10. Charlie’s Stubbed Toe

My youngest son, Charles Preston Hanley, loves going barefoot and would stay outside all day long if we let him.  One day toward the end of August, he somehow stubbed the big toe on his right foot to the point where I almost passed out when I got a look at it.  Something about the purple flap of skin encrusted with dirt hanging below his toenail got to me, or was it the raw red pulsing meat exposed beneath?  In any event, it was so horrible as to fall into the cool category.

9.  The Big Ugly Fish

One day during The Summer of Dad, as I came to call it, I went up to my hometown, Saginaw, with Walter (12), Jack (10), and Charlie (7), and we ended up hanging out in the middle of the afternoon at a bar called The Big Ugly Fish my younger brother, Mike, owns up there.  Charlie got to drink unlimited kiddie cocktails, Jack got to play pool, and Walter got to huddle with his cousin, Nick, and talk about Apple computers.  This was cool because Mike and I got to enjoy some brotherly bonding while the boys were livin’ large.

8.  “My name is John, and I’m addicted to Facebook.”

I admit it, I’m a Facebook junkie.  I check it first thing in the morning, last thing at night and countless times over the course of the day.  My only regret-- other than the fact that it is sucking the life out of me by keeping me from engaging in more meaningful pursuits-- stems from the way it’s kept me from chronicling my life on one of the blogs on my personal website.  But since blogging is only marginally more worthwhile than idle chitchat over Beer Nuts at The Big Ugly Fish, I suppose it’s no great loss.  I’d explain why this is cool, but first I have to update my status.

7.  Things The Grandchildren Should Know – Mark Oliver Everett

Most summers I tackle some big, important book I’ve been meaning to read and thus change my life forevermore: Moby Dick, The Odyssey, Long Day’s Journey Into Night.  It didn’t work out that way this year, and not just because I was wasting my life on Facebook, but I still managed to work in some quality reads.  This memoir, by the creative force behind alternative rock band EELS, was by turns funny, scary, sad, and finally a tribute to the power of art to save our lives.  This is cool because that makes it an important, if not exactly big, book after all.  

[Runners-up: A Moveable Feast – Ernest Hemingway, Netherland – Joseph O’Neill, Public Enemies – Bryan Burrough]

6.  Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

On the last non-school night of summer, we watched this classic movie starring Gene Wilder (not Tim Burton’s tragic misfire from a few years back starring Johnny Depp), and as always, it satisfied.  As you can see by the runners-up below, I almost always go to the movies with my kids these days, but I’m hard pressed to find a character as necessary for them to experience as Wilder’s sly, sinister, and finally sweet (ouch!) candy maker.  This was cool because I love a moral menace with a twinkle in his eye. 

[Runners-up: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Ponyo, Star Trek]

5.  Brilliant Books, Suttons Bay, MI

Our annual camping trip to Interlochen (see #3 below) came during a cool and rainy week (I know, that was unusual), and as a result more than once we ended up wandering around stores, hoping the tent wasn’t taking on water back at the state park.  A happy result was a couple of afternoons spent in Suttons Bay, a cute little tourist town north of Traverse City that was home to a cool toy store, a fine deli, and best of all, a nifty little independent bookstore staffed by helpful book lovers.  Why was this cool?  Because there’s nothing like the cozy feeling of browsing for books on a rainy day. 

4.  The Music of M Ward

This really cool singer-songwriter had a hand in my musical pick from last year’s Top Ten, She and Him, his side project with the divine Zooey Deschanel, and I spent a good bit of this summer exploring the rest of his oeuvre.  When he’s not putting my heart in my throat by singing about how much he loves his life, he’s rendering a blistering guitar solo on “Roll Over Beethoven.”  Check out the Video Zen blog on my website for further evidence of why this is cool.

3.  Family Camping at Interlochen

This was our third year tent camping at Interlochen State Park, and despite the cool temps and occasional rain, we had a great time.  We did all the necessary things: hit the beach, had s’mores, took long walks, visited the Music Camp across the road, went to breakfast at The Omelette Shoppe in Traverse City.  I’ve gone to this park most summers for over a half century, but I never get tired of it.  I even got to take a nap in the tent on a sunny afternoon; that alone guaranteed the trip’s status as a cool thing.

2.  The Summer of Dad

“Best summer of my life” has been my standard answer to the obvious question as I’ve reconnected with colleagues at FHS.  In large part that’s because I got to hang out with my three sons.  Oh, it wasn’t always smooth sailing, and there was definitely more than one moment when we got on each other’s nerves or got impossibly bored, but on the whole, we had a blast.  From our road trip to Hell to a banana split that featured a half gallon of ice cream to spending the afternoon at the library, we did so many cool things I easily could have made a list just from our summer.  This was cool because, as it says on the Main page of this website, I am The Luckiest Man in the USA, which you will see when you read The Hanley Boys Summer 2009 Top Ten.    

1.  Walking the dog with JBH

In the end it’s the simple pleasures that bring joy to our lives.  Watching Mad Men after putting the boys to bed (Peggy Olsen, you da man!), sharing a bottle of Nine Vines at the wine bar downtown on Friday night, or just walking the dog before work in the morning or after dinner at night, all these things and more made me realize how lucky I am to be married to my wife, Julie.  She’s a great nurse, a rockin’ mother, but most important to me, she’s my sweetheart and my best friend.  It doesn’t get any cooler than that.