Did you allow yourself the full experience?  Away on vacation with family, I convinced a bunch of people who weren't normally sports fans to go out to watch the U.S. World Cup soccer match versus Belgium in the knockout round.  It was met with lukewarm interest, but they all came out with us.    

Last Wednesday, my daughter graduated from high school. It was a memorable night in our family but even more memorable for another local family.

This past winter I cleaned out our storage closet.  Not only reorganized it, but got rid of stuff and made more room.  It looked much cleaner and less cluttered.  Not any more.  Now it is filled with baby stuff.  

My 2008 Saab 93 has over 157,000 miles and is showing signs of age. She is consuming oil and coolant and is a bit noisy while going over bumps.   We've been through a lot together. Trips as far south as South Carolina and as far north as Buffalo. I spend so much time in my car, it's kind of like a second home. It's also the preferred vehicle for the Traveling Willbury's...with all the lively banter and laughs that we enjoy.   Since I'm a stick shift guy, my choices are unfortunately limited. Here's the selection so far:  

Times sportswriter Harvey Araton wrote last week that "Suffering is good. It reinforces character, resolve and commitment. Experienced in public it exposes vulnerability. Handled with class, it heightens likability."Talk about imparting the Secrets of the Universe!  This is a one stop shop verity which resonates very strongly with me. After growing up in the carefree, "Happy Days" 1950s I took things for granted and as a consequence experienced a devastating failure in my early adulthood which changed my life and transformed me. And you?

The consummate chronicler of our running escapades of so many years ago recently informed me that on June 21,1980, I ran the Westchester Half Marathon in just under one hour and thirty-one minutes (does 1:30:52 sound better?). By the most-accurate account, I finished with our friend Warren with whom the report was shared.

Well, Uraguay advanced to the knockout round of 16 in the World Cup.  That's the good news.     The bad news is that their star player was guilty for at least the second time of actually biting an opponent.  Yes that's right , Luis Suarez one of their star players (what appears to be essentially out of nowhere) bit an Italian player in the shoulder.