Describe a family member.

Daily writing prompt

This one is difficult. My gut instinct is to respond that each member of my family is brilliant and kind and loving and amazing. It’s going to end up like that, but maybe not quiet so explicitly?

Let’s start with my wife, Jen. I have never met anyone so capable. Her brain is breathtaking. Her intelligence is staggering. Professionally speaking she can do anything. Managing people or architecting software systems or implementing code solutions. All of it. I can’t tell you how many of her co-workers have told me how she continuously amazes them. She is also kind and sweet and supportive and loving. I have had a few difficult situations in my life that I do not believe I could have handled without having her with me to help me through them. All of my life I imagined what the perfect life-partner would be like. Jen is it. She checks all of my life-partner boxes. Before I met her I was convinced that I would never get married and never have a family. Then she came along and changed my entire outlook on life. She is a shockwave to my system that changed every aspect of my life for the better. She is the single most amazing human being I have ever encountered and I love her with every fiber of my being. I cannot believe she found me worthy of sharing her life with. I don’t know what I did to be so lucky. I don’t think I will ever figure it out, but I will eternally be thankful I did whatever it was I did.

Next up is my step son, Harry. He’s a 20 year old junior at the University of Vermont. He is the single most generous person I have ever met. His selflessness borders on astounding. He has also had to deal with some serious health issues. Years ago, when he was still a little guy, he developed type one diabetes. His body stopped producing insulin for some reason and he got incredibly sick very quickly. We almost lost him. His response after recovering from the initial issues has been nothing short of incredible. He took up the challenge of managing his disease and has kept himself healthy ever since. I try to imagine myself in his shoes and I just can’t see myself handling my blood sugar as expertly as he has. We had that one horrible hospitalization before we knew what was wrong, but in the nearly 10 years since there has never been even another scare. Sure his blood sugar spikes and dips from time to time, but he reacts to it swiftly and accurately and always brings it into line in short order. Even the medical staff who oversee his diabetes management are a little in awe of how well he has done. He is an inspiration as well as being a kind and loving step son. He is amazing.

Finally there is my step daughter, Bellana. She is a 22 year old recent college graduate. She is working in medical research these days, but graduate school is in her future. She is working toward getting published in a medical journal and is hoping to achieve that before starting a Masters program. I expect there will be a PHD in her future at some point, but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. To say that Bellana is brilliant is a massive understatement. She is also the most driven person I have ever known. She wanted to be first in her class in high school and she pulled it off. She wanted to graduate from college with honors and she pulled it off. She decides what she wants and she forces her will upon it and makes it happen. It’s amazing to watch. She is also just as kind and loving as can be. Just like her brother and her mother, she is amazing.

On top of all of these things about the three members of my family, they are also hysterically funny. The sense of humor these people have… we spend so much time together laughing. Again I have to ask, what did I do to deserve having these people in my life? What did I do to make them let me stay around? I will never know but I will forever be grateful.

So there you have it. Descriptions of my family members that cover maybe 0.01% of all of the things that I love about them. I have barely scratched the surface, but it’s still enough to give you an idea of why I love them so much.

Three days in a row without the daily writing prompt being pulled into the daily writing prompt reply post. Come on, folks. Can we fix this bug please?

What is your favorite form of physical exercise?

I answer this question with a question: Is favorite the proper word to use to describe exercise? Shouldn’t we say something more like, “what is your least hated and awful and depressing and intolerable form or physical exercise?” Something more like that?

I woke up with a ton of back pain eight days ago and decided to help the healing process by not doing my daily exercise for a week. I marked Monday October 30th as the day I would start back up again. Then on the 29th we get this question? I sense a conspiracy here. They’re guilting me into exercising again, aren’t they. Jerks.

Okay, so my actual answer to the question is probably going for walks outside. That would be the “favorite” form of physical exercise. Walking outside in the woods, maybe… or at a Disney World theme park… just me and the Mrs, spending a little time together.

The most common, and therefore probably most effective and least intolerably awful form of exercise I’ve practiced since having the gastric bypass surgery is the silly little faux jogging (pronounced “yogging” with a soft “j” a la Anchorman). I go down into the cellar first thing in the morning and just run in place for half an hour or so. My heart rate goes up and I work up a little sweat and I feel like I am starting the day off right. I don’t know if it’s having any great effect on me physically, but I probably have a couple of super strong ankles now. I just have to get back to it tomorrow.

I also need to something about my very flabby looking arms. The post-gastric bypass surgery loose skin issue is definitely a thing for me. I need to do more exercise to deal with it in places that folks can see it. My arms are the main point. Also, I used to be able to fling heavy things around like nothing, but after losing all the weight I am noticeably weaker than I used to be. I have weights in the cellar that I can use to work on that issue but I don’t, even though I need to. The doctor recommended it and for some reason I can’t figure out how to work it into my daily routine. I will try to do something about it when I start yogging again tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow… back on the wagon tomorrow. Until then…

Another day without the daily writing prompt pulling into the daily writing prompt response post. Did I change something somewhere to break it? I don’t think so. Who knows.

