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2nd Inning.
You are older than all your favorite sports stars and are old enough to be their dad...You start off life as a kid rooting for those sports stars in baseball or football and telling yourself you want to be like them when you grow up. Then you grow up and realize professional sports was not in your life's playbook. Now I sit down to cheer for guys that are half my age making millions of dollars to play a game. I am now the age they retire from their sport's careers. These young athletes that are entering their first years as pros are still at the age that they could be my kid. Geez...
3rd Inning.
Home & Yard improvements are more important...There was a time when mowing the lawn was something I tried to avoid. Now I look forward to that time when I am all alone with my push mower and my Mp3 player. I strive to have a healthy looking lawn with no dead patches. Do I do this for your approval? No. I do it so I can walk barefoot across my lawn like it is an extension of my house and carpet. I see those Scotts commercials and my inner Carl Spackler comes out. I want to eradicate any lawn pests. Hell, I wish I had a bigger lawn to mow so I could justify buying a riding mower. I also started thinking about additional home improvements and making lists ranking them. I'm not sure if I am really making home improvements or basically building a house-sized coffin because once I get it all done I don't plan on leaving...
4th Inning.
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5th Inning.
There is still a bunch of items on the bucket list...Okay, so in my first 40 years on this planet I have managed to mark a few things off my bucket list. But there is still so many items left on the list. If these damn terrorists would just crawl in a hole and die then I might be able to safely travel and mark a few more off without having a panic attack at the airport for fear of living out the movie 'Taken' with my daughters. With the stateside items, I would rather just hop in my RV and drive, stopping at every campground along the way like an old retired couple. I don't need no stinking fancy hotel...
6th Inning.
Annual physical exams just got a bit more in-depth...Up till now, my annual physical exam consisted of a few questions, a turn your head and cough, and go to the lab and give a blood sample. Now I get to do all that PLUS have a doctor insert a finger up my butt to check my prostate once a year? Do I get to hold my wife's hand while the doctor does this? Is crying expected? Does the doctor take me on a date first?
7th Inning.
Mankind's achievements in my first 40 years versus my Papa's first 40 years...I am a history nut
and with that trait it had me thinking about my first 40 years and how society has advanced during those years versus my Papa Brewer who was born in 1926 and his first 40 years.
- He lived through Pearl Harbor and I lived through 9/11.
- He lived through the Ford Model T to the Ford Mustang while I have lived through the Chevrolet Chevette to a Google car that drives itself.
- He lived through the introduction of TV and I have lived through the introduction of the Internet.
- He lived through World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War while I have lived through the Cold War, Persian Gulf Wars, and the War on Terrorism.
- He lived through the introduction of drive-in movie theaters and I have lived through the introduction of watching movies on a phone.
- He lived through the introduction of space exploration by our astronauts into Earth's orbit and I have lived through the same (how have we not sent anybody back to the moon or elsewhere?)
- He lived through the discovery of penicillin and I have lived through the discovery of viagra.
- He lived through invention of the laser and I have lived through the laser being mounted on a naval ship as a weapon.
- He lived through the invention of the jet engine and helicopter and I have lived through the invention of personal,flying drones.
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All that and still no fricken sharks with fricken laser beams strapped to them...
8th Inning.
I am not immortal...When you are younger, you don't think about your own mortality. You have thoughts of indestructibility. Nothing can harm you and nothing can stop you. Well, those thoughts fade as you start a family and begin to think about events that await you down the road. Along that road you have classmates from high school or college that die and you have relatives that die that aren't some distant one you only saw at the occasional family reunion you might make every 10 years. You see friends become very ill and knock ever so lightly on Heaven's Door. It is then that you start thinking about college tuition for your kids (and how to pay for it), retirement (where will you live and how will you afford it), making out a will (which kid gets my Darth Vader animatronic coin bank?), and ultimately your health and longevity. My life expectancy is around the late 70s. So, barring any major healthcare breakthroughs that could extend my life much farther, I have already lived half my life. Think about that. After you have, then it starts to really set in...
9th Inning.
Partying is Over...Back when I was younger, I didn't mind going out to a club or bar or even some friend's house and slammin' back many, many adult beverages. I didn't mind the bad lighting, the cigarette smoke, the expensive drinks/cheap beer, the occasional dancing (God help me if it was line-dancing), the REALLY loud music, the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds, or a bit of karaoke time. There were times that you just forgot about the clock and ran with it until someone got sick or the drinks ran out or the place closed up. There were times where your coworkers tricked you into a tequila walking coma or the times you earned the nickname "Shooter" while celebrating a birthday a bit too hard. I have friends and relatives that still like to partake in those activities and I applaud them for having the stamina and intestinal fortitude, but like Bocephus, I now prefer corn bread and sweet ice tea to all that other stuff that will make your gut hurt and your head ache. I've reached the age now that I would rather be home in bed every night by 9pm and flipping channels for the evening news. Stick a fork in me, I'm done...
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