nature walk

i like calling summer the unwanted guest that i hate to see leave.

by that, i mean i do not look forward to scorching temperatures and stifling humidity.

but at the same time, once i start seeing those yellow leaves start landing on the porch, i begin mourning the passing of the growing season and, in turn, another year.

in a weird way, i can dig limited exposure to the humidity this time of year in that it's sort of the acceptance of summer's calling card. it's one of the season's hallmarks.

when combined with the lush greenery of our wooded subdivision, it feels so ... at one.

this, however, was one of those rare summer days that most people are really wishing for when they've grown tired of cold, gray winter and dream of warm weather.

the sun was high in a cloudless sky. the temps were in the low 80s. the humidity was barely palpable. it was a good day for a walk.

the boy and i make it out on the road at least once a week through the neighborhood now.

even though we headed out past noon, the weather was just about perfect for being outdoors. it felt more like a spring nature walk.

our neighborhood streets are dotted with lovely, colorful gardens. i like to point out to the boy the flowers we see along the way.

i used to try to identify them for him, but this week tried to keep it simple by just saying "flower" and naming the color.

afterward, i'd explain what type of flower i thought it was. (luckily, there were many daisy varities and day lilies in a a variety of reds, oranges, golds and yellows.)

today, we visited the danner meadow playground, where we met a 4-year-old boy named dallas, from hurricane, his mom and, later, his grandmother.

dallas was sweet and seemed to enjoy having someone to play with. he even offered to have the boy stay with him and his mom and grandmother there while i went to work.

believe me, kid, on a day like today, if i could have spent the rest of the afternoon in the park, i probably would have.

little baggariddim

i try not to use the term "killing time" anymore when it comes to keeping the boy engaged and occupied.

it connotes making minutes pass as quickly as possible, as if to get something unpleasant or boring out of the way.

i think i've come to prefer "filling the empty hour," which seems somewhat more positive with possibility and enrichment.

after all, aren't these the years parents wish they could have back when their children are older, then grown? why not make this time count?

(you can tell i'm writing this when i've not been sleep-deprived the past couple of days.)

this summer, filling those hours has been facilitated by a combination of the boy's increased mobility now that he walks, a blossoming of his curiosity, and the beginning of warm weather.

the boy loves being outside. if he's not out long enough to satiate his desire to pick up gravel and sticks and rearrange our yard, he gets very put out.

i get my exercise walking the boy in his backpack carrier. we began with long walks around the neighborhood, but lately have attached to them walks to the park, so as to tire his little ass out at the playground.

this week's festivall arts event provided yet another opportunity to get the boy out and about.

he got to experience more live music at the chili fest last weekend, then got to watch balloon dinosaurs get made, and today, he was able to bang drums to his heart's content.

having the great outdoors as a go-to for the boy to release pent-up energy has me already dreading winter in that it may well limit what we can do.

on the other hand, leaves and snow do offer other possibilities, don't they?

(i write this knowing the novelty of playing with a little boy may wear off. but i'm going to enjoy this as best i can while i can.)

friends

in the span of about 24 hours, two friends of mine began two new journeys.

my friend, pam, whom i've known since 11th grade chemistry class, headed out of town today to put behind her some crushingly sad memories and begin a new chapter in her life.

she'd lived, learned and worked all her life in the mountain state, so it was with great difficulty she made the decision to go.

pam and i reacquainted ourselves on election day 2000 at our polling place at holz elementary.

and from that day until friday, we managed to meet, usually with another friend, tim, over beverages and supper almost every month for about 10 years.

the three of us managed to pull each other through rough times and celebrate happy ones, including my marriage to kris and the birth of our son.

that they accepted and loved her -- and she, them -- has meant all the world to me.

i've already started missing her.

my other friend, jon, got married today.

i've known him since i started working at the paper back in '98.

that we shared a similar affinity and appreciation of the absurd is probably what made us friends.

he's a great bear of a man with an amazingly sharp mind, keen knowledge of weaponry and a kind, loyal heart. just don't cross him or those he cares for.

as sad as i was to return to the paper almost immediately after he quit to go to law school six years ago, i was glad that he was on his way to a career that would challenge his intellect.

i always said after the hellish uncertainty following our paper's purchase by our rival that he was probably the only one of our staff that year who was propelled to something better as a result.

and the girl who helped him through that patch is the girl he married today.

if one needs further evidence that he picked the right one, one need only have witnessed his bride's processional, when the assembly played for her the wedding march -- on kazoos.

that, friend, is a fun way to begin a life together.

may the good Lord bless and keep them -- all these, my friends.

father's day

yes, another crappy photo from my non-smartphone.

this was from yesterday afternoon, where the boy and i spent a couple of hours on kanawha boulevard sopping up the remains of chili fest.

