Madison took this stormtrooper photo the same day at Kings Mountain as Hayden did. Very similar pictures! I’ll use one Camdyn took next time.
I’m usually better at this.
You know. Staying in the present. It’s how I’ve managed to keep the train on the tracks when all else fails. I remind friends of this when they cling to the past or fret about the future. Frame where you are now, and be fully in it.
If one of those friends said that to me now, back, I’d see how impossible it feels.
Madison is moving to California next month. I’ll take a 40-hour road trip with my oldest and her cat, Munch. I wake up at 4 a.m. every day worried about it. But I’m getting better. She’s excited. I’m excited for her, and I’ll work extra hard to buy plane tickets to visit her early and often.
Stormtroopers, mermaids, and easy answers for Go Ask Daddy. All mythical creatures?
Sometimes, interesting parallels emerge in Go Ask Daddy questions.
Theyāre chosen at random. From a list of about 200. When the first two contained the words āalcoholic drinkā and ācrack cocaine,ā I began to question the universe. Namely, what is intends for me. Then, more pressing ā¦ did my girls ask these questions, really?
They did!
Every week, I try to pick out five questions the girls asked (over years and years) to answer in this space right here. To continue the controversy, the Dallas Cowboys appeared on this list, too. And a doozy of a fifth question. Check it out.
But letās be honest: The pandemic has me spending a tad more impossible income on spirits. I was disappointed the ABC store sold me a bottle of rum and tequila but didnāt serve them to me in paper sacks.
The Cherry Bomb looks yummy and counts as a fruit or vegetable serving.
But it has cachaƧa, which isnāt on my Walmart pickup list. The Cherry Bourbon Smash sounds like it should have a holiday named after it. I learned a lot reading about this Easy Cherry Lemonade – and it just made me thirsty.
Just found out thereās also something known as a Dirty Shirley.
Hayden has extensive knowledge of drugs, thanks to a high school course. She rattles off facts about cannabis, ecstasy, and hallucinogens the way I did about Ankylosaurus, Stegosaurus, Triceratops back in the day.
Cocaine comes in both powder and rock, kind of like thereās a Triceratops and a Zuniceratops which look similar.
They call it cocaine or coke when itās a powder, and crack or crack cocaine as the rock. I looked up how itās made, and I wonāt go into it in detail, but it sounds a little like how you make rock candy. Which is kinda messed up.
They call it crack because it crackles when itās cooked.
Itās pretty highly concentrated, so itās possible to get addicted with just one dose. If you or someone you know might have questions about addiction, they can call the American Addiction Centers at 888-969-0144.
Maybe they lost track of what day it is like I have.
More likely, theyāre Seventh Day Adventists. They consider Saturday the sabbath, not Sunday. While some Christians go to church on Sunday, others consider it a true day of rest – like, you can even sleep in on Sunday mornings. I like that.
Itās like those calendars that sometimes start on Sunday, sometimes start on Monday.
Some Jewish folks have services on Saturday, too. Some Christians say they should church on Sunday because thatās the day of the week of Jesusā resurrection. I was just a boy then, so Iām not positive.
In 321, Roman Emperor Constantine said everyone should rest on Sunday, which is why thatās the one day of the week I wonāt clock in for anyone.
4. Who was the guy who jumped into the Salvation Army bucket?
It wasnāt Constantine (because it was on a Sunday.)
That distinction goes to Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott. He hopped into an oversized Salvation Army kettle at AT&T Stadium after a rushing touchdown against Tampa Bay. What a donation
Iāve written negatively about Elliott on this very blog, but I also donāt believe in condemning anyone for life because of something they did or allegedly did.
Elliott has a childlike view of the game that I totally appreciate. He leaped into the kettle and it gave the Salvation Army a good bit of playtime. He wasnāt fined for this, and I agree with that. Donations spiked after his leap, and Zeke made a donation of his own.
The Salvation Army said it got $850,000 in online donations after that – which would buy 91,000 meals for those in need.Ā
5. Why does ‘fine’ sometimes mean something great, like fine dining, and sometimes just so-so-, like, ‘you did fine’?
One thing Iāve learned as a man is that āfineā has a ton of meanings and connotations. You mentioned fine dining – thatās elegant. Think white tablecloths and prices in tiny print on a menu. āYou did fineā is the other end of the spectrum – like, meh.Ā
If you say āthat girlās fiiiine,ā it means something – and when you do it in front of your significant other, and arenāt talking about her, you might be told that everything is āfine.ā
Iād rather just PAY a fine for my mistake. Itās a fine line between just appreciating the human form in the form of your friendly neighborhood restaurant server, and committing a major infraction of ā¦ appreciating the wrong human form.
