I've been a blogger since 2010 and I keep at it because of the community of readers I have come to know. Every day is a possibility and I intend to make every day count.
View all posts by Clay →
Itβs Thursday and it has been too long since I have posted anything on MtDC. Since summer began three weeks ago, I have been posting daily or almost daily on Instagram and if you follow along there, youβll see the progress of my summer break. If you are curious, there is a sidebar of the blog – it’s a three by three graphic on the right-side.
Since my last post from 36,000 feet, I have been to Ohio and back, logged two more baseball games, served others at the food pantry, mowed the yard, spread mulch, cleaned up after a wild storm (which I slept through), collected the ends of branches the cicadas have snipped off, and much more.
When MtDC was in its infancy, I was posting almost daily. I donβt have the energy or creativity to keep up that pace today, though I do follow a couple of bloggers who do. If you are reading, you know who you are. It also seems the blogging community I connected with more than a decade ago has dropped off and their blogs are shutdown or static. At some point that will happen at MtDC, but for now I am simply too stubborn to let happen or stop. Continue reading Day 24: Creativity→
It’s Thursday and I am sitting at the gate waiting for push back. After five baseball games and two days driving along the coast, I am headed home.
I am trying something new with this post. I am going to write directly into WordPress using my iPad and the plane’s WiFi as I fly home to Chicago. I have never posted from my iPad or typed directly into WordPress, so I’ll see how this goes.
the view from my seat over Coloradoβ¦.
I was able to piece together the video below from Monday’s drive north along the Pacific Coast Highway. I uploaded the video to YouTube this morning and added the pictures at the airport before boarding.
It is Day Ten of summer break. This summer’s break is 76 days and like every summer before, I am going to Make the Days Count.
Yesterday, was a day game and a chance to spend an afternoon with my friend, Tonette. She and I worked together in the late 80’s until early 1990 when I lived in the Bay Area working in the restaurant business for Vie de France. All these years, we’ve kept in touch via cards, birthday wishes, Christmas cards, and Facebook ever since. The last time we saw one another was in 1995 when I was in Southern California opening a restaurant for Vie de France.
Won’t you get hip to this timely tip:
When you make that California trip
Get your kicks on Route sixty-six
Three baseball games in San Francisco, the first two were night games before yesterday’s day game.
San Francisco is not a new ‘baseball city for me, it was the third baseball city for me back in 1987. I moved to the Bay Area in June of 1987 when I worked for Vie de France. Monday’s baseball game was my first game in San Francisco since the World Series earthquake game was played on October 27, 1989; ten days after the devastating earthquake. Continue reading that California trip …→
I am in California, along the Pacific coast in Aptos. Iβve been dreaming about this trip for over a month; now, I am here. Itβs Day 7 of summer break and I am busy Making the Days Count.
I arrived Friday morning and have been to two baseball games, hiked in the coastal hills in Orange County, driven along the Pacific Coast highway, through a mountain pass, and up the Central Coast Valley before watching the sunset at Seacliff State Beach last night.
W^2 orΒ W squaredΒ for Wordless Wednesday, June 5, 2024
Clean glassware drying on the drying rack. Naperville, IL Monday, June 3, 2024, 12:54 PM
Itβs summer again, this year itβll be my 25th summer break as a teacher. I have four more summer breaks after this one, then itβll be permanent summer break.
W^2 orΒ W squaredΒ for Wordless Wednesday, May 8, 2024
NOTE: This post was originally titled “Baseball”, but after reflecting overnight, I changed it to “baseball is back.” Enjoy
Tuesday night baseball at Wrigley Field, Chicago, Illinois. Tuesday April 23, 2024, 7:09 PM
Itβs baseball season, again. Baseball season begins at the end of March and lasts until the final out in late October. Every team will play 162 games, the good ones will play more, and the best teams could play 173 or more. It all depends, because baseball is a funny game.
βThe one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. Itβs been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game β itβs a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again.β
βOhhhhhhhh, people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come.β
Terrance Mann in Field of Dreams
I made it to my first game of the 2024 season two weeks ago and I am just now making time to write about it. Iβve been to Wrigley Field more times than I can remember. My first game was in 1993. Wrigley Field opened with its first baseball game one hundred ten years ago in 1914. Itβs the second oldest ballpark in the major leagues and there is something magic about watching a game there. Continue reading W^2 β baseball is back→
Itβs April and we are at the lake for a short weekend getaway. My wife picked me up Friday after school and we drove up as day turned to night arriving before midnight. We will leave later this afternoon. Instead of chores I am writing a post, which was supposed to be a quick post.
yesterday evening’s sunset… they are never the same… created with Adobe Express
It all started in 2010 and it is difficult to believe I am still writing (and posting) at MtDC after all these years, but I am.
Last year, before school let out for the summer, I signed up for a professional development class hosted by Adobe for their new dynamic content creation software, Adobe Express. Iβve been using it to edit and create since; almost entirely on my phone where I take all my photos. There are desktop and mobile versions of the software, but they werenβt the same and frankly I preferred the mobile app for its convenience, but that changed Friday morning.
Sometimes, learning is difficult.
Itβs been a couple of days of figuring things out. Iβve tinkered a little and used it to create a couple of images learning as I go.
