I'm Old

I'm old.  In case you hadn't heard, I'm old.  Middle age has arrived like a car that hits the puddle on the side of the road while you're on the sidewalk and hoses the crap out of you and ruins your whole day.

I'm not that old, I don't mean to say that.  I'm 40, I'm not 140.  No one is chiseling my name into a headstone just yet.  I just mean to say that I'm not young anymore.  My days of being a kid in even the loosest sense of the word are over. 

When I was younger I would set a goal for myself and be willing to put up with large amounts of crap in order to reach that goal.  Now I am not willing to put up with nearly as much.  Things that, in the grand scheme of things, aren't important, like a hobby or something that is just done for fun, that start to annoy me can just go away, while in my younger days I would be willing to put up with some annoyances in order to get the end results of the hobby or fun thing.  Not anymore.  If it's supposed to be fun and it's causing stress it goes away.

I am perfectly willing to spend 24/7/365 (or 366 in this year's case) just being with my family.  That's where the fun and enjoyment come from now.  That's where the focus is.  Everything else is superfluous and can just go and get bent.  My wife and my step kids and my family are all I need.