The 43

Another realization that I need to get my ass in gear ... Today, I recalled a walk I took in Madison 12 years ago. It was our first spring in Madison, I was working extreme mornings while Wife (then, Girlfriend, maybe not yet Fiancee) worked a normal shift, so I had afternoons pretty much to myself. Besides a big park nearby, there was plenty of residential neighborhoods to saunter through. Once it got warmer, I started venturing farther out, and one warm day, I was listening to a particular tape in my Walkman that struck a chord (no pun intended). During the 1980s, I was fanatical about taping songs off the radio, and in no year was I more fanatical than 1984. That summer, I probably went through about 10 tapes of songs off the radio. On this walk, I was listening to one I hadn't heard in maybe a decade, and the memories were flooding back. Not just from the songs, but the commercials and DJs that I might have accidentally taped, too. I couldn't believe it had already been 12

Today was a perfect Sunday. And yes, it was a Sunday I had to work. I usually get one weekend day off, but lately, due to staffing shortages and it just being the time of year, I've been working the whole weekend. My mood sours when I don't get a weekend day off; I know it's easier for Wife if her two days off could coincide with at least one of mine. Usually I worked late the night before, thus tiring me out the next day, and knowing that work shift is coming, my mood doesn't lighten much. But I vowed to not get so down and unproductive on weekends where I work through. Today, for once, it worked. Wife took Eldest to CCD, and instead of me turning a show on for Littlest while I went back to sleep, I put him in the stroller and we walked, about 3 1/2 miles. We got home and all of us went to Costco. After some shopping, we returned home and worked in the yard for an hour. Then we went to the zoo for an hour, and though we didn't see many animals (Littlest doesn't

At work tonight, I was listening to Live 365 , which broadcasts users' own Internet radio stations. The particular channel I "dialed" to featured the Top 40 from this week in 1982, sans Casey Kasem. It's no secret if you read this blog how nostalgic I can get, particularly from music. In a short span of hits, a wave of memories flooded back: -- "That Girl" by Stevie Wonder took me back to playing baseball at Oriole Park that year, and the old-fashioned candies we were selling as a fund-raiser instead of raffle tickets. I can still taste those candies. -- "I've Never Been to Me" by Charlene reminds me of a barbecue in my Grandma Elsie's backyard that Memorial Day. I have no idea why, maybe we had the radio on back there and it came on. -- " '65 Love Affair" by Paul Davis reminds me of going to one of my Dad's softball games, a tournament at some park I'd never been to. I was listening to the countdown on a transistor ra

Eldest is playing 4-year-old T-ball this fall. No outs, no runs, everybody bats, everybody runs the bases, all the fielders chase the ball no matter where it's hit. I'm coaching this team, which, because parents are encouraged to help in the field, doesn't involve too much more than helping the players at the plate and being careful not to get hit with the bat. Actually, it's been a lot of fun, and Eldest has been having a ball. And today, I saw his potential. First at-bat, he fouled the ball off twice and hit the tee twice. Second at-bat, he swung down into the tee. After repositioning him and telling him to swing straight instead of down, he lined the ball over the infielders' heads. In three games, it was the highest, hardest hit ball I had seen. A few other parents couldn't believe how good he hit it. Since no one really plays outfield, the whole other team chased the ball while he ran to first. I hate to be one of those parents that overestimates their chil

Went a week without posting -- egad! At least I'm typing something up tonight, on Eldest's unfortunate encounter with a snail. The new preschool has been working out great for Eldest, but it seems the times when it seems to not be going so well has been after school is over, when we're still lingering on the playground and parents are filtering out their kids. Either I can't get him to go, or he gets so overstimulated that he takes things to personally or becomes uncharacteristically mean, or something else goes wrong. On Monday, something else went wrong. There are two 4-year-old classes conducted at the same time at this preschool, and a girl from the other class -- a girl whose mom is going to be Littlest's 2-year-old preschool teacher next fall -- had a snail someone had found for her (that's important because it wasn't like a show snail or anything). She put it on the ground to see if it would move, and Eldest then stomped on it. We don't think he w

I experienced a smidgen of an epiphany today that I'm going to share. I'm sure I have already written about the perception and the passing of time, when it seems to go more quickly, when it seems to slow down, etc. I am almost 20 years removed from graduating high school and starting college. Wife and I are coming up on 15 since we started dating. In some ways, it seems like a long time, and in other ways, it has sped by so fast that I can't believe that here I am, age 37, 20 years out of high school, 15 years as a couple. Then something else occurred to me, though it's been nagging for a couple days after hearing a Buddy Holly song and thinking about how cool it would have been to be a teenager in the late 1950s as rock 'n' roll was emerging. Those teenagers are coming up on 70 in a couple years. Going back to my 20-year reality, in 20 years I'll be 58. Aside from hoping that in 20 years 58 will be the new 45, it hit me that these next 20 might go slow or f

Littlest is in the midst of his first official phase: He's slapping everyone. Slapping me and laughing about it. Slapping Wife. Slapping Eldest, and he's got him good a few times. I'm afraid when I take him to his Little Gym class tomorrow, other toddlers are going to be target. We've been trying to timeout Littlest when the hands are flying, but it gets tricky when you are holding him in line at Petsmart. Eldest went through a little phase similar to this at the same age, and it passed in a few weeks. In the meantime, no more watching Dynasty for Littlest!

Astronomically, it may be spring, but we're still waiting for it here in Utah. It hasn't been that sunny. It snowed a little yesterday morning. The temperature hasn't climbed too far over 50. I haven't been able to do any yardwork -- which I'm gung ho about every April -- because of uncooperative weather. Maybe we've been spoiled by some simply gorgeous springs the last few years. Maybe it's just a bad year. But I'm ready for spring to spring. If I wanted a cloudy, miserable April, we would have stayed in Wisconsin. On the bright (or not-so-bright side), I haven't had to worry about using sunblock yet. Hopefully soon.

After a long day filled with grocery shopping and children playing, I got a call from Wife I didn't want to hear: "I think our washing machine is broken." I paraphrased that, but the washing machine does appear to be leaking some water. I'm going to run it again tomorrow and see what happens, but I am not overly optimistic we won't have to call a repairman and/or buy a new washing machine. Then I had to go to work. Wife commented these types of emergencies always happen on nights I work. Bad luck, I guess. Alas, our washing machine is not a Maytag. Gordon Jump won't be showing up at our house.

Today I did something I had been talking about for a few weeks now -- walking to get Eldest from his new preschool. It's a little more than 3 miles there, and Littlest and I unfortunately got a late start, so the walk turned into a mild walk/run. But it was a nice day and we were only a few minutes late -- Eldest was busy playing and didn't even notice. The walk back was tougher, as right away I hit a 400-yard uphill. Not a sever uphill, but enough to be tiring, especially since I just added 45 pounds to the stroller. The whole walk-plus turned out to be a good workout which I'll do again. I just need to start sooner next time, I'm not ready for a 3-mile desperate run just yet.

Yikes, I've been absent from this blog. Though some of it was extra work, most of it was simply not being in the mood to blog. Well, I have a lofty goal for April -- 30 posts in 30 days. We'll see how it goes -- unfortunately, I had this idea yesterday and didn't blog about ...