“Ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive, e-lim-in-nate the negative, latch on to the a-firmative – Don’t mess with Mister In-Between.” -- Johnny Mercer

I’m going to blog about Good Things this week. With all that’s going on – and all that is awaiting us in the future -- we have celebrate and hang onto what’s good in our micro-lives today.

FATHER’S DAY

I had a terrific Father’s Day. Just about the most fun I have these days is playing with my grandson Calder. He’s four-and-a-half and as smart and charming as anyone has the right to be. I would have loved any grandson, but Calder is objectively loveable. As the TG says, “A key light follows Calder wherever he goes.” And it’s not just his perfectly handsome face: it’s who he is. No media, no screens, no devices: just books, music, and real life. He’s being raised “Amish,” but it’s working. His vocabulary and range of knowledge are remarkable – “I think she’s a paleontologist.” … “Is that Bob Dylan?”

Some of my best moments of the day were spent floating on pool noodles with my son and Calder: three generations of Robinson men, hanging weightlessly in the water. It all ended with a concert at our local park – Woody & the Longboards, in a tribute to the “California sound.” A family picnic scene, right out of Mayberry RFD.

But even though it was Father’s Day, I did my share of work. I did the cooking (my choice), whipping up one of my “crepe-taculars” (a “gag” nickname that stuck). And even if it’s a holiday in your honor, a father still has to clean up the dog poop in the backyard before anyone comes over. It’s “constants” like that that make life worth living.

PRE-PUBLICATION ACTIVITY

I’m heavily into work for the publication of WHEN I GOT OUT on September 17th. There is so much to do. It’s been five years since WHAT IT WAS LIKE was published. I was hoping to have WHEN I GOT OUT published five years to the day after the first one, but that didn’t work out. (Conflict with Labor Day and 9/11, etc.) But it’s almost five years to the day. Almost perfect is close enough.