COVID-19 pandemic times lead to rediscoveries

Visiting my Dad’s resting place in Regina.

    It has been great to have weekends again for an extended stretch.

    That has been one of the many rediscoveries I’ve come across during these coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic times.

    For the last 20 years, I really haven’t had regular weekends over a lengthy span of time due to making a career covering sports events. When massive shutdowns started to occur on March 11 and 12 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, my weekends opened up.

    With all that noted, I miss covering sports events a great deal. The clock in my head keeps telling me the Saskatoon Hilltops should be well into their CJFL regular season.

I’ve enjoyed getting out to cut the grass during the pandemic.

    The 2020 CJFL season is one of many things that have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Even with local baseball and softball starting up in early July and the Saskatoon Stock Car Racing Association springing to action at the Wyant Group Raceway on Aug. 8, the last sports event I covered with a focus and intensity was the Saskatoon Contacts getting eliminated from the Saskatchewan Under-18 AAA Hockey League playoffs on March 12 at Merlis Belsher Place.

    The Contacts fell 5-3 to the Moose Jaw Warriors, who swept a best-of-five league semifinal series 3-0.

    Well over five months have passed since that game was played, and weekends have become actual weekends. There is anticipation when Friday arrives and a dread when Monday rolls around.

Yes, I own the DVDs to the “Disney” Star Wars trilogy.

    I haven’t had this many weekends in a row that have been actually weekends where you can have down time since the summer of 2000.

    During weekends, I will do things that need to be attended to at home like clearing snow or cutting the grass depending on what season it is. When the pandemic got real in Saskatoon, winter was still on in full force.

    It seemed like it didn’t start to get warm outside until the beginning of May, and it has been warm ever since.

    On weekends, I will do my workouts in my weight room in the basement. I’ve gotten used to watching movies on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

I used the Denver Broncos to win the Super Bowl in Madden.

    I’ve actually found a new joy in just hanging on the homestead on Saturday nights.

    On Saturdays and Sundays, I can often be found playing a game or two of Madden 2008 on my PlayStation 2, or I can be seen venturing on a long bike trip through the city.

    For the first time in like five years, I’ve started and completed a regular season of Madden inside of a calendar year. I can’t remember when was the last time I finished a Madden season inside of six months.

    I used the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers just to be different and have fun. The Broncos ended up winning the Super Bowl over the Panthers 56-28.

    Besides creating storylines on Madden, I got to have a little fun in the statistics department.

The Denver Broncos raise the Super Bowl trophy in Madden.

    With the Panthers, I signed a younger computer generated quarterback with a 99 overall rating and receiver Calvin Johnston, who was nicknamed in real life “Megatron.”

    Johnston had a 98 overall rating when he was signed and was boosted up to a 99 overall rating by the end of the season. I had Johnson catch 83 passes for 2,398 yards and 23 touchdowns appearing in all 16 regular season games.

    I’ve re-watched a lot of Star Wars movies including all three that are part of the “Disney” trilogy.

    I rediscovered the 1980s animated television shows for Transformer, G.I. Joe and Robotech. I viewed the Transformers shows off old VCR tapes I own.

    I started out watching G.I. Joe and Robotech episodes on YouTube.

A pandemic DVD purchase. Can’t go wrong with 1980s G.I. Joe.

    I later bought a couple of DVD sets of G.I. Joe television shows from the 1980s at Hi-Tech Gametraders in Confederation Mall in Saskatoon.

    I totally endorse shopping at Hi-Tech Gametraders, which is a good local Saskatoon business.

    I found the complete Robotech series on DVD for sale online in the United States and purchased it and had it shipped to my place in Saskatoon.

    The DVD sets were pandemic buys, because I likely wouldn’t have bought them had the world gone on like it normally would.

    I finally made a road trip for the first time in the pandemic traveling to Regina on Aug. 19 and 20. I brought my mountain bike to Regina, and biked there for the first time in 10 years.

    In a cool twist, the mountain bike I road in Regina was the same one I won following the University of Regina Cougars women’s basketball team to U Sports nationals in Thunder Bay, Ont., in 1999.

Another pandemic DVD purchase. Robotech is still cool.

    I won the bike hitting a half-court shot during a halftime competition at the tournament’s championship game.

    I’ve only hit a half-court shot one other time in my life since.

    During my Regina stop, I visited the resting place of my late father, Dan Steinke.

    While it was great to finally hit the highway again, I’ve discovered during the pandemic that I have grown comfortable with being a home body.
    I haven’t been a home body since I was in Grade 9.

    Still, it does suck that the world hasn’t progressed in a normal fashion specifically in North America since early March. When the pandemic does end, I hope I can become active again covering the sports teams in the hockey and football world that I’ve covered over 24 years before the pandemic started.

    There are no guarantees that will happen as that depends on how events in the world play out the longer the pandemic goes.

In the pandemic, I plan to keep making the best with the cards dealt my way.

    With that noted, I am going to continue to rediscovering doing a few things I used to do in taking advantage of the cards that have been dealt to me in the present.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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