It’s mid-summer and time to face facts: we have a kid bound for college in the fall, and I have some things to do to prepare. He’s not going to be close, either. He won’t be coming home on weekends to eat home-cooked meals or do his laundry. In fact, he won’t be able to […]
My dad liked to tell a story about a conversation he’d had with a colleague, maybe an intern or some other young employee, about how time passes faster every year the older you get. “Well, the years must just be whipping by for you, then,” this person pointed out, a statement my dad found particularly […]
Once a year, a group of friends of ours gathers for a running relay event somewhere in the region. Mike and I haven’t been able to join them for the last couple of years for reasons that basically boil down to the fact that everything in our lives tends to happen all at once, and […]
Some of you already know this, but I started running fairly regularly again in 2006 after a twenty-year hiatus. Then in 2011 I decided the half marathon event was more or less my thing. A little later, I stole adopted Mike’s goal of running 50 half marathons by that age. Well, my 50th is coming […]
You know how parenting is mostly telling people stuff you would have thought was just common sense, and then repeating yourself until you think you sound crazy, right? There’s the early parenthood version of this phenomenon, where you focus mostly on safety issues: “No, we don’t put (toy/bodily appendage/instrument of destruction) (in your mouth/up your […]
I had the weirdest experience recently. I finished a meeting and had to be across town for another meeting right on the heels of my first meeting, only the first meeting finished early, so I got to my second meeting early. I’m rarely early. Actually, I’d give it about a 50% chance I’ll even be […]
“I’m a weed detector,” Jack said as a distinctive acrid aroma filled the foyer. From the living room we heard the front door open and then close not one second later, followed by a chorus of giggles. Apparently our Weed Detector had been successful in locating the enjoyer of said aromatic herb, standing in her […]
Colin passed us both in the kitchen this morning, on his way out the back door. He had wet hair, no shoes and was carrying a clear, plastic cup with something in it. We watched him grab a shovel out of the shed and start working at something in a corner of the yard, his […]
Yesterday I had an appointment with Steven, whose calendar fills months in advance. If I ever have to reschedule, it’ll be a while before I can get back in. I don’t have a lot of secrets, but if I did, Steven would know them. He’s got sophisticated ways of making people talk even when they […]
When I’m cooking dinner – any meal, really – I hate having people in the kitchen with me. So, of course, that’s exactly where 60% of my family was last night as I was trying to concentrate on the complex set of instructions that came with my new gadget. “I wonder how long before they […]
