Kitchen SinkWellbeing

You don't want to read this

I don’t want to write this post. I don’t feel like doing much of anything these days. Some of the time I try to put on a mask of good humor but it’s hard. Some folks are better at masking their depression. Some can keep it up longer or be more convincing. I’m neither. Depression has been with me almost as long as I can remember. It’s not always active, like a cancer…
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Kitchen Sink

The case against math

It’s a great day for a blog post! I’m not particularly depressed at the moment and I’m in the mood for a little nonsense – which as we all know are the perfect ingredients for a little writing. I was looking at someone’s date of birth (something that comes up often in my line of work) and noted the year: 1994. My imagination stepped back in time. I lived in Orlando…
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Wellbeing

The door

The front door is where it all began every day. Not to take anything away from my old job, but when I think of home, the day begins when I return from work. In recent years I never quite knew what I was getting into until I got there, stood in front of our door, and opened it. Sometimes what lay within was drown out by sounds outdoors – the weather, the tree blowing in the wind, children…
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Important Stuff

John moves on

An open letter to my coworkers at the Largo CSE office: It’s Sunday morning, December 29th, and I’m sitting in my new home in Orlando. We’re mid-move and I’ll be driving back to Dunedin this afternoon for one more week of work in Largo, but I’m already feeling nostalgic. I drove past a vacant building this morning. It used to house a non-profit job training program…
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Family and FriendsWellbeing

I try

Hi, my name is John and I haven’t posted anything of substance in a year or more. I have a good thing not going here, so why start now? This is a couch and you are my therapist – so be warned. After a few false starts, we’re really moving. Cheryl starts a new job in Orlando on Friday, we’re moving much of our furniture after Christmas (to the guest wing of my sister and…
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Family and Friends

To all my friends and family...

Thank you all for the birthday greetings. I enjoyed hearing from you all, especially considering my long absences from Facebook, Twitter, and my poor, neglected blog. I wanted to let you know two things: it warmed my heart to hear from all of you, and my absence does not represent bad times at the Kauffman household. I’ve been devoting a lot of time to rehabilitating my neck, strengthening…
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Wellbeing

Enter

Today was the first morning at the new office. My office is cool. It’s a little far from my peeps down the hall and around a corner, but a little walking will do me good. The movers are behind but we had some wicked thunderstorms yesterday afternoon/evening, so I’m back at the home office this afternoon. I can’t help myself when there’s stuff to be done and my neck tells me…
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Kitchen Sink

Exit

I looked up on my way out the door this afternoon. There’s an exit sign pointing to the parking lot as you leave my office. “Tomorrow will be the last time I look up at that sign.” I thought to myself. Tomorrow will be my last day at work in Clearwater. I’ve worked there since the fall of 1996. Seventeen years wouldn’t give a lot of folks pause, but if you were to…
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Beth

What's so special about today?

Today is Monday, July 15th, 2013. Our first born child, a little girl we named Elizabeth Ann, was born on Tuesday, July 15th, 1997. Maybe you’re not a math person… and that’s ok. Not everyone is, so I’ll do it for you (eventually). Caveat: my knowing has nothing to do with math and everything to do with said little girl (who’s not so little anymore) asking the…
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