The Middle
+2
Oct 26, 2026
•
3 min read
I sat down with a legal pad to prosecute the man I used to be. The column that filled first wasn't the one I expected.
Sunday Reset
Oct 25, 2026
Week 11 of 47. 28 out of 28, and my first instinct was to look for what's about to go wrong.
Grace Over Guilt
Oct 23, 2026
5 min read
Every person I wrote off after one flat conversation, why pride keeps men safe and alone at the same time, and the fix I'm running now.
Oct 21, 2026
I surrender the things I can't control and keep one drawer locked. The stuff in it is exactly what keeps me up at night.
Oct 19, 2026
4 min read
Season 2 starts today with one rule: it gets recorded the week it happens. The habits came with me to Orlando. So did the skills.
Oct 18, 2026
Week 10 of 47. Season 2 is in the can. A pew, a machine, a verdict, and an ordinary week chosen on purpose.
Oct 16, 2026
Twenty episodes in, the name finally gets explained. Guilt, shame, and the verdict that sits on top.
Oct 14, 2026
The first check in a new city came from the last place I expected. And the second business got built so it could survive without me.
Oct 12, 2026
A new city, a church where nobody knew my story, and a seat picked for its distance to the door.
Oct 11, 2026
Week 9 of 47. The race I didn't run. The kitchen takeover, the parents' house, a suitcase and a dog. And the first full week of Q4 in the books.
Oct 7, 2026
March 9th. One suitcase, a seven-and-a-half-pound Yorkie, and a two-to-three-month plan for Orlando. The plan was wrong in the best possible way.
September 22, 2025. My dad picked me up, and at 46 I moved onto an air mattress in my parents' basement. What came next wasn't a comeback. It was a cycle.
Oct 5, 2026
After Easter, I took over the jail kitchen. A workforce paid in time, customers with zero choice, and the best business education I ever got.
Oct 4, 2026
Week 8 of 47. The warrant, the sentence, the kitchen. And Q4 opening with a race on Saturday and a flight to Michigan on the calendar.
Oct 2, 2026
Four days after sentencing, I got a job in the jail kitchen. Beard nets, walk-offs, and the most useful business lesson I've ever learned.
Sep 30, 2026
January 2025. Same judge, third time. Three hundred and some odd days, no probation. And the strangest part: my head was quiet.
Sep 28, 2026
November 2024. This time I didn't wait for the knock. I turned myself in at 5:30 in the morning. It still ended with a $100,000 bond and my dog in a cold car.
Sep 27, 2026
Week 7 of 47. Three episodes about a man who kept starting over and kept landing in the same place.
Sep 24, 2026
6 min read
March 2024. Off probation, clean slate, genuinely free for the first time in two years. By October I was in a holding tank in Ottawa County.
Sep 23, 2026
I walked into a probation meeting expecting to be released. I walked out in handcuffs. But the real story is the money, and the money was my fault.
Sep 21, 2026
February 2023. I got a dog I had no business getting. Eight weeks later, they accused me of forgery.
Sep 20, 2026
Week 5 of 47. Season One is done. Six episodes, and none of them get easier to tell.
Wednesday Lesson
Sep 18, 2026
9 min read
A Facebook Marketplace couch, a door I could lock, and the year I found out my discipline was scaffolding.
Monday Story
Sep 16, 2026
Halloween 2022. A car in a parking lot, a bagel, and a man who had no idea what came next.
Friday Moment
Sep 14, 2026
Eleven dollars, two daughters, and a business that was already dead.
