Frost covered my lawn this morning, it looked as if the slightest touch would cause the grass to shatter.  And for some reason that frost stayed with me all day.

My subconscious gave me whispers of it to keep my detached interest, but not enough to cause me to come to any major revelations, or anything so grandeur in nature.

That would come later, around seven this very evening. Frost had been changed by my subconscious to Robert Frost, the poet. And surprisingly enough to “The Road Not Taken” that you see below.

I guess it is a factor of age, wisdom some might call it that I find myself recalling decisions that I have made, paths I have taken, an paths that are no longer available to me.

What would me life be like if I have made certain decisions? I shudder to think of what it would not have been had I made certain others. Take my wife, I met her by chance at college, homecoming to be exact, on a night that I had no intention in the world of going out.

If it wasn’t for a visiting friend who was back for homecoming and insisted on going out, I would have never met my wife, fallen in love and had my son Maverick.

So much, so much that would never have existed if I had not gone to that bar that night. Its staggering honestly when I stop to think about it.

Frost’s poem is amazing in so many ways, and such a great metaphor for our own decisions.
“And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;”

The unknown, the undergrowth is always there tempering our decisions and acting as a constant reminder that no matter how much we think about a decision, the path we walk will ultimately have the potential for a disaster waiting around the bend that we could never forseen.

Two paths, one less traveled. One path that ultimately turned out to be the right one in the end. His message is clear to me, or to my interpretation at least — easier is not always better.

I agree completed. I went to college wanting to go to dental school. I had average grades, but could have done it if I had really applied myself. I took an easier path. I wanted to have fun, I didn’t think of the future, I thought of the now.

Ultimately I traded four years of fun for the very real possibility that I will work forty years in a corporate environment, chances are working for someone else. I took the easier path to the keg, instead of the less traveled path to the library. Lesson learned.

We all have had times where we have taken one road or the other, the key I think is not losing sight of the other road. Everyone needs a map to help guide us on our way, they come in many shapes, sizes and forms.

This morning it was frost on the grass and Robert Frost, who knows what tomorrow will bring.

The Road Not Taken
by Robert FrostTwo roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Every year our friends Megan & Matt host a series of Friday night movies in their backyard. It’s a chance for the adults to relax and enjoy a cocktail or two while the kids run around like banshees and play on the playset.

Matt has a great setup for the movies — a sweet computer projector that makes a nice ten plus foot screen. As the night heads toward twilight the kids and adults have had their fill of any number of treats that have been brought for the festivities.

As the sun slowly sets the screen on the side of their house slowly starts to become more and more apparent and the kids know movie time has finally come. We hosted a movie night once at our house to give Matt & Megan a break and while we all had a great time, it just didn’t have that touch of magic that exists in their backyard.

That’s not to say that our yard won’t ever have that magic, but right now its a barren wasteland of grass. Megan & Matt’s yard by comparison has well thought our flower gardens that hold surprises one might not normally expect to see in a typical garden. Its just a fun place to be, centrally located between two other of our friends. A win-win situation really.

So to Megan & Matt if you are reading this — A hearty thank you from us to you! This summer’s movie night was a smashing success, we are looking forward to next year already!

When the cold winds of January blew in a snowy winter wonderland, I cheered for our good fortune to have a Southern facing home. With the trusty TORO snow-blower purring like a cat, I would eat through the snow like it was butter. And as the day would go on, my driveway would dry from the Sun’s glorious rays.

I didn’t expect to find myself cursing the Sun this summer. Keeping my grass in the front from dying has proven to be a monumental task. I should have known it would be like this, our backyard in our old house was always a step away from cactus-ville.

The difference being that I could ignore the backyard if I wanted to, I have to see the front every day. It got even worse when our builder decided to finally level out our front lawn (there was a depression from an incorrectly back-filled sewer line), the already old and close to withering death grass that they put down was barely holding on before we went on vacation to Vermont.

When I saw that we were having 100 degree weather back home, I could just imagine the straw I would be coming home to. Yeah, it did turn out to be pretty brutal, I have two nice large dead sections. That phone call should be fun to the builder.

So now we are attempting to bring our lawn back from the dead, watering morning and night every other day. Walking out in the morning to turn on the sprinklers, getting my feet wet on dew, and invariably getting a shot from the sprinkler.. really makes me jealous of people with sprinkler systems — Lucky bastards!