After a particularly grueling day of work, I wandered outside to get some fresh air. I snatched a basketball from the garage and began shooting baskets. Within a few minutes, a group of neighborhood kids had congregated. We grabbed another ball, drew chalk shooting lines and played game after game of "Knockout". The game is very simple: Everyone lines up, the first two people in line have basketballs and each person shoots in turn. Once you make your shot, you get the ball, pass it to the first person in line and go to the back of the line. If the person in line immediately behind you makes their shot before you do, you are knocked out. The winner is the last person left. Then everyone lines back up in the order they placed and it all starts again. It is pretty fast moving and great exercise. It's much more interesting than horse and playable with people of all skill levels.

After 20 games or so, it was time to wash up for dinner. I hopped in the shower and started rinsing the sweat off. After a little while, the water got very cold. I gritted my teeth and tried to wait it out, assuming that someone had jumped into the other shower. I showed great restraint in not adjusting my own water temperature and it eventually returned to a comfortable warmth. I washed my hair and was rinsing the shampoo out when my scalp started burning. The continued increase in temperature encouraged me to rinse quickly and get out of the steaming shower as fast as I could.

At the dinner table, my oldest son asked me how my shower was. The sly grin on his face explained everything. He had known that I was taking a shower at the same time he was, so he decided to have some fun. He described turning the water to the hottest setting and trying to avoid the hot water for a while. Then he turned it normal and washed up quickly. Finally, when he was rinsing the soap off, he turned his water to cold. He said it was freezing and not very fun except for the fact that he knew I was getting scalded. I pretended to be mad at him, but could not do it for long without laughing. I'm sure this is a stunt I would have pulled on my brother or sister when I was his age.