Monthly Archives: March 2026

King Thursday Rundown

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It is my pleasure to welcome you to the safe space that is my blog. And on Thursdays it is even extra safe because I rundown five random topics. Let’s do this…

Roofman – Sidney and I watched a movie over the weekend that might be worth your time. If you have Paramount+, look up “Roofman.” It is a new release, it happens to be based on a true story, and it stars Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst. The film centers on a man named Jeffrey Manchester who escaped prison and managed to evade capture for six months. But the truly remarkable feat is how he went so long before being re-arrested: He hid in a Toys “R” Us. Of course the movie has to intertwine a love story but we were entertained and even managed to watch it in an entire day (which is sometimes difficult to do around here). Although it is billed as a comedy, I found it to be more of a drama with plenty of nostalgia packed in.

“Roofman” entertained us!

King Size – It was on this date three years ago that I made Sid pretty happy: I bought her a king size bed. I am as low maintenance as it comes regarding sleep. All I need is a small space to lay my body and a single pillow. My wife on the other hand? She had been asking for an upgrade from our queen bed for probably a couple years. Now that we have enjoyed our king bed for three years, I can’t say whether I prefer it to the queen but I sure do enjoy the remote control that allows me to prop the bed up when reading or working on my computer.

Sloan and Beau hang out on a mattress. This is the queen version of the mattress that we actually got.

National Cheese Doodle Day – As you can tell from this topic’s heading, today is National Cheese Doodle Day. My only connection to this “cheesy” day is that I once had Sidney compare a Cheeto to a Cheese Doodle. The verdict? The Cheeto was crunchier and fresher. Although I don’t know for sure if a Cheez Doodle is actually a Cheese Doddle, I am calling it “close enough” for this post.

That time Sidney tried a Cheese…I mean Cheez…Doodle. The Cheeze Doodles are on the left of the plate.

Touching Advice – I was saddened to hear about the passing of Lou Holtz yesterday. He was a great coach, Catholic, and human being. I heard some touching advice he gave a sports media personality (Mike Greenburg) when he told Holtz his wife was about to have their first child. Coach Holtz pulled Greenburg in and said, “Young man, the most important thing you can do for a child is to make sure every day they know how much you love their mother.” Enough said.

May eternal rest be grant unto Lou Holtz and let perpetual light shine upon him.

Throwback – Truth be told, I am kind of drawing a blank when it comes to a fifth topic tonight…so how about a throwback? This photo is of my siblings and me when we were all in our primes. I am thinking it is around the 2006 or 2007 range. Ahhh, to be young again.

The Reser “Big 3” probably around 2006 or 2007.

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If you don’t want to leave this safe space feel free to get yourself lost in the archives of Don’t Blink. Thanks for reading! Don’t Blink.

We Aren’t Fighting If We Are Talking

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“When two enemies are talking, they are not fighting.”

This past weekend I was directed to a Ted Talk with the theme above. Full disclosure, I didn’t stumble upon it because of the world events in the Middle East but I guess you could call the timing ironic.

The Ted Talk I watched was delivered by a man named Daryl Davis. A professional musician by trade, there is much more to Daryl than his uncanny playing of the boogie-woogie piano.

Daryl Davis is a pretty special human being.

Daryl is an African-American gentleman who spent many years of his childhood in a mostly white community. His first experience with racism occurred when he was 10 years old as he marched in a parade. After the incident, his parents sat him down and explained the sad and misguided ways of racism.

That discussion spurned what has become a lifelong question for Daryl: Why do you hate me when you know nothing about me?

During his 18-minute Ted Talk, Daryl speaks about a relationship he cultivated with a Ku Klux Klan member.

I strongly encourage you to watch Daryl Davis’ Ted Talk.

He had his secretary reach out to Roger Kelly, an Imperial Wizard within the Ku Klux Klan. The secretary, who was white, was able to arrange a meeting between her boss and Kelly. When the Imperial Wizard showed up to the meeting, he had no idea that Daryl was black. As you can imagine, Roger Kelly and the bodyguard he brought with him were caught off guard.

