New Year's Resolution to clean my desk and tidy up my office papers

Notes from my desk:

Something I wrote in 2014.

 On December 5th, 2014, I took my wife and kids out for dinner and a movie.  It was her birthday, and she decided that all she wanted was dinner with her kids. Then we would go see a family movie.  

After dinner, we went to see "Big Hiro 6". My kids have become, like many other kids their age, into gaming and superhero movies based on comic books.  

 We stayed after the credits to watch an animated short video starring an animated Stan Lee and one of the characters from the movie.  My daughter was happy that she got something extra from the movie (langnaipe, if you will).  I was disappointed, not with the entertainment, but by the fact that my kids look to superheroes in this world.  

All I have ever wanted for them was that they be the heroes of their own lives.  Why can't we all just be the heroes of our own lives? 

I wrote this last year, but forgot to hit "Publish".  

The Seventeenth of August

This song was going through my mind all day yesterday.  That one line, 'the seventeenth of August' is very significant to me.  That day is my mother's birthday.  (1934) 

I have written about her before on this blog.  But last August 17th would have been her 91st birthday.  She died too young (2011, at 77).  And I have so much regret and guilt.  I should have taken better care of her.   

 "And as I rode out through Galway Town
To seek for recreation
On the seventeenth of August
Me mind being elevated
There were multitudes assembled
With their tickets at the station
And me eyes began to dazzle
And they're going to see the races"