Life in the Fast Lane

Our family has entered a completely new version of reality, and that is football season.  The preseason started a couple of weeks ago, and it has been a nearly seven-day-a-week adventure ever since.

Suddenly we're dealing with serious laundry - blood and grass stains and a stench that requires the car windows to be rolled down on the way home from practice.  And the laundry has to be done RIGHT NOW.  When we get home from one practice there are barely more than twenty hours until the next one, and somewhere in there we also need to shower, sleep, and eat three square meals, in addition to going to work, church, and keeping up with everything else on the calendar.  (For example, Grimm is having a very nice second season.)

The football equipment has taken over.  Shoulder pads, knee pads, hip pads, butt pads, helmet, game jersey, undershirt, game socks, game pants, practice pants, practice jersey, cleats, spare undershirt and spare jersey needed to survive practices in hundred-degree heat before the jerseys are ready, and not one but two mouth guards.  The undershirt must be black for games, but white for pictures.  And he needs a short-sleeved undershirt for summer and a long-sleeved for fall.

Today he said he wants white cleats because the black ones are hot.  I drew a line at spare cleats.

But he's happy.  He loves football.  He looks great in his uniform.  He's learning a new sport and exercising without being bribed.  Okay, I admit there's ice cream after practice, but that's as much for me as for him.

The truth is that I am really enjoying football season.  I just hope no one is expecting much from us.  We should be back to normal in November.  Just in time for basketball season.