I’ve been thinking a lot about my mom lately; she passed away in November, 2010. This is for her. when I was five and life was a song of excitement and innocence the world was full of mystery and I had never felt the pain of hurt or loss of any kind and then one day a playmate pushed me right off the swing you picked me up brushed me off told me not to cry ‘mommy,’ I said, ‘it hurts’ when I was sixteen and in love for the first time to a young Cuban girl I felt like an adult doing adult things dates and kissing and groping and late-night phone calls with the cord stretched and twisted through the house and under my door and then one day she left me for another teenage crush and I felt world-ending anguish burning, hot, consuming as only a teenager can feel them you held me close told me I’d be ok ‘but mom,’ said I, ‘it hurts.’ when I was thirty-five at the end of my marriage holding on to it with desperate and futile hands trying to be a good father to my sons who put me on a pedestal high enough to rival the gods I fought depression […]
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10 Things I Saw at the 2014 Pittsburgh Gay Pride Parade
Today marks my second week as a permanent resident of Pittsburgh. I have thrown myself right into the mix of life up here in the ‘Burgh. Last week I ran in the Run or Dye 5k. This week I participated in the 2014 Pittsburgh Gay Pride parade. I’m off to a great start in my new […]
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The Binary Biker is Moving to Pittsburgh
The time has come for me to join my wife in Pittsburgh. A year ago, I blogged that my wife was moving to Pittsburgh because she got a job with Google. We made the difficult decision that I would stay in Florida for two reasons: My job was pretty awesome and I wanted to take […]
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Parents Should Teach Their Children Gun Safety
There’s a lot of media coverage this past week about children and guns. It’s to be expected, it’s the media theme of the month. There is not an increase in gun-related deaths, only an increase in the reporting of them. There is a lot of talk and rhetoric about gun control and changes necessary […]
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My Google Gal is Moving to Pittsburgh
Yep; the Binary Biker is moving to Pittsburgh. Actually, it’s the Binary Princess that is moving. My lovely wife is now employed by Google and is relocating to work in their Pittsburgh office on the Google Shopping product. It all started about six months ago when my wife’s company, for which she has been working […]
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I have a daughter and her name is Ashlee Sparks
She didn’t want me in her life. Not at first, anyway. I was mommy’s new boyfriend and I was a nuisance because I kept getting in the way of how things were supposed to be. Sure, she liked me. I was funny, considerate, and I actually talked to her and was interested in who she was. But […]
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Rest in Peace, Grandpa
Ronald C. Sparks was my grandfather. He passed away last Thursday. Born in Portsmouth, Ohio on October 14, 1925, he was 86-years-old. These are the words I wrote, and spoke, today at his funeral service. I worked on this with my brother and sister, and I am honored to have given his eulogy. My sister […]
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Daytona Biketoberfest 2011
The weekend is over and the results are in: Biketoberfest 2011 was a success. 4 our of 5 drunk bikers agree. I rode to Daytona on Saturday with my lovely wife, Carey, and my very, very good friend John. On Sunday I rode by myself and met up with another good friend, Jaime, and his […]
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Suffer not a witch…
I grew up in a staunchly religious family; a Southern Baptist family to be exact. When I was about ten-years-old I was told that Satan was working through rock and roll bands and that rock and roll was filled with subliminal messaging. Subliminal messaging would turn our nation’s youth into devil-worshiping hooligans and imperil the very […]
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You Don’t Need My Phone Number for a Purchase
My wife and I were at a Payless shoe store near downtown Orlando yesterday. Carey complains she never has enough shoes and wanted to buy some cute little loafers that she could beat up and wear during the warm summer months. I know better than to argue when she says she doesn’t have enough shoes, even […]
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