Spinal Staircase

Parenthood is an aching back from shoveling snow for hours coupled with a sincere and gentle request from over 80 pounds of daughters to be carried up the stairs to be put to bed. Something's gotta give, and it's gotta be the back.

Reinforcements Have Arrived

I was recently supplanted as the most experienced member of my engineering group. Not by just a little bit, either, we got a new worker who has been with the company twice as long as me. The department lost work on one project, so we gained him on another. The fellow knows a great deal more about specific systems than I do, and at least as much about things in general. In other words, I'm no longer the sole go-to guy for the project we are working on. I normally flourish as the one source of information, and even leading the group. As I thought this through, it seemed like the addition of this guy should, on some level, be a struggle for me. Nobody, least of all me, likes to be demoted in any sense. The reality is that this whole affair couldn't have turned out better. I have somebody to help do homework, to answer questions with confidence that I would have had to issue an I.O.U. on, and to bounce ideas off of. I am responsible for less, I am not front and center taking all the stressful questions, and with all that I end up looking better. Now this is a great turn of events, the additional help is probably helping me get home just a little bit soon. I'm just glad I didn't let my pride get in the way.

Walking Small

There was a movie release a few years ago named Walking Tall. It stars Dwayne Johnson. I never saw it, but I have heard that the premise is a man returns to his home town and it has been overrun by criminals. He somehow becomes sheriff and begins to dispense justice via a 4" x 4" cut of lumber. The picture above is the poster for the movie. The recent release is a remake of an older movie, same premise, very similar picture shown below:

Fast forward to last month. Samnation toddled down the stairs from my bedroom, carrying around a loose piece of trim he found. The only thing that I could think of was little Sam running around the house dispensing justice for leaving toys out or moving his sippy cup. I fear there is a new sheriff in town, and I've got pictures to prove it. Fortunately, no busted skulls in the household just yet.