I recently ran across this picture. It’s from 2016. It taken at a local CrossFit competition shortly after the death of my mother. When I see this picture, I recall how I felt, physically and emotionally, on that day. The heaviness of the moment.

My grandparents had died a couple decades earlier and my father a half-dozens years before my mother. My work was an interesting challenge, but the culture was toxic. There were a lot of adult matters to address like emptying and selling my childhood home. …

Written: December 1997

Top Nine Animals on Baby Caylee’s Clothes

9) Dogs (a lot of Huskies)
8) Sesame Street creatures of unknown origin (e.g., Elmo, the Cookie Monster)
7) Dinosaurs (No T-Rexs need apply)
6) Fish (preferably extremely cute ones)
5) Birds (Baby Chicks and Orioles…surprise)
4) Tigers (with a whole bunch of Tigger)
3) Ducks (but no Donald Duck yet)
2) Rabbits (but no Bugs Bunny yet)
1) Bears (Winnie the Pooh leads the way!)

Dad’s Top Nine Rules for 5-month-old Caylee Star
9) No flinging your doll into Dad’s Cheerios during breakfast.
8) No attempting to place teething ring in your nose or Daddy’s eye.
7) No rolling over, no back arching, and other new quick moves during hair shampooing in the sink.
6) No drooling on my PC keyboard or teething on my mouse pad.
5) No pooping immediately after Mom hands you over to me for “just a second”.
4) No making me feel guilty by looking longingly at my french fries when you’ve just had a tasty dish of rice cereal and butternut squash mush.
3) No peeing, pooping, or passing gas during the transition from dirty diaper to clean diaper. (Frequently ignored rule)
2) No crying during Sportscenter or Ally McBeal.
1) No smiling cutely at me as I’m just about to walk out the door for work (and , thereby, forcing me to stay just home just a little bit longer). …

Written: Spring 1997

The Eagle’s Next Flight

Recently, a local TV news program has been running a series of shows about Firefighters. In one segment, they asked family’s members if they were nervous for their firemen due to the perils that are a part of this honorable career. Many of those interviewed spoke heartbreakingly of the apprehension they feel between the time that their family’s firefighter leaves for duty until he safely returns home.

My remembrances of those times are different. As a child, I certainly knew my dad was a fireman. Many days we’d pick my father up from work and, on special occasions, he’d even bring us for a tour of the firehouse. If we were lucky, we’d get to sit in the big, shiny red trucks and put on the oversized coats and helmets that seemed to weigh a thousand pounds and smelled of sweat and smoke. …

Written: April 2019

Pansy Brunch — Caylee Whitaker — From Cherry and Trey Whitaker — Proud Parents

First of all, we would like to thank Tri-Delta for your caring and loving support for Caylee throughout these four years. As for sharing our thoughts about Caylee, one page is not enough when we could write a novel. Thanks for requiring us to keep it brief.

Caylee — When you were born, we only wished that you were healthy. We were blessed. You were healthy, strong and bright. Over the years, you have blessed us countless more times.

It would be easy to just list your attributes. Things such…

Written: September 2017

Since Tolland CrossFit opened on August 28th, I’ve learned a great deal and have been able to view the world from a new perspective. Below are a few observations:

• Driving in at 4:30 AM, I have seen more red foxes in one month than I had in my previous 696 months of life combined. Also lots of owls and possums. If you have a thing for foxes, I recommend driving around at 4:30 AM.
• I’ve met a lot of great people from Tolland. I’m not sure if there are statistics to back this up, but it seems that, per capita, Tolland is high on the ‘families with chickens’ list. It follows that they eat more eggs than typical folks. They’re also very aware of prospect that their flock of chickens may suddenly decimated by the neighborhood fisher cats, coyotes and, yes, red foxes. …

Written: July 2017

Short story:

We’re opening our own CrossFit gym.

Long story:

I worked for large organizations for 40 years. Lived the ‘Office Space’ life. Walked the hallways and sat in cubicles. Made the daily commute to and from the office. Even had a modicum of success along the way. Enough to afford a small home in a quiet town with more cows than people.

Last spring, for the final time, I carried my personal items out of the office. I tossed them into my Jeep, made the commute home and laid in a sunny hammock for a few days. When the fog of decades of work began to lift, I thought about going back to the grind. It’s what I knew. …

As a coach and an owner, I can attest to the fact that everyone who walks through our doors sinks a hook into my heart. The longer they stay in your life, the more shared experiences you have, the more you witness their struggles and triumphs, the deeper the hook sets.

When contemplating the idea of opening a gym, I immersed myself in research. I read countless articles, listened to hours of podcasts, visited other gyms and talked with their owners.

One article that resonated with me focused on the type of community members to hope for. The bottom-line of that article was that you should feel happy when you see a member walking through the door. …

In the Spring of 1989, Cherry and I were renting a floor in a house situated on the Hartford/West Hartford line. While we were planning our September wedding, my ‘snowbird’ grandparents, Herb and Betty, were returning to Essex from Fort Lauderdale.

Shortly after their return, my grandmother, was hospitalized with a heart condition related to a childhood bout of Scarlet fever.

As I sat beside Gramma in the hospital, she was served a ‘low salt’ meal. She wouldn’t eat it. She tried a little bit and spit it out saying that, without salt, it was tasteless. I noticed that the staff had mistakenly left a packet of salt tucked under her plate. …