Strict Radio Silence

My oldest brother Brian finally broke the news to me on the phone the other night.

It would appear that I am growing up. He told me this in response to my confession that I feel like I am more aware of how dangerous life can be. There is potential for painful injury everywhere you look. It's as if I am thinking/looking twice before I start leaping off of things.

In light of this realization, I need to begin a list of things that I am now too old to do. After less than two weeks of tree planting my body decided that it had had about enough of that nonsense and promptly presented me with a couple of sprained fingers.

Therefore the list has begun.

Things Dave is too old for:

1. Planting trees (he will now be restricted to trees that are large enough to plant with a normal sized shovel and which do not require shoving his fingers into the ground several thousand times a day or until some of them give out.)

2. Playing Rugby (I walked past a rugby match on my way to the library the other day and winced as the fly-half took a high tackle to the ears. I will interpret the wince as a sign that I would have really felt that one the next morning if it were me.)

3. Pulling an all night-er (I've never actually done this...it just doesn't sound fun. If Laura's family were giving their input right now they would likely point out that it is highly unlikely that I can go for more than two hours without sleeping. A whole night is right out.)

4. Responding with "eighteen, next week" to anyone asking how old I am (Believe it or not, this used to work really well for me up until about a year ago. Apparently my baby face, which used to prompt people (ignorant people) to guess that Darryl was the older one (we were like 8 and 10), has begun to show my age a little more. The antidote for this situation can be found in strictly following point number 3.)

5. Out-eating my siblings just to prove I can (At my age, one must watch one's diet.)

6. Scrapping in hockey (Funny story, I got into a fight in hockey an undisclosed amount of time in the past and some guy thought it would be a great idea to use his fingernails on my face just because he was losing(yes I said losing-I'm writing the story). Needless to say it was the first time I've had that much blood dripping off of my face without a broken nose since I was 15.)

This list could actually go on and on, but I should wrap this up--bedtime and all. Brian used to say that my brother Darryl and I were the two craziest people that he knew. He said that it took about half as much convincing to talk us into doing something that was potentially harmful as it would take for any other person. For some reason (ahem Laura) I've begun to avoid situations that could result in permanent injury and death. I feel like am more conscious of potential hazards around me. And now I avoid them.

Well Darryl, carry on.