Fire! Fire! FIRE!

I've worked all summer, reinventing our backyard space.

About 15 years ago I started building a simple swing set. After years working in public parks and recreation, I knew just enough about playground design to waaay overbuild a backyard swing set. I wasn't satisfied with the swing hangars available at the local hardware warehouse store, so I ordered commercial swing hangars. They were sturdy. Ridiculously so. But 15 years swung by and they never wobbled or wore out.

The overbuilt swing set morphed into an overbuilt playscape. Each Father's Day, Christmas Day, Birthday, the kids, with a little help from their mom, I suspect, would give me accessories and material to add to the 'scape. Ours was a well used backyard playspace!

Continuing on with the overbuilding of the play space in the back yard, I added a pea gravel-filled fall zone around the swing set and climbing structures. I added a LOT of pea gravel. To paraphrase U2, 'Maybe, maybe too much pea gravel' It really was a lot of pea gravel. Literal tons.

Anyways, 15 years later.

The swings sat unused for 6 months. The climbing tower and slides were starting to lean to a worrisome degree. The space underneath, built out as The Princess' playhouse, was taken over by our flock of backyard hens as a favorite hangout spot on sunny days. It was obvious that it was time for the playscape to be retired when I found a crack in the main pressure treated support beam. A couple of hours with a reciprocating saw and the playscape was in pieces, stacked beside the house. Yes, I was crying while cutting it up. There were a lot of good memories in that wood pile.

I started moving the pea gravel out of the fall zone several months ago. Ten shovels full to a wheelbarrow full. A million wheelbarrows full to an empty playscape fall zone. This week I finally finished that lowly task. Now there is a giant bare patch of earth just waiting for topsoil and turf to be put in place this fall. Yeah, more wheelbarrow work and stooping!

I decided that the replacement for the childhood play space would be an outdoor area where teens might be enticed to hang out. As it turns out, my kids will fall for s'mores. Burned up marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate all smooshed together near a backyard fire pit. Last week Miss GG, the kids, and I lit the the fire pit for the first s'mores roast. The kids hung out long enough to eat. It ruled! I was a happy dad.

A couple of nights ago the Princess and I sat out by the fire pit for more than an hour; the s'mores were long gone. I heard her talk about everything and nothing. She told me about school and her friends and stuff. I sat. I listened. I loved every second of it.

I cannot be happier with the re-imagining of our backyard space. This fire pit is going to get a workout this fall!

Here we are, once more again. Redux Part IIi

So I've been thinking about blogging again.I have almost 1900 posts, going back close to 15 years over at https://athomedaddy.blogspot.com/.

Since I quit writing over there, I've dealt with a seemingly unending divorce process, I've fought to regain 50% custody of The Talker and The Princess, I've remodeled our house (partially. I have only worked on it for about 18 months :) , and I've  continued dating Miss GG. Actually, Miss GG and I have been engaged for a few months now.

The kids are still amazing and interesting and happy. It takes a lot of work, but that is one of the things that is most worth the effort in my world. After a year of a cluttered custody schedule that required several color coded spreadsheets and calendars to ALMOST keep straight, we were able to move to a much more kid-friendly 2 week rotation (one week at each house) a little more than a year ago. The new schedule is still working much better for everyone.

We are staring down a new school year! That is always a busy time around here. More so for the kids, since I am a teacher, they are busy with their own school and extracurricular activities, and their mom is a school employee, too. With all of that, The Talker and The Princess really do get a full Back to School experience every year.

School starts in 10 days. Summer 2018 starts in 185 school days. Who's counting? We are!!!

It's been a long time

I haven't felt the need to write or post in a long while. Earlier this month I made several attempts at putting up a blog post here but it just didn't happen thanks to lots of busyness and a full schedule of work and kids.

Somehow, in all of the chaos and clutter of the last year, Miss GG has hung in there with me. It has been a year of learning and growing. Dating at 46 years old is not easy. Not that I was very good at it at 23 years old. This time around though I have a lot better credit cards and we seem to frequent much better restaurants.

Our first date was spontaneous and fun and exciting and it scared the hell out of me. I had been out on a few first dates and a couple of second dates (and one really miserable third date) before I met up with Miss GG. That night, in the process of getting to know something about each other, I stumbled and stammered through the dad/teacher/newly single stuff. At some point, though I really, REALLY planned not to, the conversation rolled around to the ex.  After I spent way too much time trying to explain away my then contentious relationship with the mother of my children, I knew I had blown it. Nobody wants to listen some nervous man-child stammer on about his recent past busted relationship.

As I sheepishly apologized for monopolizing the conversation AND my poor choice of topic, Miss GG said something. I wish I had taken out a notepad and written it down, especially since that couldn't have possibly made the date any more awkward at that point. Essentially she said 'These relationships have made us the people we are'. It was simple and profound. I still feel like I have caught lightning in a Dr Pepper bottle. Miss GG is good to me and good for me. I'm sure trying to do the same for her.

Still, it IS hard to grow into a new relationship after so many years in one. Like a bonehead, I treated Valentine's Day like the non-event it was with the ex. She disliked the day with probably too much energy. Turns out that Miss GG feels NOT AT ALL the same way. That, my friends, is a good thing to know and you can bet I've already got a better system of reminding myself of that fact for next year.

Miss GG, it's been a heck of a fun year. Thanks for choosing to spend it with me.