Is There A Zamboni In The House?

I got out of choir practice early, so went for the last 75 minutes of the evening public session tonight. However, the ice was extremely horrid; clearly it had not been Zamboni'd since, probably, 3 p.m. Just horrible. I asked at the desk about it but of course nothing was done.

For some reason crappy ice makes one unenthusiastic about practicing, and somewhat selective about what one wants to attempt. I did work a fair amount on my spin, and some time on back crossovers. All in all it was not a very productive skate.

I spent some time talking with a newbie skater, an adult male named John. Apparently he's been teaching himself to skate, and he's been at it for a few months. I showed him how to do a snowplow stop and talked to him for probably 10 minutes or more about skating. I encouraged him to sign up for skate school. He seems fairly brave and willing to try. It was interesting to see myself through his eyes -- I guess it's easy for me to forget how far I've come and how few adults do this kind of thing. I hope he perseveres, it would be nice to have another male around for company!