https://www.ourolddad.com Family life, slow travel, playlists, and advice from an old dad. en-us Tue, 07 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT https://www.ourolddad.com/post/google-almost-killed-us https://www.ourolddad.com/post/google-almost-killed-us Tue, 07 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT diary A wildfire closure, a phone route toward Black Bear Pass, and a family pickup learning that possible and reasonable are not the same thing. https://www.ourolddad.com/post/the-pace-rule-we-are-not-dragging-two-kids-through-the-world https://www.ourolddad.com/post/the-pace-rule-we-are-not-dragging-two-kids-through-the-world Sat, 27 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT slow-travel Slow travel only works if the pace protects the family: long bases, limited move days, local rhythms, and enough slack for kids to stay steady. https://www.ourolddad.com/post/none-of-those-roads https://www.ourolddad.com/post/none-of-those-roads Mon, 22 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT diary A couch, a little blue bus, two laughing kids, and the old-dad math of regret: every smarter road would have missed the moment in front of me. https://www.ourolddad.com/post/slow-travel-weather-filter https://www.ourolddad.com/post/slow-travel-weather-filter Sat, 20 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT slow-travel A slow-travel weather filter for choosing places where daily life works instead of fighting heat, cold, rain, smoke, and the wrong road setup. https://www.ourolddad.com/post/the-constraint-system-that-will-pick-our-next-places https://www.ourolddad.com/post/the-constraint-system-that-will-pick-our-next-places Sat, 20 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT slow-travel A slow-travel plan only works if the places survive real constraints: weather, housing, safety, pacing, internet, visas, money, and kids. https://www.ourolddad.com/post/slow-travel-the-mission https://www.ourolddad.com/post/slow-travel-the-mission Fri, 19 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT slow-travel An old dad, a seven-year runway, two young kids, and the plan to build a slow-travel life instead of rushing through the world. https://www.ourolddad.com/post/everything-is-not-yet-lost https://www.ourolddad.com/post/everything-is-not-yet-lost Wed, 17 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT diary A quote found on a messy desk becomes a way to interrupt the grievance reflex and return to the person in front of me. https://www.ourolddad.com/post/what-if-i-dont https://www.ourolddad.com/post/what-if-i-dont Wed, 17 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT life-education A podcast let the doubt back in, and the fear finally turned over: leaving wasn't the gamble. Staying was. https://www.ourolddad.com/post/sure-you-will https://www.ourolddad.com/post/sure-you-will Tue, 16 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT diary A 1989 sidewalk promise, a friend calling bullshit, and the useful trap of saying the thing out loud before I\'m ready to back it up. https://www.ourolddad.com/post/the-purple-scooter-walk https://www.ourolddad.com/post/the-purple-scooter-walk Sun, 14 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT life-education Xander is two. The plan was a few minutes of scooter practice in front of the house. He had a different plan, and it ended a mile away at the park. https://www.ourolddad.com/post/1985-the-wrong-algorithm https://www.ourolddad.com/post/1985-the-wrong-algorithm Fri, 12 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT music-playlists A 1985 playlist becomes a Purdue time capsule about analog college life, wrong lessons learned well, and the scattered music of a young man getting good at a game he did not respect. https://www.ourolddad.com/post/little-tommy https://www.ourolddad.com/post/little-tommy Sat, 06 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT diary A pre-internet photo cleanout turns into a fake kid named Little Tommy, a pile of mailed junk pictures, and a small experiment in how hard people work to make nothing mean something. https://www.ourolddad.com/post/the-zam-coup https://www.ourolddad.com/post/the-zam-coup Fri, 05 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT diary A baby-name negotiation, one accidental assist from Alexa, and the quiet family coup that produced two Zams. https://www.ourolddad.com/post/the-math-isnt-good https://www.ourolddad.com/post/the-math-isnt-good Sat, 30 May 2026 12:00:00 GMT diary I got the miracle. They get the math. That is not an even trade. https://www.ourolddad.com/post/1993-the-year-everything-was-right-in-front-of-me https://www.ourolddad.com/post/1993-the-year-everything-was-right-in-front-of-me Mon, 25 May 2026 12:00:00 GMT music-playlists