Late in the Day
Summer golf means early tee-times which also means early times for leaving the house. Today it was a 7:15 start at Delaware Springs in Burnet. We left my house at 6, which meant no time for the daily words even thought I got up at 4:30 to eat and get ready. Which is why I am now writing the daily words around noon. We played in a blistering three hours. I shot a semi-respectable 95 with one birdie on a par five. On our way home we stopped and ate breakfast.
In other sports news I totally missed the All-Star game, as in I was unaware. The oversight occurred to me while I was watching a documentary on the Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa home run chase of 1998. A fun baseball time. Somewhere during the show I thought it should be about time for the All-Star Game and then I realized it was August and it came to me I missed the game. It seemed a sure sign age was getting to me and not in a good way. For most of my life, the All-Star Game was a pivotal event in the summer festival of children’s ball, amateur softball, and visits to the Dome to watch the Astros. Summer was baseball. Now summer is just hot, and I only vaguely know the Astros are leading their division and seem a good bet to make the World Series.
Of course, rather than blaming the oversight on age it could simply mean my tastes and interests have changed. I’m still active. I do things, and I’m involved with my friends. Music is important and literature. I read, I write, I garden. It’s hard to believe, however, that baseball, the game which gave joy to my youth, is now in the backseat. So, it seems more likely this is simply an aberration, and that once the playoffs start and the Astros start making their way to the World Series, I’ll be back in the baseball fold and ready for the games. Or at least that’s what I hope, because I’d really hate to see baseball fall out of my life.
John W. Wilson is the author of The Long Goodbye: A Caregiver's Tale