"We're 4 hours from home, and you want to adopt a cat?" The second half of 2019 was a bit of a blur. In July we'd gone to Washington, D.C. for the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing. When we got back, Kassie had taken a turn for the worse, and we lost her on August 7th. In October, we helped host the NC state USPSA championship at the range near our house. In early November, we drove to Nationals in Florida, with stops in Huntsville and Chattanooga on the scenic route … (Continued)
It's natural that learning to do something yourself gives you a greater appreciation for those that have already done it. Building your own bookshelf makes you realize all the non-obvious challenges of carpentry and gives you respect for everyone else that has undertaken the same challenge before you. In parallel, one of the surprising things I've learned becoming a father is realizing how very much it is a choice, at least in the modern era. Going through the process of deciding when to start … (Continued)
Today is my birthday. I've had a few of them before, but for some reason this one feels different. Of course, this is the first birthday I've had since becoming a father, but this feeling, I think, is larger than that. The best way I can describe it is synchrony. Things feel to be happening at approximately the right time in various areas of my life. I don't feel like I've waited too long to start anything, in part by charging headlong into each phase: getting married, paying off debt, buying a … (Continued)
Tonight was the toughest I've had this week. I finished work, feeling drained. Steph and I walked around the neighborhood with the dog, I made dinner, we ate dinner. I had the whole evening. I sat down to write another blog post like yesterday's, since it seemed to resonate and was really thrilling to write. It didn't work. I can't summon that on demand. I had good raw materials yesterday and bupkis today. I puttered around for a while. I tried to read. I went upstairs to for something. I saw … (Continued)
Had a pretty good birthday today. Took the day off work at Stephanie's suggestion which was a superb idea. Got in a workout at the gym. Put together all my shooting stuff and went to practice for the first time since Nationals in November. It got above 60 today, just warm enough to be comfortable in pants and short sleeves. Now that I have bookshelf space to spare in the new office, I had decided to buy a complete Calvin and Hobbes collection to replace the patchwork of collections I'd accum … (Continued)
We spent the day painting a closet and building the laundry room cabinet. Cooking our modest feast took a few hours. It's our first big meal in the new house. This may look ordinary, but it's a milestone for us. The roast beef in particular was my first experiment cooking something low and slow in the new oven. It turned out well. The last month and a half has been a blur of packing, unpacking, painting, building, organizing. Cooking and enjoying this was a nice break from that. The first of ma … (Continued)
"So, what do we do?" "We keep her going as long as she'll eat. And when she stops eating, we'll know it's time." There's no easy way to have a conversation about cancer, even when it's about a cat. But having the conversation over the phone doesn't make it any easier. And so, there I was, sitting there on the couch, talking to Steph on the phone. Telling her the ultrasound at the vet showed some kind of cancer, lymphoma or stomach or something, … (Continued)
In January 2018, I launched a shooting podcast I called Short Course. I had previously co-hosted the Triangle Tactical Podcast for two and a half years, from 2014 through 2016, and I still had the itch. I still had ideas that I wanted to get out there, that I thought could help folks by passing on what I had learned. So in the closing days of 2017, as I left one job and started another, it felt like the right time to tackle this podcast project I had been rolling around in my head for over a y … (Continued)
