My back seat is dotted with
little black rubber pellets.
This event first happened two
years ago when my younger son started playing football. The local park where
they played nearly half of the games has turf made from recycled tires (similar
to the baseball field of the Tampa Bay Rays). Little pieces break off and get
into kids clothes and shoes. The pieces end up in the car and in front of the
door where my son removes his cleats.
We didn’t have to deal with the black pellets
much during my son’s first season. He practiced at a local middle
school, so we only saw the pellets the few times that he played games at the
local park. However, last season he went to pre-season “strength and agility” camp,
held at the park, and then practiced at the park through the football season. Every
day, there were more and more pellets in my car.
I tried to clean the pellets out
of the car. It made it better for a while. However, by mid season, I felt like I'd
thrown out the equivalent of a tire. What was worse was that they all over the
garage. Once, when my mother visited, she saw the pellets and got alarmed. She
thought we had mice. She relaxed after I told her what it really was, a sign
that football is on the schedule. After the season was over, I took the car to
a car wash and vacuumed as much as I could, at least before the vacuum valves
got stopped up.
Well, with the end of school and
the start of June, Strength and Agility Camp have begun. The camp is being held
at the park. And my car is, as I said above, dotted with black pellets.
A sign that football season is on
its way.
A sign that hours of practice and
team building with parents is on its way.
And a sign that the game that I
watch live on Saturday is more important than any game I will watch on TV.
It may be June, but the
excitement of fall is building.
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