Long Time No Skate, or, Home Ice Is Best

I skated for about an hour and 15 minutes Sunday afternoon at the Oxnard Ice Center, since I was visiting friends in Oxnard. I had not skated for almost 2 weeks (since the 5th)! It was very weird to have been off the ice for so long, and then to be on foreign ice... hmmph.

I have yet to figure out why it is that home ice seems so much better. It seems ludicrous to me to conceive that Gateway's ice is actually better than all the other places I've visited, so I assume it's really just that it's what I'm used to. Still, I didn't like the Oxnard rink's ice for several reasons:

• The ice seemed very thin
  
• The ice seemed very soft
  
• The rink wasn't well lit, and in spite of the fact it was a Sunday afternoon, the lighting consisted only of 3 rows of lights plus the colored disco lights.
  
• The painted lines and other hockey features seemed to be flaking
  
• The building was not, as far as I could tell, built to be a rink, but was converted later. The rink surface was about 6 inches above the floor. I found it very disconcerting to have to step up/down to enter/exit the ice.
  

It was good to be on the ice again, though. I managed to work on most of my usual stuff, although I didn't try any spirals or RFI open Mohawks. Everything seemed to be more-or-less where I left it.