more normal than not

The tooth fairy has come to our house a couple of times in the last month or so.

That’s the advantage of having younger children again.

They lose baby teeth….and the tooth fairy comes to visit them when they’re sleeping.

I’m getting older….and the tooth fairy doesn’t visit me anymore.

At least, I don’t think that the tooth fairy ever comes to visit me.

What do I know about what happens when I’m asleep?

Anyway, I don’t think that the tooth fairy could bring me enough money to take the sting out of losing a tooth.

Losing a grownup tooth is a bigger deal than losing a baby tooth….but we don’t seem to celebrate losing grownup teeth like we do the teeth that the little guys lose.

We don’t celebrate a lot of things that happen to us when we get older.

That’s weird.

Anyway…so….Nate gets a visit from the tooth fairy in the night, she gives him money for his tooth, and he’s getting rich.

Easy.

Probably the easiest financial transaction he’ll ever have the opportunity to make.

If it wasn’t a finite supply in his mouth, and if the losing wasn’t the end of the process, he really could get rich.

He could be a tooth tycoon if he worked out the right deal with the fairy.

That’s kind of a long winded preamble to the end of the story, though.

I looked over the other day and he had his fingers on the teeth and was checking each one for play.

“What are you doing?!!”

Of course, the answer was “nothing”…..it usually is when confronted like that.

Hands in the cookie jar, hands on a tooth, the answer would always be “nothing”.

“Nothing” covers a lot of ground.

I know what he’s doing, though.

He’s planning.

He’s wiggling his teeth and planning for his future.

This tooth stuff could be “seed money” if he plays his cards right.

What a deal.

Who can blame him, though?

I do my own version….checking things out, seeing what I’m willing to lose forever in return for enough of the filthy, filthy lucre.

Enough.

Let the teeth be….the fairy will still be around if they stay in your mouth for a while, Nate.

Don’t be in such a hurry…..no matter how profitable it is.

 

Listening to the new Sturgill Simpson album on Spotify…..so good.

Drinking coffee.

And that’s like so many mornings….listening to something with my headphones on while the house is quiet….a day off starting slow and alone….waiting for everybody to wake up.

I take a lot for granted.

Like….waking up.

There’s no day that’s average….no day that doesn’t hold the potential for something amazing to happen.

That’s not hype, either.

That’s not just the coffee talking.

Maybe some days are a lesson in perspective.

Maybe you have to really be awake to see the amazing?

It’s the potential that flows underneath the surface of the everyday that I’m missing sometimes.

There’s a website called “our open road” that I look at every once in a while.

It’s about a family travelling through South America in a Westphalia van.

It’s a big adventure that started with….starting.

They aren’t travel geniuses.

They aren’t mobility savants.

They just started out….and kept going.

(How boring is a blog where the guy only writes about the things that he wants to do? How boring is that? A person should report the ACTION….not the DESIRE. That’s more interesting….)

Report the action?

Well….I need to fix the pull cord on the lawnmower.

ACTION PACKED!!! THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!!!

Awwww. Who am I kidding? Sparrow’s up and on my lap all of a sudden…..the headphones are off….it’s 6:01 AM and the day has begun….officially.

That’s my adventure….whether we’re rolling down some back road in Chile in an old van, or fixing the lawnmower and cutting the grass….where my family is….is where the adventure is.

You wake up to adventure everyday….no matter how familiar it feels.

Waking up is where it all begins.

I’m awake.

Two posts in one day?

Why not?

Here’s a video about a place in Idaho that’s close to some property we own.

Why am I watching videos about wilderness when there’s……?

How about that bike trail?

It’s important to “bloom where you’re planted”…..but, man….the world is a big place. There’s lots to see.

Here’s another “northern Idaho” video….this one about Wallace, ID….

Check out the Hiawatha Bike Trail in this video.

Man.

We went to a race that my youngest son’s school sponsored the other day, and at the end of the race, a lot of the kids went down to the lake to play.

Our two-year-old was pretty excited to get to go down with them and play on the “beach”, so we put her swimsuit on her and I followed her to the water.

From 5 feet behind her, I could tell that it was going to be a problem when she didn’t stop when she got to the edge but kept walking…..farther out than I’d hoped.

She was too excited to stop, though….even though I was yelling to her that it looked deeper than we thought it was.

The beach wasn’t as gradual a slope as she and I must have both expected ….because when she was about 5 feet from the shore, it dropped off pretty dramatically.

I watched her tip….and then start to sink.

I ran in and pulled her out. She was surprised and a little scared, but not sputtering.

She must have held her breath because she wasn’t sputtering.

That’s a weird feeling to be reaching for my slippery baby, grabbing at a leg and missing, then grabbing her arm and pulling her out.

She turned over as she was sinking, and the look on her face was, again, more surprise and confusion than fear.

Wide-eyed and underwater.

That’s not a look that I hope to ever see again.

Going down….surprised and a little bit scared.

Fearlessness that’s based on inexperience can get you into trouble.

Here’s another great Tiny Desk Concert.

Check this series of concerts out….it’s consistently great and out in the innerweb…..ready for our listening pleasure.

1976….man, that was a while ago.

Peter Frampton!