Friday, April 20, 2012

Committing the Reserves

The Red Wings are down 3 games to 1. We're on tonight. It is do or die. In the first round.

The question is do I commit my reserves? And how do I know how to commit my reserves, anyway?

Let me back up. Back in 2002 the governor of Michigan be with North Carolina's governor over the outcome of the Stanley Cup finals. We won the Stanley Cup, and their governor paid the bet with 2,002 Krispy Kreme donuts shipped to our Capitol Building.

I worked up there and we got word that there were a couple thousand donuts in the Capitol at the entrance, and anyone lucky enough to be around the Capitol Building could get one. Naturally I knocked over older women who got in my way sauntered over to see what they had.

All they had were glazed donuts. Not being a fan of glazed in general or Krispy Kremes in particular, I took one because we won it.

But I didn't eat it. I thought it would be fun to take it back to Mister and tell him how I got it. But he didn't want it. So I put it in my freezer. I never did eat it.

A decade later, it remains in my freezer. It is a good luck charm that I've held all these years. It survived the power outage to my freezer in the Great Northeast Blackout of 2003.

"Survive" is a very broad term. I took the victory donut out of the wrapping for the first time in a decade:


That's the article from our bureau newsletter. It's all sitting on last year's playoff towel--which I shall now call the great shroud of krispy kreme as it becomes a Stanley Relic in its own right.

I can't say it smelled very good.

So should I commit this reserve in only the first round? Good grief, we should be able to win round one against these guys. They are good. But we're the Red Wings, for goodness sake! What do I do if we face a rough final round? Can it be used more than once?

And is it even something I'm supposed to eat to unleash the good luck? What if I'm assuming the luck is released by eating? What if its mere existence as probably the last 2002 Red Wings victory donut extant is the good luck? Maybe all that talk about how the Red Wings have a "system" that builds good teams year after year doesn't account for the victory donut in my freezer?

What if I should have flung it on the ice at the game Mister and I went to last Sunday?

Could I destroy the luck by eating even part of it?

And given the age, smell, and likely thawing and re-freezing in 2003 (I was in the wilderness at the time), is it even safe to eat? That "glaze" is looking awfully brown.

For now, it is back in the freezer. I hope that the Red Wings can pull off three in a row without requiring my stomach to be pumped at the emergency clinic.

I guess I'm not quite enough of a fan if I'm debating the question of eating the donut. I'm thinking I need to guard the freezer lest Mister attempt to save the season for the Red Wings. I should probably just put the donut up on eBay for sale.