If my calculations are correct, I just ran for the 1000th day in a row this morning. Despite the milestone, this run was nothing special or particularly celebratory. I ran on the basement treadmill because of some uncertainties about the morning’s schedule. I listened to a podcast (How to Money). While I definitely wanted to get to 1000 days, now that I have, I don’t feel any real desire to stop. So I’ll probably run outside tomorrow morning to hit #1001.
I published a few articles. Over at Medium, my advice column addresses the question of “Does taking a call at the playground make me a horrible parent?” Spoiler alert: no it does not, and…yes, an advice column! We’re likely going to do these regularly, so if you have a question you’d like answered anonymously, feel free to send it through the contact form on this site. You can check out a previous one I wrote called “There’s no shame in working on vacation.”
I reviewed producer Brian Grazer’s new book, Face to Face, in the Wall Street Journal yesterday. (Behind the paywall). Humorously, given the focus of the Medium piece, my editors titled this one “Put down the phone.”
Sarah (of The SHU Box – still going strong on her 30-day blogging streak!)and I recorded three more Best of Both Worlds episodes back to back on Thursday. I recorded five episodes (as I always do) of Before Breakfast. I did some at night and some in the morning and when I played back the sound files (for quality checks) I realized that my voice sounded approximately half an octave lower in the morning. Whoa!
While helping my 4th grader study for a Pennsylvania geography test, I learned some facts that I should have known, but could not readily recall. Like, what are those three rivers that converge on Pittsburgh (home of the old Three Rivers stadium)? How about the two that meet in Harrisburg? In other homework adventures: my (second grade) daughter had to collect a bug, observe it for 10 minutes, and bring it in to class. This wound up being harder than anticipated. Our first bug expired quite rapidly in the jar, making the observations somewhat static. The second bug…escaped. Somewhere in our house. The assignment was due today, so hopefully the third made it in. The fourth grader decided to join the elementary school band and learn the alto sax. We had bought him a drum set for Christmas last year, and he’d talked about playing percussion, but upon meeting with the music teacher, decided that he could always play the drums at home, but this might be his only opportunity to learn the saxophone. So we’ll be embarking on that adventure.
I hope everyone has a great weekend! It’s going to be 85 degrees here. I guess summer isn’t over quite yet.
Congratulations on a running milestone and on encouraging your child to learn an instrument. His logic was very true…I taught band for over 30 years and never had a child that could not learn drums as a secondary instrument later.