It’s Saturday and eighth day of summer break and I am feeling very relaxed and rested.
I was able to remember a few more of the promises I made about summer and acted upon a few before we left town for the lake. We arrived at the lake house very late Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. The dogs barked, but our daughter (who was already here) did not wake. We brought in the essentials before collapsing into our beds.
We fully unloaded Wednesday when we awoke to an amazing day.
We’ve been busy since. Thursday I ran to town for errands and got the fixings for dinner and thought I’d capture a few signs for this week’s post and I discovered one of the signs hadn’t changed since late April!
I laughed at this one which can be seen as you drive north along M93.
and I swallowed when I read this one… on the flip side of the first.
Friday was a lazy day. Truly, it was overcast and it rained.
yes, those are my feet…
This morning it was cloudy and wet from the overnight rain, but it has since cleared and the sunshines brightly. Which means my moments of writing are few and fleeting.
The local veterinarian always has good signs and I captured the signs below when we were here in February and the images were ‘out of date’ by the time I had time to write.
cats can be viewed driving west along M72
and dogs can be seen driving into town on the flip side…
There was snow on the ground and it was much colder than it is today. There is a breeze on the lake and it promises to warm to the mid-70s (about 24-26C). Hopefully, it will trigger more memories of other promises I made about getting a few chores done.
It’s Saturday and it is going to be a full day and as I think back to my first post at MtDC I am reminded,
This could possibility be the best day ever! (This could possibility be the best day ever,) And the forecast says that tomorrow will likely be a million and six times better. So make every minute count, jump up, jump in, and seize the day, And let’s make sure that in every single possible way, Today is gonna be a great day!
So I’d better jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Making the Days Count, one day at a time, because that’s how they come.
Do you have any promises you’ve made which are coming due?
November has been a beast, October started it. Maybe it’s the leaves falling, or first quarter ending and second quarter starting. Either way, I feel as though I’ve been chasing my tail all month long.
Last weekend, I took a quick trip to the lake house – up Saturday afternoon and back Monday afternoon. It was a trip to replace the Nest thermostat which Google stopped supporting in late October. I figured (correctly) it would still work, but we wouldn’t have a way to check or change the temperature settings. O offered her Nest thermostat from her college house, and I took off when my Saturday shift at Loaves finished. I packed the car leftovers from the fridge for dinner when I arrived and both dogs.
It was a good thing I drove up. When I arrived, the thermostat was set to OFF and the inside and outside temperatures were the almost identical! 44F (11C) yikes. It was cold. I turned on the heat and within a couple of hours the cottage was a comfortable 65F (18C).
I am thankful I had the flexibility to take off for a quick trip to the lake.
I remember the weekend when I installed it in 2013. It is funny how the mind works. I re-read the post and like almost every post I reread, I found a typo or two. I also discovered I’ve become a better writer, and I realize that WordPress has developed incredible storytelling tools, even when I still must edit after I press publish.
I am thankful I continue to learn and grow, and I am thankful for WordPress. It was a good choice fifteen and half years ago and it is still today.
Sunday morning, I had a list of chores and a hope. I decided to tackle the thermostat switch, but I discovered that O’s thermostat wasn’t a good match and I needed a replacement. I checked Home Depot and discovered I could get one on Wednesday, so I checked where I bought the original Nest – Lowes and they had three in stock.
So, the dogs and I took off for the Lowes in Gaylord and a new thermostat. Hopefully this thermostat will last another dozen (or more) years.
Two hours, total. Up, back, and then a quick install and now we can monitor the climate in our lake house remotely.
On our way back to the lake, I saw the above sign; boy, do I love the wisdom. Gratitude and thankfulness, indeed it is a lifestyle, yet like many of the values and ideals in America it has a day set aside for it – Thanksgiving.
This year my school district switched the timing of parent conferences to October, instead of November and set aside the ENTIRE week of Thanksgiving as a break for teachers and administrators. This year we had nine days instead of six.
I am thankful for the three extra days; it makes a difference in where I am on the ninth morning.
After the installing thermostat I had another errand and few chores before cooking dinner and settling down for the night.
