Oh man, was this weekend something. Friday, upon the completion of work, I was picked up by my roommate and we headed up to northern PA to spend the weekend up there. There was a golf tournament that he plays in every year that is supposedly pretty fun. So after a 3 hour drive we arrive up in Saint Mary's, Pennsylvania. After a dinner with his family, we start drinking as he invited all his friends over. We hung out in his backyard having some brews and hanging out. He knew everyone there and I knew no one but Donnie, but it worked out ok. I was only slightly awkward (which says a lot for me). I crash pretty early because we had to get up at 6 am the next morning.
So drinking that many beers was a bad idea when you have to get up at 6 AM. But I suppose these are the years you learn these things. I was able to fall asleep on the hour long drive up to the golf course thank god, which helped rid of my hangover. We get there and everything he told me about this not being a serious golf tournament was true. We started drinking at 8 AM and all the rules were adjusted to lower the scores. Donnie and I played on a team in a two-man scramble type tournament. As the day went on, I got more and more drunk but somehow did not get worse at golf. We shot a 6 under which put us somewhere in the middle of the pack (like I said, the rules were very relaxed). I won the longest drive competition, but I did not put my name on the card as I thought it was for 50+, so I did not receive a prize. Oh well. We finished up the round and headed to one of the guys "camp," which was pretty much a log cabin out in the middle of the woods. We continued to drink heavy amounts and play a variety of games. Day turned into night and drunk turned into blackout. I passed out a little before 11, which put me at over 14 hours of consecutive drinking in a day. Needless to say I was exhausted.
Waking up early again the next morning (I have not slept in in weeks, this sucks), we head back to Donnie's place. After getting ready we made the 3 hour trek back to Mercersburg. I've been exhausted all day, but still got up enough willpower to go on a run. I get back to call my Dad for father's day only to hear some terrible news. The other day, he got in a bad car accident when a young kid hit him on the freeway where he lives in California. He blacked out as soon as it happened and he woke up in the hospital with 150 cc's less blood and 15 metal staples in his head. He was hit at an angle which threw him into the guardrail and then continued to flip and rotate his car multiple times. He was going the speed limit, but clearly the guy that hit him was not. He had a concussion, but other than that he is going to be ok. Will definitely be in some pain for quite a while. I was in shock when I heard this because this man, my Dad, seemed almost invincible to me. While I may not live with him, he has always been there for me. He has gotten in many accidents from when he played rugby, mountain biked, and did other crazy things, but never this bad. This news hit me because if one thing did not happen like it did, he could easily be dead. The thing to take from this is to never take life for granted, while we think we will have so much time on this earth, we may not have as much as we truly think. In a blink of an eye, things can change drastically. So don't hold yourself back when presented with an opportunity, don't procrastinate, don't hold back the way you feel for someone. Because if you think about it, my Dad was one of the luckiest people on the planet that day, and I thank God for that. Take time this Father's day to go out of your way to tell your Dad how much he means to you. If the unthinkable would have happened that day, I would not be able to live with myself knowing I did not tell him how much he means to me every day. Without our dad we are nothing (but I guess an egg inside your mom). I hope to someday be half as much as good of a father as Jeffrey Curtis Sinfield.
No comments:
Post a Comment