Words x 46

Capturing items that might otherwise be forgotten – trivial, funny, big – for 46 years

Nov 7, 2021

On this day in 1975 I started becoming a writer. Didn’t know it at the time. That first entry on a 12-month promotional calendar my parents gave me marked the moment.

My memories of that time frame are not exactly vivid, but happy.

About a month earlier, the Cincinnati Reds had won the World Series, which was huge in my world.

Saturday Night Live also debuted in October. I remember George Carlin hosting the first show and I’m lucky to have seen it. Stayed overnight with a sixth-grade buddy whose father was relatively younger than the other parents. He had NBC on and popcorn ready for us to watch the premiere.

According to the journal I got the school picture of the girl I then liked, Sarah, that day. The next day, the journal states, we went skating. Not bad!

Below, a glimpse of some (exciting!) entries from several more November 7ths:

2020 – Well now… 45 years ago today I began keeping the journal. It started small, but ambitious — Small because the entries in a “Month at a Glance” alumni calendar from Indiana University were written in tiny calendar squares in even tighter handwriting, and ambitious because I did not miss a day for the next eight years.

During high school, writing expanded to a few paragraphs a day, in a proper notebook… Did not miss a single opportunity until 1982 (intentionally) when I left for IU… Resumed writing later my freshman year and all through college… In Chicago, I started typing entries using the totally bitchen Brother AX-20 (with built-in handle)… Bought a MacPlus in 1990, and then I really began journaling properly and extensively.

The busiest years of the journal ranged from then to 2001, when I still more or less recorded daily life. Then, with careers and the arrival of the boys, volume decreased. Since 2015 I have been writing often by hand again, supplemented by daily digital files.

2017 – Tom Petty shows I’ve been to:
(with Bob Dylan) June 20, 1986 Southern Star Amphitheater, Houston, TX
August 10, 1989 Poplar Creek, Hoffman Estates, IL
September 6, 1991 Poplar Creek Music Theatre, Hoffman Estates, IL
March 8, 1995 United Center, Chicago, IL
September 26, 2006, Austin City Limits Music Festival, Austin TX
July 10, 2010, Verizon Center, Indianapolis
May 5, 2012, Erwin Center, Austin, TX

2012 – Ben made the soccer team, a big deal because he’s a 7th grader and there are precious few slots on this mostly 8th-grader roster. He’s also first-chair trumpeter in Kealing’s symphonic band.

Basketball tryouts in a few weeks. We’re moving the team from YMCA to NWAYBA to get ready. Everybody’s pumped! John & Rob playing as much as possible all the time now. We are going to do WAYA this winter for them.

2009 – “Journal entry for November 7, 2009. I am testing MacSpeech Dictate. I’m hoping the voice recognition software will help me be more productive and save some headaches in being organized next year. Haven’t written many journal entries this year although I believe my 34th anniversary for the Journal just occurred.

The work year 2009 has been one I have described to others as having been, “faucet all the way on, faucet all the way off.” Clients FG squared and AMD have proven to be good work sources for me and I am pleased to report that they continue. 

However, the volume of work has tapered off as the economy has lowered the tide for all, and as a result I’m left with low levels of work at any given point. It’s frustrating, it forces me (on a good note) to do more networking than I am accustomed to. It gets me out there more.

It’s a strange time. There is a low-grade tension surrounding my daily life and surrounding most of my friends as well. I am not one to dwell on the negative. I am looking forward. We have made it through slow times in the past, and we will endure.

At home this year, it has been a mostly about the boys and what they are doing. Which has included things like PlayStation, soccer and other sports leagues, the foibles and the everyday misadventures of 10 and seven year olds, and everything that attends these things.

As for me, my year has consisted largely of sessions of fitness with Laura, UT sporting events, and tracking but somehow seeming to remain a step or two behind, pop-culture trends, TV series, and other similar fleeting items on the popular radar.

For next year the objectives are pretty simple. Focus on the things that are most important such as being frugal, asking for business from existing and new clients, devoting energy toward the best work I can deliver. 

At home, this translates to: being more organized, being a better father and husband, looking for ways to keep things fun.

Mom and Ken are not getting any younger. I want to be sure that I spend quality time with them. We begin that effort with Christmas this year, where we will drive north to Indiana to see them. I would like to entertain the possibility of going to be with her 2 to 3 times this coming year. I would like for the boys to know their grandmother better. She’s been here often but John Rob have never been to Evansville which is unacceptable. They are seven.

A final note for me in the coming year: I really would like to return to form in being a good reader and tracking what’s out there in terms of literature movies and nonfiction. The secondary goal for me is to make the coaching fun (I will be coaching both Ben’s and John Rob’s teams) enjoy the time I have as their basketball coach. That’s all for now.

This software is pretty damn cool.”

2006 – Rode the Apple Cider 100-miler in New Buffalo, Michigan with Don and Dave Shirley.
We were in Bloomington on Saturday. After the IU football game (Wisconsin) Don and I drove directly to Benton Harbor where we ate dinner at Appleby’s (someone kill me) and then watched
college football in our rooms at a Marriott Courtyard. Sunday we
awakened early and drove the 25 miles to Three Oaks. About 5,000
participants. There’s no set start time so we set off in the 50 degree
fog. What was cool was the sun was breaking over the horizon on farm
roads, some epic B-movie horror mist when you’d go underneath a canopy of tall trees,
then you’d emerge back into warm sun. We rode with long sleeve jerseys
and insulated vests.

Total time on the bike was right at five hours, and we took an additional
total of about 50-60 minutes rest at the three main stops (26, 44 and
69 miles). So our rolling average was 20 mph, which everyone here who
knows their shit is telling me was really great. I trained all summer at
18-22 so I felt fine, in fact I knew I had trained well when I had
more left on the inclines than others in the final 25.

2003 – John is walking, Rob a bit behind – probably a couple more weeks to go. Both boys can say “ball” and “more,” as in More Food, Please!

1999 – [one day after Ben was born] – Sunday morning I drove home to shower and then to Central Market to grab fruit and bagels for our breakfast. James and Tina visited; then Shelly visited. I kept waiting for Christi to crash, but she was amazing. She never did – and the only pain medicine she used was for preparing to go to sleep Saturday night. I left Seton at 9 to come sleep here at the house; was pretty punchdrunk in the afternoon. I have the week off and C’s on 3-month leave. Ben is healthy and cute. More later.

1996 – 7 Nov 1996 #3761, 21st Anniversary of the Journal
Good and bad stuff since moving to Austin
-Cut back on crap TV; waste time online
-More writing placements; fewer business writing gigs
-Increase social activity; too much spending
-Reach all-time high in creativity; need structure
-Dixie to get her masters; Busy year ahead for her
-Austin as a wonderful, energizing city; career path here still in question
-Solid non-geography-based work sources; No sense of “belonging”
-Writing; income potential