Canto LXXVII

I'm old. Or at least, I'm starting to think of myself as grown-up. Which must mean that I'm old. I figured this wouldn't happen until I was at least 30, but certain things have come to light of late that have made me reconsider my own personal self-image.

A month ago, I attended part of my high school reunion. It was OK. I wouldn't call it great, mostly because many of the people that I'm still friends with weren't there, including my best friend who is my personal crutch/life preserver/flotation device/whatever in these kinds of social interactions. I'm not sure I've ever missed him more for an event than this. But he just had to go to Europe. Also, most of the people that I was friends with in high school and haven't seen in 10 years aren't the kind of people who would show up to a 10 year. Maybe at 20. But all in all, it's really just made me think about how much has happened in the last 10 years, 20 years of my life. Very retrospective, and not necessarily in a good way.

Also, another birthday isn't too far around the corner, which always brings out feelings of mortality and dread. Plus I've discovered that I'm never going to be a world-class athlete thanks to the Olympics. I think the Olympics really just highlight how much of a bunch of slobs the rest of us are. (Aside: Usain Bolt is a freak. There are no other words for what he has done. Freak.)

The other thing that has really helped me think of myself as old is our house. We rent out the first floor of a nice place, but the landlord does not take care of the yard. It's gotten really overgrown and such out there lately, and Steph really only takes care of her garden area, and not the whole place. (Not her fault, she spends plenty of time on that as it is - again this is really on the landlord.) So I finally went out there the other weekend and did 5 hours of yard work. I was in jeans and a long sleeved shirt because of the damn rose bush, even though it was over 80 that day. And I had a hat on, because you know I don't want to get sunburned. And with the gloves and clippers, I went to town on every damn bush and shrub that was getting too big. I even "trimmed the rose bush". Really. But the problem was, I looked EXACTLY like my dad does when he goes out to do some yard work. EXACTLY. And long ago I promised that I would never become that. Mostly because I hate yard work. There's a reason it had gotten so bad (besides our negligent landlord), and that's because I hate doing yard work. It was a punishment growing up, and I still think of it as that. Especially in 85 degree weather. Our neighbor took a picture of me cleaning up the shrubs on the side of the house, and if I get a copy I'll post it. But it's made me realize that I'm not a kid anymore. I was driving through Eugene on the way to Steph's parents house, and people were waving to me as though I belonged there. I was driving a mid-90s Volvo, had on a casual blue short sleeved shirt, the windows rolled down with some classic rock playing. I was my dad. And people in the neighborhood just assumed I belonged as well. I wasn't a kid, or an outsider. I'm just another white middle-class guy in the city.

In fact, one of the only really good news coming up is football season!!! Brett Favre is going to try and QB the Jets to a 5/6 seed and a first-round exit while the evaluation on Kellen Clemens waits another year. Sigh. But the Ducks should be good this year. My three big concerns, in order of importance:
1) QB. Costa's injured again, no one knows how bad. Will they give Roper a chance? Running this offense is not trivial, and the QB play is really important (duh - tell me something I don't know). We all know what happened last year after Dixon went down.
2) Defense, can they survive the inevitable bout of injuries that are going to hit? The defense itself will be good, but this is a question about depth.
3) Receivers. Jaison Williams as the #1 guy? Really? Does anyone trust him to catch an important ball in a two-minute drill? Someone is really going to need to step up, I know Bellotti has been recruiting a bunch in this area the last few years, hopefully that can pay off now.
Anyway, it could be a very good year, but the schedule is going to be rough. There's a stretch of 4 road games in 5 games that looks to be the big make-or-break area, with games @ USC, ASU & Cal. Yikes. But that's the time they can make a big impression nationally, right through October.

Anyway, yes we're in Oregon right now for a wedding. But the big news is that we're headed to Belize for a week, starting tomorrow! We're really excited. It's going to be amazing, and I hope to be able to post pictures daily because I think the place has wireless. But in any case, everyone will be hearing about this vacation for a long time to come.