Hi, it’s me.

I can’t promise that I’ll be here long or when I’ll be back again, but man, it’s good to be back.

I’ve missed posting here and the interactions that came with those posts. Unfortunately, life got in the way. I’m a coach with my daughter’s travel softball team and that consumed my spring and summer the past few years. We started up again at the end of June and we finish our season in two weeks.

And then we’re done for good. It’s been a fun run packed with dad/daughter memories I’ll cherish for a lifetime but we’re both ready to move on. She to high school (and whatever that entails) and me to not coaching.

My son will be starting at the University of Pittsburgh in January (again, whatever that entails), majoring in Communications with a lean towards Sports Journalism. The college decision process was a wild ride and I’m thrilled he ended up in a city we all fell in love with last summer.

And the truth is, the reason I stopped posting here was that I caught a new bug: writing fiction, specifically thriller/mystery. I released my first novel in March and just finished the next one, hoping to release it in October.

I’ve loved the process from day one and in a way, treated it like I did with gardening. I have multiple spreadsheets to help me plan and stay on track and obsess over every little plot/character detail. We’ll see where it goes from here.

As for gardening, I’ve been knee deep in the dirt since the Pandemic started. I’ve never worked harder, sweated more, had more available time and complained louder about lower back pain. But it’s been awesome. I’ve had to make up for two years of neglect and while there’s still a ways to go to get it to where I want it (of course we never get it where we want it), I’m thrilled with the results to date. I’ve sold myself on a two-year plan so ideally, by next summer, I want to sit back, relish in my work and do little more than tweak at that point (Did you buy that last sentence? I didn’t).

So here is the fruit (Are the fruits? Should’ve used a better metaphor) of my labor as of yesterday. Yes, I’m still hiding the ugly but promise to share some killer before and after galleries once the after looks like a solid after.

Until next time …