Tidy Husband

Eligible for the seniors discount and the Happy Meal deal at the same time.

  1. Accidents Happen

    And That’s OK.

    The little charge ran off the bus and asked if she could go play at Carson’s 1 house,

    A few minutes later she was back.

    “Hi Dad!” she said as she whooshed past by me in a rush. “I have to go potty!

    Okay. Go!

    Photo by Random Institute on Unsplash

    Then I heard it: the tinkle. I knew what happened before I was told.

    “ I didn’t make it to the potty!”, she cried.

    And it’s absolutely okay. It’s nothing a few old towels and some sanitizing wipes can’t fix.

    She’s still learning. Heck, we’ve all been there where there’s been close calls as an adult so I figure she’s allowed. I am thinking she had planned to make it Carsons and go potty there. Or maybe not.

    Either way,she told me that this was no big deal and she wanted to go back to Carson’s when we got things under control and dropped off. I wiped up the best I could and tossed her in the shower for a quick rinse and the she was dressed in a new outfit and off to Carson’s in record time.

    Meanwhile, I grabbed the soaked clothes and shoes and towels and tossed the whole thing into the washing machine.

    Want to know what pissed me off 2 the most about this episode? Not the pee - we have lots of wipes and bleach. It’s the fact that it took me 15 minutes to figure out how to set the washing machine to sanitize mode. It turns out you have to open the app and “send” the sanitize mode to the washing machine. Because god forbid there’s a button. It’s just one more thing that the internet has made shittier and notetter.

    Anyway, I’m not telling this story to embarrass her, but I hope it was a teaching moment that all messes can be cleaned up and she’s still learning and it’s okay to make mistakes. This mistake just happened to involve some urine and bad timing.

    One more thing…

    I made the mistake of starting to push some keys on the keyboard a year ago to see if I could actually write every day for a year, rather than just sporadically as I have in the past.

    Well. It turns out I can. Today is day 365 of this personal challenge of mine. I have written when I had nothing to write about, and when sick and when I didn’t feel like it.

    The result is that I’ve told more than a few good stories about life here and made some new friends and readers and even a few bucks as well. It’s all a guy could ask for.

    That and more sanitizing wipes. We’re almost out.

    Until Next Time,

    TH and Co.

    1. not his real name because this is the internet. ↩

    2. see what I did there?:) ↩

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  2. The First Day of The First Grade

    A day of firsts.

    OH. Thank God.

    One small step for first grade.

    She’s in school.

    Actually, I kid. We had a great time this summer and it was chock full of adventures like summer camp and slushies and trips to Abuela’s house. But after 5 days of no-activities lined up it’s good to get into some kind of routine for all of us.

    She was….apprehensive would be the word. Not scared, not nervous - but a little on edge. She woke a good time and had breakfast and got dressed and we were really, really early for the first day. We were out in the driveway waiting for a good half hour before the bus came. I think the school system did not have a good day regarding logistics on the first day as the bus as 20 minutes late on drop off too.

    But, she survived. She came home with an “about me” paper where she had to fill in her name, how many people lived with her, pets…etc. There’s LOTS of new faces and names and routines to remember so it’s hard to onboard to the first grade.

    Her friend lives around the corner, and the bus dropped him off first, but before the bus could get around the block to drop off my child, he was in the driveway with me waiting for her to play. He JUST saw her.

    She hopped off the bus and they were both gone before I could ask any questions about their day.

    When we did, we didn’t get a lot of updates out of her - I think it’s too overwhelming for her so far. She’s usually really good with names and stories so I’m sure that will come later down the road.

    The big news so far? The school bus stops on our side of the street.

    it wouldn’t be a big deal without a sign.

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  3. The Day Before the First Day of School

    She’s just a little nervous. Just a little.

    It’s okay to be nervous. Grade 1 is a big deal.

    Maybe nervous isn’t the right word. Maybe Apprehensive might be a better fit.

    Regardless, she’s off to school tomorrow morning on the bus.

    Today we had to drop off about $150 of school supplies for her and to meet the teacher and see where her classroom was.

    She wasn’t on her A game. Maybe it’s the heebie-jeebies of going up the stairs to the classroom. Grade 1 kids all get the lofty view from the 2nd floor while the kindergarteners stay on the first floor. She had a bit of a meltdown in class but we just figured it was nerves. She was nervous on the first day of summer camp too and we all know how that worked out.

    She will be fine.

    She has just one friend from last year’s kindergarten class in her new first grade class so there’s a lot of new to get used to tomorrow.

    She relaxed a bit when she discovered there will not be much in the learning department tomorrow as they will for the most part be reading a few books and getting to know each other.

    The teacher sent a note with a magic frog sticker that you’re to put under your pillow and it will help you sleep. The note said it’s okay to be excited and nervous and that the teacher is nervous and excited too and that seemed to help a lot getting her to go to bed.

    Maybe it’s the frog, or maybe it’s just that she’s realized that tomorrow will be okay.

    The school bus arrives at 8:13am tomorrow!

    Until Next Time,

    TH and Co.

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  4. So You Wanna Be a Rock and Roll Star?

    First thing you need are some instruments - and a vocalist.

    Consider all the great duos of rock: Sonny and Cher, Simon and Garfunkel, The Proclaimers, The Pet Shop Boys, Ike and Tina….

    Photo by blocks on Unsplash

    Now let me add one more great duo to your listening library:

    We call ourselves “Just a Band”. It just kind of rolls of the tip of the tongue, no?

    No? Well, she’s the manager and she says, that’s the name of our band. Okay, then.

    But first, we needed a few instruments: As we’re a bootstrapping band here that doesn’t have a lot of money for instruments, we had to make our own:

    The drum set of course consisted of pots and pans with chopsticks for drumsticks.

    I wanted to call the band UNICORN NIGHTGOWN but she vetoed the idea.

    Then we needed a guitar. Oh! And a tambourine.

    For the guitar we found a lid from a plastic container and then taped a plastic ruler to it. The final touch is the spreading of the elastic bands and we were in business.

    We almost didn’t have a tambourine due to artistic differences. She wanted the bells glued on to the plate but I had no glue that would be safe/stick so I rolled some tape up and stuck the bells on there and it seemed to work. It was touch and go for a minute there as I thought we were going to break up before our first song was sung.

    We had all our instruments and we were ready, but then she told me that under no circumstances was I going to be doing the singing. This was just as well for all parties and especially our fans (Hello, Cleveland!)

    We had a few practice sessions where I was directed to be the drummer and I was only to drum when she sang specific words and as I am not the fastest learner it took me a few tries and she was not happy with our progress.

    We didn’t have an opening act, so we just went for it and she sung and I drummed. Then we mixed it up a bit for the other songs and swapped instruments. I still didn’t get to do the singing though. Under no circumstances was I able to sing.

    After 4 songs (no encore as the dog can’t pay attention for that long) our show was over and our band disbanded never to be heard from again.

    It was a short run, but if you look hard enough you might be able to find a bootleg recording somewhere.

    Don’t forget to buy some merch on your way out.

    Until Next Time,

    TH and Co.

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  5. How I Spent My Summer Vacation

    2025 Edition

    I know that technically summer isn’t over - but for school starts back up in just a few more days and it’s time to start thinking about reading and writing and first grade.

    But considering for the most part we stayed home and didn’t have a vacation proper, I think she had a great summer and here’s a small recap of just some of the activities over the summer break

    I don’t know about you guys but I think she had a lot of fun this summer.

    Here’s a few highlights below:

    Until Next Time,

    TH and Co.

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