Archive for November 2023

On the fourth hole at Buena Vista golf course last week, a 150-yard par 3 from an elevated tee box, I hit my tee shot high and true. It’s a hole I often play well. The elevation gives me an extra ten yards, allowing for an easy iron shot onto the green, and even if…

Charlie is opposed to alcohol consumption of any kind, going so far as to cast aspersions at Elysha for enjoying a glass of wine at dinner from time to time. This is why I asked Charlie to enter the saloon in the old-timey western town at a fall festival that we recently attended in Rhode…

In the last two weeks, I’ve attended professional development delivered by Microsoft and the FBI’s hostage negotiation unit. I was assisting and consulting in both sessions. I have some excellent and possibly shocking news for you: Outstanding professional development is possible. For some, and probably most of you, professional development may rarely seem professional or…

My friend, Scott, is my golf guru. A former high school and college golf player, he often occupies my thoughts as I play the game. Most of the time, his voice is advising me on how to approach a shot. How to manage the game. How to play within my abilities. How to escape a…

On Friday night, Jeni Bonaldo, Elysha, and I performed “Matt and Jeni Are Unprepared,” a storytelling improv show unlike anything we’ve ever done and perhaps unlike anything ever done before. The goal was for Jeni and me to tell brand new, never-before-told stories from our lives based on prompts we received from the audience, the…

In the spirit of “It doesn’t take much…” Wethersfield, Connecticut recently decorated its Main Street with scarecrows of every kind, drawing crowds of people to the town center. It was an excellent way for us to spend the morning. We laughed and joked and stared in awe at some of these creations. We also ate…

My son, Charlie, is a stickler for rules. He desires an orderly world filled with people who adhere to every custom, law, and norm. He cannot abide even a slight bending of rules, which creates stress and tension for him when I seek to bend and break any and every rule that seems unnecessary and…

This is my favorite tote bag of all time, and I don’t even own it. Someone sent me this photo. It requires you to identify the birds correctly, know their collective noun name, and properly infer the context of the scene based on the positioning and stature of the birds. It demands so much but…

I have two books coming out next year, which means at some point, I will need to help choose the cover of those books. This is never easy for me. I have no eye for visual imagery whatsoever. Elysha has said that if she were to stand alongside ten other brunettes of her height, I…

One of the beauties of golf is that every round is different. No matter how many times I play a course, no two shots will ever be the same. The position of the ball, the position of the pin, and the course conditions will always make for a different shot. It’s a fantastic part of…