Hi all. Welcome to another "Blue Corner".
It has been a busy summer so-far. Lots of events happening, plus the Canadian Open Golf, and I did a special assignment for the TTC this past weekend. Andy Byford, the CEO of the TTC, personally thanked me for doing a great job. That is good. It means that I have a very good chance of being called back.
However, I am off this week, and I am going to get as much "Stockyards Time" as I can squeeze in.
I sparred at Stockyards on Monday, but did not do well. My performance was terrible.
I had a reason. Let me tell you a bit about this.
See, bad luck follows me wherever I go.
Let's go back to last summer. My dad asked me to look after his house while he went on vacation.
He lived in a very decent area, near Bathurst and Lawrence. He had never had any problems in the nine years he was there. Of course, I'm looking after his place for a week, and something happens. On the Saturday evening, I decided I wanted to go out.
I had a great time, but when I returned to my dad's house, it had been broken-in. Cash, jewelery, and booze was stolen.
This week, I was looking after a friend's cat. She dropped her off, and I started looking after her over the weekend.
That cat did not really take a full liking to me. She mostly ignored me, except when it was feeding time. However, on Sunday night, she did something "odd". She climbed into the bed, and curled up right next to me, touching me. I thought it was odd for a cat who didn't really like me.
Anyway, on Monday morning, she was still there...dead.
I had to spend the day trying to figure out what to do, and to try to contact my friend.
I gently put the cat into a box, and called around to find out the next step.
The vet she normally goes to wanted to charge me $140 to take care of the dead pet. Then I found out that Toronto Animal Services would do it for $30. The only thing is, I would have to take it to them. They are located at Exhibition Place, next to the Direct Energy Centre.
Oh. Okay. So here I am on a crowded 29 Dufferin bus, with a dead cat in a box.
It turned out that it was not my fault. She was old, and it was her time to check-out...but she had to do it on my watch?
I'm telling you, bad luck follows me. I am not being paranoid. It is true.
I have tried house-sitting...not good. I have tried pet-sitting...not good. So, I guess baby-sitting is completely and totally out of the question.
Despite the rough day, I still had to get in some sparring. I headed to Stockyards for the 6 o'clock sparring sessions.
Richard put me in with George.
George is my age, but he is a pretty big guy. Normally, it would not be a problem. However, with the stressful day I had, my mind was not on boxing.
I was performing very poorly. Everything that I could have done wrong, I did wrong. It was as if I was a beginner.
I was blinking a lot, which I never do. I was also backing up a lot. Coach cited me on that so many times.
George was giving me a serious shit-kicking all around the ring. All I could think about was, "When is this round going to end?"
Near the end of the second round, he had me against the ropes. He nailed me with a left hook to the head, BOOM!, I saw a bright flash...then a right hook to the head, BOOM!, I saw another flash...then BOOM!, an uppercut to the jaw. At that point something weird happened to me. My body said, "Stop...Enough!". My legs became numb, and I buckled back into the ropes.
Right at that time, the "End of round" buzzer went. I love that buzzer. I want to marry that buzzer.
The coach noticed that I was in distress and he said, "Okay, that's all for today". Oh, thank Goodness. The coach does have a heart.
I woke up the following day with the world's largest headache. Likely due to a combination of stress, fatigue and fists.
If anyone can take anything away from this story: Don't spar unless your mind is 100% into it.
Oh, and Richard said to me, "I am rescheduling our Master's Show to September".
Oh, Okay. Is that a hint?
Cheers.
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