#298

Aroldis Chapman can really bring it. He just hit 103 (mph) against the White Sox. He's touched 105. He looks good in a blue hat with a red 'C.'

Grandpa Swede's brother told me, "Your grandpa wasn't very big, but he could really rush it up there. He overpowered hitters." And Grandpa Byard was signed by the Cubs to a contract (but then went to war in Korea). My point: M 'n' m have good genes. They also have good jeans. Or at least Michael does, and he's nearly my size; if they're cool, I won't hesitate. I do the laundry after all. How did those end up in my closet?

Parenthood: Tiny, sweet-smelling babies arrive. The amount of noise and feces they create is remarkable, and their smiles and laughs delight, and you take megabytes of photos like the one below, and then one day... the popularity of goatees sinks lower than fanny packs, or socks with sandals, or whatever is horribly old and un-fly! Style is as fickle as parenting. 

There's no normal life, Wyatt. There's just life. Now get on with it.
           –– Doc Holiday in Tombstone

And the best thing you've ever done for me

is to help me take my life less seriously.
It's only life after all.

Well darkness has a hunger that's insatiable,
and lightness has a call that's hard to hear.
I wrap my fear around me like a blanket.
I sailed my ship of safety till I sank it....

I went to see the Doctor of Philosophy
with a poster of Rasputin and a beard down to his knee.
He never did marry or see a B-Grade movie.
He graded my performance, he said he could see through me....
There's more than one answer to these questions
pointing me in a crooked line.
And the less I seek my source for some definitive,
the closer I am to fine. The closer I am to fine.

          –– Indigo Girls, Closer to Fine, genius