Whenever I’m traveling, I enjoy stopping at local haunts to see what they have to offer. And sometimes, I find things such as this:
This is apparently a raccoon, based on the fact that, as I was taking this picture, a guy in a truck pulled up and said, “You taking a picture of the coon? It’s about 40 years old.”
Ah, summer. That time when we were kids when the days were endless, the adventures were everywhere, and the sunburns and mosquito bites were aplenty.
When we become adults, however, summer’s magic seems to have gone away. Most of us still work during the summer. Teachers who have the summer off still have their grown-up responsibilities to tend to. Summer, for adults, just becomes another season in the grind, albeit an exceptionally hot one.
Small spaces are a little boy’s enemy.
The other night, a woman approached me and said, “You don’t know me, and I don’t know you, but I just wanted to tell you that I ALWAYS put my cart up.”
Ma’am, you are the reason I should carry around medals stamped with Decent Human on them and hand them out to the unsung heroes of society.
My son and I were driving by the park the other day when he excitedly said, “WHOA! DAD! LOOK!”
Now, with my son, he could have seen many things. A large bird. Someone wearing a festive hat. A tricked out car. My son has a zest for life and really enjoys seeing cool things. And he loves sharing those experiences.
He looked as excited as an 11-year-old could after being told he was going to watch a seniors bowling tournament.
And the ice storm said, “Let there be light.”
And it said that directly about my front yard, after seven trees had to be removed thanks to the oh-so delicate pat from Ice Storm Pax a few months back.
It was a typical request from a grandfather to a grandson: “Go put the rat snake on the bird feeder.”
What? That’s not your usual Thursday evening entertainment?
It all started when I got a text message from a friend. It was a picture of a large snake on the top of a fence with the text: “Yikes! What is it?” I considered responding, “Relax — it’s a fence. They’re common.”
If there is one thing that a little brother can’t stand, it’s his big sister telling him what to do. I am reminded of this roughly 54,00 times a day.
This was on exhibit recently when I was at the movies with my kids and my two nephews, who are both seven. I opted to take four kids to the movies because I am a brave, brave man.
Here’s a little known fact I bet you didn’t know: If you walk down 1,000 feet of stairs to the bottom of a gorge, if you want to get back to the top, you will probably have to walk back up those very same steps.