Greatest Hits

When I popped this thing open a while ago I noticed that as of last night's rambling weak effort I've written 150 posts.  A nice, clean, rounded number; a much greater number than I realized!  My foray into #The100DayProject (#63 tonight!) has helped to accelerate the accumulation of verbiage, but so many of the posts I've come up with lately have lacked the focus and thought that a high-quality entry  should have.  So I started reading, hoping to remind myself that occasionally I do generate some quality writing, and while reading I got the idea that tonight's addition to this blog will be a list of my favorite posts.  The posts that make me stop and say: "I wrote that?!?"  The list won't be ranked (mostly) but it will be chronological, starting with old material.  So if you're a long-time reader my apologies for dredging up the stuff you've seen before.  Here we go.....

Scarlett Fever - Probably like this one more for the title than the entry, although I still find it pretty funny.  Also like that it reminds me how far I've evolved away from "bumbling idiot" status these past couple of years. (not far)

Letter of Recommendation - More of a public service than blog entry.  You're welcome.

The Best Awful Day - This one reminds me to be a better dad by making me be more thoughtful, and thankful, towards the time I have with my kids.

And unto us that day, a reader was born... - One of my most popular posts.  I still get chills every time I read it because I got chills the day it happened.

The Luckiest Dad - If I were ranking these according to quality, this would be a strong #2.

Lessons Learned - Dang it, I love this one.  It's a tale of hunting, but in the hunting adventures I wrote about I found a way to sound intelligent.  Not sure how I pulled that off, but it worked.  Really well.

Day 11 - Endgame - The last in a series of daily posts I wrote during deer hunting season a couple of years ago.  I love it for two reasons: 1) It helps me remember something that I never, ever want to forget, and 2) The first sentence of the last paragraph is one of my favorite sentences I've ever written.

The Walls of Our School - This was a very early morning effort on the final day of school in an old building that had a lot of character(s).  I posted it, emailed our staff to read it, and was greeted at school by tears everywhere.  All I do is make women cry.

Genesis Synthesis - I don't know.....maybe this one doesn't belong here.  I wrote it after a huge volleyball victory last fall, thinking we were headed for a strong season.  We weren't.  So maybe that's why it's a favorite - a reminder that even in dark times there are shining moments.  Man, I could write greeting cards with stuff like that.

Bah Humbug - Boom!  I'm usually not as succinct as your typical average writer should be when constructing my thoughts into a sentence - I tend to keep adding more thoughts on top of the one that would have sufficed.  (See what I did there?)  But this little rant on Christmas does its job quickly and neatly.  Like that sentence did.  Which you didn't need pointed out.  Doggone it man, stay succinct!!

Three Words - My final grandparent passed away last fall which led to a lot of those things the humans call feelings.

Coach Dad, tourney day - I love writing about sports.  I love coaching.  I loved writing this entry about a day of coaching my daughters.  And I think this is the only entry on this list that links to another entry on this list.  I have no idea why that matters.

The Grand March of Time - It's no accident this one is last.  Easily the best entry I've written, starting with the title right on down to the last sentence.  One of those nights when the words just came to me, and when I was done I sat back and thought "Geez, I had no intention of it being like that....but wow, that's really good!"  Even now when I read it I just shake my head - I really don't know where that came from.

There they are.  A lucky group of thirteen.  Another four or five were close to being chosen...on a different night they maybe would take the place of several of the entries which made the list.  I hope you enjoy them, hope they keep you coming back each day to find out if I've done anything decent with my latest posts.  Thanks for reading.