Category: collaboration
-
The Right Screwdriver
The boy next door asked for help removing a screw. He’s maybe eight so hasn’t developed a lot of muscle mass or spatial reasoning to get the torq right. He also had a screwdriver that looked like someone drove a tank over it. So I got a couple of appropriate screwdrivers and followed him to…
-
Bottlecaps
I just started a beer. I had an insignificant amount of trouble opening the bottle cap. It got me thinking of the video game Fallout. It’s a post-apocalyptic world where bottlecaps have become the primary currency. I don’t know how hard they are to make in this world but in the world of Fallout they…
-
The Ritual
Ben and I have a ritual that comes with bedtime. He says “Diaper, Clothes, Pills, and Light Off,” and I put him to bed. Today he said “Diaper, Soda, Pills and Light Off” instead. I just won’t give him soda and pills at the same time. I gave him a choice between the two in…
-
Ben and “my” Computer
I came downstairs and read along with the audio of 2 Nephi 2. After I finished it in English I decided to reread it in Spanish. Because I’ve been playing the French in Colonization I decided to see if French audio of the Book of Mormon was available. It is, so I read along with…
-
Deep Breaths
I’m taking deep breaths while Ben screams and Stephanie hides in her room with the cats. I am doing a good job remaining calm if I don’t say so myself. Ben is not calming down so he’s had emergency meds. He wants a soda. He has to be calm first. Sadly calm sometimes just means…
-
Neighborly Neighbors
We have a soda can crusher mounted on the garage wall. It had a couple of zip ties around the arms. Little did I know but they were functional not just weirdly decorative. You see the zip ties broke and the arms fell apart. I did not have any zip ties so I tried to…
-
Drink More Water
I had a Dunkin Donuts latte today and a large cold brew horchata from a new Mexican restaurant. That was I found the hard way too much caffeine and sugar. I crashed out from them. Stephanie was able to let me sleep off the crash, and I hope to be able to go back to…
-
Esta Mal
This morning there were men working on the trees. The whole block had a line of trucks on the curb. It is unfortunately also the morning that garbage and recycling gets collected and the men moved the bins out of their way and onto the lawn. I went out to talk to the men to…
-
Changing the Lightbulb
There’s an old joke: How many psychiatrists does it take to change a lightbulb? Only one, but it will take a long time, cost a lot of money, and the lightbulb has to really want to change. Change is hard. It’s harder if we resist it. Sometimes resisting change is the correct thing to do.…
-
Vicariously
I was never subjected to any form of substantial abuse until I joined the military. That was abuse that I volunteered to receive. My childhood was very safe physically. But my parents took in kids that had received substantial abuse. I still wrestle with the psychological effects of being near other children who had been…