Meet Vlad. He's a vampire.

When I was little, my parents split for a while. Not terribly long - 2 years? Anyhow, my Mum and I moved from Hometown to Vancouver and lived with her parents for that time. I was a bright imaginative 2ish-3-4ish year old during that time. And I idolized my Poppa.

We would sit and watch TV together. Specifically hockey. Poppa had played semi-pro hockey after the war, and had a good critical eye for the game. And Poppa was a Boston Bruins fan. Sure, he was fond of the Canucks too, but his team was the Bruins. His NHL team anyhow.

Poppa's real team? The boys with CCCP blazoned across their jerseys. Oh, Poppa loved the soviet hockey team. He liked their style of play, he liked their finesse. He particularly liked his CCCP ball cap that he wore when they were playing.

What does Poppa's obsession with the soviet hockey machine have to do with a vampire named Vlad? I suspect it probably has everything to do with his existence. But I'll have to tell the rest of this story another time.