Dentistry & Zip Lines
Is that one shady mechanic actually more trustworthy than your dentist? Several dentists we've visited have wanted to do massive amounts of completely unnecessary work. When did pediatric dentistry become an "up sell" business?
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A collection of 208 posts
Telepathic Bat Signal
My kids abandon the toys in my office for days. Yet the instant I finally clean them up, they swarm back as if summoned by some telepathic bat signal, build for ten minutes, and scatter again. The cycle had to wait today, though: after a week flying solo, I drove to Alabama to bring the wife home.
Fare Thee Well, Axos Bank; and the Story of the Chip Chewer
Goodbye to the bank that froze my assets "for my protection." Hello to a waiting room chip chewer with a bottomless bag of chips. And the childhood zig-zags that nearly got a house demolished.
Five Books to Rule Them All
Going through ten boxes of once-vital books, I found exactly five worth shelving. On sentimentality turning into clutter, the suspiciously fifth-grade prose of 3 Body Problem, a deliberate $10 tip my bank flagged as a possible 53% error, and the strange waves of hunger during my 18-hour fasts.
Depression Hates a Moving Target
While consultants side-lined and misunderstood me over audio-only Zoom, I was outside splitting logs with a maul, more vigorously the worse they got. Churchill had his bricks. The lesson: if your feelings are taking over, get yourself a physically strenuous hobby.
The Supportive Wife
S left a plate waiting in the fridge, knowing I'd otherwise grab something convenient over something good for my fitness goals. The little things aren't so little. Plus Dawkins refusing persuasion about Claude, and figuring out what my cheerful four-year-old tornado needs as he stops being the baby.
$10 Per Push-up or $1 million
Reddit asks: $10 per push-up for life, or $1 million now? The top answer caps out at 200 push-ups a day and calls that unsustainable. But $730k a year, for life, is the lazy minimum, and the million is long gone. A fun thought experiment, perfectly timed with my humbling DEXA scan.
Waterfalls, Hiking, Dinner, Etc.
An evening of waterfalls, an inevitable soaking, a challenging hike home, and pork tenderloin. Plus why I love concrete personal projects but distrust the nebulous, vague goals of current work, and why America's problem is health insurance, not healthcare.
Don't Give Up and Get Fat
I stepped out of the car at a kid's birthday party and my first thought was how many very heavy people were there, probably just a representative sample of the country. A reflection on living in a bubble of fit retirees, and a plea: do what it takes to not give up and get fat.
Park Friends
At the park getting work done while J angles to play with a friend who shows up. The friend only wants to play Agents, and after a standoff she walks away until J caves. Perfect, that's all I needed to hear. I call N manipulative; my wife is happy to keep her as a park friend.