The World's Youngest Blog

Excuse me while I pause for a second, enjoying being the proud father of the world's youngest blog. As soon as I hit the "publish post" button, my little blog will begin; within seconds, it will be old news, and the youngest blog will be the product of some mouth-breather who herds goats in Iowa.

Aaaaahhh.

Well, I guess I should state a purpose, or something. Long story short, I found myself getting old this year. I think it was sometime around the middle of July, when my inbred next-door neighbors launched into night twelve of their annual month-long celebration of Independence day. As my baby daughter woke from a sound sleep, I threw open the windows and yelled "Goddamn it, go to bed!" into the Virginia night. At that moment, I faced a terrible realization: I had turned into the cranky neighbor. I had become the guy whose house you tiptoe past, the guy you avoid at Halloween, the guy who mumbles under his breath about those damn kids.

Okay, perhaps I'm overdoing it. However, there's no getting around the fact that my tastes seem to be getting a little more conservative, and my complaints are arriving more frequently. I find myself bitching about t-shirts, lyrics, movies, and various other detritus of pop culture. Worst of all, I used the word "smutty" the other day as a pejorative term. I remember when I used to consider it a compliment.

Anyway, I find that I feel the need to talk out a few of these little changes. I don't particularly expect this to be of interest to anyone else, but I can't believe that I'm the only one going through a minor culture shock.