the decision

i’ve been toying with the idea of playing football again this year – this time with a GPFL team, the St. Cloud Fighting Scots. and after many conversations with the wife and with myself, i’ve decided this year it’s just not going to happen. not an easy decision to make, but after i thought about it, well, it just isn’t that difficult to see what the right decision is – it’s just not the favorite decision. this is one of those times when the right decision is not the same as the favorite decision. i’ve just got too much on my plate right now, with wurk, the fitness center, the other ‘side jobs’, spending time with the wife and dog and just life in general. i’ve been looking at the pros and cons and i even made a pseudo-list (i didn’t write it down, but i did have the list in my head). there were only two pros on my list: i get to play football and i have something to write about on my blog every week (that last one really isn’t that big of a deal, cuz as you can see – i’ll blab about other stuff). the cons however….

• time – playing in st. cloud takes a bunch of time, even if practices are only once a week
• money – with gas already at $3/gal, this summer’s road trips are not going to be cheap and right now katie and i are working hard to get ourselves completely out of debt (save the house mortgage). this would put us right back into the spending rut.
• safety – i’m no spring chicken and i’m not completely sold on the solidity of the OL and the ability to keep myself from compromising situations on the field. i don’t recover nearly as fast as i used to and i’m not in the best of shape right now (sure, i’m stronger in the weight room than i think i’ve ever been, but that’s only part of being ‘in shape’, i’m greatly lacking in the cardio endurance).
• family time – last year was extremely tough on katie and my relationship, she liked that i was doing something i liked, but at the same time, she spent a lot of the weekends working while i was out playing. that’s not fair to her and we didn’t get to spend nearly as much quality time together as we should have as husband and wife.
• cocoa – with both katie and i working full time, cocoa is kenneled up during the day. i don’t care for that and neither does katie (i’m sure cocoa doesn’t like it too much either). not playing this summer would give me more time to spend with my hunting buddy and continue to work on her training
• weekends – playing football is fun, but it also depletes every weekend during the season. i haven’t been fishing nearly as much as i would like and bird-hunting season in the fall has also been limited. a couple days out on the golf course would be nice and spending time with friends and family has been so rare it’s not even funny.
• business(es) – hey, i’m a small business owner – that takes time to run. the fitness center is going pretty good. we’ve got a lot of things planned in the next year and we’re still getting our methodologies worked out. that combined with the fact that i’ve got wedding photos that i took in february that need to be finished (i HATE red-eye) and a couple website projects that i’ve had to turn down because i just don’t have the time. even less time with the addition of a football season.

there might be more that i’ve got on my list that i just can’t think of right now – and that’s a by-product of not writing down my list and trying to have everything in my head – but you get the idea… my priorities have shifted. it’s not just me i’m thinking about here. i F’ing hate it, but it looks like i’ve grown up – NO MEGUSTA! but at the same time, it’s not all bad.

i’ve got pictures of the new equipment for the fitness center, tis most excellent and we’re all really excited about it (including our members, which is a good thing). i’ll post them later tomorrow (i promise).