Category Archives: DUMB SHIT I’VE DONE

WHILE I WAS AWAY

Posted on May 17, 2022 by Kit Troyer

As I got ready to leave town for 10 days, I worried about the baby hummingbirds near my porch. I had watched them each day as they began to move around and make noise and ask their mother for food. … Continue reading →

Posted in ANIMALS, CHILD REARING, DUMB SHIT I'VE DONE, SPIRIT | 32 Comments

STORM-DRAIN DIRT

Posted on February 16, 2022 by Kit Troyer

I looked back the other day at something I wrote at the beginning of the pandemic. The piece seems naive, ill informed, and overly optimistic. But the basic thesis remains true — there were silver linings to the Covid lockdown, … Continue reading →

Posted in DUMB SHIT I'VE DONE, ICE HOCKEY, SELF HELP, SPIRIT | 24 Comments

RAT NEST

Posted on June 27, 2021 by Kit Troyer

I am taking a break today from my one-man war against the unholy fortress of bougainvillea in my backyard. It has recently been colonized by a populous young rat family. I became aware of the rats because I’ve been sleeping … Continue reading →

Posted in DOGS, DUMB SHIT I'VE DONE | 12 Comments

BOOMER THE INCONTINENT

Posted on May 3, 2021 by Kit Troyer

They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. But I’m learning that an old dog can teach an old man new tricks. My 14-year-old goldendoodle Boomer has deployed three strategies simultaneously to retrain me — senile barking, separation … Continue reading →

Posted in CHILD REARING, DOGS, DUMB SHIT I'VE DONE, SPIRIT | 28 Comments

DOSING THE OCTOPUS

Posted on July 26, 2020 by Kit Troyer

My son is so disciplined about his daily weightlifting. I decided to get disciplined about something myself — anything. I picked meditating. I went back to it twice a day, 20 minutes at a time. Most of my meditations are … Continue reading →

Posted in DUMB SHIT I'VE DONE, SELF HELP, SPIRIT | 3 Comments

WHERE’S FEKKESH

Posted on June 24, 2020 by Kit Troyer

1977 was a great year for movies. Star Wars was released, along with Annie Hall, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Saturday Night Fever, Julia, The Goodbye Girl, and The Turning Point. It was also the year I saw The Spy … Continue reading →

Posted in DUMB SHIT I'VE DONE, MOVIES, MY CHILDHOOD | 6 Comments

EVERYTHING TURNS OUT OKAY

Posted on June 9, 2020 by Kit Troyer

When I was three and a half years old, I went crashing into a glass door on the first floor of my family’s home in Chevy Chase, Md. The worst damage was not from my arm going through the door, … Continue reading →

Posted in DUMB SHIT I'VE DONE, MY CHILDHOOD, SELF HELP, SPIRIT | 5 Comments

THE HANGING TREE

Posted on June 6, 2020 by Kit Troyer

During the national week of rage and mayhem over George Floyd’s death, friends sent me various articles, photos, petitions to sign. One petition which caught my attention was for the removal of the infamous Hanging Tree in Brooksville, Fla. I … Continue reading →

Posted in DUMB SHIT I'VE DONE, POLITICS, UNIQUELY AMERICAN BULLSHIT | 6 Comments

STUPID SMART PERSON

Posted on June 4, 2020 by Kit Troyer

Note: As long as I’ve been writing about the racism of other people, it occurred to me re-post this piece from three years ago about my own moment of racial profiling. One of the more humiliating moments in my life … Continue reading →

Posted in DUMB SHIT I'VE DONE, UNIQUELY AMERICAN BULLSHIT | 5 Comments

ST. KIT

Posted on May 17, 2020 by Kit Troyer

Each day I reach into a little bag with a hundred bits of paper, each with a name scrawled on it. I pick out two. I say a quick prayer for those two people. Nothing dramatic, the usual shit — … Continue reading →

Posted in DUMB SHIT I'VE DONE, SELF HELP | 8 Comments