Enjoying Life from the Best Seats in the House
Jason ElRite 
So there I was… faced with the most primal of natural dangers: the highly-annoyed Western Diamond rattlesnake. My escape options were limited; I couldn’t back-up because of my hiking partner, to my left was a wall of scrub-brush and to my right was a steep cliff of several hundred feet. All I could do was … Read moreSnakes Alive!
Now that I’m firmly entrenched in my middle-age years, I often reflect back upon my relationship with my dad when I was a young lad. As previously reported, my father, AKA Coach, was raised in a Midwest farming family and served in the marine corps, both as a combat soldier during the Korean War and … Read moreBrushing Up an Old Joke
So there I was… in a leaky rowboat up an ice-clogged river without a paddle. My sneakers were getting damp from the newly-discovered leak, but the amount of water that truly affected the rest of my life wouldn’t have filled an eye dropper. It all started as a normal day for a couple of twelve-year-olds … Read moreHow My Mom Drove Me Not to Drink
So there I was… being mercilessly smashed against a steel fence by a half-ton beast who was in no mood to negotiate with a man in his mid-thirties wearing a Confederate colonel’s uniform. Or, as I like to think of it, just another average day in the life of a junior high history teacher. It … Read moreThe “Heat” of Battle
One never knows where one will find inspiration and, more importantly, where that inspiration might take you. One friend suggested I start a blog, and now I’m creating content instead of just consuming it. Another friend convinced me to step up my jogging habit, and now I’m doing the Mini-Marathon next week for the third … Read morePicturing the Future
If Benjamin Franklin was a scientist today, would he even make the cut to get into college? Let’s face facts, all of the experiments ol’ Benji conducted are now part of the basic curriculum for any third grade classroom. There aren’t a lot of things he did that an average adult couldn’t figure out. For … Read more7 Thoughts Too Big to Tweet and Too Small to Blog 2.8
As I’m getting my stuff together to attend today’s regional NCAA basketball tournament game in Indianapolis (courtesy of the fine folks at Dove Men+Care), my thoughts reflected upon the latest post of my blogging partner Creed Anthony. He wrote of his decision to put his coaching career on hiatus to spend more time with his … Read moreThe Only “Easy Decisions” Were Yesterday’s
So there I was… trying to comfort my three-year-old son when he said something that made me wish my daddy was there to comfort me. Especially since he’s a Korean War vet, and much more trained to deal with this type of situation than I was from my teacher education classes. This story starts, as … Read moreAn “Alarm”ing Situation
This is a short tale about my father, who, during my formative years, I would only ever address by the name of Coach. I never called him Dad, or Pops or the old man. It was always just, “Coach.” This is because he had successfully coached every sport known to man. Football, basketball, track, wrestling: … Read more3/4 of a Memory of Playing Catch with my Dad
My youngest son wants me to help him buy a Playstation 4 video console. He likes to play a lot of first person shooter games like Call of Duty, and the upgraded graphics are supposed to be amazing. However, it got me to thinking. Is there a point when a game becomes too realistic? Do … Read more7 Thoughts Too Big to Tweet and Too Small to Blog 2.7