Author: Jason

well…just like the start of Chapter 1 of this blog, I find myself once again back at home while Steph goes on a big adventure. I’m not jealous per-se. It’s a girls trip and Iceland sounds very far away. It is super volcanic and fresh lava is flowing even as I write. Sounds frigid and austere but if they time it right, they should see the northern lights and puffins.

but just like her last big trip, she looked super cute in her parka and new snow boots. She just got her haircut yesterday, her digits also looking good and freshly manicured. I played a little Bjork in her honor on the way to the airport.

Steph says she’ll post along the way but I’m not holding my breath….she said that before in Italy and we all know how that went.

men in black. Jules, Zack and I

Julian has been asking me to play tennis a bunch lately. Better late than never and for a kid who has seldom picked up a racquet, he is getting darn good if I do say so myself. He’s even started taking lessons again and says he wants to try out for Varsity tennis next year. I better start working on my own game if I’m going to have a chance of keeping up with him!

Sophia is coming home for a visit!
I’ll meet her at the airport on Saturday night once she gets in from Texas and we’ll talk and hang with Remy whilst we wait for Steph who arrives about an hour later from Iceland.

Steph is going to Iceland in a week!

Spring must be coming. The birds are back with a vengeance. Nothing frightened me more as a child than Hitchcocks’s, “The Birds”. That and maybe Stephen King’s movie “Christine”. Or “Carrie”. Man those movies got under your skin back in the day.

Anyway, back to the birds, we’ve got this long covered breezeway running down the length of our house. And every spring the birds make their nests in the warm, tight spaces in the rafters on top of our exposed light housings.

And every year it’s the same shit. Bird shit that is. 💩 They poop up and down the entire length of our corridor. It’s embarrassing. And I can’t stand cleaning it. Something has to be done.

Last year I resorted to spiky metal strips and fake plastic snakes. Neither made a difference. Only served to slice my fingers and scare me shitless when I would later stumble on the snakes I haphazardly threw in the yard.

This year I vow to box them out for good. The saga of man vs bird continues…

It’s a bank and school holiday and work is super quiet. So I had a leisurely breakfast at Gracious Plenty, browsed the internet for an hour or two, then decided to come over to our rental on Thompson Place and pick up sticks. One of my favorite pastimes is to work in the yard over here. Build an outdoor fire and burn a bunch of dead wood and pine cones. 🔥

Was a really nice weekend all around. Played pickleball a couple times at a new indoor club I joined. They have 14 courts of open play ranging from all skill levels. I’d say I’m a solid intermediate. My dad could probably hang with the advanced. He plays tournaments at 77 years old. And if that wasn’t enough, he’s even starting another company at his age. But that’s a story for another post.

Back to my weekend, one of our local breweries has this annual thing they do called the Sleddy Yeti. They freeze over the big hill outside their establishment, snow it all in somehow, and turn it into a giant tubing run in the middle of Roswell. The more serious revelers bundle up in 80s garb or outrageous ski clothes, drink a bunch of hot toddy’s and let her rip. Julian even worked it for a few hours and was stationed at the base of the run helping kids (and drunk adults) up out of the tubes and onto their feet. And in case anyone’s wondering, yes, yours truly gleefully took a run for Jules to catch me.

Another highlight was talking to Sophia last night. She’s doing well but needs more mobility. We agree the time has come to focus on getting her license and a car of her own. Sounds like the first DMV appointment she could get is in mid March so less than a month away. I told her I’d come to town and go with her for it. Will be really impactful to support her, buy her her first car, and cherish the important steps she’s making toward adulthood.

(this was an old post I never published back from 2016)

I’m starting to miss the feel of writing in an actual book. Tip-tapping on my phone just isn’t the same and though easy to erase and not susceptible to mold, it doesn’t keep me the same company either.

When I discovered one day how my old journals became mildewed I cried inside; crushed by how irreplacible an investment of time on paper can be.

I knew even before the accident that I wanted to start this blog; I’ve owned the domain for over a decade. My kids laugh now but someday I’ll pass it down to them. And perhaps, just maybe, subconsciously, the mold was a catalyst for me to finally build out the site and give steph and the kids a chance to preserve and contribute their own entries as well.

In the end, I’m not saying I don’t appreciate the phone or enjoy this mode of writing; the screen serves as a comforting white page. It’s just I miss the spills and screw ups that give my old books so much character.