Let me start off by crossing my fingers that all my readers have a decent April. I know this is going to be a tense and difficult month for many. Please know that you have my prayers. Here we go with my latest Thursday Rundown…

Sister Birthday Celebration – As I mentioned on Tuesday, after many years, I finally had the opportunity to celebrate a birthday with one of my siblings. Miranda’s special day was last Saturday and we had a nice family gathering as my mom made my sister’s favorite meal, chicken enchiladas. I posed for a picture with my sister and couldn’t resist comparing it to a similar one taken about 30 years ago.

Before and after.

Tiger King – Like the rest of the country, I watched the Netflix documentary “Tiger King.” The only difference is that while most people seemed to watch it all in a day, I was a little more restrained and finished it off in a week. There is no doubt why the series is so popular…shock value and big cats breed viewership. I had several jaw dropping moments while watching but what was most obvious to me is that adults can be extremely immature.

Tiger King was pretty wild.

Six Years Ago – On this date in 2014, I announced that I had accepted a position with Coastal Carolina University and was moving to Myrtle Beach. Most of my social media followers thought it was an April Fools’ joke. Looking back on that day, I never paused to think what my future would be like in six years. Life is crazy and you never know the ramifications (in this case all positive) a single decision can make.

Looking back at my Instagram post from April 2, 2014.

Visiting the Rock – During these days of teleworking, I use my lunch hour to run the track at my old high school. Today I decided to venture off a bit and I visited a “monument” from my glory years. When I was a junior at Mead High School, our head football coach, Sean Carty, introduced a tradition called Rock of the Week. He hauled a huge boulder from his property, painted it gold, and placed it at the entrance to the athletics fields. Prior to games and practices, we would touch it to signify our personal commitment to give 100%. Each week during the season, a player would be named the “Rock of the Week” for exemplifying what it means to always give a complete effort. The rock meant something to me since I was given the honor during my junior and senior years. Well, today I went to make sure it was still there and I wasn’t disappointed. Although the gold shade might be a little different, the boulder is still in its same old spot 15 years later.

I posed with the Rock in 2004 (left). The photo on the right is from today.

Old Library – I can’t get enough of old pictures like this. Especially with our current reality, I find some of these images of a simpler time rather refreshing. Ah, how I yearn for the days when I could go to the library. This particular library in Cincinnati looks really impressive. I hope they took all the books out before they demolished it.

I really liked this old image from a now-demolished library.

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Thank you for your time tonight. To echo what I said at the start of this blog post, try to stay strong and I will be thinking of you. Don’t Blink.