It was a beautiful day to be working outside; and my canine companions enjoyed the time to play, and I enjoyed the sunset and moonset. Monday morning, while practicing gratitude with Five Minute Journal app, I caught the most beautiful morning sunrise. I was at the right place at the right time for all three photos.
Sunday evenings’s sunset, 5:08 PM EST
Sunday evening’s moonset, 6:57 PM EST
Monday morning’s sunrise paints the early morning sky, 7:41 AM EST
I am thankful I was able to see the sky and enjoy the beauty of nature.
It is the ninth and last day of Thanksgiving break, and yesterday we received a good amount of snow, had it fallen during the school week it might have been a snow day, but it fell Saturday. The yard is beautiful and I am thankful I was able to get the yard mowed, as many leaves as I could gather, and finish almost all our Christmas lights up Friday.
There was one thing I couldn’t squeeze into Friday, and it was refilling the bird feeders. Saturday morning as the first snowflakes fell, I filled the feeders. A couple of hours later, I saw a bird I have never seen at the feeder. I snapped a photo and asked Merlin to identify it, and it came back – Dark-eyed Junco.
There were several Dark-eyed Juncos enjoying the opportunity to take part in a Thanksgiving feast of their own. The bird feeders continue to spark my curiosity and learning. There is always something at the feeders to see and wonder.
I am thankful for the family of bloggers who encourage my curiosity and challenge me.
It has been an amazing break, and I have done the things I needed to recharge and finish 2025 strong. When I started writing t was Saturday and I was by a warm hearth, and it was snowing. It is still snowing and the fireplace has gone cold, for the moment. Today is going to be an amazing day, it could be a million and six times better than yesterday. But I will ever know unless I jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Making the Days COUNT, one day at a time, practicing Thanksgiving as a lifestyle, not a day.
What’s on your gratitude list?
The video above was created in October during our visit over the Columbus Day\Indigenous People’s break
Monday on the way to work an 8th grade teacher texted me….
The sign outside the parking lot is going to make you laugh this morning!
and it did, the other side made me laugh, too.
the sign I pass on the way into the parking lot….
I made a point to slow down and look at the sign on the way into the parking lot and paused at the entrance to admire the other side, before I parked the car and went into the building to get ready for all day parent teacher conferences.
When we broke for lunch, I walked out for some sunshine and a breath of fresh and of course, to see the signs up close. They are amazing. IYKYK (if you know, you know) or if you have adolescents or know a couple, you know.
In the first few days of school, I learned there is a new craze or phrase middle school kiddos have learned over their summer break – it is the 6-7 thing. Every time I used the numbers, six and seven, in sequence 6-7the, kids would call out,
sixxxxx – sevennnnn and move both hands up and down in front of them.
The first time they did it I was….flummoxed… but they didn’t stop and now nine weeks later, I have resigned myself to join them and sort of poke fun back. I have surprise for them on this coming Friday for Halloween. heh heh heh.
It’s a middle school thing, bruh.
Last week, a friend forwarded me a photograph of a sign in front of middle school in Minnesota poking fun at the 6-7 phrase\craze used by our students. The photo is at the bottom of the post. On Friday of last week, I shared it with our principal who, shared it with the PTSA, who are in charge of the sign; and ‘presto chango,’ a BLANK SIGN becomes a message to the world or two messages. Ha!
This coming week, I will be taking my classes outside for a class picture and a little bit of fresh air as we try to figure out what we need in order to see the sign. It’s science and the beginning of our unit on light and how we see. It’s also a bit of fun all wrapped up together. There are times when learning is disguised as a trip out of doors.
Sometimes signs are there for us to let us know and sometimes they are there to encourage us to laugh. The sign for me is that I need to read more books, I’d settle for one in a week. Today is going to be an amazing day, in some ways it already is and it could be a million and six times better than yesterday, but the grandies’ first year birthday party might be difficult to top. Making the days COUNT, one day at a time, slowing down to read the signs.
Can you read sixxxxx or sevennnnn books in a week?
W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, July 23, 2025
This is going to be the last post from Europe. It has been fun and we’ve seen and visited some amazing places in London, Swansea, Paris, and Amsterdam and places in between.
