The older I get...

...the more sports I am playing.

When I met Hanssie, I was a pretty dorky guy. I played softball every Tuesday (men's league) and every Friday and Saturday (church league in San Bernardino). I was also playing basketball in a league that was Mondays and Wednesdays. Once I met Hanssie the games pretty much stopped. I wasn't doing very many athletic things.

Over the years, I have remained pretty consistent playing pick up basketball. In 2006, I suffered an unbelievable ankle sprain. The swelling lasted weeks...and it took from July of '06 to January of '07 before I was able to play basketball again. Unfortunately, it was much worse than an ankle sprain. In April of '07 I was playing basketball every day for about an hour a day. I am not sure the day but it was approximately the middle of April when the rest of the ankle injury surfaced. I was playing basketball and my achilles tendon ruptured. Because of a number of circumstances I was unable to have the surgery until November of '07 and the recovery lasted until June or July of this past year.

I am just starting to get into the swing of sports again...

In July, I began playing softball on Wednesday nights. The team that I am on is very good...we have a 20-6-1 record since we started playing together and have won the league both times. Because I was still recovering from the surgery when I started, they asked me to pitch (I have earned the nickname Nolan Ryan because I am averaging over a strike out a game...not an easy task for slow pitch softball).

In August, I began playing basketball on Monday nights. A very scary proposition...I have always been a guy who likes to shoot the ball from outside, but the purpose is to open up drives to the hole. My lack of faith in my achilles leads me to make a lot of awkward decisions...and has created a ton of hesitancy in my game that was never there before. In spite of this, I have earned the nickname of Kobe, the black hole...etc, because once the ball gets in my hands it is never to be seen again. I prefer the nickname "the machine" because my game resembles Sasha Vujacic way more than it resembles Kobe.

Last week, I began to play football with a buddy of mine. I have never played organized football (unless you count the 3 days of lifting weights and running before my sophomore year in high school when I determined that I didn't have the drive to play high school football). Who knows if a nickname is on the offing??

So, here I am...approaching my 33 birthday...and here I am again playing sports 3 days a week...trying to stay in shape...trying to find an outlet for my competitiveness...mostly trying to stay healthy.