Maybe there's only one summer to every customer

During my sports-crazed adolescence and young adulthood,
we spent hours upon hours watching

Free, no charge, nada

games on TV -- any games: baseball, football, hockey, basketball. The big four, all the time.

When seeing empty seats, one of us (most often my friend Mike) would invariably say, "Man, I'd like to be in those seats." Mostly, we would nod our heads and agree.

Yes, sitting nearly four hours away from major sports, we were starved to see live, big-time games. Any games and all of the games. Not ironically, I felt the same way about live music. It was a long drive to see shows as many bands didn't make it that far out into the hinterlands.

When I was finally old enough to drive, we often made the journey in New York or Philadelphia or Pittsburgh to see the Yankees, Phillies, 76ers, Pirates.

And so it pains me to say that when I get free tickets to a game that was a whole 15 minutes away, as I did today, it's all I can do to even go. Too much hassle, too much of a waste of time, too much of everything.

I blame this on several things: laziness, preoccupation with more pressing matters, and just plain adulthood. 

Adulthood -- if I only knew it was going to be so messy, so draining, so revealing. And so short, maybe shorter than childhood.

But it's certainly long enough with all the time (if not the resources) to do all the things I wanted to do when I was a kid.

More often than not, however, there is no inclination, or desire.

If we knew then what we knew now, maybe we wouldn't grow up -- or maybe do our damnedest to put it off as long as possible.

I did go to the hockey game today. Maybe I'm not quite grown up just yet.