Well kids, it’s getting awfully close to another “How I spent my Summer Vacation” essay even though I’m sure that’s the last thing you want to hear. Some sure signs are the back to school flyers showing up in your mailbox or elsewhere — assuming you can separate them from the healthy stack of paper that seems to get bigger each month as well as blossoming storefront and radio advertising. Usually clothing and stationary take the lead on this, although electronics are not far behind with the latest gadgets that the kids say they must absolutely have for school. Another sure indicator is the Creston and District Community Complex fall leisure guide due out shortly in a mailbox near you with all sorts of glorious options to relax, rejuvenate and recreate.
Hopefully, all of you, or at least the ones that need it, got a chance to recreate sometime over this past few months with friends, family or even just yourself. Faced with what seemed an unusually late start to summer, many with scheduled vacation may have ended up recreating in less than ideal conditions. While not perfect, the main point is making sure you got a chance to remove yourself from the day-to-day stresses, which can build up and subtly undermine work productivity, relationships and all other sorts of really necessary things.
Recreation is subjective — while your trip to Vegas would be like getting my back hair waxed, my sitting around a campfire beside a lake may equally nauseate you. The same disparities may also exist between those that want to push themselves pedaling a bike for a week straight and to those that there is nothing better than a “staycation” — spending a week or two tending their home and garden. Incidentally, as I write this beside a campfire with Lake Koocanusa lapping close by, a friend mentioned that you will know when you are recreating because rather than eating peanuts out of a can, you will actually have the time to shell them and toss the remains in the fire.
Bottom line — at risk of seven lashes from a cat o’ nine tails — you don’t need a facility to recreate and rejuvenate. It’s where you are and what you make of it, as long as you get that extremely important break or change from the day-to-day. Of course, if you want to look really buff and impress those other blackjack players, bike riders and friends drinking your beer around the campfire, why not get a membership to the community complex and spend the other 11-and-a-half months of the year actually getting healthy and fit — call it a series of mini-one-hour vacations in between the big ones.
On the home turf, the new hockey boards have been installed and, boy, do they look great! First thing you will see is that they are slightly lower and have six-foot glass instead of four feet high, improving not only the view from the bleachers but protection from flying projectiles as well. As mentioned before, you still get to rest your laurels on a bit of history as we only made minor improvements to the bleachers; however, you should be pleasantly surprised at all the other improvements at your community complex. We also have another surprise happening shortly that is hockey related, but I’m going to make you read the ad on page 11 of this issue to see what that is.
Neil Ostafichuk is the recreation supervisor at the Creston and District Community Complex.