Remember When...

My oldest daughter has recently come to the realization that getting older doesn't mean you get to do whatever you want. She is in high school and has had to cut back on some of her fun things because of the required things.

My youngest daughter is still in her "I can't wait to grow up and do anything I want" period. Ah, the blissful ignorance of youth.

I watched a football game last Saturday, USC vs Notre Dame, and Monday Night Football last night. Well, most of MNF anyway. We recently got a high definition receiver from our satellite company. I am still in the process of performing the permanent installation. I ran a temporary cable just to watch the games. Did you know that HDTV signals also carry surround sound signals? Oh baby!!

It was wonderful. The USC/Notre Dame game had lots of scoring and lead changes. The game wasn't decided until there were only 3 seconds left. On MNF, Al and John were as good as always. , the sound of the crowd was all around me, and the game was pretty good, too. All in all, they were pleasant experiences.

So what? How does this tie together?

The key thing here, is that I can't remember the last time I watched just one entire football game. I used to watch college football all day Saturday, professional football all day Sunday (I went to church at 8:00 AM and was home for the 10:00 AM kickoff of the first game), and I never missed MNF. I didn't stop watching games because I stopped liking football. I stopped watching games because I didn't have time to watch. Life pre-empted it.

It seems that days are now filled with committee meetings, school activities, yard work, trying to catch up on sleep missed by going to work early in the morning, spending time with friends, and who knows what else. I'm not saying that any of these other things are bad. Most of them occur as the result of a conscious choice. The days/weeks/months/years just seem too short to fit in all the things I would like to do. For example, I would like to start playing soccer again. I have no idea when THAT would happen.

To sum it up...

I miss the innocent days when I thought that when I grew up, I would be able to do whatever I wanted.

The key flaw in that thinking, was that I also thought I would have time to do it all.

Everybody go take a nap. :)