Here is today’s question:

How much would you pay to go to the moon?

The simple answer to this is nothing. I wouldn’t go to the moon. I mean if NASA wanted me to go for a quick visit, I would, but I wouldn’t pay for the privilege. Sure, Apollo 11 marks the high point of human achievement, but the Moon is a pretty nasty place, what with the total lack of air and pressure and human survivability and all.

Maybe if there was something on the Moon that consistently demonstrated that human life could hang out there without dying in horrifying fashion I would reconsider. Something like an amusement park or something?

What’s up with the daily prompt not pulling in the question? Epic fail!

The question is this:

What alternative career paths have you considered or are interested in?

I literally answered this in a daily prompt a few days ago when I wrote something about taking a risk to change careers. Oh good. Repetitiveness.

How about instead of rewriting the previous post I just give a list of careers that I considered at one point or another during various points in my life. The fun part would be trying to figure out which possible careers were things I honestly considered, and which were ones that I thought up when I was four years old or something. Fun, eh?

• Musician, including possibly a performing musician, a studio musician, a freelance song writer, an ad jingle writer, a teacher
• A photographer, including… I haven’t a clue
• Eye doctor
• Writer, including short stories mostly but maybe novels too?
• Truck driver, but only on weekends
• Paralegal
• Garbage man
• Fireman
• Career college student
• Third baseman for the Boston Red Sox
• Astronaut
• Astronomer
• Physicist
• University professor

Okay, there you go. A few career paths I either used to be interested in, am interested in, or was pre-school aged and thought would be fun. It’s up to you to decide which is which.

Have fun!

Daily writing prompt

What food would you say is your specialty?

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My food specialty? I don’t have one. Boneless chicken breasts are my usual go-to dish. Prior to going through weight loss surgery I usually paired it with a quinoa and stir fried veggies thing. Now it’s usually some sort of potato and maybe some broccoli, all cooked in an air frier.

Nothing special. Nothing you’d call a specialty either. Just a few things I know how to prepare and therefore prepare them all the time. When my wife gets sick of something I find something else to cook.

For a while, I was trying to make Tewksbury Tweets my culinary thing. Those are a kind of no-bake cookies. They have tons of sugar in them so post-gastric bypass I have only made them once or twice. They are a sort of holiday gathering treat thing now. I still like making them, but I can’t eat them myself. I promise, that’s not a bad thing. Only my taste buds disagree.

Another possibility from my distant past would be dry Cheerios. Oh yes, a bowl full of Cheerios without any milk. That was the stuff. Pair it with a great big bottle of Coca~Cola and you’re in heaven. I looked at the nutritional information on a Cheerios box recently and I can still eat them. I just have to keep the serving size small. Maybe one of these days I’ll try them and see if my stomach still likes them.

So in summation, the answer to the question what is my food specialty is… nothing, really.

Daily writing prompt

What major historical events do you remember?

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I have a specific answer to this question that I am going to go with, but I am 52 years old and there have been a lot of things of historical importance that I’ve lived through. Unfortunately, most of them have been recent. May you live in interesting times, and all that cursed crap.

Here’s a short list of major events that I will not be talking about today.

• September 11, 2001
• January 6, 2021 coup d’etat led by the nazi who had just been ousted from the white house who has yet to face any consequences and is still somehow running for president again.
• November 2016 when the United States elected a nazi as president
• October 23, 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut
• February 26, 1993 World Trade Center truck bomb
• The 2004 Boston Red Sox coming back from down 3-0 to the Yankees to win the American League Pennant and then go on to beat the Cardinals to end their 86 year World Series drought. Sorry… that’s probably only historically important for sports fans in Boston, but this list was getting pretty heavy and I wanted at least one happy memory to read about
• Nov 4, 1979 – Jan 20, 1981 Iranian hostage crisis, including the failed military attempt to rescue the hostages
• Barack Obama winning the 2008 presidential election. What a fantastic day that was. His inauguration a few months later still stands as one of the proudest moments of my life. Too bad the 2016 election and the 2021 insurrection had to spoil it.
• The supreme court legitimizing gay marriages. Another day where I was supremely proud of my country. Unfortunately it was spoiled by the overturning of Roe vs Wade.
• November 9, 1989 the day the Berlin Wall came down. I don’t recall exactly, but I may have shed a tear that day. What an amazing moment that was.

Okay, that’s a good list of honorable mentions, just off the top of my head. None of those are the event I am going to talk about, purely because I have an almost interesting side note to one major event that really isn’t that interesting but is just sort of a random coincidence (can a coincidence not be random?) that my sister and I experienced.

April 19, 1995 was the day that schmuck Timothy Mcveigh blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. That was the first really devastating terrorist attack on US soil and look at that, it was carried about by someone who wasn’t a muslim… who woulda thunk. Ugh.

