Author: Chris Souther

Chris joined the Air Force out of high school. After four years of supporting communications for the Department of Defense, the White House, and stations around the world, he left the military and moved to Atlanta. For the next six years, Chris continued working in the telecom field, eventually traveling around the country teaching companies like MCI, Nortel Networks, and Cabletron, how to do what he did.

When the dot.com crash happened, upon recommendation from his wife, Chris re-enrolled in school and earned his B.S. in Communications (PR & Marketing).

Since then, he was worked in network security, healthcare, banking and finance (and FinTech), general high tech (AI/ML, Cloud, IoT), and most recently, application development fields. Now, with more than 15 years of both Marketing and Communications under his belt, he helps organizations grow their business through the proper application of marketing, communications, and content.

And he blogs on the side. It keeps him sane.

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Dad Blogs Family Life in these United States Society

Picture Phone Phriday!

Being something of a writer professionally, I am ever cognizant of spelling and grammar mistakes, though I make plenty of them myself. And while I’m not the kind of person to write back to a friend and tell them that their e-mail construction was so poor that it made my eyes bleed, I’m not so understanding when I see highly visible mistakes in the general public. Because there should be people, like myself, proofing things before giant, life-sized posters are made of them.

Anyway, as we were returning from our Christmas tree chopping-down last weekend, CareerMom asked if we could drive through Sonic and get drinks (she loves their crushed ice drinks), to which I heartily agreed. So, I pulled around, passing all the little pull in slots since we weren’t going to stop and drink the beverages there, and as I pulled up to the drive-through ordering thingy, I saw this:

11-28-08_1636

“Please use the Stales“

What the heck are “Stales?”

I sat there, perplexed, for about 15 seconds until a teenage girl walked out and said, “Hi, I’m sorry. The drive through isn’t working. Could you please use the stalls?“

OH STALLS! WITH TWO “L’s”

Of course, I had to point out to her that I was unfamiliar with “Stales,” prompting a blushed admission, “Oh, I guess I misspelled it.” *nervous giggle*

I know, I should cut a kid a break, but the girl was at least 17 and should know better.

Kids today, please stay in school and pay better attention!

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Dad Blogs Family Marriage

Here’s to standing out in a crowd

I like to think that I march to a different drum. That, while everyone else is going left, I go right because it’s different. I’m a fan of Robert Frost’s “Road Not Taken,”not because it’s cool to like, but because, like the man in the poem, I would rather see something unique, even if it means it’s a more difficult route.

Now granted, I don’t dress outlandishly, and I don’t listen to strange music; unless you consider groups like Enigma, Kitaro or Enya strange (OK, Cretu is a bit odd, but…). I drive a plain old Dodge Dakota truck in a “normal” blue color, and my tastes in decor lean towards traditional.

So, while I am very much a normal kind of person, in my head, I style myself as a free thinker.

That’s why I was so surprised recently when, as I stood outside my shower waiting on the water to warm up (Yes! And wasting water!), I discovered that, despite my personal beliefs about not being “pegged,” I am in fact, part of the herd, whose tastes and preferences are easily anticipated.

So without further ado, I’d like to present, my herd mentality:

Predictable tastes

My only consolation, is that CareerMom is as “unspecial” as myself.

We are, birds of a feather, which is ironic in itself.

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Dad Blogs DIY Family Life in these United States

I’m all right, ain’t nobody worried ’bout me…

Caddyshack Gopher
got-moles

Thanks to the weather of late, I’ve not spent much time in my front yard. I also sort of let the grass grow a bit longer than I should have at the end of the season. Couple that with the fact that I thought my zoysia was just turning brown due to the cold weather and it’s no surprise I didn’t realize that my front yard had become the playground for one or more moles, until I stepped onto the turf and my foot sank nearly an inch into one of his little burrows.

See all those squiggly yellow lines on the picture there, that’s approximately where his roads criss-crosses under the ground. (“…criss-cross’ll make you, JUMP, JUMP…”) You can tell by following the really white (read: Dead) lines in the grass.mole problem

This is no laughing matter. I suspect what happened is, that once I fixed my backyard landscaping, and low-teched a way to keep the bird seed from raining down on the ground, when his food source dried up, the little booger bored his way to my front yard where the steep slope is perpetually moist and makes for easy digging!

This past Saturday, after realizing the problem, and after having stomped down more than 30 feet of my prized, yet burrowed up lawn, it wasn’t but a few hours later that I noticed he’d come right back through and dug some of it back up!

My dogs are no help. They did manage to catch a mole in the backyard once, but he was so cute, that I let him go.

Oh the poor choices I’ve made in the past!!

I have since purchased some mole grub from the local hardware store. It looks like gummy worms, but it’s laced with some kinda special poison. You’re supposed to refrain from stomping on his runs (oopsy!) and instead, poke a little hole in one of his burrows and drop the little arsenic-laced gummy worm in the hole and then hope he comes back its way and dines on the tasty treat.

I dunno…I don’t have high hopes.

I fear that, come spring, my yard is going to look line someone took rock salt and played “Island of Sodor” (“Hey mom, let’s follow the tracks!“) on my lawn.

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Dad Blogs Family Fatherhood Marriage

A Limerick for every occasion

It’s over. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing; or for that matter, a good thing either. It’s just simply…over.

There is so much that I could say about Thanksgiving this year, but I thought maybe I’d try and mix it up a bit.

Therefore, I hereby present, my Thanksgiving Limericks:

At my house here we held our Thanksgiving
Celebrated with joy by the living
Though some of us slept
While the rest of us swept
When the gym opened back up, I was driven!

My mom has forgotten that small boys
Will fight over food, space and small toys
When I yell, “Hey you guys STOP!”
She says, “What up there pop?
Your yelling just adds on to their noise!”

There isn’t enough hard alcohol
Stored there in the wet bar in the hall
To keep me from wishin
That my mom would stop bitchin
About the supposed economic downfall

AND LASTLY:

When the toddler is down for his long nap
Why can’t you all shut up your trap?
And stop stomping around
Like you own this here ground
Oh Lord help me put up with this crap!

Though I make fun, we really had a very good Thanksgiving. I don’t publicly thank God for my blessings too often, but I do give him all the glory and praise for what I’ve been blessed with. I hope he understands that, at times like these, I’m mostly just having a good time. I’m not really this uptight. I think God has a sense of humor too.