Category: Friends & Family

Promises

There is nothing uplifting about a downmarket Las Vegas hotel. It’s simple living, hours in a stiff bed comforted by a flickering laptop screen, whatever junk food I could liberate from the giftshop downstairs,...

Missing Gulfman, five years later

For the last three days, it has rained from the sunshine. We live in one of those places where half the people you meet aren’t natives. It’s not like Florida, a place northerners settle...

The moms in my life

One woman kept me safe until I was old enough to keep myself safe. Another woman keeps me sane so I can be a good father. This is what moms do. They give all...

Earplugs

The first stop of the morning was for earplugs. We went to Home Depot together and walked among gods on a Saturday morning. They were immortal more-than-men who would destroy things and build new...

The man at the grocery store

My wife is paranoid. She’ll admit it as readily as I say it, but she’ll call it “observant” or “careful.” She’s suspicious of people I’d pick up as hitchhikers or trust to give me...

In search of a married man

Power-fetch at the soccer fields zapped Big Girl Dog of enough energy that she wouldn’t want to eat the walls again for several hours. We were on the half-mile walk trek home when the...

Listen

I worry about my oldest boy, but only because I see myself in him. He’s driven, but fights frustration. He’s joyful, but an easy mark for emotion. He also falls a lot. Genes are...

The reasons I’m happy

I woke today more content than I’ve been in some time. As I said to my wife, I expect it to get better, but even if it doesn’t, I am as happy as I...

Four fathers

It’s a two-hour flight from Atlanta to Springfield, Missouri, one that leaves un-argued that Atlanta is a Cher-Madonna-Bono-city, while Springfield requires a state designation to determine whether it is Brad Pitt or a Brad...

The life cycle of a vomiter

Stage 1: The body’s will–Notable during the first several years of a child’s life, Stage 1 is exhibited by body and mind exhibiting no will as it relates to vomiting. What wants to come...