2026 has been a bit of a snoozer to start. I had written up a lengthy post detailing how boring it’s been, but who would want to read about how I am doing nothing? I will say, the mentality of working from home really has changed now that I’m inside the house all day. There was something about having that shed that made me feel like I was outside the house even though it was just a few feet away. I miss some things about the Sinton house—ahem, the low mortgage payment—but mostly I miss having that shed! Who’s to say I couldn’t construct one on this property, though with 3,100 sq. ft. of house it is unneeded. About once every week or two I’ll feel so cooped up that I try to find somewhere to work, but that inevitably leads me to a bar! February has been hot—the second hottest on record, with many days over 80º—but the pool is still very chilly. Since we moved in at the tail end of the summer last year, we haven’t really seen what life will be like with the pool at our disposal during the dead of summer. I imagine the water will turn bathwater warm at some point. Many area pool owners have chillers installed to help make their pools feel refreshing to jump into.

Baseball has started up. This season the league did away with the MLB team names in favor of higher quality uniforms, where each team is simply known by a color. I am managing John’s team and helping out where I can with Edie’s team. Both kids were drafted onto the “red” team in their league. John’s team is going to be light on pitching, so look for John to shoulder a lot of the pitching load! That also means I am at the field at least 3x/week, putting an end to my “boredom” after work. As I always say, Balcones is my social outlet in Austin.

John’s football season winds down this weekend with a “playoff” game for last place Sunday. John had quite the showing in his first ever attempt at football, catching 3 TD passes so far and intercepting 3 passes. He has liked it so much that he’s now considering playing real football in 7th grade at Canyon Vista. I had always assumed he wouldn’t play football and would focus on baseball and basketball. I had even tried to steer him away from football after my gruesome leg injury in 1998, but we’ll encourage it if that’s what he wants to do.

2026 is starting to take shape with travels. We’re heading to Miami in 2 weeks! On the agenda are several nights at Juno Beach in the far northern part of the metro, where we’ll enjoy some beach time and two spring training games. I have still never in my life managed to catch the Marlins, but that will come to an end. After that we’ll visit the Everglades as we trek all the way down to Key West for two nights. And then it’s downtown Miami for two nights before returning to relax for the weekend before school starts back up. After that comes Memorial week with a Ryan/Edie trip to SD where I’ll speak at alumni, and another SD trip in July to drop John off for his big 12-year-old trip with Grandma to Seattle!