Plants And Chairs And Trees And People Forming As One

I was off work the last week. No trips to the beach or cabin in the woods, not that kind of time off. I spent the first four days in the hot Midwest sun taking apart the play set that my dad, father-in-law, and I put together in May of 2005 for our kids. It […]

Empathy Lives In The Gray Area : Some Thoughts On Roe V Wade

The first time my wife and I became pregnant was April of 1998. We’d been trying to get pregnant for a year with no luck, but then it happened. We were ecstatic. We got married just two years prior, had built a house, both were gainfully employed, and were a pretty good aunt and uncle […]

No Commencement For Old Dogs Or Men

On Sunday May 22, 2022 my wife and I, along with our oldest’s significant other, sat on the lawn of the Depauw University campus and watched as our daughter graduated with a Liberal Arts degree(with concentration in English Lit) from this small school in the middle of nowhere in Central Indiana. I can’t really say […]

Mondays, Graduation, Weird Dreams…

Woke up with a buzzing in the pit of my stomach. It was a night of dreams, not good or bad but indifferent. A lot of the time indifferent dreams are worse than bad dreams, in that it’s as if the mundanity of real life decides to invade your dream life. No fantastical worlds or […]

Gainfully Employed

My son recently started his first job. He’s following in his father’s footsteps as a gainfully employed bag boy at the local supermarket. It’s actually the same supermarket I worked at as a senior in high school. Well, it’s a newer building(the grocery I worked at was recently demolished so the city can put up […]

The Big Quiet

We’re just three weeks from the start of school. Our youngest will be starting his junior year of high school, driving himself every morning in the same mini-van that used to take him to grade school. Our middle child is 18 and she’ll be starting her freshman year of college at Ferris State University. Go […]

My 21st Father’s Day

I called my dad this past Sunday morning to wish him a happy Father’s Day. In the conversation, after he wished me the same I told him that my oldest bought the ingredients to make me an Old Fashioned as an early Father’s Day gift. He laughed and said “You know you’re getting old when […]

Pomp and Circumstance

I remember it like it just happened. I was at work and I got a call from my wife. She asked me to listen to our 3-year old daughter breathing, as my wife said she sounded a little labored. She put the phone down to her and I could hear the steady, quick wheeze and […]

May Day

May has always been one of those really stressful months at our house. Both our daughters were born in May, one on the 13th and the other on the 20th. Three years and a week apart. It’s that crazy month where the end of the school year shenanigans take place as well, be it those […]

NYC

Last week the wife and I cleared the family van out and hit the road for a 12-hour trek to New York City from our Midwest abode. This wasn’t really a pleasure trip, as we were going out to load up our oldest and her belongings and move her back to Indiana after a successful […]