I have to admit that this time of year puts me into a slight depression. More than slight, actually. February and March in South Jersey are months that do nothing for me. Just cold and gray and ugly for no reason. You see, hunting season is over, specifically goose hunting. The doldrums have arrived.
If you aren't into hunting, you may not understand, but those who venture outdoors with a dog and a gun will get it. Or anybody that hunts anything at all will get it. All you do is wait all year for next hunting season. Fishing is coming but it's not the same as hunting to me.
And hunting keeps me away from the masses of people who need their asses kicked. Like the guy who works at Primo's Hoagies who had the shitty attitude. Little prick. I pictured myself ripping his arms off of his body. Or the guy who blew his horn at me when I didn't move fast enough for his liking at the green light. Or the fake ass tough guy at the gym with the fat ass girlfriend who thought he was a badass, eyeballing people who were just there to lift weights. Yeah, you are tough. And nobody cares about your girlfriend, believe me. Everybody sucks so bad that if I have to go out into the great unwashed, it's all I can do not to lose my shit. But I have kids and I actually have to consider consequences, which means that I am maturing, I believe. It's funny, women are all mature at 25 and men are mature at 50, 60. I'm all civilized now and people sue everyone for everything so I bury all of that daily stuff way down inside.
Maybe everyone used to be like those people and I just didn't notice it. Maybe because I'm older now, that I notice it more and have lost my patience for it. Maybe I watch too many Youtube videos of people in college who don't even know what the Declaration of Independence is. I may be biased against the younger generation, but I don't think so.
I know there are kids out there that work hard. At my gym, there are a couple of young girls who really train hard. I can't really think of any guys who do unless that are in their late 20's. I'm sure that there are some. There is a lot of gathering around the bench talking with the young guys. But at least they are in the gym, right?
Do you remember in the old days when everyone said that if you worked construction that it would get you ready for football? People would be like,"Man, you need a construction job over the summer." or "Bobby is working construction, man, he's gonna be ready." There may be some merit to it. I was a gopher for a window company one summer and I ran and lifted my ass off on the job all day. It was relatively light lifting. But something about it helps get you in shape. After they asked me to caulk some windows one day and I did a shitty job, I became the designated gopher or go-for. The boss looked at my work and in his Louisiana Cajun accent said, "Oh no, bro. That's not good for the home team." I'm not sure what that meant but it was not good. But the benefits were good. Heat acclimation, GPP. Toughness. You work one of those jobs and then you stop off on the way home for a hoagie and a pre-workout. You get to the gym and you are tired but the strong stuff kicks in and you have a great training session. Two beers on the couch at home and then you collapse in bed and then get up and do it all over again the next day. And you get some sprints in there, too. Recipe for success.
If you love combat sports, check out ONE Championships on Amazon Prime. There is some on YouTube also. The May Thai is brutal and the MMA is killer also. These guys get after it. Blood and guts. Bunch of warriors. I love UFC but these fighters seem different. Maybe they aren't as good as the UFC guys, but it sure seems like they are to me.
Speaking of UFC, I hate it when fighters won't retire when they need to. Tears me up inside. But then I look at it this way: It's what they love more than anything else in the world. Who am I to tell them to retire? What else do they have? Nothing like walking into an arena with 20,000 fans cheering for you and then you knock somebody out! You think that is a high unlike no other? And then they retire and they may have money but the baby is crying and the wife isn't used to you being around and you just want to fight, man. Look at Fury. Love him. He's done. But when he doesn't have a fight to train for, he's all depressed and shit. I don't blame him. I only had one official Muay Thai fight but the feeling of winning that fight was crazy. Much different than football or powerlifting. You have sweat coming out of you before the fight that is a different kind of sweat. It's an adrenaline sweat, a fight or flight sweat. You can't believe how hard your heart is beating. That high was amazing. All of your senses are alive. And that's just doing it once. Imagine doing it 50 times! Better than any drug, I bet.
In the 70's and 80's, guys would play too long in pro football. Now, not so much. Players are more aware of the health risks today and they are much richer now. Guys would play 14 years because they needed the money and for the love of it. OJ Simpson could barely run and he was playing. Joe Namath, too. He could barely walk, let alone run. Ken Stabler, Earl Campbell. They were all tore up. Rules were different, guys got the shit kicked out of them on that cement turf. Just like cement And if it was cold, it was even harder feeling. Those owners from back then should be ashamed.
I am sitting in my truck watching my two sons hit baseballs. I can't stand them but they do love sports and lifting weights. I'm so glad they aren't playing damn video games. We don't have any in our house. I threw the console off the steps and chopped it in half with a shovel. That was before I matured. But I really can't stand kids sitting around doing nothing. Or video games.
