Last weekend our little band of miscreants checked their egos at home and came to the diamond with a positive mindset. Our message of supporting each other and remaining upbeat no matter what, looks like it finally took hold. Even though half the team forgets how to play baseball every other inning, just staying positive…
Ditching the Devices This Summer Before It’s Too Late
Stating the obvious, but things feel a little different these days, don’t they? Different than the 80s. Different than the 90s. I remember I used to think the 90s were so boring, wishing they had a little more personality. Now I would sacrifice a finger or two to get to raise my kids in the…
Screwing Up the Drop-off Line
At our local elementary school, some say they put the new “cone system” in place in order to keep families safer during drop-off time this past year. I’m not so sure. It feels like their new approach was specifically designed for me, blocking my path and interrupting my drop-off efficiency. Whenever I pull into the…
Coach Larson Says “Bench Them All!”
Things got a little weird on the baseball diamond last weekend. For the first time in my illustrious career as a maker of men, we had to bench some players for bad behavior. I’ve had to make threats about benching before, but never had to execute on those threats. Not that I can remember at…
I’m a Suburban Farmer of Nothing
Today I took the day off from work to tend to the house. Between the kids’ sports and a host of other activities, there’s simply no time on the weekend for us to get to everything that needs to get done. Work was pretty quiet this week, so today seemed like the right day to…
Hoping for a Little Chalkboard Inspiration During Covid
In the thick of covid, with my wife having gone back to work full-time, I found myself suddenly thrust into the position of “mom” on the home front. Only the home front was the front lines, and this little lamb didn’t know what the heck he was doing. I just knew I was probably doing…
Conceding Defeat in the Vandal Wars of 2020-2021
Before my wife went back to work full-time, I had a much simpler view of how the house operated. Every morning I’d skip out the door to go to the office, have a glorious day of dealing with grown-up problems, and when the evening came, I’d come home to throw out all of the trash…
Fight for the Smiles, Life Is Happening Now
Things go wrong in our lives and sometimes we wish we could just get away for awhile. Erase the past and get a redo. Take a timeout. Retreat. I know for me, chronic nerve pain has been a noose around my neck that has made me wave the white flag of retreat more than once….
Where Are All the Happy Writers?
As I reenter the writing fray, I’ve been checking out Medium a lot lately, which if you’re not familiar with, is an app where a lot of writers can post their content for the world to see. It reads like the most refined blogging hub on the web, though it’s supposed to feel more sophisticated…
Where Can a Dad Get Some Steroids?
Okay, enough already. Can’t someone just blast me with a bunch of steroids to make this pain go away? I can tell there’s just this last bit of muscular tissue that won’t swell up and get strong enough to hold all the nerves in place – why can’t we just get a big old needle…