I'm just looking for clues at the scene of the crime...

Alaska Airlines delivered me safely to MSP one year ago, yesterday.

Having spent the better part of 10 months in the Arctic, I came back with a bushy red beard, some long hair to go with it and looking for a few pounds I lost along the way. Hard to imagine that a year has passed since the great adventure on the edge of the Chukchi Sea but it has.

With little fanfare, I feel like I've assimilated back in to the Middle Minnesota life nicely.

Youth sports seasons have come and gone with a deeper appreciation to just to be able to sit and watch. To be Dad in the Stands or in some cases, on the bench. School pictures, dances, report cards, sleepovers, and homework help, reminded me regularly that there's still plenty of parenting left for Michele and I to do. Only now, we can do it together. Instead of Skype being the highlight of my weeks while away, I look forward to holding hands with the Missus over dinner and a date. We can have "our show" together again or enjoy a walk around the neighborhood on a whim. The dogs accept me as Alpha again.

Life's Been Good to Me So Far...

Life was good BEFORE Alaska but the high and hard, professional curveball that the School Board threw my way sure sent me for a loop. But a year later, to use another baseball term, I think I fought it off nicely. I made some contact and put that ball in play. I took a very bad thing and WE turned it in to a very positive experience for our family.

Make no mistake, I miss Kivils... I miss the kids that made my days difficult. Other times, those same kids made it a highlight of my career. I speak of them often. Their pictures hang in my classroom. I miss my friends I made along the way. Some I'll see again soon - other's, most likely never again. The mountains and the ocean...lots of wonderful things to fill my memory banks.

And here we are...sometimes it's as if it never happened. We didn't skip a beat - and just like that a year has gone by.

Lucky I'm sane after all I've been through
(Everybody say I'm Cool, he's cool)
I can't complain but sometimes I still do
Life's been good to me so far.