July 2015 – Wesley Withrow Tracks

In the wee hours last weekend I found myself up at 1:30 (or so) and having trouble getting back to baseline and/or sleep I looked to my phone. My phone told me that the much delayed golf Open Championship at St. Andrews was live, and my man Spieth was even out there. I flipped on the telly to tune in for a few. The wind was gusting hard in Scotland and me. The first thing I saw was the tournament leader go down to mark his ball and before he could it starting blowing away. His playing partner Spieth was running to get out of the way of the rolling ball, I might have even seen a jump in there. Athletic maneuvers usually reserved for other sports. Minutes later they again postponed play due to conditions. It’s the middle of the night in the middle of my head in the middle of a tournament half a world away. It’s golfers in stocking caps and ponchos. And it makes total semi-sense because it’s semi-surreal and I’m only semi-awake.

That’s about all of the Open I watched, and it got me reminding myself about the other late night sporting or audio events I’ve semi-witnessed since being a parent.

So cheers to 2010 World Cup from South Africa where the timing worked out great for watching live soccer at 3am. My first experiences with an infant and parent-brain at night and I can still hear the collective vuvuzela buzz.

Here’s to Sochi and London which provided some great Olympic moments in my dark.

Big ups to Marc Maron, Sklarbro Country, Girl on Guy comedy podcasts. Radiolab, you’re awesome. PTI, The Herd, you’ve been there for me too when my mind was prone to racing and I just needed a decent sports’ take to talk me down.

You’ve all been in my head at inappropriate times and you don’t have the earbuds to hear me back but I still say thanks.

Things at night with #2 have been much easier, and I know the whole thing is only a phase of life anyway that will pass. I can see into the future our kids keeping us up at night for other reasons. I really should get into Cricket or Formula 1 just in case.