FTHS Senior Night
I just loved every minute of it.
I sat next to Audrey and Kalea.
I have a lot of good memories in the Buena Auditorium for some reason. I remember seeing plays there (Dracula, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Next, etc), along with high school music concerts. It's just a happy venue for me.
To hear my daughter's name called several times, along with all of her friends, brought me such joy.
If I remember, she got Magna Cum Laude, an award for community service hours, a scholarship award, and likely something else I can't remember right now.
Here's her community service award...
Her Magna Cum Laude...
And her pre-event photo... 
So proud of this child. And I'm proud of the company she keeps with Jane, Emma and Audrey. All 4 women of power!
Memorial Day 2026 - Hall Canyon, V-Town
It was fairly warm, as I remember it.
We set off, after waiting for Jen to go to the bathroom in the parking lot, up to the trail with Walt leading the charge as always.
He just insists on being FIRST. Until he looks back and realizes there are laggers.
Then he insists and waiting for everyone to catch up.
This is how Walt operates.
It was a good 2 hour hike, and the views of Ventura are always awesome when you're in the hills.
I love these girls, all 3 of them, and little Walty.
These are moments I will always miss when time gets especially brutal. As it has been known to do.
Just have to suck it all in, and keep a log of it.
Hence, this secret blog.
Yes, Universe, I was here.
We did this, and I loved it.
Would it still matter in the annals of time should I not digitally record it? Thousands of years from now when this speck of dust in time has long been forgotten by all souls. Our identities lost in history, would this matter? Would it have any effect,,. on anything? Would it still have any meaning?
I can't be sure. So I post. Maybe someone 1,000 years in the future will stumble upon this and feel something for it. Then it will matter once more....
Steve was right. Tae Kwon Do.
About 10 years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting a sushi restaurant owner's daughter during my monthly sushi meetup with Jimmy, my old business partner.
She was about 16 at the time. Friendly, smart, discipline, organized as she helped out waiting tables.
I found out she was beyond a straight A student, and quite accomplished for her young age.
Having 2 young daughters of my own (around 6 and 4 at the time), I was curious if there was some secret I needed to be privy to, in order to raise daughters with similar qualities.
Steve said, "Tae Kwon Do".
His daughter was a 6th degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do.
Steve assured me this was a big part of his daughters success at such a young age.
The discipline. The life lessons. The respect.
It was than that I hoped my girls would eventually find their way to the martial arts.
The first attempt failed when I enrolled Kalea into Tae Kwon Do classes when she was about 5 or 6. ATA was the name.
Oh did she cry during the first group class.
And that was it. One class.
Too young and/or not ready.
I kinda forgot about things until my younger daughter Kara asked to try Tae Kwon Do when she was 7.
The closest spot was Tae Kwon Do Plus about half a mile from our house.
There's a video of Squeak in her white belt and headband, at home after the first class, responding to my prompts with palm strikes and kicks.
Her tiny little leggies sticking out for awkward little kicks, along with open hand "palm strikes" (which she now insists were never a thing, and what the hell was I doing... :) )
She stayed with it.
Then Bink joined up for her second attempt 6 months later.
They were in it. They went every week. And in 2022 or so, they both achieved the rank of Black Belt.
While that is truly the "beginning" of the journey in martial arts, Bink went off to high school cross country and track, and had to quit Tae Kwon Do.
But Squeak stayed on. She forged new friendships, and has found her way into a tight "sisterhood" of TKD students and teachers.
In fact, she's now teaching kids after having advanced in the TKD leadership program, and is next in line to become a paid instructor.
She's entered several tournaments and come away with several gold medals, lots of silver medals, and a few bronze medals.
I couldn't be more proud of her resiliency and discipline she has embraced.
It's helped her far beyond the studio. The lessons spill out into all of life, just as Steve said they would.
This is something I hope she continues for the rest of her life, as it's become a safe space for her. A place where she can shut out the rest of the world for a time.
Most Improved Distance Runner... Bink!
In 4 years she was never mentioned. Essentially "cut out" of the team, marginalized by the fastest (and therefore most popular).
Excluded, ignored, left out.
Sticking with her best friend, and a few others not a part of the "in" runner's crowd, she just kept on running.
After months of hearting about heavy legs, fatigue, and lethargy, her coach asked us to test her iron.
It was low.
Way low. Ferratin level was a 4. I hear that's pretty low.
So, we put her on iron supplements, and after several weeks, she began to PR. In each race.
No longer were her legs heavy. No longer was she "plateaued".
However, she was still ignored.
Award team meals, bus rides, races.
I don't know that I'll ever fully grasp why, in a team environment in high school, cliques happen.
And in the end, The Bink persevered with her small group of friends on the team, and got the Most Improved Runner award after posting a 5:58 mile in her last run of the year.
A goal was reached. More importantly, a lesson was learned. You just keep going, through it all, and usually, good things happen. Life rewards persistence.
So proud of Bink.
Binky's Journalism Senior Soirée - the end of her journalism journey...
I still remember her first article as a Sophomore at FTHS. It was an article about the Barbie movie.
And her full body of work...
https://foothilldragonpress.org/staff_name/kalea-eggertsen/
"Dad, I just submitted my article to the backend!", she exclaimed as she climbed our stairs. Big smile on her face.
It was new and fresh. And she was writing for an audience of many now, instead of just 1, 2, or none.
1 article, and 1 "Best of SNO" award.
Binky on fire!
Over time, she realized journalism wasn't for her. She became an editor, overseeing her writers.
She travelled to Seattle and the next year, Minneapolis, to attend the awards ceremonies.
This year, 2026, the Foothill Dragon Press won a national award once again after missing it last year.
I admit I haven't read even half of her articles.
However, I'm making a point to go through them one at a time, each week, until I've see it all.
Funny how we don't always take the time to read the things that really matter.
Sometimes, I look at a page of text, and I push it away in favor of other miniscule tasks that "matter", but not that much. And they certainly aren't urgent.
We've all got things to improve, and this is mine.
Lean into reading.
Step into the important things.
The mundane can wait.
The mundane can be left undone, and you won't miss it.
Little Boy In A Big Chair
As I sat reading comfortably outside in a wooden chair on the back patio, on a beautiful day, I hear a clunk and I feel a "whoosh" of air as a large, brown, furry body jumped up into the chair next to me, bone in mouth.
The chair, much too small for his large puppiness creaked under the strain of his nearly 100 pounds of body mass.
This loose lipped, loose skinned animal who has grown into a very large Chocolate Labrador apparently still believes he is a tiny little puppy.
From inserting himself between our legs as we walk around the house, for maximum human contact...
... to jumping on our laps, stepping on us in the process, while we watch TV late at night, eventually plopping his full mass directly on top of us...
... this dog has no clue as to his size and strength.
Oh Walter.
Here we go again! <3