Sunday, March 29, 2015

Journey, Chocolate Cream Pie and Baseball

"Wheels in the sky keep on turning….” What a great song.

Journey. Gotta love them. I mean…who doesn’t, right? Man were they good too…especially as loud as possible back in the 80s via the power of the 6x9 monster speakers in the back window of the car. I still crank them up here and there…nothing like a 40 something running around with “Rubicon” (B side tune few outside of Shawn Hedger and I know about) blaring out the window of the SUV or minivan. That’s one cool dude right there…pulling into the Walgreens to get some more “Freeze Away” for the plantar wart on the bottom of my foot that’s killing me. I might barely be able to walk right now, but I can jam with the best of them dang it.

Yea, coolness it all its form. Defined. Refined. Still loud and proud.

By the way, that song? It’s circa 1978. Yea. Just a few short of 40 years ago. Let me say that again…nearly 40 years old. Open a box of perspective and put it all in…

Watching my kids play outside the other day got me thinking. Have you ever just stopped what you were doing to watch kids play? I mean putting down the smart phone and really watching them get all into whatever it is they are intently doing. It’s fun. Life with no regard and pure joy. It’s like stepping back in time. To the time when “Wheels” was just hitting the circuit. Old fashioned “play outside” moments. Times I honestly wished I could step back to for just a few minutes. Things as simple as playing Nerf football out in the front yard or just grabbing the ball and glove for  a nice round of catch. I think I still have my glove…just not sure the worn out rotator cuff could handle it.

Get some perspective today from something, somewhere. I know it helps keep me grounded. My kids give me that nearly daily and as I watch them literally leap from toddlerville straight into late childhood which is starting to freak me out. Slow down people. Just slow it all down.

Today I’m going to find the time to lower the windows and crank up some good ol’ Van Halen. If only I could bring back those late 80s lunches at Wyatt’s Cafeteria with my dad while I was at it. Those were some good times and they had some great chocolate cream pie too. Like other things in life, that pie has gone by the wayside and that specific taste is no longer to be found . But dad and me? We’re still alive and kicking with the best of them. Well…thanks to mom and my wife we are anyway. (What would we do without the women in our lives anyway?!)
 
Sometimes I do feel like I’ve got life by the horns. Wife, kids, a couple of dogs and we got rid of the minivan a few years back. It’s all good.

But I know one day the only horn I’ll have a good grip on is the one I’ll be using to honk at all those fast driving whippersnappers as I’m just trying to get to Krogers and back. Next thing I know I’ll be looking back saying that great song is 60 years old. Whew, it goes fast.  

Either way I’ll still be cranking it - even in the four door Buick I guess we are all supposed to end up driving.

For now, I’m gonna go find me some pie, turn up Chain Reaction on the drive home and throw a ball when I get there. 
 
"When life is good, enjoy it. But when life is hard, remember: God gives good times and hard times, and no one knows what tomorrow will bring." Ecclesiastes 7:14


 © 2015, J. Brady
"I say it how I see it and I make no bones about it."




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