Remember Today

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

— John Gillespie Magee, Jr

This is the poem that Ronald Reagan quoted from when consoling a nation after the loss of the brave crew of the Challenger. Today, 25 years later, it still holds true.

Holy Cow I'm an Adult! WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN????

For exercise I've taken to bike riding around the Wekiva sidewalk network.  I'm not up to Dany or AJ biking standards by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a decent way to stay in some kind of shape (other than "couch potatoe" which Elizabeth assures me is NOT a shape).

As I was riding today, feeling the cool breeze (yes, cool, it rained) on my face, I started to think back to when Pete, Jason, Kevin, Coker, Dave, and me would ride those same sidewalks to get where we needed to go.  We could cut over to Kevin's, to Larissa's (which was, as I recall, a favorite stop), even out to Todd and Daniel's.  Seeing the pieces of sidewalk that ran toward's Jennifer Estates, that cut out towards Bent Oak, I enjoying the fond memories.  Back then I was much more fearless.  You eat it on a bike then, you brush off the grass stains (maybe blood) and keep going.

And then suddenly it hit me.  Those fun, fond memories of riding the sidewalks as a young (pre car) teenager...are 20 years old!!!!  Reality hit like a brick wall: I am an adult.  The people I rode with are adults too.  We're married, some of have kids, we all have careers (not jobs, careers), we own houses, cars...

I enjoyed the rest of the ride, but it just wasn't the same.  I was cruising the same hills, same sidewalks, but now I was thinking about it.  Applying the brakes at times because I don't heal in five minutes any more.  My wife does NOT think it's cool that I jump some crazy sidewalk hump and wipe out in the grass (grass stains BAD).

So today is the day that I realized, fully and truly, that I am an adult.  And I guess I'm okay with that.  Dagnabbit!