"Supernatural"

Yesterday, we celebrated Clare’s birthday; she’s 29, but I won’t tell anyone. At dinner, she used her Ted Williams’ glass that I’d bought two years before she was born. Michele and I were in downstate Lewisburg, Illinois, at memorabilia show featuring Luke Appling. I got to talk to Old Aches and Pains for a good ten minutes on what had to be a disappointingly slow day for the promoter. I bought the glass after our Appling encounter. The aches and pains my daughter learned all by herself playing baseball and softball. Clare may act like Appling, sound like him even complaining about a sore this and that, but she looks better than Appling ever did, even in that photo of him as a player that he signed for me. Of course, I’m partial in this regard. Speaking of milestones, I also biked to the last two episodes of “Supernatural” before Clare and Chris came over for dinner. I’ve been following the Winchester brothers since Clare was in eighth grade. In a way, all three of them have been on the same adventure, at least in my mind. Poor Clare, she had this terrible habit of falling asleep on the couch, only to wake up to something on TV that frightened the bejesus out of her. Early on, it was “The X-Files” and “Millennium,” then “Fringe” and “Twelve Monkeys.” But probably my favorite was “Supernatural.” I once drove a 1967 Impala like the Winchesters did on the show, though mine was a convertible, and I saw all sorts of monsters like they did, though mostly in the form of coaches and umps. The show was always good for an inside joke or two, like the episode where the Winchesters interviewed someone named “Brock Buckner.” Well, all good things come to an end, though I’ll probably sample favorite episodes from time to time. If you ever saw Jensen Ackles lip-synch “Eye of the Tiger” while playing air-guitar on his leg (and sitting on the roof of the Impala), you’ll know why. The weird thing here, to an outsider or psychiatrist, is how “Supernatural” and the other shows remind me of my one and only child. I guess I’m lucky that way.