(this used to be part of a big drinking weekend when i was a singleton -- and even after the first year of kris' and my marriage, back when were still dinks.)

saturday it was just me and the boy, mostly to keep out of mama's hair for a bit so she could rest from tangling with him all day.

it was a pretty good afternoon with him in the backpack and then toddling about in the water mist cooling station (it was all i could do to get him away from it), a change of wet clothes and diaper -- buck naked in the park -- then around the riverfront stage area, and finally in a makeshift sandbox where he got good and dirty.

(that led to a second visit to the water mister to clean him off. then the two of us went under just for fun.)

we started off father's day today with a nice walk around the neighborhood, which helped tire him out enough to lead to an amazing three and a half hour nap after his lunch.

this gave me the chance for a one and a half hour nap before work -- during which he and his mama brought me a bacon bleu cheese burger from murad's for supper. happy father's day to me.

p.s. -- for the record of his future therapist, i did my first non-fun dad thing thursday when i administered my first spanking to the boy, when he was approximately 15 months old.

after being a real pissant all morning, he began throwing a tantrum when kris went to get something out of the car and wasn't allowed to follow her out.

i picked him up to continue his lunch, whereupon he swatted the spoon and its contents out of my hand and onto the floor. i wheeled him around and swatted him on his diapered keister.

the tantrum stopped, but he looked shocked and sad. i'm sure i did, too.

for the record

friday, i stumbled onto a surprise sort of going away party for john merrill on the day before he would close what's likely the state's last real photography store.

i was headed up hale street to check out some art exhibits for this week's festivall arts fest and wound up watching area photographers fete the owner.

mr. merrill shook hands with friends standing near the counters and, as i was the last guy standing there trying to stay out of the way, he gave my hand a shake and a sort of embarrassed smile for not knowing who i was.

i shot this pic is of him and two area photogs with my stupid cell phone. (makes me really wish i had an iphone.) at his left is steve payne, a local portrait photographer. the guy at his right is the fellow who gave him a print of the merrill photo shop he shot a few years ago.

i spoke to my buddy chip, who used to shoot for the daily mail before heading over to the gazette. he was going to take a big group pic.

he said that there won't be another shop like merrill's in this state. he echoed the sentiment that steve payne gave in that the shop stocked everything a film photographer could need, from large format film to printing supplies.

i was tempted to buy some digital camera on clearance, but chose not to spend money i didn't have. i think i'm only going to have to settle for the bottle of lens cleaner and cleaning cloth i bought a couple of months ago.

chickens, gold and blue

given the great glee with which i pilloried ohio state's football peccadilloes last month, the chickens have come to roost ... in an unwanted media attention sort of way.

what transpired in the weeks since word broke about dana holgorsen, then-offensive coordinator for west virginia university's football team, and a late night incident in a casino has devolved from salacious to just sad.

the rumor mill ginned up, wvu investigated their sources, and, long story short, bill stewart is out as head coach and holgorsen has ascended from head-coach-in-waiting.

the new york times seemed to be the only national publication that bit on the more salacious aspects of the story.

so consider that as kind of a blessing, considering how overly sensitive west virginians are in general to out-of-state embarrassments. outside our borders, no one seemed to give a rat's ass.

all the moaning and wailing from wvu fans and critics that the incident gives the state a black eye seem to have overestimated the attention anyone pays to the program.

the national sports commentators seem less focused on the soap opera that riveted mountaineer fans than what they deem a cock-up of personnel management.

sports illustrated calls athletic director oliver luck "the architect of the worst coach-in-waiting plan ever conceived."

the sporting news says the incident "has stained the reputation of one of the few administrators in college football bold enough to do what’s right."

espn was kinder, in saying that "wvu's divided house destined to fall," the whole premise of coaches-in-waiting never works well.

the scorn, i suppose, comes from folks who believe the job of administrators to be cruelly efficient and make difficult decisions is cut and dried easy.

i'll have to say it's the wvu apologist in me that says luck probably tried to have things both ways: giving super nice guy stewart a chance for a graceful, possibly glorious, exit, while retaining the services of one of the hottest names in college football.

if luck is guilty of anything, it's probably misplaced faith.

faith that the guy who was being asked to train the guy who was going to take his job would get over his bruised ego, swallow his pride and be the good soldier.

the critics were likely cynical enough and had seen before that few are immune to the hard feelings that can result from being, in essence, fired.

i guess i was also guilty of luck's sin.

i had a great belief that stewart was that selfless a man that he would suffer the indignity of being shown the door with bowed back and jutted jaw.

i figured if he felt he couldn't, he'd quit.

that he didn't, and that things ended this way, showed in spectacular fashion that he is merely human.

saturday is bill stewart's 59th birthday. i can't imagine what that day will be like.