They're all off to college, or learning, soon

Nick, his girl Elisha, and Nate at our Valentines' Day Party

A long letter from my brother Bob in Ohio, a phone call from my friend Steve in Maryland: They each tell tales of getting their girls into colleges. Bob's daughter Carlye is already in college, even though she won't graduate high school until June. The state of Ohio pays for college at a state school for the seniors who make the grade. In Maryland, Steve's daughter has been accepted at the Eastern Shore's Washington College, where a lot of scholarship money awaits.

Here in Texas, our boys have been learning about life in the real world. Nate turned 33 last week, and his latest goal is to break out of the shackles of HEB produce by becoming a jailer in Williamson County — so they'll put him through the police academy after a year of service. Nick is finishing his first full-time pay period at Compass Bank, where he works as a teller. Nick met me for burgers, beers and pool Wednesday night at Waterloo Ice House. He'd driven up from downtown and got there before me. I walked in to see him with his blue dress shirt sleeves rolled up, tie loosened, enjoying a Labatt's Blue out of the bottle at Happy Hour. Another milestone crossed for me as a dad — seeing my grown son waiting for me at happy hour after he's clocked out from the job. That's a lot of years down the road for us, from ordering burgers for us and drinking sodas, then driving down to Slick Willie's pool hall to show him the first things about how to shoot pool. Once we finished our burgers on Wednesday, he drove me down to the pool hall in his car, then picked up the tab at the pool hall. Kind of a graduation in itself, I guess — paying for some fun after a day at the job.