Cold Feet 21-January-2013 1

Cold Feet  21-January-2013
Cold Feet  21-January-2013 I realized recently that my recreational writing has come to a standstill!  Allow me to remedy that with a heartwarming/footwarming story from the Grandpa Ezra files… Nana Melton used to tell me this story and I remember it every time I have an experience with cold feet.  These days, for me, those ...

Fragile Things 06-November-2012

Fragile Things  06-November-2012
Fragile Things  06-November-2012 Sophie brought three fiddler crabs home from school last week.  Her class had been studying them and they needed homes.  They’re small and fragile little critters, far from their natural habitat.  Two of them are thriving.  The third died last night for no apparent reason.  Her name was Freshman.  We buried her ...

Wedding Ring 01-September-2012 3

Wedding Ring  01-September-2012
Wedding Ring  01-September-2012 This is the ring that I bought for the love of my life when I was in college.  You don’t need to be an expert to see that it is an inexpensive piece of jewelry.  At the time, I often gloated to my college buddies…  Here I was this dirt poor country ...

Paper Airplane 27-August-2012

Paper Airplane  27-August-2012
Paper Airplane  27-August-2012  Fancy that, I was driving the kids yesterday when they taught me this bit.  I’m the driver. I was probably babbling on and on like I do, in fact apologizing for how that big thing I really wanted didn’t work out quite like I planned. Me-  “Blah blah blah I’m really sorry ...

Flower Petals 27-July-2012

Flower Petals  27-July-2012
Flower Petals  27-July-2012 This is something Sophie said Friday night, and I did my best to scribble down enough notes that I could come back to writing the story when time allowed.  Often, I try to write these things out immediately when the kids say them, so that I don’t miss or forget any details.  ...

Daddy, Do You Think I’m Smart? 25-July-2012 1

Daddy, Do You Think I'm Smart?  25-July-2012
Daddy, Do You Think I’m Smart? 25-July-2012 The other night, we were cooking dinner and Sophie asked me the simplest question:  “Daddy, do you think I’m smart?” At first, I was kind of worried about why in the world she might not know how brilliant I think she is.  I tell my kids all the ...

Sophiesynthesis 21-June-2012

Sophiesynthesis  21-June-2012
Sophiesynthesis  21-June-2012 I know that, at first glance, this may look like just another cutesie Daddy/Daughter picture. Which it is.  At the same time, it’s also an amazing snapshot of one of nature’s most amazing, ancient, and complex processes.  While the actual chemistry of it is a bit of a mystery, the beauty of it ...

Open Letter to Hot Rod Magazine 20-May-2012 1

Open Letter to Hot Rod Magazine 20-May-2012
  Open Letter to Hot Rod Magazine  20-May-2012 Dear Hot Rod Magazine, I was reading my June issue of Hot Rod over the weekend, and the more pages I turned, the more I got this creeping feeling that something was amiss.  Lots of good stuff in there, like always.  But the content wasn’t the problem.  ...

Notice 17-May-2012 2

Notice  17-May-2012
Notice  17-May-2012 Last night, Ezra came back out to the kitchen after I’d shut off all the lights.  I wandered out with the expectation of growling at him for still being up, but instead I found myself watching quietly from the hallway kitchen entrance.  As he normally does, he had already put out his cereal ...

Imaginary Poison Ivy 15-May-2012 1

Imaginary Poison Ivy  15-May-2012
Imaginary Poison Ivy  15-May-2012 It’s that time of year again when carpool has become complete anarchy, bedtime has slipped markedly with the extension of evening daylight, and…  my remaining days of being able to go to lunch with people my own age are numbered! So here are some highlights from last week’s elementary school lunch ...