When I look back to my younger days I realize how joyous and carefree things were. My dad would pay me 6 dollars a week to take in the trashcans and at the time this was big money. If I saved up a few weeks I’d have 20+ dollars and then I was on top of the world. I’d never have to spend money on food because my mom would make me breakfast, lunch and dinner. We used to ride bikes all around the neighborhood. Play all types of sports like bball, baseball, soccer and even games we’d make up like the Charles Haley (yes we had a game after the great linebacker) game and Wilburn. Games like manhunt were great neighborhood fun. What’s the great thing about all these time spenders? They are all free! Entertainment didn’t come from spending money at the bar or gambling to amuse oneself. Life when you are young is so much better that until you have to start fending for yourself, you don’t know how good you had it. The worst parts of youth were getting your parents mad at you. I remember my dad used to flip when I forgot to take the trash cans in because it was my only responsibility. I don’t really see the point of parents getting mad at their kids because the kid is too young to understand exactly. Obviously I’m not saying to let them get away with everything but it’s a growth phase that you have to constantly keep reiterating points rather than getting upset. My parents were always nice about it but I’m sure I took a few spanks to the rear end.

Now I spend my time trying to get Verizon to bring my bill down or figuring out how to sell more roofing tools. This isn’t fun anymore. My day yesterday was fun but it still cost 55 bucks to play a round of golf. My brother wrote a post about his job and in a half days work, he can’t even afford to play one round of golf. And he’s ecstatic to be making that much money! Carefree youth is finished and it has to be one of the harder things in life realizing that you are only going to get older from this moment. There’s nothing you do about it other than look back, be fond of the good memories, and do your best to create more good memories so that 10 years from now I’ll write a post saying how good it must have been to be 26.

Also notice I used 2 ! points in this post and I bet if you looked through my 300 posts you wouldn’t find more than a handful. I remember sending the Rock one text that I mistakenly used an ! instead of a ? and I wrote immediately I wouldn’t use a ! to describe anything. He knew something was amiss. I pay really careful attention to detail when people are writing things and just how they do it. I’ll use a few examples. Bud Schmidt, my good friend from my youth who partook in most of my games above, will start every sentence with a capital letter and end every sentence with punctuation regardless if it’s an informal email or text. I myself do the best I can with my limited knowledge when I write this blog as perfectly as I can, but I will skimp on texts if it’s a short reply. I also try to make sure my spelling is always correct. I believe this attention to detail displays that you take things seriously and you do your best to not make mistakes. Now the people out there with their c u l8ter’s and oh I <3 u sooooooooooooo much, these people like to stomp all over the English language and show why our country is being surpassed by other nations in intelligence. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with these people they just don't put much importance on proper communication, basically thinking that if the other party can understand it, that's good enough for me. It's strange too because you know they weren't taught this way so why do it? It's like a rebellion against authority. Since I probably just put down half of the people who read this blog I'm just going to stop before I get into deep.

I also like how I put up that poll on the right sidebar and only got one reply and that was me. As Sam and I discussed, getting reader involvement isn’t as easy as it looks. I’m not asking for much, just a simple click of a yes or no and then vote. I had the most visits ever in a day yesterday so I know people are reading this crap. The site doesn’t trace anything and you will remain anonymous and even if I knew you read my blog, what’s the big deal, I’m happy you do. I’ll continue doing so until I reach a point where there’s no more reason to keep it. As long as it keep reaching highs, I have something to shoot for.