Family and FriendsWellbeing

Testing your imagination

Imagine you grew up in a seemingly ideal home. Your dad worked Monday through Friday and was home for dinner and weekends. Your mom stayed home, cooked the meals, and handled the domestic duties… always there when you came home from school, or needed something to drink. Your dad was the king of the castle, but your mom was the queen of everyday needs. The only thing missing from Leave it to…
Read more
Family and Friends

Adam’s big day

You probably don’t know this because I probably didn’t tell you; and you probably didn’t care, so I probably didn’t see the need. However, you are here and you’ve come this far (though why I’ll never know), so I’ll get on with my tale. Adam’s sitter dropped a bomb on us last week, saying she didn’t think “things were working out,&#8221…
Read more
Family and Friends

Worry not

I think my wife was a little concerned about last night. She was working on dinner and I said, “dang, I was going to offer to help and then I got distracted… I was looking forward to cutting something up.” There are lots of circumstances when it’s perfectly legitimate to become concerned when someone shows a little too much fondness for a knife, but cut me a little slack…
Read more
Family and FriendsWellbeing

Made in the shade

Nine years ago we were shopping for a house. It was slow going due to our conflicting spacial requirements, budgetary limits, and geographical preference, but there were a few houses our realtor showed us. I remember seeing this house the first time and thinking I might be home. There wasn’t anything fancy about the house. In fact, it was (and is) pretty ordinary. It was on the small side of…
Read more
CancerFamily and Friends

Shallow branch in the river

Cards. As children they were little more than a hinderance; one more thing between you and the gift in the wrapping. Your parents told you to read the card because someone wanted to speak to you through it, so you begrudgingly glanced at it, knowing exactly how long your parents expected you to look at it from years of trial and error. Alright. Maybe you weren’t such an ungrateful shit as a…
Read more
Family and Friends

Are DVDs dishwasher safe?

Long ago we realized that our DVD collection would take up less space in one of those CD books. Cheryl and I wouldn’t have so many movies we’d need a book, were it not for the kids. I’ve long ago lost count how many times we’ve watched Toy Story, and I’m getting there with Cars. Anyway, last night our climbing prodigy scaled Mount Counter-Top to reach the shelf…
Read more