I took a hiatus on drawing and started writing some original music, and then something unexpected happened – I wanted to start drawing again. Fortunately, my family has been on a roll as far as providing me with material.
As far as music this song is called, “With or Without Me.”
It’s about being a Dad ( or Mom ) with kids that are growing up just a little too fast. Yes, it still needs some polish ( starting with a nice kick drum ), but I’m trying.
We added a Mini Cooper to our stable for our newest driver.
Thing is? Now I want one, too!
They’re like little Go-Karts. Coming from a Honda Pilot ( and before that, a minivan ), I forgot how much fun smaller cars are. For starters? You can park em’ anywhere. But, I also like the smaller confines of the interior, too. I swear I can hear my own echo in mine, sometimes, when I am driving alone.
Still Undetectable
In other news – if there is any cancer in my body, it’s behaving. I have been in remission for just over four years now. My anxiety still goes through the roof every single time I get blood work done, though, You would think I’d be more relaxed the further out I am from treatment, but no. It’s taken four years to get back to living and every time I get tested I feel like everything could just fall apart again. I hear the 5-year and 10-year marks are monumental, but I still find myself celebrating ( just a little ) every day.
This song is called “Another Night”. It’s about loss – and a little defiance, too. I wrote the lyrics for it a few years ago after my Dad passed away. No one can tell you it’ll be okay when something like that happens. No one. It just takes time. I didn’t play much when he was alive. I hope, somewhere, he is listening now.
I take care of all the house plants in my house, so yeah, I feel a little guilty being a vegan when eating in front of them.
I’ve been a vegan for a few years now – since being diagnosed with prostate cancer. I can’t prove that it’s helped keep the disease at bay, but it has helped my well-being tremendously. It took a while to “find my stride” – find adequate recipes and all, but I’ve gotten to the point that I don’t miss the foods I left behind anymore. I just wish my house plants would stop giving me the stink eye..,
This is a song I’ve been working on. I call it, “Blacks”. If you’re from San Diego you might recognize some of it.
I’ve been writing and playing a lot over the last year. It started with Survive, a song I wrote the lyrics for – but leaned heavily on Suno, an AI service, for the melody. This one is much more organic.
Yup. Ashley is driving. She loves it, too. Last night she even drove us on the highway so we could go shopping at Costco.
The benefits are two-fold.
First, it’ll take some of the responsibility off of Mom and Dad during next school year as she’ll be able to drive her sister and herself to school. Second, I have a whole new muse for comics!
I do worry, though. There’s more distractions and traffic than when I was her age. I guess part of her growing up though is trusting her not be that person playing Wordle on their mobile phone while weaving through traffic.
Oh, wait. Thats me…
Stay healthy. Live life. Put the mobile phone down.
I don’t know what property management company approved of this, but it definitely made me stop in my tracks before following my ravenous family into the restaurant for dinner.
The sushi was actually pretty good ( although the restaurant closed a few months later ). I imagine the bait was even better because that shop is still in business.
Well, the good news is that my daughter, Ashley, got Rancho Bernardo High School to invite The Rubber Band back to play for a Basketball Fanfest. The bad news is that ticket sales weren’t enough to justify the cost of having us play.
… and we’re free, so, yeah – that was a gut punch.
But, I get it.
No hard feelings.
It takes a lot of coordination and sweat to get everything set up. Heck, I was amazed when the band were all able to commit.
So, it was the gig that never happened and all I have to show for it is a cool flyer that made.
Good-bye, 2025, you were a good year. I guess I am in the minority as 25′ seemed to have a bad rapport amongst a lot of my friends and family, but for me it was good.
I’ve seen my girls grow up a little more and become their own not-so-little people.
I’ve started playing music with a new, smaller, group of people with the hopes of doing some open mics next year.
I’ve been happily employed at Poway Unified for the better part of a year now. It was a nice change of pace compared to the last couple of employers I had. The people are great, the workload is manageable, and for the first time in a long time, I believe in the product ( education ).
I’ve now been working as a Programmer Analyst with the school district for seven months ( The Coolest ) …and the difference is night and day. I feel like a valued human again – not a cog or number. The work is all on-site – so no more treadmill, but I’m also not walking 14.6 miles daily in frustration, either.
Happy as I am – it’d be a waste of a good comic to not post it, so here ya’ go!
drawnandcoded.com 