All posts filed under: Family

This is where DJB brags about his family, so be warned!

Baseball in America (Academic Edition)

Published by

I have found a place in America where February baseball lives! For the Presidents Day holiday, I’m in Southern California for Family Weekend at Claire’s college.  We’re new to this whole Parents/Family Weekend deal, but if today is any indication I could definitely get use to these trips! This morning, I visited two political science classes that were very interesting.  One compared the works of Luther and Calvin; the other focused on the U.S. Congress.  Claire joined me for lunch at her favorite dining hall  (most of her classes – of the science variety – weren’t open to parents).  But as she prepares for the conference championships this weekend for her swim team, I’ve found myself with choices for how to spend my time that are entirely up to me. Which takes me to Baseball in America. That’s the title of the class I attended after lunch.  It was a synopsis of a fall semester interdisciplinary class that was designed to introduce freshmen to the rigors of college-level writing.  Taught by a life-long Dodgers fan …

In praise of Gallagher Guitars

Published by

Gallagher Guitars have been in my consciousness – if not my life – since first putting the landmark Will the Circle Be Unbroken album on the turntable in 1972 and hearing the most famous words ever uttered about a Gallagher: Merle Travis:  That guitar, by the way, rings like a bell. Doc Watson:  It’s a pretty good little box — a Mr. Gallagher down in Wartrace, Tennessee made it. So I was thrilled to open the most recent issue of The Fretboard Journal and see a story and photo essay on Gallagher Guitars.  Regular readers know that I eagerly await the sight of The Fretboard Journal in my mailbox. The Circle album gave me the flat-picking/bluegrass bug, and I began thinking about a new guitar.  The first Gallagher I played for any length of time belonged to my long-time friend and clawhammer banjo player John Balch, who still plays his 1975 G-50 on a regular basis.  It was a beautiful sounding guitar which whetted my appetite for one of my own.  The first picture below …

Merry Christmas 2011

Published by

For a holiday filled with so many traditions, each year’s celebration of Christmas is different.  Some years the celebration revolves around visits with family.  In fact, so much of what I remember about Christmas from my childhood involves “visiting Mamaw and Papaw’s house” with a passel full of cousins and the accompanying aunts and uncles. But there are also years where other considerations over-shadow the holiday.  In 1997, mom was one week away from dying (she passed away on New Year’s day in 1998), while Candice’s father passed away on December 26, 2008.  In both instances we were able to be with our parents over the holiday season, but the focus was understandably elsewhere. This has been a quiet Christmas.  And that’s been fine. The quiet holiday can have its own special joys.  Some of the things I’ll recall from Christmas 2011 include: The joy of early gifts.  About 10 days ago, we visited the neurologist for a four-month check-up after Candice’s fall and the resulting seizures and severe concussion in late August.  To hear …

Lowering the ole’ blood pressure

Published by

We’ve had a great deal of focus on doctors and health in our family over the past two months.  I’ll spare you the details.  But in recent weeks, I’ve taken to wondering if I should ask the doctors taking care of my wife to give me a blood pressure test while they’re handy. The knowledge that Candice was the focus of these visits kept me from going that far, but I have taken to sticking my arm into the testing machine at the local pharmacy, just to keep tabs. Blood pressure isn’t something I’ve had to worry about very much.  When I go in for physicals, the nurse will generally take my blood pressure, look at me, and say something like, “You’ve got terrific blood pressure.”  While not the picture of health, I’ve always been pleased I could rely on that number to turn out right where it should be. Candice, however, has begun to worry about my stress levels…adding to my worries that she’s now worrying.  And when I took a test at Rite …

So How Did Your Summer Go?

Published by

Shortly after Memorial Day I wrote a post entitled Got Plans for the Summer? where I outlined ten things I hoped to accomplish during the Summer of 2011.  Well, Labor Day is here – and we’ve reached the moment of reckoning. While I was not a perfect ten-for-ten, I can explain. 1.  Play more music with friends – It is bad when you come up short right out of the box, but this was one item where I failed miserably.  We had a very busy summer, and this one just got away from me.  Luckily, playing music with friends isn’t bound by season…so I’ll try and schedule some fall play dates. 2.  Summer in New England – Technically, this was completed.  I did spend two days in Portland, Maine in early June and I’ve just spent 8 days in New England…but it wasn’t the vacation we planned.  To cut to the chase, Candice fell when we came here to Providence to drop Andrew off at school and she’s been in the hospital this week dealing …

Our gator era ends

Published by

If you just want to watch Andrew singing the National Anthem, cut straight to the video at the end of the post. For those still with me, I promise I won’t be long (or maudlin).  But this week we’re wrapping up our time as Gator swim team members and parents, and it really is the end of an era in our family. Last Saturday was the final home meet of the season as well as “senior day” — so Andrew and Claire were recognized on multiple occasions.  A few pictures from the halftime ceremony can be found at the end of the video — although we look pretty wiped out in them.  (Quick aside:  Candice just yelled down, “Oh no, you put those pictures on there!”  Yep.  They were part of the video which was prepared by another parent.) Then this past Wednesday, we all went over to the home of the team rep for a party honoring “departing parents.”  Just glad it wasn’t “departed parents!”  It was great fun, and we were recognized for …

Passages 2

Published by

Two weeks ago I wrote that life has a way of reminding us of the passages that await.  Over the past four days – in the midst of Claire’s beach week to celebrate graduation, travel, and planning for summer fun – life reminded us again of how fragile it really is. Reach out and tell a family member you love them.  Connect with a friend today. On Wednesday, Claire called as I was preparing to head to Tucson, to let me know that three friends in her class had been hit by an automobile while crossing the street at the beach.  Two were banged up with cuts and bruises, while the third had multiple fractures and was airlifted to a larger regional hospital, where she underwent surgery.  Everyone will be okay, but the impact one second can have on life was clear. The worse news came yesterday:  a call at dinner saying that a colleague and friend, who once worked as my executive assistant, had passed away unexpectedly after  complications from surgery.  Susan was 38 …

Graduation Day

Published by

When I graduated from high school, the year was 1973 and the future – even with war, inflation, and changing social values – looked bright.  For many of us it was. Fast-forward almost 40 years.  The world is a very different place.  But to Andrew and Claire, who graduated from high school this weekend, this is their rite of passage to a new world full of equal parts promise and challenges.  I can’t imagine even 1% of what their world will be.  Seriously, as recently as 10 years ago did you figure you’d be sending kids pictures to your family via Facebook or watching movies on smart phones?  Could we have conceived of the rise – and possible fall – of suburbia, at the same time that some cities are booming and others are losing population at an alarming rate?  How many of my generation – in 1973 – would have seen China as the biggest economic superpower in parts of the world?  Would we have imagined that the Boston Red Sox would ever win …

Celebrating Andrew

Published by

If Thursday was all about Claire, then yesterday was Andrew’s turn. (Editor’s Warning:  I treat my blog like the 21st century version of letter writing, in that I can write one item and it can go out to family and friends everywhere.  This weekend’s blog posts are all about family.  If you don’t want to read about how wonderful my children are – then stop reading.  Note…you’ve been warned!) We’re lucky with twins in different high schools that the schedule has worked so that the multiple events around graduation are held on different days.  Andrew’s day started early yesterday morning with the service of Holy Communion in The Little Sanctuary for members of the graduating class and their parents.  The service began with the beautiful Kyrie Eleison from Missa Secunda by Hans Leo Hassler.  The acoustics of The Little Sanctuary were perfect for the Madrigal singers to blend the voices as well as I’ve heard them over the past three years.  A little later in the service Andrew sang a wonderful solo in the Brazeal …