A Boy and His Dad

So my 2 kids are now adults -- at least in the eyes of Florida bartenders. D1 is 24 and D2 21. Some of my friends started much later in life in the kids' department. My friend Stuart is 52 and has a 10 year old and a 7 year old. Today I spent a delightful day with my friend Jim -- formerly a lawyer, and for the past 10 years a Workers Compensation mediator. Jim married when the rest of us did -- in the late 80s, but his marriage to -- we always called her "What's her name" -- because she had little use for Jim's friends, and we little for her -- lasted only a year. Jim enjoyed many years of bachelerhood, and then met beautiful Sandra -- from Colombia. Sandra had a daughter -- D2's age, and Jim became her beloved step dad. And then, 8 years ago, Jacob came along. Jim was 44. Jacob is a wonderful boy. He's ALL boy -- lives for sports -- but is sweet and smart, too. He's in second grade. We met for lunch today at Titanic -- an off campus place with good food and great beer, that back in the day was the Flick coffeehouse -- one of the top folk clubs in the US. It's where David Crosby first heard Joni Mitchell sing... Mike met us, and then Mike drove us in his girl Amanda's Mustang convertible to the arena. Amanda's mom Loni won't let Amanda have the convertible in LA -- she's convinced that thugs from the tough 'hood that abuts the USC campus will slice through the canvas top and carjack Amanda. Really. So Amanda took the metal roofed SUV, and Mike tools around in the convertible... The Canes dominated UNC, as they've dominated just about all teams this year. We may be witnessing the first ever basketball National Championship. Jacob jumped up and down with excitement -- he and his Dad also went to the Heat game last night. IT occurred to me that they remind me a lot of my Dad and me when I was a young boy. My father would rather have spent time with me than do just about anything else -- and Jim is the same way with young Jacob. I pointed out to Jim that his boy won't be graduating high school for 10 more years. Jim said he plans to drop Jake off at college, and then head to the Social Security office to start benefits... For now, though, he is one proud, loving, and happy daddy. It's great to be a part of that...