October 21, 2026 Before I jump in, I want to celebrate a milestone. A happy consequence of therapy and patience and luck. Not only can I now pick up Elijah again, I can carry him a little bit, too. Though I've grown quite good and fond of walking, it's not ideal for getting around town. This might have sufficed a century ago. But not more than a century into our reliance on cars. It's amazing how much the car has changed us. (And it's amazing how some of the greatest breakthroughs with...
13 days ago • 5 min read
October 14, 2026 One of the overwhelming but benevolent elements of the last few months has been the support Lori and I have felt from people across our lives. It's come old school via letters and the providing of home-cooked meals, and it's come new school via texts and Door Dash gift cards. It's come via 500 donations to Teddy's fund at The Columbus Foundation, and it's come via many other other unexpected acts of kindness to help us celebrate and elevate Teddy. Several of our friends, for...
20 days ago • 4 min read
October 7, 2026 As America counts down the days to the end of political ads and solicitations polluting their screens, I'm trying once again to get back into baseball. I grew up enamored with the game, as a little leaguer and as a fan of three teams: The Cubs, the White Sox, and the Dodgers. (I didn't know that liking more than one team was sacreligious, let alone both teams from the Windy City. I liked the Cubs and White Sox because I liked all things Chicago, and I liked the Dodgers because...
27 days ago • 3 min read
October 1, 2026 Of the various maladies my body and brain have been working through the last few months, one has been perniciously persistent. I can barely hear out of my right ear. There isn't any obvious physical damage that anyone can see, and no obvious blockage muting my ability to listen. But as my ENT shared this week, ears are particularly slow to heal. And so it might be for me. This was a lowlight in my rehabilitation this week, which has otherwise continued progressing at a healthy...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
September 23, 2026 One of the early barometers of my recuperation has been my ability to perform simple bodily tasks. In the early days of my rehabilitation, I would regularly be asked three things: 1) To smile; 2) To raise my hands into the air; and 3) To write or draw various things. Mercifully, speaking hasn't been hard for me to do. It's just been hard for me to speak clearly. Half of my face remains numb, including most of my tongue. And though that's improved dramatically over the last...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
September 17, 2026 I can't run in silence. I either need headphones with music blaring, some game on TV, ocean waves crashing--something. When I was a passably competent runner in high school, I'd listen to a very bizarre assortment of songs--Janet Jackson to U2 to Led Zeppelin--on a CD player or Sony Walkman. In all the years since, I've failed to ever develop the running bug despite a few wasteful registrations for half marathons that I never participated in. Still, I've at least maintained...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
September 10, 2026 Basketball has always mattered a lot to me. And for a long time, probably because I thought I should, I'd dismiss its importance--or pretend to--if I feared criticism of how much I cared about basketball in relation to worthier things. It isn't that I was ever particularly good at basketball--much to my chagrin. I just grew up with it. So I loved it. My dad and I would watch so much basketball. We'd go outside and play on the hoop affixed above our garage. And I'd come back...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
September 3, 2026 The last thing I'd considered while I progressed from intensive care to a rehabilitation program was how poorly I'd sleep in the coming days. This wasn't anyone's fault other than the person whose car plowed into mine on July 15th. But it was challenging nevertheless to fill the time during the midnight hour--and several hours thereafter--until there was more to do and more people to talk to and more therapy to wrestle through en route to getting back home again. I broke 18...
2 months ago • 4 min read