffs. With a little more field to work with we should be great on D.

We also had a little scrimmage last night. Picture a 37 year old playing both ways against kids for the most part half his age. Add in the fact that I have been smoking for 21 years. It's not a pretty picture. I was lucky on D that I could read the QB and know when he wasn't throwing to my man so I could take it easy on most plays. If the QB would have been a little more experienced he could have thrown for 5 TD's against me. But sometimes youth can bite you in the ass.

I got a chance to play some offense last night. And damn being a receiver is easier than being a Dback. You run your pattern and catch the ball then if you have enough separation you turn upfield for more yards. Playing D you have to run with a guy who knows where he is going and stay close to him. And keep an eye on the QB so you know when the ball is thrown and can get a jump on it. And watch for the QB to run so you can step up and help tag him. And watch the other receivers in case somebody else blows their coverage and you have to make the tag on his man. Defense is for smart guys. And me. But I did catch every ball that was thrown my way. I even got some YAC. We setup my man bigtime a few times. I would run 5-8 yard hooks and get the catch. Then I would keep running that pattern and my man would cheat on me. That's when we called the hook and go. And my man bit hard. I was open in the middle 25 yards down field. So the QB picked that play to drop the ball. He went to throw it and dropped it. My chance for glory turned into a 10 yard loss. The story of my sporting life.

Cystic Fibrosis. I knew almost nothing about it until I met Aiden(Leprechaun on riderfans.com and Rider13 on Riderville). After I met him I knew too much. It's a real shitty thing that people are BORN with. They have no choice in the matter. Lifestyle, diet, abuse, none of those things caused it. Just a random accident of DNA. And being born with it means that it affects kids a whole lot. So I copied his post from Riderville just in case anybody reads this blog and hasn't read his story. Reach for your wallets and goto the website at the bottom of his story or contact Aiden and give some cash. I'm poorer than most and I'm giving. Anyway read the story.

Once again it is May, which means it is Cystic Fibrosis month. CF is the number one genetic disease that kills young people today. Both my son's have this disease. I am posting our story below it was written by my wife. I have also included a link to the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis website where anyone who would like to donate to the Great Strides walk can do so. You can pledge myself if you would like or if you want to come out for the walk that would be fantastic. We will be having a BBQ this year again. Last year the weather was great. The walk is being held on May 28th at Candy Cane park registration is a 10:30 and walk is at 11am. There is a 2.5 or a 5km walk. If you have any questions regarding the walk feel free to contact myself.

As for a donation it is tax deductible.

Gabe and Gavin were born at 26 weeks gestation – 3
months early. Gavin weighed 1 lb 9oz and Gabe weighed
1 lb 15oz. Gabe had a bowel perforation and had
surgery where they removed 12cm of intestine. He also
needed laser eye surgery and a hernia repair. He was
on a ventolator for 2 months. We couldn't hold him for
those 2 months. He was sent to a different hospital 3
hours away because our hospital didn't have a ped.
Surgeon. We spent time between the 2 hospitals. He got
transferred back after his surgeries.
Gavin had a lot of respiratory problems. He was on a
ventilator for 5 1/2 months. He had terrible apnea and
bradycardia spells. We were called often with the news
that he wasn't going to make it. Feb. 15, 2005 we got
the diagnosis that they had Cystic Fibrosis, which is
a terminal disease that effects the digestive and
respiratory systems. I believe if they didn't have
this they would have both made it. The disease along
with Gavin's premature lungs were too much together.
Gavin got of the ventilator in April and onto a cpap
machine. He got onto full feeds and the NICU director
said he thought Gavin would get to come home. Gabe
came home with us April 20 after 5 months and 20 days
in the hospital. He got off of oxygen a week before he
came home. The worst feeling was leaving Gavin and
taking Gabe home. We brought Gabe into the NICU and we
had our first family pictures together (he was in Peds
because he was stable and didn't need a high level of
care). I told Gavin that I'd come back for him. That
he'd have his turn of me taking him home. Little did I
know...
Gavin got a bunch of infections in a row in May. His
kidney's started failing. He went into respiratory
failure. We got a call to get down there. They had to
bag him for a hour to get his 02 and heart rate up. We
were told he would have a lot of brain damage. His
laser eye surgery didn't work and he was probably
going to be blind as well. A nurse told us that he
would probably never walk or talk. But honestly we
never wanted to give up hope. We were asked if we
wanted to take him off the cpap and we said no. We
felt that when the time came we would know. We spent
the night in the quiet room in the NICU. We woke up
the next morning and I told my husband to go check on
him. He went in and held his hand and came back and
said he was fine. He went down to get us breakfast. A
nurse came and knocked on the door saying they were
bagging him. They tried for a long time to get his 02
and heart rate up but it wasn't working. The nurse
said she thought he was telling us something. We
agreed. She took him off the machines and gave him to
me and he was gone right away.
I look at Gabe and I know he's a part of Gavin. They
were identical. Gabe continues to have problems due to
cystic fibrosis but he's generally doing well. He's 16
months and weighs 18lbs. He is walking all over the place now.

https://cornerstonewebmedia.com/CCF...=donation_step1

My name is Aiden Cornwell

More rain and cold. What happened to the nice weather? But I guess I can finally get started on all the inside work I've ignored because it was too nice to be outside. I've had a friend's computer here for a week and I haven't even looked at it. It's probably a ten minute job, but who knows? And I guess I should get the softball website looking like something now. It's pretty much a blank page with a few links right now. Time to fancy it up a little bit. I'll probably link to it once it's looking like something.

Holy crap I hurt today. Football and old fat guys do not mix. My attempt to get into shape might just kill me. Thank god it was raining today. I had an excuse to just sit around the house and do nothing but hurt. I'm hoping for some sun tomorrow so I can get out on my bike and work some of this stiffness out of my legs. And I have to finally get everything in my yard put in it's proper place. I finally got my backyard all raked and cut but everything is scattered all over. It looks like a very bad yard sale.