A Boy in a Box

When I was a kid I would take a cardboard box, decorate it to look like a car, and then have my older brother and sister whip me around a tile or hardwood floor. When you’re 5 or 6 years old, you’re small enough to fit in a box, and once you get moving and your imagination kicks in, 2mph feels like 50mph.   When that box wasn’t a race car, it turned into a fort, a trap for stuffed animals or a table for a lunch of PB&J and chocolate milk or even a place to play Go Fish. The saddest day was at the end of summer break when it was time to retire the torn and banged […]

Falling in love again

When I was a kid, you couldn’t pull me off my bike. I would do everything on my bicycle!  I’d even take my PBJ outside with me, just to eat it while sitting on my bike. When I wasn’t riding my bike, I was saving money to keep it going. Buying patches and new tubes, collecting tires and rims that others would throw out and restoring them in case I needed to use them later. I had so many bike parts, I actually built a second bike. It was a little “Frankensteined” together; back tire was higher than the front, it had a banana seat, but it worked and could do pull some sick jumps. Then I learned to drive […]

Do you have a big but?

My 9 year old daughter Erin is the best swimmer in the family.   I would know this because I watch her swim every Saturday morning at 8am. I get up, get her ready and take her to swim. Where many parents use Saturday morning as a time to sleep in; I’m up and running before the sun comes up and typing away on my iPhone working on another chapter. Her class is where I do a lot of writing.   For an hour each week she works on her technique, honing her skills one lap at a time.  She’s fast, strong and focused.  Yet, there is one thing she just can’t seem to master…she can’t dive.   Erin is probably […]