My life as a chauffer.

So it's been a while, faithful reader(s). It's not that I have nothing to say, I mean American terrorists are killing our soldiers, the State of Illinois and especially the City of Chicago are in the worst financial crisis in a generation, we still can't figure out how to insure the population, cheesehead drivers are pissing me off, yada, yada, yada. No, I have no time for anything but eating, sleeping, working, cooking, and watching the Bears, Bulls, and Hawks. And its all because of basketball.

In one week, I/the wife ferried the kids to 14 practices, watched 4 games, and drove 25 miles to lessons twice. Dinner doesn't exist during basketball season. It's more like snacks on the go, power bars and apples. And when you finally do get time to eat, it's like 9:30, and who wants to get all full that late? And eating together? Forget it. I've had nights where I've made four different thing at four different times. So much for conversation.

Now my son lives and breathes basketball and plays on his high school team in winter, a travel team in spring, and an in house league in the fall. Spread out, and not too bad. But my daughter is in 8th grade and plays for her middle school team, made the high school feeder team this year, and still plays park district ball that I coach. All at the same time. So we are part of 4 teams right now and the driving really makes me yearn for February 1, the day my son gets his drivers license and I can say "Here, go pick up you sister."

Don't get me wrong, I love every minute of the games. All the driving around is worth it when you are sitting there, and they make a basket and look right up at you, just to make sure you were watching when they did.