When I started writing and posting, I wanted a logo that fit what I was doing. I created my first logo in 2010 and it stuck around until 2014. I changed it again in 2016 and it has been the site icon since.
created 2024
created 2016
created 2014
created 2010
first attempt…
I still have these blocks….
Earlier this month I was tinkering with Adobe Express and created a new logo, the above logo. A couple of weeks ago I added it to WordPress as my site icon and planned to write a post but didnβt. This morning, I changed all my social media to the icon.
WARNING: itβs Wednesday so I titled the post W^2, but itβs hardly wordless.
Itβs spring break and weβve escaped then blustery chill of a midwestern early spring for the Florida Keys and sun, wind, and sand. Mostly sun.
I remember my first visit to the Keys with my in-laws in 2002. Our son had recently turned four and my wife was pregnant with our daughter. We arrived in Miami and were picked up by my in-laws at the airport.
Until then, my only experience with Florida had been passing through the airport on the way to somewhere else: Venezuela or England to spend the summer or Christmas with my dad and stepmother.
With my father-in-law at the wheel we wove our way through Miami traffic to Homestead and US1. US1 is the only road from the Florida mainland at the tip of the Florida peninsula to the Keys where it terminates at Key West.
US1 travels along the path of the defunct Miami to Key West extension of the Florida East Coast Railway. Construction of the railroad began in 1903 and was completed in 1913. The railway operated until 1935 when the Labor Day hurricane washed out the rail bed in Islamorada and the railroad abandoned the railroad. Two years later the Florida Highway Commission purchased the right of way and began construction of a highway to Key West. They used the old railroad bridges constructing roadbeds atop the concrete viaducts and bridges built by the railroad. Over the years, the highway has replaced the original railway bridges with wider end more modern concrete bridges.
The view from the bridge to the Atlantic Ocean
The first several miles of the two lane road travel along the path of the old railway. First through the thick mangrove swamps and across Lake Surprise before reaching Key Largo where the highway opens up to the Atlantic Ocean on the left and Florida Bay to the right.
As the highwaybridges were replaced, the original railroad bridges were left in place. Most have been repurposed as fishing platforms or observation decks and others have been left to decay and breakdown in the elements. The Seven Mile Bridge has a two mile extension from Knightβs Key Key to Pigeon Key open to walkers and bicycles with breathtaking sunset views.
Anyway, Tuesday afternoon my buddy and I (we are here with another couple) took off on an adventure stopping at the western approach to the Bahia Honda Bridge.
The original railroad bridge on the left and the new highway bridge on the right. Looking west from Bahia Honda State Park – photo from 3/28/2017
The old bridge has been abandoned since the present bridge was completed in 1977. The original railroad bridge is an iron trestle bridge which was only wide enough for a single railroad track and the passage of a single train. The highway engineers decided to construct a two lane road atop the railroad trestle to connect the two keys, or islands.
W^2 orΒ W squaredΒ for Wordless Wednesday, March 6, 2024
It appears Spring has sprung, but the Spring Equinox is a little less than a fortnight away. This year, the vernal equinox is Tuesday, March 19, 2024, at 10:06β―PM.
“The first blooms of spring always make my heart sing.” β S. Brown
According to the meteorologists, it is spring. We had a mild winter here in the upper Midwest. I read a report that this past winter was one of the five mildest winters on record for the Chicagoland area. We hardly had any snow and only a very brief cold snap where temperatures went below zero (Fahrenheit). We did however have two bad weather days where I could teach from home, some folks mike call that ‘good weather.’
Daffodils blooming on March afternoon. Is it spring or winter? Wednesday March 6, 2024, 5:17 PM
Itβs leap day. Iβve been blogging since May 2010, and I have never posted on a leap day. NEVER.
Wednesday night, February 28th. Dog walk with Fern and you can three stars aligned in Orion’s Belt in the middle of the photo
After searching through the leap year Februarys, I found ONE post written on February 28, 2012. Stamps, stamps, and more stamps that was close to a leap day. I re-read it, and it took me back.
These days, I donβt write many letters, the folks I wrote have passed away. I could write to my kids or my brothers, but I donβt. Itβs too easy to call or send a text. So, I donβt write. I do write thank you notes to my students, but I am behind in that of late.
Last night I was walking Fern around the neighborhood, and I could clearly see Orion spread across the southwestern sky. It was a beautiful night, and the stars were bright. Continue reading Leaping into March→
W^2 orΒ W squaredΒ for Wordless Wednesday, January 24, 2024
On approach to Midway International Airport, Lake Michigan ice. Wednesday January 17, 2024 1:14 PM
Lately it seems that my life has been filled with all sorts of unexpected things, so much so that it has distracted me from the expected things in life.
Itβs January in the upper Midwest. It gets cold in January, that is expected. When it gets cold here, ice forms on Lake Michigan. What is unexpected is why I was flying on a Wednesday, but there is more to that story, for now there is lake ice on Lake Michigan and a glimpse of the Chicago skyline.
Today I am going to focus on the expected things in life β family, school, taking care of my puppies, and taking care of me. So Iβd better jump up, jump in, and seize the day, and press publish. Making the days Count, one day at a time, exploring, learning, and being curious and focusing on the expected things in life.
Whatβs been unexpected or expected in your world?
