How Things Have Changed

1. I was on my way to meet a friend yesterday when I realized it no longer feels comfortable to speed at will. Meanwhile, I typically drive like a responsible 70-year-old. But the pre-fatherhood version of me had been known to bring the speed up on the freeway from time to time, and it no longer feels right.
2. People told the wife and me before baby came that we had been wasting time, and it turns out they weren't lying. On the tennis court yesterday while our daughter was with a trusted neighbor for an hour we must have checked our watches fifteen times. Not like the old days.
3. We're trying to give up media, which we've done for various lengths of time in the past. Only now the medicinal balm of mindlessness seems so attractive to counteract the stress of being a father. I sneak news snippets for a couple of minutes at a time -- just to make sure the country doesn't fall apart in the absence of my eyes and ears.