Junto Boys

BACK TO WORK

I miss the blog. For the last two months it has been hard to write anything because everything seemed trivial. My dad was such an important person in my life. He shaped me in a number of ways that influenced how I see the world and he introduced me to many of the things that I will enjoy until I leave this earth. I've been watching baseball, football, and golf from my earliest memories alongside my dad. No one was more happy with the Yankees resurgence in the mid 1990s than dad. And had he lived to see the Lions complete an 0-16 season he would have shook his head insisted that they find some linebackers.

The blog is already scattered with references to dad because of his influence on me and I suspect that will only increase over the next year. It is easy to write a tribute to people who have had an influence on you and I have done so many times here. But it's not easy to sum up a person who had the most direct and lasting influence. It's going to take time to do it right and I need time to get use to the idea before I can accomplish it.

Only a few weeks before dad's heart gave out I was asked by Amazon.com to join their Vine program. They let me choose free items and I agree to review them. Being responsible for reviews and writing them this past week got me going again with words and now I'm ready to re-join my Junto brethren. The timing of the invite is curious. John was asked to join Vine over a year ago. I thank the good lord for the timing of it and I will post my Yogi Berra review on the blog this weekend.

Thanks everyone for your emails and phone calls during this unexpected life changing time. John and I have probably spent more time together in the past two months than in the last year before that and he said he's ready to come back and contribute to the blog as well. You can find his early entries as far back as 2003. I'm looking forward to him participating in our dialogue.