This is another prompt from the bookĀ 300 Writing Prompts. As you might have read, it’s a book a friend gave me when I left Red Ventures. I carry it with me everywhere. When I’m on a plane, I ask someone to pick a prompt for me to tackle.
It usually goes well, the ask.
The person who helped me with this one was in for a huge change in life. I’m going to send her the link to this, so I don’t want to give all the details. It was a great conversation and I have a feeling she’s doing wonderful things where she is.
I got sick of the normal X words. As if X words are normal. I’m sure somewhere someone is writing about xylophone adventures and xenophobia. More power to ya.
I say, let’s go with 10.
You know, the roman numeral for 10, X. Quick story here: I was a no-soccer-experience soccer coach at first. I made my own formations and positions, such as junker. (It was like a sweeping fullback, full of badass.)
I was going to become an NFL quarterback. I could throw a perfect spiral in fourth grade – with a plastic ball OR a Nerf. Talk about versatility. I had all the tools.
Except the talent and physical gifts.
But if dreams were those things, I’d be giving a Hall of Fame speech at some point. As early as I can remember, I had a love affair with the game of football.
I’m still ruing my failure to read as much as I’d like to right now.
I’m grateful that I’ve been able to listen more. I’m discovering what people I care about want. For birthdays. For life. My girls said they wanted to watch a sunrise.
I implored them to get up early and I’d drive them east to see it.
They refused. (They stayed up all night instead.) We did as planned, and I got lost, but kept driving toward the sun. We wound up pulled off the road at a farm, conversing with cows and awaiting el sol.
So, thereās a story I want to tell and I donāt care if you judge.
One of my kids made a gesture at the TV yesterday that told a story. Weāve navigated this lockdown like good astronauts (minus zero gravity and Tang.) But as my girls worked on a puzzle during a Hulu session of Malcolm in the Middle, an ad came on and triggered her.
Social distancing doesnāt have to mean we have to be distant socially, the sugary-voiced lady was saying to promote something I canāt even remember.
Instinctively, a middle finger arose. She didnāt even look up from the puzzle. I said nothing. I get it. Social listening data tells us that people love ads like this. They want to know corporate America is in it with us. That theyāre doing their part.
It’s okay. Peter Cottontail and the stormtrooper have been quarantined together.
The universe aligned and put G right on a Wednesday.
Iām sure Buddha or Jesus wasnāt thinking of my blog when they invented April. Or the #AtoZChallenge. No, it was just a cosmic coincidence. I could technically write about any letters, having satisfied the whole G thing with the Go Ask Daddy part.
But I wonāt.
For new folk: Go Ask Daddy is a post I use to answer my girlsā questions. Iāve tried to document every question Iāve been asked since I became a dad way back in 1997. Iāve missed a few, and the document has changed technologies and decades since.
I have several entries stuck in a worn edition of 300 Writing Prompts that I will share during the #AtoZChallenge.
The one is in response to the prompt:Ā It is the end of your career and you are up on stage being presented with a major award. What award is it, and what have you won it for? Global pandemics tend to shed a different light on such topics.
But I wrote this response long before the COVID took hold.
I think it’s good to reflect on such things. My day will someday come. The thought now is, what will I do between then and now? Plenty. And some of nothing. And a lot that can’t be classified as either.
Iād hoped this quarantine era would at least give me more casual blog writing time. What itās become is highly distracted work-from-home time, with work days that drone into the night. At least I know this because I change from day pajamas to night pajamas.
Just getting to this point is a victory, though.
The girls amazingly havenāt had any COVID questions, but thereās plenty in the vault from yesteryear. Hell, some of these questions have been around since the Spanish Flu epidemic. (Or, close to it.)
This is another prompt from the bookĀ 
I got sick of the normal X words. As if X words are normal. I’m sure somewhere someone is writing about xylophone adventures and xenophobia. More 
I was going to become an NFL quarterback. I could throw a perfect spiral in fourth grade – with a plastic ball OR a Nerf. Talk about versatility. I had 
I’m grateful that I’ve been able to listen more. I’m discovering what people I care about want. For birthdays. For life. My girls said they wanted to 
One of my kids made a gesture at the TV yesterday that told a story. Weāve navigated this lockdown like good astronauts (minus zero gravity and Tang.) But as my girls worked on a puzzle during a Hulu session of 
Iām sure Buddha or Jesus wasnāt thinking of my blog when they invented April. Or the #AtoZChallenge. No, it was just a cosmic coincidence. I could technically write about any letters, having satisfied the whole G thing with the Go 
I have several entries stuck in a worn edition of 
The one is in response to the prompt:Ā It is the end of your career and you are up on stage being presented with a major award. What award is it, and what have you won it for? Global pandemics tend to shed a different light 
Just a dad ... 