Regular Dad

It was a weekend of unfortunate events.  Nothing terrible or unrecoverable or that ruined the weekend.  But it just kept the weekend from really feeling like a success or relaxing.  2 steps forwards, 2 steps back.   The new dishwasher is in.  Which is the key outcome of the weekend.  But of course there was no shortage of trials and tribulations.  But I guess alls well that ends well.  Or somethin...

My puppy learned a valuable lesson: never trust a f'n Tesla.  They're like really smug BWMs except the drivers may or may not be trusting a buggy software platform to control the 4,000 lbs death machine.   Purdue Football got a win!!  We took down Illinois in an exciting, but comfortable-ish finish.  We weren't supposed to get any, and we already have 1.  The ceiling is the roof, baby! And for the...

Well, we survived a weekend of epic rain.  Thanks to me and my pop-up tent, thank you very much.  And I made some chicken stock from all the raw chicken bones I've been hoarding.  You'll thank me in like 2 months when my gravy hits.   Our hockey antagonists completely let me down, but AC/DC did not.  Not their best show ever, but they're like 100 years old now.  And only 1/2 the band is there.  It...

My Parents' visit went really well...except for my mom bursting her eardrum saturday night.  And not in a fun way.  But otherwise it was great.  Their cut-glass conference went great, the travel was easy, and we all had a great time here.   As we all predicted, the Bears offense went from record high, to a near shut-out.  Only they could pull off that crap.  And Caleb popped a hammie.  It sounds l...

Well, we once again have a puppy in the house.  We adopted a "shepard mix" from a woman I know who was serving as an emergency foster.  Was I 100% ready for the mental load of taking care of a puppy all day?  Probably not.  But he's pretty awesome and so far makes up for it.   When your kids comes runnign into your office and yells "Dad, the basement is leaking!  From the floor!" you go running in...

Move over Alice Cooper, because school is officially un-out for summer.  What?  Whatever, both kids are in school and taking buses.  Does that mean everything is chiller?  Nope.  Just means I'm driving less before 4pm and than a poop-ton b/t 4-9, while also trying to cook dinner.   Peacemaker, of all shows, sent me on an introspective journey.  And I gained some insight as to why 1 aspect of the M...

New Season, same energy, same me.  Are there any promises for content or format changes?  Listen and see... I'll keep this short (because I'm posting late and rushing), but a bad movie got me all reflective on my own Senior Prom.  Which was a non-trivial number of years ago.  Did the weekend go the way I thought it would?  Nope.  Was it still a memorable event?  Obviously, because I actually remem...

Yes folks, I'm fine.  It took over a week to get there, but it did happen.  And just to wrap everything up, I'll go over some of the higher-level points.  Things that were triggering me, memories, all that stuff.  But then we can all be done with the heavy lifting.   And I finally thought of a positive spin to put on the ole Subaru Feugo incident.  And really, this is the narrative that I'm going...

I'm not going to say much here, as the episode does it for me.  This was recorded over a week ago not long after it happened.  So this was part of my healing process, but also some of my rawest.   I thought about not actually putting this out, but I feel it has value.  Not everything can be anger and made-up words and dumb jokes.   Enjoy.

Here is the (slightly disingenuous) happy summary of camping.  The cool things we saw and did, the good parts.   And the (non-crushing) parts of the following weekend's adventures.  Because for the most part it was a great trip and that needs to be captured.   But obviously there's a dark cloud hanging over all of this, which unfortunately will be revealed.   Enjoy.

I did it.  I successfully organized a 3-generation trip to the BWCA wilderness.  Entry permit, kids packed correctly, outfitter arranged for the bits we didn't have, lodging for the in and out days, etc.  Even had a rough plan for what we'd do for our 5-days / 4-nights.   And then, just like the Wilderness loves to do, things went sideways.  Nothing major from an execution stand-point, but we didn...

Well, if everything is planned right and going well, this will drop in the middle of what will be remembered as the first awesome canoe camping trip with my boys.  And no, I don't have any anxiety at all.  None.  Totally didn't wake up at 4am today letting bad thoughts creep in to my consciousness.   But in nothing but happy news, our marriage has survived yet another calendar year.  I know, we ke...

The kids are back home again, and visiting "day" has been completed.  If you're only allowed on-site for like 4 hours, can it really be considered a day?  And is it worth 5 hours of driving each way?   Is AI coming for the movie industry?  As in, when we look out 10, 20, 30 years, will AI generated movies be the norm and human-acted movies be pushed to the new indie films?  When you look at the tr...

