Long Day But For the Right Reasons

3:48 pm: Chris Erway and Shawn Sailer. Two minutes to airtime.

My 15-hour day just ended.

I just had a small bite to eat, have stretched out, and have the computer in my lap.

It started at 5:30 this morning.

Sean -- who you might know is my son -- needed a ride to his SAT test. He'll get his license and a car eventually, but there's still something priceless about his needing a ride and spending precious time with dear ol' dad.

So I got up at 5:30 and knew I had little in the tank already.

Yet we were ready to head out of the house by 6:30, grab a couple of egg and cheese sandwiches at our local deli, and shoot up the Taconic Parkway.

Sean, you might know, goes to school in the Wappingers Central District. So his SAT site was at RC Ketcham in Wappingers Falls. For the record, he goes to John Jay in East Fishkill (closer to where I live).

He was told he had to be there with doors opening at 7:45 and the test starting at 8:00. Doors would be closed at that time.

We were there by 7:20. Plenty of time. Then he noticed the doors were already open.

"I'll just go in," he said.

I stuck around until a little after 8:00, as I watched the line of students that had formed slowly making its way inside the school.

I went to Target, took a walk around the (closed) Poughkeepsie Galleria mall, which has a certain post-Apocalyptic feel when the stores aren't open, bought coffee at the nearby Christmas Tree Shop, hit a Goodwill store, and was back at Ketcham by 10:15.

Then I waited. I played on my phone. I texted. I napped. I walked around. I snuck into the school to use the restroom.

The test was supposed to be over at 11:00.

He emerged, finally, at 12:39.

We shot home, talking the whole way. Again, priceless time.

But I also had to be in Bridgeport, CT for a football game that kicked off at 4:00.

So, I hustled. Traffic, of course, was not cooperating. Connecticut roads are just miserable.

That presents a possible future topic, and it's one that I've thought about. Is driving just not...fun anymore? But that's for another time.

I made Bridgeport Central's John F. Kennedy Stadium (The Doors played a concert there in 1968) just after 3:00. That meant I had under an hour to set up for the broadcast. To be honest, that's just not acceptable to my standard, but I knew I'd make it work. It's what I'm supposed to do.

Amazingly, the booth was locked.

Shawn Sailer and I would wait for someone to unlock it. Nice guy. Very helpful. But exceedingly late.

In the meantime, Chris Erway couldn't find the stadium. He did eventually, and all was well.

I raced through the setup and even fixed a tech issue in the early moments of the broadcast. We called a 33-0 Cardinals win that was over in approximately two hours, thanks to running clock in the second half.

Of course, Sean started texting me as I left the stadium. Naturally, he needed orange juice.

So, it was onto a grocery store. Kitty litter, Rice Krispies, and orange juice. Got it, and got stuck in a line.

And home by 8:30.

I write none of this for pity. The point is every step was necessary. I'm a single dad, and I do get support from my mom, friends, and family. But, at the end of the day, I do everything I can for my son.

It's why Susan froze her body ice-cold camping with her daughter with the Girl Scouts last night. She'll do anything for her kids.

In 34-degree weather. I still question her sanity.

But I'll never question her dedication.

We all run ourselves into the ground and, to be honest, I don't have an answer to where the line is to say no. But we should say no more often because, what if we just drop? Then what have we accomplished?

Obviously, when you lose a parent at a young age, you take different forms of stock in life. This qualifies in that division.

I'd like a free Sunday to recharge, and I'm not going to get that either.

But that's a whole different story.