When Depression Wins

Monday brought with it a sad story from the hockey world.  One of the Canucks' (our home team) previous players was found dead in his apartment in Alberta - apparently from suicide.  Rick Rypien was a gritty centre for the club for six years.  He had signed with the Winnipeg Jets for this upcoming year.

Vancouver Canucks'
Former Centreman
Rick Rypien
1984-2011

Depression affects everyone.  As a fellow sufferer, let me tell you that you CANNOT judge anyone unless you've walked a mile in their shoes.  It's a horrible affliction (a chemical imbalance) - one that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.  My heart goes out to Rick's family and former team mates and I really feel for what he may have been going through.  Apparently he had suffered with depression for a decade or so.  Perhaps he couldn't get it under control with medication, or the medication wasn't right for him, or didn't take his medication - no one will ever know now.

A seemingly bright light in the hockey world in the form of talent and the result of many years of hard work.  What a shame that the light has been snuffed out.  Depression has won again. He was only 27.

My thoughts and prayers are with those Rick left behind.  Their questions will never be answered.  Rest in Peace, Rick.

Hot Water, Weather & Hockey....

So, here it is June 5, 2011 and I still have no hot water in my kitchen from this unplanned demo.  It's sure a lot of work schlepping hot water from the bathroom to fill the kitchen sink to do dishes by hand.  AND still no washing machine either.  I've been taking loads up to my Dad's place (he's in a modular home on our property) to wash and then drying them in my dryer.  DH hooked the dryer up again, so that is nice and makes it a wee bit easier.  The good news is that we will have a new hot water tank this week sometime.  Things are being REconstructed now and the tearing apart part is over.  Thank goodness!  Will try to get some pics up when I can.

My washing machine and upright freezer are in the family room.  The big wall shelving unit sits in our foyer.  Boxes of cans from underneath the counter are sitting in the living room.  Contents of the laundry room are in our bedroom.

My personal favourite (speaking of laundry room contents) is having the cat litter box in our ensuite bathroom.  Amazing what we have suffer with during times of upheaval!!!

I am not complaining, though.  I know that this could have been MUCH worse and we could have lost everything to a fire or something similar, so this is nothing, really.  I do still have hot water from our other tank that feeds the bathrooms.  All this makes me realize how much we have and that we take for granted.  Think of the old days when everything was done manually and water was heated on the stove.  Those poor women with lots of children and all that laundry.  Can't even imagine doing that all by hand.  Mind you, they wore clothes a lot longer than we do nowadays.  I am grateful for what we have.  The final tally for cost is not in yet, but that, too, could have been much worse.  Of course, it would have been nice if insurance covered all of this, but we can't have it all, can we????  LOL! 

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous the past couple of days.  We haven't seen weather over 20 degrees (Celsius) since October 1st - heard that on the weather yesterday - can you believe it!????  October 1st, by the way, is my and my sister's birthday (no, we're not twins, but she was born 5 years before me), so I remember just how long ago it was.  Hard to believe!

On the hockey front, our home NHL team, the Vancouver Canucks, won the second game of the final series (against the Boston Bruins) for the Stanley cup last night.  Woohoo!!!  What a game!  The score was 2-2 and Alex Burrows scored 11 seconds into the first O/T period.  The Canucks have NEVER won the Stanley Cup in their 40-year history, so it would be nice.  They are playing well this year and quite consistently.  They've battled hard to get this far.  Go, Canucks, go!!!

Have a great week, everyone!