I went to my first professional baseball game this week. I’m 49. A few more years and I might have lived my entire life without seeing a single inning. Oh well. It’s not that I’ve been too poor to finance a hot dog ($12), a pretzel ($8), and a soda ($6) at the stadium until… Continue reading Take Me Out of the Ball Game
I’m going to help teach a high school computer science class this year! It took me a long time to write that first sentence. More specifically, it took me a long time to finish that first sentence. I struggled to decide if I should end it with an exclamation point to show how excited I… Continue reading Wish Me Luck
The neighborhood kids have recently rallied together to teach one of their own how to ride a bike. The instructors, all professional cyclists, range in age from six to ten. The student, a girl, is probably five. It's unclear if she asked for their help. Or even wants to ride the bike. Regardless, they've been… Continue reading Like Riding a Bike
I went on my last first drive this week. Not to brag, but I think it went pretty well. It’s probably because I’ve been mentally preparing for this milestone since early January, when my youngest child first informed me that I’d be conducting his inaugural driving lesson the moment he turned 14½. According to him,… Continue reading Last First Drive
I’m not very good at a lot of things. Normally this isn’t a problem, but back in 2007 I was asked to join a group of friends who were planning to summit Washington State’s Mount Rainier. Most of them, like me, hadn’t ever climbed a big mountain before, let alone a 14,411-foot glaciated stratovolcano that… Continue reading Eating My Way to the Top
While taking roll on the first day of kindergarten, my teacher asked each of us students, in turn, if we’d prefer to use a name other than the one she’d just read. As expected, most Roberts said they’d like to go by Bob, some Rebeccas opted for either Becca or Becky, and all Richards sensibly… Continue reading Call Me Jerry
It’s Saturday morning, 10am. The sun is shining and it’s 70°F outside. Of the million awesome things I could be doing on this beautiful fall day in the Pacific Northwest, I’ve chosen to push a shopping cart around the inside of a grocery store with my wife. Normally, we’d be out riding bikes on some… Continue reading Our Thing
