Things I Miss

On a job site I watched a kid jump into a 3’ excavation.

“Ah, don’t jump!” I said.

“Is jumping against the rules?” He asked.

“Technically, no,” I said. “But how old are you?”

“Twenty-one.”

I told him about the knee surgeries, or the hip surgery in his future. Then we talked about how I missed being able to do some things as I got older.

Cut to last evening, and I was watching the neighbor boys play basketball in their driveway.

I played a lot of basketball at that age, and for a whole lot of years after.

I miss playing basketball.

I miss playing softball with my buddies and then going out and eating platters of food.

I also miss eating more than just a little food at dinner time.

One cheeseburger!

I miss staying up later than 11:00 or sleeping later than 7:00.

I even miss going out for a few beers, or more than a few beers. I could probably still do that, but not without a freaking hangover.

I miss being able to stay up long enough to watch the end of a game.

I didn’t even bother turning on the Bills game on Sunday night, but I’m kinda’ dreading the upcoming baseball playoff games…

…no way I can go to sleep if the Yankees are in the field.

When I was in my teenage years I heard the expression, ‘Youth is wasted on the young.’

It sorta’ irritated me then.

I get it now…

…and we’re left to think about the things we miss.