ODDS and ENDS: Start of the Season, Growing Up, and Getting Older

(It’s always some other guy…)

Yup, Saturday is the start of Tottenham Hotspur’s 2025/26 Season! Am I excited? Yes! Will they do well? I doubt it. Will I watch every match. You bet! Seriously, what’s the point of being a supporter of a team if you don’t support the team all the time! I don’t know much about the team for this season other than new manager (Thomas Frank,) Son isn’t with the team (moved on to LAFC where I hope he kills it,) and that the team will play in the Champions League this year. I feel ignorance might be bliss going into Saturday and hope to be pleasantly surprised. Let’s see what happens.

Can’t stop the kid from growing up and I don’t want to, either. Just a week into middle school and I can already feel the change in her. There’s a bit of more confidence, but I am seeing the first specks of anxiety. I’m happy about the first, and feel bad for the second. But as she gets older I can see now that I will be taking on a more supportive role, and not leading anymore. I’m trying not to mourn what is in the past, but celebrate the possibilities of her future. I can feel a wild ride is coming.

Which means I’m getting older. And I know that I am old because my daughter did the math, and figured out, that if you use The Simpson’s pilot date of 12/17/1989, then Bart was born in 1979, and Lisa was born in 1981. “They’re Gen-X, just like you!” she yelled at me.