West Cocoa Chat

As our vacation with our good friends, the Cox's, comes to an end I wanted
reflect on the last 2 days. Being in SoCal with Greg and Jan has been enjoyable once again. They are in "chill" mode and who can blame them considering all that they went through in getting through the wedding of Josh and Heather.

Two nights ago, Monty and I engaged in an activity with our sons (Tyler and Steven) that we won't be able to do or at least somewhat competively do, to much longer. We played them in a game of 2 on 2, street ball, playground (anybody want to start singing "Black gold, Texas tea") basketball in Greg's backyard. In the first game our sons whipped our "bu-tras" 11 to 5 or so. Yes, the memory is going as well. In between that defeat and the next game, Monty kept whispering to me that we had to do two things:
1. Play them again.
2. Win at all costs, no matter what rules or bones we had to break.
So we did.

Drum roll please - Yes, the "geezers" avenged our first loss with an 11 to 8 victory. The best part of the rest of the evening (not counting the fact that I was still breathing and hadn't broken any of my bones) took place about an hour later. Greg, (who offered advice, CPR, officating) Monty, and I were sitting outside in the cool SoCal air enjoying good convesation and a glass of tea when my son Steven, came to the door. He opened the door, look at the mass of middle age flesh that was trying to recover from the evening's activities, and said, "You guys aren't bad for a couple of old guys." Yes, vindication and another chance although fleeting to relive one's childhood. Anybody know the song, "The Old Playground" from Bruce Hornsby and the Range?" Here are some of the lyris:

"Walking on the sidewalk,
roundball under my arm
Everybody knows how you play is who you are
Walking down the road, looking for a game or twoThe real moves come through, no matter what they're gonna do
It's down to you

Take me to the old playground
Where the old ones rule, and the young ones do their time
Take me to the old playground
Where the talk is cheap
And the restless stalk the baseline."

Yesterday I fulfilled a promise to my son to take him surfing. We went to Huntington Beach and were able to rent a board and wet suit for $30. As we walked out onto the beach I got a little worried seeing the size of the surf. My fearless 16 year old son plunged into the water and gave it a go for a couple of hours. He had both a smile and a look of exhaustion when he got out of the water. My look I'm sure was one of relief.

We finished out our evening last night in Greg and Jan's backyard watching a couple movies on a portable movie screen Greg set up in front of his garage. Greg used a portable video projector and wall-la - we had our own version of a drive-in theater.

Our vacation comes to an end tomorrow at 4:30am local time when we head off to LAX for the four and a half hour flight home.

Have a good day bloggers.