One thing leads to another

Social Isolation SUCKS! However, it does provide one some time to perform the dreary duties that need to be done, but that we generally put off. Joyce and I were doing some cleaning recently and that included deep dusting, the kind that you can't just do with your dirty sock on the way to the shower ... does that give too much information?

The first thing you should know is that my mother collects nick knacks. Many of those are cute little signs that are intended to create a wry grin on the reader's face. One of them is, "Dull people have immaculate houses."

I tell you this because, while I help out with the weekly cleaning chores in our house, I usually defer to procrastination when it comes to deep cleaning ... I guess I'm more of a surface cleaning type of guy? Despite that, if you have ever been to our house, you would likely have noted how spic 'n span it was. I'm Type A but Joyce is Type A+, especially when it comes to our home. Now, before she whacks me upside my noggin when she reads this, I am irrefutably, definitively, unequivocally not insinuating that she is in any way, shape or form, dull ... I know better than that. This particular deep cleanse led me to dredge up a funny memory from my time on tour to Newfoundland with Rugby Ontario.

A trip down Memory Lane ...

Were you to be invited to our bedroom ... scratch that for not sounding right ... were you to saunter past our bedroom door, you might notice a semaphore flag hanging covertly from the book case in the far corner. I can almost hear your internal query, "Why does P have a semaphore flag? What's the story?" According to good ol' Wikipedia, the semaphore flag Zulu, pictured here, means, "In the system of international maritime signal flags, part of the International Code of Signals, the Z flag stands for the letter Z ("Zulu" in the NATO Alphabet) when used in letter-by-letter alphabetic communication. When used alone, it means "I require a tug" or, when used by fishing vessels near fishing grounds, "I am shooting nets". It is the initial meaning of Zulu that lead it's presence in our bedroom.

First the back story ...

I coached a lot of sports in the early stages of my teaching career (already documented in other posts CLICK HERE), and that eventually lead to my "hire" by Rugby Ontario, in 2007. I say "hire" because I didn't really make money, but I also didn't pay anything, so I was pretty quick to ink my signature if it meant that I could work with Ontario's finest rugby players. That first year I was appointed to the U15 boys as an assistant to the head coach Nick Rowe. Nick was a teacher at Earl Haig SS in Toronto and I rugby friend, so I was pumped to work with him. The director of Rugby Ontario back then was a distinguished rugby gentleman named Glen Tarver, a retired principal from the Toronto area, and with his guidance, Nick, Andrew Ciavaglia (I'm not sure I got that right ... it was a while ago ... sorry Andrew) and I selected what would amount to be on of the most talented groups of players RO had amassed. The roster included players that would go on to represent Ontario, Canada and professional rugby sides during their career ... many of which are still playing ... like Taylor Paris, Andrew Ferguson, Jon West, Cam Stones, Eric Salvaggi, Rob Finch, Jesse Twigg and a host of others I will insult by neglecting to name ... my apologies lads.

Now the story ...
At the time, the highlight of the U15 summer season was a tour to Newfoundland, with a couple of "friendlies" to be played against the NFLD U16 team ... or so we thought ... but more on that later. The long and short of it is that following a rousing battle hosted by Swiller's RFC, the main pitch in St John's, we took the lads on a walking tour of the city, complete with the Haunted Hike of the downtown area. On the walk, we took in the grandeur of St John's harbour and the large assortment of ships docked there. We happened upon a large billboard that contained the many semaphore flags and their meanings. Being the first upon said billboard, my juvenile, testosterone-soaked mind immediately took note of Zulu and it's posted meaning "I require a tug". Upon pointing this out to Nick and Andrew, the resulting giggling fit left us breathless and rosy cheeked. For the remainder of the tour, the pantomimed action of semaphore signalling prompted the same bout of laughter, leaving our young lads looking like they just witnessed the most perplexing thing their eyes had ever seen. It was the ultimate tour inside joke!

After returning home, I regaled Joyce with the highlights of the tour but, for whatever reason, it did not occur to me to tell her about the inside joke. About 3 weeks after the tour, Joyce found a notice in the mailbox from Canada Post that we had a package. She retrieved it, was completely stumped by its contents, and met me at the door on my return home. "Nick Rowe sent you a flag ... is there something going on?" After my initial panic of something I had done wrong ... husbands, you feel me right? ... I shared the story with her and we shared quite the chuckle. Not to be out done, later that evening I snuck ol' Zulu up to the bedroom and laid it out on her pillow before she came to bed that night. I'll leave it to your imagination on whether Zulu's message was received or not, but I will tell you that the flag eventually earned it's honoured location on the bedroom book case.

EDITOR'S NOTE
The story about the friendlies with NFLD: This being my first Rugby Ontario tour, I was not astutely aware of the relationship between RO and the Newfs, and I naively remarked to Nick, as the home players we would face in the first friendly at Swiller's meandered in, "How does a kid on the U16 team walked hand in hand with his kids?" The bearded hulks that slowly occupied the home bench left me with extreme anxiety for the safety of our players. Nick's shrugged response did little to quell those fears and, following a spirited affair that was closer than the hosts would have like, I was introduced to the pet name that the Newfs had for us, when we joined them at the post-game meal in the Swiller's club house ... We were referred to as BIFFO's or Big Ignorant F*#@$s From Ontario ... how wonderful. I will tell you that the second friendly test held in Conception Bay, a suburb of St John's, was a lopsided win for our lads as they bested the real NFLD U16 team.