Regular Life

(Readers of “Apartment Life” may click here for Part Five.)
I reported to the bloodletting bus precisely on time.
A few of my co-workers rested comfortably on contoured chairs, each of their hearts pumping life-giving crimson into their respective donor bags. A fellow co-worker saw me and said, “Hey, Mikey!”
I chuckled, because I have no idea why [...]

(readers of “Apartment Life” may click here for Part Four)
It might be a little too soon since the last one, but here’s another round of Benglish, quotes from our toddler.
“Daddy, don’t wiggle the van.” (While I drove us along a road under construction.)
“My stomach-ache is growling.”

(If you are reading “Apartment Life,” then click here for Part Three)
This is the first in a sporadic series about music — an art form that makes me thankful each day that I did not inherit my grandfather’s hearing problem.
In one form or another, music permeates most cultures. Sometimes accompanied by dance, often not (lest [...]

Ben tugs on a balloon’s ribbon while celebrating O’s birthday.
(Note: Those reading “Apartment Life” may click here for Part Two)
Now, for the conclusion of the men’s weekend…
To finish Saturday, we laughed as we told stories about our boys, and Dad regaled us with tales of our toddlerhood.
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Trena was about a head shorter than Ronnie, a challenge he hadn’t faced before — their jeans weren’t touching where the “V” met. Lying there, struggling to keep everything lined up and to put enough weight on his elbows that he didn’t crush her, Ronnie tried to figure out how he had ended up there, [...]

Friday Night
I dropped Shannon and Ben off at our friends’ house, checked e-mail, then headed out to find Dad and Charles. I had never been to our lodging spot — Long Pool Campground, next to Big Piney Creek.
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First, two teasers from the weekend:

This picture has nothing to do with my topic, but I couldn’t sit on it any longer.
In the same strip mall as my in-laws’ favorite Mexican restaurant is this sushi joint called Simon’s Sushi. Not only do the two words seem incongruous, but the name is familiar to anyone who’s read this blog for any [...]

It’s time for a multimedia onslaught. Because, after all, I might as well just keep a paper journal if I never utilize sight and sound.
The first four sound clips were recorded on the same night, three in the bath, one in Ben’s room. It was a weekend night, one of the evenings when my wife [...]

A bad experience with food ruined a perfectly good song.
When I was a boy, our house rarely had enough breakfast cereal, which my brother and I were known to shove down our gullets at an alarming rate. Jim’s Market, the only store within five miles of our place, had a respectable, though certainly not mind-boggling [...]