In a normal year, my social media feed would be full of posts from music teacher friends and parents of music students. It’s concert season. Band, orchestra, choir, drama, and others. Schools, churches, and others. Cute little ones, well-refined older ones, the ones in between who have neither the charm of the littles nor the … Read more
Climbing Daddy and I have a tradition of going to a National Park or Monument or something similar for Thanksgiving; Tall Daddy and The Kid go to his family’s Thanksgiving. We decided we wouldn’t go this year. The parks have never been crowded on Thanksgiving Day, but we’d have to stay somewhere. Camping is always … Read more
Posts have been sparse here for a while, and I wanted to check in and give an update on what’s going on over here. In early August, I joined an Akimbo workshop (put on by Seth Godin) called The Creative’s Workshop. I’ve been writing there daily, which I know doesn’t provide you with anything, but … Read more
The district where I work had students in the grades I teach start back to school this week on Monday. It’s been … interesting. I can’t speak to whether this can be generalized to anyone else’s experience—this write up is just what my week has been like. First, like many other things the last six … Read more
First: this is my experience. It might not match yours. I’ve struggled with depression for about as long as I can remember. In relatively recent years, I’ve learned how to manage it. Mine seems to be connection-related. When I feel well-connected to important people, my brain chemicals stay happy. When I feel disconnected from people, … Read more
I have a trait. (Whether it’s a blessing or a curse is up for grabs.) I’m interested in a lot of things. There are many skills I would like to attempt to acquire. As a result, there is way more to do than time (or sometimes energy) to do it. The down side? I often … Read more
Sitting down to dinner the other night. The Kid: Can I start a conversation? me: Sure [Note: I think it’s weird that he asked that, as there’s definitely not a “seen but not heard” rule ’round here. Also, because of that, I should have known something was up.] TK: If you had a micro robot, … Read more
Lucky number 13! Thirteen years ago, I started my cancer journey (though the diagnosis didn’t come for another week or so). It changed everything and it changed nothing. It was not a blessing in disguise. It didn’t “happen for a reason” (except for whatever the biological root causes were … for which science has guesses … Read more
A week or so ago, a few small factors combined into something amazing. The whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts. It’s been like discovering the combination of chocolate and peanut butter. Unless you’re allergic. Anyway. Off and on for years, I have been doing puzzles at sporcle.com. (I like the logic … Read more
I finally hit the wall. Which is funny, because I’ve mostly been sitting. For the past six weeks, I’ve been going for a walk almost every afternoon, to get some sun and fresh air and get out of the house. Until recently, it’s been nice out. Now that it’s officially “hot” (100+ degrees), I’ve started … Read more