After two years of commuting/remote learning, Dan, at 20, moves to college tomorrow for the first time. All packed and ready to go. He will be continuing his pursuit as a Music Major at Bridgewater State. This will be the year the music part of his education kicks in. Living in a dorm surrounded by all the other music majors, with nothing but music classes on his schedule, it is exciting to see the direction he is heading.

Today was prep day, errands and picking up a few odds and ends, like strings at Guitar Center and a quick detour to the high-end guitars room. It might have been 5-6 years ago the first time I was with him in that room. So much has changed, most of all his confidence. That first time he was in awe of those guitars – I had to push him to take one off the wall and play some cords, now they are the tools of his trade, and they deserve to be played by him. I can’t wait to see where this next road takes him. All packed and ready to go in the morning, for the record, a new guitar will not be joining him on the trip, but I think he is ok with that.

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Tonight Dan bought his own sound system, he is prepping to take the show on the road. Next week he starts hosting his Open Mic at TC Scoops in Medway. Thursday, November 16th 6:30-8pm, all ages and talent welcome. Come on by and ask him how long he has been playing… he will answer “just over a year” but we have photographic proof that is slightly longer than that.

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We went into Boston last night for a walk around the city. The Common was littered with people playing Pokemon Go. It was overwhelming at first to see. People everywhere, on their phones, moving spot to spot, like a scene from the Walking Dead. I can see how judgemental people could get pissed. Though, I think they are wrong. Or at the least they are missing an opportunity to see what really is going on. When I stepped back and looked, it is incredible. In a world where the media would convince us we are all separated and segregated, there were young, old, male, female, geeks, jocks, gay, straight, white, black, Hispanic, Asian, all joined in this game. Groups were walking up to each other and starting conversations. Asking for levels, info about gyms, being social and civil. I have never seen anything like it. Again, I could be a jerk and judge them all, but that would be more of a reflection on me, not them. You can call this game anything you want, these people were out and everywhere, having a great time. My son talked to a bunch of them, genuinely good people, none he would have met in another situation. We could learn a lot from this fad. It was just a whole bunch of people being themselves… happy and together.

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Today was a great day, my son learned how to use the leaf blower.  Now I realize it is not hard to do, but I got him outside in the sunlight, he turned off the minercrafter crap game, and asked to use it.  Do you remember when these yard tools were fun?  Me neither, but he thought it was awesome. Like a real life video game. Whatever it takes to get him to do it.  His reward, he got to jump in the leaves, and then huge bonus… he got to use the leaf blower to fix the pile. Proud, proud, proud moments.  I went inside and worked on my high score on Pac-Man with my new-found time.

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My photo shoot with Zach turned into an impromptu game of hide and seek this morning. This was Zach 2(ish) year session. I have photographed this little guy since he was a few weeks old. Today was a blast, he was talking smiling, saying cheese for the camera.  We had fun hiding behind trees, chasing bubbles, the soccer ball and playing with trucks. Not sure it has registered with him who I am, I am sure he wonders who is this guy that meets him in the park and chases after him for an hour than disappears for months at a time.  At least I know he has to questions my hide and seek skills, I really have no chance hiding behind the trees he was picking out.  Here are a few more from the session.

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