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By nature, I am a worrier to the one millionth degree.
I'm so bad that I worry sometimes when I have nothing to worry about.
But I figure with four kids living in three different places, I should be allowed that luxury, and yes, it is a luxury because it keeps me on my toes, and in this case, my knees, because I am praying and talking to the good Lord.
Which brings me to the crux of this column: What the heck are Mrs. Franco and I going to do next fall?
You see, the last of our four children, our twin boys, are in the middle of their senior high school football season. For the last six years -- junior and senior high -- we have always had football to enjoy on Friday nights in the fall.
And now, with that close to ending in November, "Friday Night Lights" will become "Friday Night Frights" for me.
Our two daughters were in band in high school, and I admit that we did not follow them on the road the way we did their brothers in football.
But I bought their forgiveness in 2018 by getting them each a car.
So back to Fridays in fall 2022. Vincent will be off at college, and Dom is most likely ready to enter the working world in the form of a trade.
What about me? What about mom?
I will go back to covering high school football at the Mirror, but what if I have lost my touch?
What if I sit there in the press box, looking at all the parents watching their kids play football, and it starts to bring me to tears? Trust me, I cry at anything. I cry at the end of Nicolas Cage's "Con Air" for Pete's sake, so trust me when I say there will be puddles of tears the first few times back.
I could bring Ann Marie with me to keep me from falling apart, but she says she and Dom will go to Hollidaysburg games together to cheer on the Tigers, while I will be left to fend for myself.
See … just typing that previous paragraph up has made me sad already.
What happened to "for better or for worse," Mrs. Franco?
Vincent once asked me if I will cry after their last football game. He wants to know if I'll cry at graduation in June 2022.
Yes and yes.
And then when he goes off to college in the fall? Wow … that is three new things to worry about on my itinerary.
Mirror Sports Writer Scott Franco pens a monthly
column for the Mirror.