Regular Dad

2023 in Review and our Plans for Christmas Travel

Recapping how 2023 went for me this year.  My improved mental health, Duncs' huge bump in behavior/happiness, and M-Dawg's adjustment into middle school.  
And actually taking pride in something I've done.  That literally almost never happens.  
Nothing much more to say in this description.  Is that a bad omen for what you're about to listen to?  Maybe.  Or am I doing a sneak...

Coffee Maker SNAFU, Work Trip, How Many Owls

The universe decided to test me on the morning of recording and threw a few obstacles in my path to see if I'd revert to giving into frustration.  Spoiler alert, I didn't.  Some how.  Maybe I'm actually growing through this podcast...
Then a shorter than expected recap of my super fun work trip to south nowhere Virginia.  
And then a vexing thought experiment about owls.  And Hayley's inability to even entertain it.  
Enjoy!

ChristmasDecorations_WinterStarted

Wow, this was a tough one to put a file name/title to.  And not because I discussed so much memorable stuff, because it was just a lot of random things from the week.  I mean, what didn't I talk about?!  Christmas decorations, Mike Tyson quotes, fire trucks, whiskey, no one acknowledged my soul-baring, the list goes on.  And on and on and on. 
I'm actually putting this together and publishing from lovely Danville, VA while on a work vacation. 
And hopefully this week I actually see an uptick in downloads after my "mentor" from TIMBP mentioned this on his real podcast.  Although that was only after I texted him a picture of me choking a rubber chicken...
Enjoy!!

Things Come to a Head, Recap of both Thanksgivings

Won't get too far into here in this space, but I've had to take a hard look in the mirror over some long-term tension.  And more importantly own up to my part in the situation as well as my responsibility to turn it around.Then a much-too-short recap of not just regular Thanksgiving but also Party Thanksgiving.  I do feel like I short-changed both of those events.  Maybe I went too crazy last week; maybe I was spent from the first segment.  It did become the lesser part in importance, so I guess that's fitting.  

Pre-Thanksgiving Rambling Stories!!

Just an extra-long history lesson on the birth of Party Thanksgiving and professing my love of Thanksgiving.  
I don't think I even touched on the details of exactly how over the top I'm going this year.  But next week's recap can cover the ridiculousness that I put into these 3 days.  
Hopefully everyone has an awesome Thanksgiving day, Black Friday, and recovery weekend.  Watch you some football, eat pie for breakfast (I recommend cherry pie with my from-scratch apple pie vanilla custard #HumbleBrag), and remember that gravy can technically count as a beverage.  Stay safe; I can't afford to lose any of the few listeners that I have!

Thanksgiving Prep, Hockey Beatings, and Israel

I discuss my pure excitement for Thanksgiving.  Again.  But I really do love Thanksgiving and especially love Party Thanksgiving.  But you'll learn the full history of that next week.  
Then we cover the epic beat-down I took at hockey Sunday night.  When I'm one of our top defensemen, things have gone WAY off the rails.  
And then we end with my thoughts on the Israel war and the bubbling antisemitism here in the US.  I know, real light-hearted stuff.  But this helps me fully form my feelings to talk it out.  
Enjoy!

Finding Some Structure, Birthday Recap, Starbucks Fail

It's time to find some structure and form to this podcast.  I'm clearly keeping it up, so I need to get some before form and organization instead of just free-wheeling it every week.  
A real quick recap of my super-boring birthday, which was nothing much to write home about.  And that's not really a bad thing.
Then we move onto just random things that I found amusing or more than slightly interesting. 
Enjoy!!

GunControl_BottleShare_Halloween

Airing my personal feelings on gun control in the US.  Where we're at, what I'm content with, what I'd like to see happen.  I don't feel I said anything crazy, so hopefully no one over-reacts to this.
Going through some minor whiskey-related news from the weekend.  New bottles (en route) and a social gathering. 
And of course a 3-minute recap of Halloween.  Feels like I didn't do it justice, but I went on longer than expected on gun control and really, who wants to hear more than that regarding kids and candy.

Uncle’s Funeral, PhilliesGame7, Misc

Discuss my weekend trip back home to Chicago (and Pontiac, IL) for my uncle's visitation and funeral.  And a trip to Bob & Ringo's, which is now WAY too clean and nice.  I express my condolences to the Phillies fans for a rather abrupt and unceremonious end to what was expected to be a championship year. 
And then just filling time.  I realized during editing that this was more of a discombobulated mess than normal.  We all have our good days and bad days.

Almost Late, Bourbon Top6ish List, Old Man-ish

Discussing the seemingly mundane decisions that lead to this episode not coming out on time, which means potentially not at all this week due to things we'll discuss next time.  Side bar into more hard evidence I'm somehow getting less fit even while working out more.
Then I go over my grand plan to set up some type of whiskey top-10 list complete with blind scoring...and then all the reasons that would be a disaster.  And what I will likely end up doing in December.
And finally some of the ways I'm genuinely a crotchety old man even in middle age.  Oh, and the neighborhood has some soft, spoiled high schoolers.