I am a 39-year-old man who, in spite of all common sense and reason, still spends large parts of my day dreaming about my next race/ride or thinking about the last one. I have many adult responsibilities and am raising four wonderful children and have been married for 16 years…pretty normal story for someone who is a productive member of society. Here is my concern: On any given day if I have the choice to stay home and make a little magic with my significant other or go riding for a couple hours, the choice is always riding. Sometimes I try both, but the first always somehow messes up the second. So I have learned to avoid all situations that could take me into the bedroom and thus ruin my "ride." Furthermore, the "release" I feel after a good ride far exceeds that of other types of riding. But it does make me want to snuggle when I get home. Normal?
MD
Dear MD,
Uh, no. Not normal. I appreciate your zeal for the sport of motocross but I think you may be blurring some lines here. You’ve wandered into George Costanza territory. Seinfeld fans will recall when George tried combining his two loves, sex and sandwiches, with unfavorable results. There’s something very unattractive about pastrami breath. I can understand wanting to ride instead of spending some, ahem, quality time with your wife. Sadly, many men would probably vote in favor of a good ride over the reheated cheese pizza that their sex life has become. I don’t fault you for that. But there is something very abnormal about wanting to cuddle when you get home. Then again, maybe you’ve stumbled onto the answer all married men have been looking for: You want to ride, she wants to cuddle. You replace sex with dirt biking and she replaces it with buying an unreasonable number of new shoes. When you get home you snuggle and everyone is happy. Time to write a book, perhaps? Suggested title: Keeping Your Marriage Intact Without Ever Having to be Intimate With Your Old Battle Axe. Good luck.
PING
Ping,
I just found out that my stepdaughter can’t say anything about having a birthday party at school because it might offend one of her little snot-slinging classmates! Whatever happened to peanut butter and birthday parties in school? When I was a kid (I am 43) if I got fourth place in a competition and I didn't get a thing. Now they get a trophy for getting last place because they might feel left out if they don't get anything. What a joke. What does this do for the kids in the future?
Bob Frasier
Dear Bob,
It creates another generation of kids who feel a sense of entitlement. We’ve all seen the email and heard the song about how things used to be. Cribs were all painted in lead-based paint, people drank water from the hose, kids played outside until dark, nobody locked their doors, etc, etc. Things really used to be that way! Of course everyone smoked cigarettes and drank while they were pregnant back then too. As we progress as a society there is both good and bad that comes out of it. Without finger pointing I will say that a certain group of people have steered this country off course into a overly-politically correct nightmare where we can’t hurt anyone’s feelings. And this PC crap changed the way kids were raised. If you spank your kids you are considered a monster these days. Well, better call CPS because when my kids get out of line they get their back porch painted red. Common courtesy, common sense, social graces and basic manners are practically extinct because giving a “time out” to little Johnny for setting the garage on fire isn’t having the impact they had hoped. I don’t know what to tell you about the public school system where you live; they are certainly flawed. I know that the biggest impact on your kids comes from what they are taught and what they experience at home. Balls in your court, Bob.
PING
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