Daryl details another “caught off guard” moment during this initial meeting. While the men were nervously talking, there was a noise that spooked both Daryl and Roger, causing everyone to tense up and clench their fists. Daryl thought Roger made the noise and Roger thought Daryl made the noise but it was actually just a natural sound made by soda cans submerged in ice. The tense moment “broke the ice” while also illustrating how sometimes it is easy to always think the worse of someone else.

Long story short, Daryl and Roger met many times after that first encounter. Neutral meeting spots ended up giving way to discussions at their respective homes. Eventually, the bodyguard stopped coming. Although the changing of Roger’s ideology was slow, he eventually left the Klan and gave Daryl his robe.

Believe it or not, Roger’s robe isn’t the only one in Daryl’s possession. Dozens of former Klansmen left the organization because Daryl took the time to befriend them and listen to why they could hate him without knowing him.

It turns out that when engaged in conversation, things can get sorted out—even things as dark as racism.

After watching Daryl’s Ted Talk by myself, I watched it again with my family. If you are looking for inspiration and a powerful example of humanity, take the 18 minutes to watch Mr. Davis’ presentation. Don’t Blink.

Snakes In A Dream!

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It was just over two years ago that I detailed Beau’s battle with bad dreams. When I published that blog post, he was having scary dreams at a pretty frequent rate. Each time he would have one, our son would refuse to go back to sleep because he “didn’t want to go back to it.” Like many of us, the moment Beau would shut his eyes he would find himself right back in the middle of the nightmare.

Beau is usually a happy kid…at least when he isn;t having nightmares.

Over the past 25 months Beau has continued to have bad dreams but nothing as frequent as when he was a 4-year-old. However, Sid and I have learned something about his bad dreams: they are usually directly related to what he watches.

If Beau watches something scary or graphic, there is a good chance it will show up in his sleep later that night. A perfect example wasn’t even Beau’s fault and became a good lesson for Sid and me…

One night several months ago, Sid and I were watching a true crime show. This particular episode centered around a person who was burned to death in a campfire out in the woods. We didn’t really think Beau was paying attention because even though he was in the same room with us he was fixated on a tablet (or so we thought). In the middle of the following night, Beau ran into our room freaked out and exclaimed to us that he had a nightmare about someone who was murdered in a fire. That dream didn’t just give Beau a wake up call.

Anyway, after several instances of this, it actually happened again on Thursday night. Beau once again raced into our room after experiencing a bad dream. As I usually do, I asked him to talk out his nightmare with me. This one had to do with an animal many of us don’t like: snakes.

He told me that his dream started with him in our bedroom when a big snake appeared on the floor. After dodging it in the space of our room, he totally evacuated and ran to Sloan’s room. Unfortunately the snake followed and bit his sister. Trust me, Beau didn’t take any delight in this. He was petrified!

I immediately knew how the bad dream was planted in his unconscious mind. It wasn’t from the movies “Anaconda” or “Snakes On A Plane.” It wasn’t from a visit to the zoo or a horror story he watched on YouTube.

Rather, it came directly from our nightly reading…

I knew the book “About Reptiles” is what gave Beau a bad dream about snakes.

On Tuesday night, Beau and I read a book titled “About Reptiles.” It taught us about lizards, frogs, toads, alligators, crocodiles, and—of course—snakes. In fact, the book probably covered the slithery limbless reptiles more than any other creature. As you can imagine, our 6-year-old had a lot of questions about snakes—especially the poisonous ones.

“About Reptiles” included multiple spreads within the book about snakes…including venomous ones.

Never did I think that reading the book would result in a nightmare for Beau. With that said, I am not beating myself up too badly. I read the book to Beau with good, educational intentions. However, it did drive home the fact that anything Beau consumes during the day could plant a seed for a bad dream during the night. Don’t Blink.