The reno is finally nearing a close.  It's all down to the fit and finish stuff, which somehow takes the longest.  I knew it, but it's still a pain. The Home Run Derby actually had some excitement this year.  And a couple guys that were hitting tanks straight outta the 90s.  But the game itself is still not giving.  Tough when so many stars are either not there or playing very little.  But we have...

This episode is like 90% soccer.  Mostly to vent out my frustrations at what happened to the USMNT on Monday.  So much hype, so much promise, so much potential.  And then they went out there and looked like every hot mess that came before.   Did anyone else wonder about our stated best finish of 3rd place in the 1930 world cup?  Like, how is it possible we finished 3rd, but then never won an elimi...

Yup, I'm back to dealing with the generator.  Again.  But this time from a place of acceptance.  I know it's my fault and it's time to undo my wrongs.   I haven't gone on any religious rants in a bit.  So let's get to it.  All sparked by our really good tile guys.  So I had to bottle most of this up to stay in their good graces.   We finished the final season of Euphoria.  Don't worry, I do a pret...

Do I really have to finally admit that I'm over the hill?  Have I truly left my peak behind me instead of pretending I can still make a new peak?  Or am I just having a bad week and this is how it's manifesting?   The kids are officially at sleep-away camp.  And sweet jebus it couldn't have come soon enough.  It was only like 1.5 weeks of post-school and it was rough.  Now comes almost 4 weeks of...

The baseball seems to never end.  But at least this time I wasn't sitting in a hot-ass field all greased up with sunscreen watching the kids lose for 6 hours.  Oh wait... And yay, summer camp has started.  And the other wants to do tennis clinics.  It's okay, I don't mind getting up every 90-120 minutes to drive kids around.  It's not like I'm trying to work and maintain my sanity or anything. Oh...

Well I'm once again broken by a week.  Nothing tragic, it just walked me right down little by little.   We had hours and hours and hours of baseball.  All victories, but it's still A LOT of hours at various fields.   We had a middle school graduation.  On a Tuesday morning.  Followed by a nice lunch.  And then an on-line barrel pick from Copper & Cask Then more baseball, a friggin HOUR FROM HO...

Well, this has been a week of multiple screw up.  I somehow recorded this and then just never editted and published it.  I kinda see how that happened given how the week went, but it's weird that it never crossed my mind.   And yeah, if you were confused about a couple things last episode, here is the background that you were missing.  But we take a walk down memory lane for a bit, and then discus...

It was yet another weekend of unexpected minor chaos.  The dog acted up, Myles blind-sided me with a rediculous question, and Hayley took off back to Long Island.   But I was still able to get some mental healing time by my firepit and everyone got to everything they needed to get to.  And I got some chores down.   That said, weekends for the rest of the summer better find some damn chill, or this...

Draining weekend over here.  I did get to serve my peak baseball role; substitute bench coach.  Yell out batting order, positions, then just hype up the kids and yell basebally things.  Unfortunately for 6 hours.  The long-awaited master bathroom reno has officially begun.  It was a long weekend of last-minute emptying of our bathroom and closet.  Lots of donations, lots of Buy Nothing, but lots o...

Well, it finally happened.  We have a ton of deer around us.  And I spend a lot of time driving during deer hours.  And telling my MIL she shouldn't be so paranoid because no one actually hits a deer.  And so I hit one.  Well, it kinda hit me.  Either way, front 1/4 panel, bumper, headlight are all done.  And right before Mother's Day, no less.  Which was definitely not our best Mother's Day.  Bot...

Of all the car maintenance I have to perform, I've honed my brake job skills quite a bit over the last 8ish years.  But for whatever reason, Jaws decided it wasn't going to go down without a fight.  A big fight.  A break multiple tools kinda fight.   And really that was the gist of the week.  Other things happened, but they all got over-shadowed by the Tragedy in the Driveway...edy.   Enjoy!

That title might be over-stating it a bit, but I realized in editing that I reference wizards twice.  So it must be a sign.   Anyways, I feel like I'm magically back to full power again.  Or at least as full power as I can get.  I'm motivated, I have energy, ready to take on everything and crush it this summer.  Which is good, because it was a full weekend.  Wizards bball, soccer tournaments, base...