Regular Life

I admit, on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I did not spend time honoring the man whose hard and noble work helped further the cause of civil rights. I thought of him a few times, and of how courageous he was, but I did not attend a march and did not watch any television specials.
When [...]

Our trip today ended with Ben saying, “I have no pants on,” with a huge smile on his face.
We went to Turner Falls Park, in the Arbuckle Mountains of southern Oklahoma. It was a shock to me too when I found out that Oklahoma had anything resembling a mountain, and my first trip there was [...]

“Wanna watch Bug’s Yife, Daddy.”
“No, we’re not watching Bug’s Life right now.”
As I finish this entry, my wife is putting on the finishing touches as we prepare to leave for a day in the Arbuckle Mountains. Turner Falls, here we come!
Sunday was our first day to start putting away Christmas decorations. I already had taken [...]

On a recent canoe trip, I wanted to take a camera, but didn’t want to risk dunking my expensive equipment. I took along my cheap, manual Nikon FM10 body and a manual lens. The camera has only one small battery, for the light meter, and can take pictures without any battery at all. It’s extremely [...]

“Here’s an M.C. Escher book, Mark.”
I walked into the room expecting to see my wife holding out a book containing drawings by or a biography of M.C. Escher. I wondered about that, because I didn’t know we had such a thing. I was pleasantly surprised.
Until I walked into the room.

It takes about a minute for someone to figure out that I’m a nerd at heart (and a glance at my tapered-leg Levi’s would cut that time in half). I’ve never used a pocket protector, but I have been known to wear glasses I patched up using the wire from a twist tie (much less [...]

I can’t imagine anything else I could have done in high school that would have been more fun for me. Except choir, for obvious reasons. I had a girlfriend, though, so that might have proved an exercise in frustration.
What was this activity?

This is national de-lurking week. So, leave a comment on the blogs you read. Just to say “hi.”
Until this year, I have never belonged to a fan club. This past Saturday, I attended my third monthly fan gathering in as many months. There, I said it. It’s out there. If you’re thinking Trekkers or Wookies, [...]

My wife, her eyes on something across the room, yelled out, “Oh my Lord!” I looked. Back of the couch. TV. Recliner. Shelves in the corner. Nothing unusual. The look on my wife’s face was utter incredulity.
I pulled my slice of Domino’s Pizza away from my face. “What is it?” I asked.
A and S, who [...]

My previous post was just an experiment. I was thinking yesterday of how much writing goes on thanks to blogs, and how many have unwittingly become better writers because of that. Just the fact that people are reading so much in their spare time is encouraging. I expect this holds true regardless of language.
This brought [...]