Anyway, my sister and I were on vacation in Washington, DC at the time. That morning we had plans to attend a White House tour. We arrived early at the staging area which if memory serves was outside and down the street a ways. We expected to go into the White House itself at around a specific time, but we sat there waiting and waiting and waiting. It seemed like we were there forever. Finally we were brought to the building and we went through the security screening. I had a back pack with me and they pulled me aside and gave my bag an extremely thorough search. I think I said something to the security guy screening my stuff but I can’t remember exactly. I can remember getting a really serious, scary, I’m-not-going-to-have-to-shoot-you-in-the-head-am-I? kinda look from the guy. Woah, calm down. I’m just a red head from Boston. I am nothing to worry about.

A few hours later we were at the Washington monument and we finally got the news. A government building in Oklahoma had been blown up and tons of people were dead. Terrorism in the United States. Ah, so that’s why the security guy looked like he wanted to kill me where I stood. The guy knew what was going on and was EXTREMELY on edge. I tip my hat to him for keeping his head and not ending me over some stupid comment I may or may not have made. Thanks security guy. I totally understand your point of view.

So there you have it. I have taken a major historical event and made it all about me. You’re welcome.

Daily writing prompt

What’s the biggest risk you’d like to take — but haven’t been able to?

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I’ve already sort of done this once and I am by no means planning to do it again. It’s just something that if I were in a situation to do it, I probably would.

When I was in my mid-20’s I changed careers. I went from loser working in a warehouse for practically nothing to a career college student. It sounds like I am kidding, but I am 100% serious. Seven years later I changed careers again when I ran out of Computer Science courses to take and let myself graduate. I went from career student to career programmer/analyst.

I am truly happy where I am and I have no plans to change careers again, but in a perfect financially secure world I probably would. If we hit that hypothetical zillion dollar lottery, for example, I would change my career. I would probably open a recording studio and blow my fortune on a dead industry. Either that or I would become a professional photographer of some kind. Again, probably just opening a studio and blowing all of my money watching the business fail. Like I said, these are hypothetical. Career wise I am not going anywhere.

How about I give you a second option as a bonus? Lucky you, right?

I love living in New England, but part of me really wants to give my life long home state of Massachusetts a chuck and move to Southern California. San Diego, or someplace in that vicinity. I fell in love with San Diego at first sight and have dreamed about living there ever since. It’s too much of a risk though. I could never do it. I have too much family and responsibility here at home and I would never be able to let myself let any of that go. So I stay in my beloved New England, which really is where I belong anyway so it all works out.

Daily writing prompt

What are you most proud of in your life?

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This one is easy. What am I most proud of in my life? My family. My wife is a genius and a phenomenal software engineer who is capable of anything. My step kids are both brilliant as well. We have one college graduate and one college student, both of whom have grown up to become fine adults who are on the cusp of achieving great things. I simply cannot wait to see where their lives take them.

I don’t know what I did to deserve becoming a part of this family, but it is clear that I am the luckiest man alive.

Daily writing prompt

What have you been working on?

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I have a number of little projects in the works at the moment, but I haven’t been making a lot of progress on any of them. Here’s a list of a few of them…

• Figuring out whatever is going on with my back pain/stomach pain this weekend. That’s sort of first and foremost in my tiny little brain, for obvious health reasons.
• Binge watching all of the original Doctor Who. I just finished season 20. Only six more seasons and one made for TV movie left to go. I’ve already finished the revival show, all 13 seasons. Will I finish everything by the time the new 60th anniversary episodes air? I think that’s likely.
• Various music, song writing, home recording projects are in the works, but it has been about a mont since I’ve made any progress on any of them.
• Redesigning, cleaning, and furnishing the kids’ bedrooms. I made a bit of progress on this one last weekend, but my pain problems have gotten in the way this weekend.
• The never ending Flickr Photo-a-Day challenge, also known as the 365 challenge… or maybe the 366 challenge this year thanks to the leap year. I’ve finished this four years in a row and we’re 52 days into year five. I’m going to put a stop to this one someday, but not today.

There you have a few current projects that I am working on these days. There are more, but these are the ones that get most of the brain focus. Nothing too serious, apart from fixing the kids’ rooms, but all are important to me to various degrees.

Daily writing prompt

What’s something most people don’t know about you?

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I’ve been oversharing in public blog form since 2008. Is there anything that anyone doesn’t know about me? I doubt it. At least I can’t think of anything.

Everyone knows I am married with two step kids. Everyone knows I play guitar and like photography. Everyone knows I’m a programming supervisor. Everyone knows I like traveling and road trips. Everyone knows I am an atheist and a militant red head and I had gastric bypass (because I never shut up about it).

I mean… what else is there?

Here’s one, I guess… I had a shitty night’s sleep last night and when I woke up (way too early) I had quite a bit of pain in my lower back, on the left side. It was enough that I couldn’t go back to sleep and now I am exhausted, in pain, and somehow need to do my morning exercise.

How does that work? Does that count as something no one knew about me?