When did you realize ...

Yeah, the hair comment came at a pretty strange time because I was probably in the best shape of my adult life at the time and I don't consider myself to be a vain person, but I'm not going to lie, the question really stung.

 

Age: The day after I turned 30, I pulled my first hamstring while running to 1st base in a softball game. Now the damn things pulls almost every game and once I pulled both in a game and had to stay in and pitch. I stopped playing two years ago because I am sick of limping...no matter how much I stretch beforehand.

 

Took this selfie before Hawaii Night with the goddaughter last night. Have a feeling a bald patch is waiting to be seen after I cut it off (to donate).



Other than that I still feel young at 43. Go to the gym 7 days a week. Only time I feel "old" is at night or in the a.m. when I hear the joints popping.

 

First time I felt old is when at 34, I put my feet on the floor for the first time after having my appendix removed.

 

I realized I needed a job change about three months ago, when I was sitting around in the office because the county had no news and sports were dead.

I wondered what I was doing with my life, and thought "I wanted to teach. I wanted to coach. Why am I still here?" I had been kind of pushed out of the thought by my mom, who has worked in school districts the last 20 years or so, but I realized that I have to make my own changes.

After spending some time putting together money, I started the process of getting my alternative teaching license by sending in my transcripts last week.

It's really nervewracking, but I like that feeling. Being challenged, nervous, and excited is a good thing.

 

Knew I was in love halfway through my first date with my wife. In fact, I even told her so. She thought I was kidding, but I wasn't.

Knew I needed a job change when my last shop selected two workers (me being one of them) who had children on the way to include in a round of layoffs. I had tolerated the lousy hours and worse pay for more than a decade in journalism, but I couldn't bring myself to go back to an industry run by corporations willing lay off people who are about to have children and then force them to work two more weeks (until elections were over) or they would classify it as a resignation and deny unemployment. I needed more job stability and better hours for my kid.

Seriously, fuck the newspaper industry.

 

Yeah, my wife was pregnant with our second when I got the axe.

When the paper hired me five years before, the managing editor asked during my interview, "Do you have kids? No? Good. I hate hiring people with kids. Are you married? No? Good. Girlfriend? No. Good."

Kind of fitting that I met my wife six weeks after taking the job.

 

Hey go back and find a game; seriously, somewhere there is a group playing in a gym that's just right for you.

I stopped playing for a couple of years because we had just had our first. My wife then found a group on craiglist for me and gave me permission. That was probably 12 years ago; from that I bounced to another game then started my own in my town 6 yrs ago. I'm now 51 and cannot run like I used to, I find myself getting faked out more on D than I did in a decade before, but you know what? I love that feeling after playing 1.5 hours (Sunday nights) with a great group of guys (hand-picked by me, since I rent the gym). Ball is spread around, everyone knows not to hurt anyone.

Go find it again; you'll thank me later.

 

That guy is a keeper.

 

Nah, she turned in to my wife then ex-wife. Just goes to show, don't think with your dick.

 

When I dropped four grand on a leather couch.