Well it's finally happened. I am officially old.

Actually I am not quite 48, but after watching Wednesday night's CMA show, I am convinced that life is all downhill from here. Before I offer up my reasoning for this revelation, I must provide a little background info. I have been playing guitar and singing(mostly country music) since my early teens. I even had some brief professional experiences in my late teens and early twenties. I did it long enough to realize that I did not want to be a professional musician. At the end of those few years it became too much like work for me. The fun just got sucked right out of it. I was always a pretty good singer, but have forever been a hopeless amateur on the guitar. I do still play on occasion just for fun.

The Fallacy of Genius

It seems that back in high school I screwed up big time. I made the mistake of taking the PSATS at the beginning of the 11th grade. It was actually an elective thing to do back then. I just viewed it as a way to get out of class for a few hours. At any rate, the next I day was summoned to the vice principal's office and was told I needed to take another test. No explanation was given. I was just ushered into another room and told to wait a few minutes. Since I was pulled out of math class, I figured my math teacher was behind this treachery. She was always on my case about never doing the homework, and then acing or nearly acing all her tests. Or could it be that number 2 1/2 pencil I used as a matter of protest? Anyway, after a few minutes I was joined by a few other students and a teacher I did not know. We were given this different looking test with many questions similar to what we had seen on the PSAT. However, unlike the PSAT, we were given 30 minutes to complete this test. Since I was in no hurry to get back to math class, I proceeded to finish the test in 20 minutes or so, and then faked it until the time limit was up. About that time, the bell rang and we were told to proceed to the next class.