The Old Timer Rant

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"You know how I know you're old?" I heard myself ask myself. And I guess it did creep up on me a bit. I mean, I don't really feel any different than I did in my twenties, but recently a couple of things made me realize that I may, in fact, be older than I feel.

First of all, only an old guy, when asked to play one of his favorite sports, would hesitate, which is exactly what I did the other day when asked to play squash by a buddy at ball hockey. The thing is, and here I am truly admitting my vanishing youthfulness, my legs are starting to ache. But, hey, aching legs I can handle, letting my son, Kaishan, down, now that's something that just can't be tolerated. And it almost happened yesterday.

Last month I wrote about all the sports I've been playing (as well as Sonoko's 7-hour badminton madness). Well, as of the beginning of this month, I'm now up to six days a week, rather than the four I told you about back in June. Mondays and Wednesdays it's soccer in the local summer 7-a-side league. Thursdays is now for lacrosse. And Friday evenings it's basketball, which Sonoko and I just started organizing with some friends at a nearby basketball court a couple of weeks ago. Saturday there's the everyone-welcome casual soccer kick-around. And, of course, Sunday morning/afternoon it's ball hockey... and occasionally soccer at night as well.

Ball hockey, it must be noted, is at this great location on these tennis courts out in the bush in the middle of nowhere, right next to a private lake (great for jumping into afterwards and for Kaishan and Sonoko to go out on in a little boat while we play - though he'd prefer cheering for the goalies from outside the fence: "Nice save! Nice save!"). There are even llamas roaming the fields nearby. What a place! Sunday night ball hockey inside the gym is off between June and early-September, so this is perfect for those of us who need our hockey fix 12 months of the year. The summer sun can make it a bit hot, but what a perfect setting, great group of guys and fantastic game of hockey.

So, anyway, here's what happened yesterday: Instead of our regular two hours, we played 3 straight hours... with no subs. Now, besides being a lot of fun and an excellent workout, this was also, as you can imagine, extremely exhausting... especially after only 5 hours of sleep due to a late-night game of poker that kept me up till after 4 AM. So, later on that afternoon, when Sonoko had gone to play some squash and I was hanging out with Kaishan and feeling a bit tired and sore, I suddenly heard that oft-repeated refrain "Daddy, Daddy, let's play soccer!!", which is when I really felt old. I joined him, of course, but, I gotta tell ya, in getting up off of that couch I felt, and probably looked, a lot like my 95-year-old Nana.

But before you go singing me Neil Young's "Old Man" or Todd Snider's "Age Like Wine (Old Timer)" consider this: The conditioning has just begun, the pain shall recede and I'll always get up off of that couch when Kaishan needs me. In fact, before long I do believe I'll be singing Bob's "My Back Pages": "I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now".

So, no, I shall not give in to that demon called age. My hamstrings might give out, perhaps even my knees, but not me. Definitely not me. I may be 40, but I sure as hell ain't no old timer.

And, one last thing, before you go thinking of Kaishan as a one-dimensional sports freak like his dad, you really should see him dance. Oh, and man does he ever play a wicked air guitar!!

Oredakedo (Mike Cowie)
Monday, July 16th, 2007