The songs from my musical home year — and the year I had everything right in front of me and didn't reach for it. https://www.ourolddad.com/post/within-a-listen https://www.ourolddad.com/post/within-a-listen Sat, 23 May 2026 12:00:00 GMT music-playlists Thirty-six years is an ocean. Then a record starts and the distance folds down to the length of a listen. https://www.ourolddad.com/post/a-room-from-1983 https://www.ourolddad.com/post/a-room-from-1983 Sun, 10 May 2026 12:00:00 GMT diary The five years I spent at Purdue still take up more room in my head than decades that came after. A small dorm room, a TA who blew my tiny mind, and a memory I am no longer sure I can trust. https://www.ourolddad.com/post/the-funk-that-forgot-about-me https://www.ourolddad.com/post/the-funk-that-forgot-about-me Sun, 10 May 2026 12:00:00 GMT diary Teachers know this funk, even when they pretend they don\u2019t. A field guide to twenty years of end-of-winter-break dread, the avoidance hobbies that came with it, and the year I learned more about Desi Arnaz than any reasonable person should. https://www.ourolddad.com/post/i-got-another-round https://www.ourolddad.com/post/i-got-another-round Sat, 09 May 2026 12:00:00 GMT slow-travel Two pictures, sixteen years apart. Same guy, different game. The setup for what we are about to try. https://www.ourolddad.com/post/im-almost-5-dad https://www.ourolddad.com/post/im-almost-5-dad Sat, 09 May 2026 12:00:00 GMT diary Raven turned four and went straight to work on five. A walk to the park, an ant hill, and a four-year-old running a goldfish play I didn't see coming. https://www.ourolddad.com/post/1977-the-year-that-wouldnt-pick-a-lane https://www.ourolddad.com/post/1977-the-year-that-wouldnt-pick-a-lane Mon, 04 May 2026 12:00:00 GMT music-playlists My favorite songs released in 1977, thrown together the way I still like to hear them: on random play, like FM radio is still in charge. https://www.ourolddad.com/post/dad-do-you-love-me-enough-to-protect-me https://www.ourolddad.com/post/dad-do-you-love-me-enough-to-protect-me Fri, 01 May 2026 12:00:00 GMT diary The sales pitch will not look like tyranny. It will look like parental love with a subscription plan. https://www.ourolddad.com/post/running-away-running-true https://www.ourolddad.com/post/running-away-running-true Tue, 28 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT diary Regret wants to edit the past selectively. But if I pulled too many threads out of my life, I might also lose the part that matters most. https://www.ourolddad.com/post/the-wrong-ruler https://www.ourolddad.com/post/the-wrong-ruler Tue, 28 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT diary Ross Perot had enough money to stop forever. The fact that he kept going forced me to notice what kind of life I thought money was supposed to buy. https://www.ourolddad.com/post/advice-1-dont-be-a-dick https://www.ourolddad.com/post/advice-1-dont-be-a-dick Mon, 27 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT advice The first rule is not elegant or fancy, but it covers a surprising amount of ground: don’t be a dick. https://www.ourolddad.com/post/be-like-mr-walker https://www.ourolddad.com/post/be-like-mr-walker Mon, 27 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT advice A nearly-ninety-year-old neighbor shoveling my sidewalk one December morning, an insult disguised as a compliment, and the kind of person I keep wanting to become. https://www.ourolddad.com/post/reasons-to-reconsider-the-80s https://www.ourolddad.com/post/reasons-to-reconsider-the-80s Sun, 26 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT music-playlists I have spent a lot of years being annoyed by 80s music. This playlist is my reminder that the decade was not all shoulder pads, gated drums, and songs built for shopping malls. https://www.ourolddad.com/post/earlines-mom https://www.ourolddad.com/post/earlines-mom Fri, 24 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT diary A child’s memory, a train fantasy, and the realization that I’m a lot closer to the old woman’s chair than to being young on Pearl Street. https://www.ourolddad.com/post/bad-company-40-songs-worth-burning-through https://www.ourolddad.com/post/bad-company-40-songs-worth-burning-through Thu, 23 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT music-playlists A Bad Company playlist brought back eighth-grade graduation money, a record-store splurge, and a band that still hits harder than I remember. https://www.ourolddad.com/post/journey-40-songs-and-a-time-machine https://www.ourolddad.com/post/journey-40-songs-and-a-time-machine Wed, 22 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT music-playlists A Journey playlist turned into a map of memory, bad timing, school dances, and the Steve Perry years.