My daughter, Bookzilla, got that nickname for purposes of this blog because of her reading habits. One day, she was sprawled across a chair and there was a pile of books to be read on once side and a pile of books she had already read on the other. These were not difficult books to [...]
Bookzilla got her braces off today. It has been just about two years. She was stellar in the way she handled them. She brushed well, she made sure she had the rubber bands on when they were supposed to be on, she didn’t complain when they hurt. She is a great kid.
John Dickerson is remembering Walter Cronkite’s passing and he ends the first paragraph with, “and no one was divorced.”
We were putting the kids to bed when word came that Walter Cronkite died. Immediately I went from being a father—shushing and threatening—to being a kid again. We watched Cronkite before dinner, in the library. I sat [...]
Silence fills my house, silence no music can fill;
No storm, no sound, not me screaming.
This is the time I hate, the hours after they have leave,
And I see only me and my life.
I see how empty they are, filled only with
Silence.
When the governor’s wife said that she didn’t know where he husband was on Father’s day, I knew that she knew where he was and that he was with another woman. I think that a lot of people knew that. But none of the news organizations raised the possibility. No one said, “Where’s his girlfriend?”. [...]
There are times when I am overcome with love for my children. I just want to hold them and feel the warmth of their flesh against mine.
There are other times when they do things that make me revert to drill sergeant mode. I wanted to see “Up”, the new Pixar movie. I had timed it [...]
Coming home from piano lessons, I was tuning the radio and hit the long version of the Iron Butterfly classic, “Ina Gadda Da Vida”. I knew what it was, but the kids didn’t. JMan seemed quite taken by it. I procured a copy and it now plays from his computer as he is playing Blockland.
All [...]
JMan stands with his fourth grade buddies, tall, straight, calm, with his hands in his pockets. I walk up to him and he seems so small. I put a hand on his shoulder and he turns around, delighted to see me. He hugs me, and says “Uppity!”. He wants me to pick him up. I’m [...]
I need to go work in the yard (the sun is out and drying the grass; this being Washington, you know that won’t last) but I need to post links to two stories.
It starts this way. This story about giving birth in Thailand is beautiful. The writer is honest and candid. And she has a [...]
I watch her carry her plate into the kitchen and I am overcome with a mixture of awe and love. So tall, so straight. She comes back to the table and leans against me, I wrap an arm around her, she hugs my shoulder and she says, “I love you, Dad.” I tell her I [...]