Me in a selfie with Van Gogh’s ‘Almond Blossoms’ in the background
We visited five art museums while we were exploring Europe. I saw lots of paintings, drawings, and I saw several of the thirty-five known Vincent Van Gogh self portraits. Neither of us created the selfie, it was around long before either of us. We just did it. Many years ago my friends ribbed me for the one-eyed selfie I would use with my social media posts.
One of the things I learned while wandering the museums and looking at paintings is that often the artist wasn’t painting a painting, they were practicing their craft. Yesterday, we arrived at the Vincent Van Gogh Museum to see the collection. I learned even more about Van Gogh while we toured the collection, then I found this – Vincent Van Gogh and the self portrait.
Seen at the Musee D’Orsay in Paris… Tuesday, July 15th
Seen at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, July 20th
Sunday, while touring the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, I was feeling a little silly and thought I’d capture me with Vincent Van Gogh so I took a selfie, with a selfie. I did it again yesterday.
The first selfie with a selfie
My second selfie with a selfie
Self-portrait, Vincent Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, July 22nd
It’s the one-eyed selfie! Actually, the photos are edited to show more of Van Gogh’s work than the original photo.
“The only time I feel alive is when I’m painting.”
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)
I read the quote in the Van Gogh Museum and it made me think. Really think. It was sad really, he was brilliant, creative, and deeply troubled. There are so many of us who look like we’ve got it together. I think sometimes making the days count helps me focus on the times when my days were a minus, not a plus.
These past couple of weeks have been awesome. Today we fly home, tomorrow morning I will awake bright-eyed and bushy tailed at three or four in the morning and spend a couple of days getting over the jet lag of a seven hour time change.
Today is going to be an amazing day, so I’d better jump up, jump in and seize the day. I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed, unpacking, and putting away my suitcase. Making the Days Count, one day at a time, reflecting on being better every day, even a little bit.
We’ve been through a heatwave. It began this past Friday and fortunately, it appears to have broken. The last few mornings the thermometer read temps in the upper seventies where a normal early summer reading might be in the low sixties, and possibly the mid-fifties. But while weather comes and goes, it’s the climate that is changing and I must find a way to adapt and change.
I woke early this morning, a bit before six am, made coffee and noticed this morning’s temperature was 74, five degrees lower Monday, an improvement and good signs. I decided to enjoy the ‘summer office’, to listen to the birds and begin the morning routine. Often, I skim though e-mails and read a blog or two and leave comments or lazily, press like. This morning beth from I Didn’t Have My Glasses On and Neil from Yeah, Another Blogger got me thinking. Before moving on my devotional and reflection, then Wordle.
photos I packed and sent to England, from the upper left clockwise are my dad and Juliana in early 2000s, Juliana’s baby photo, a photo of her mum (guessing), and Juliana in the 60s before she met my dad
But Neil’s story of music and his dad connected with me in an odd way. I had decided to write a Tuesday’s Tune post using the song ‘Heat Wave.’ The song was written in the early sixties and recorded by Matha and the Vandellas in 1963, it was a hit. I remember it being recorded by Linda Ronstadt and I found the video below. It is from the mid-seventies, and it was a late Friday night tv show, The Midnight Special. It aired at midnight, which was long past my bedtime, but sometimes I’d sneak out to watch it. I have no memory of watching this episode, but I do remember watching late night television when I was in high school with friends. When I located the YouTube video, I realized it was from an episode of the Midnight Special which aired two days after my dad had married my stepmother.
It was there wedding day – February 19, 1975. My brothers and I from left to right – David, Warren, and me. My other is on the right between Warren and I. Juliana is in the center. The pastor is in the back and I do not know who the couple on the left are.
All three of us had attended and I remember the after-wedding celebration of running the halls of the reception hall with another group of kids while our parents celebrated the newlyweds upstairs. Continue reading Tuesday’s Tune – Heat Wave→
It is Sunday morning and my last day at the lake for this trip. I’ll be heading home tomorrow morning to focus on my summer to dos. I enjoy my time by the lake, and it serves its purpose: I am rested, relaxed, and getting closer to the restoration that I need after a year of teaching.
I was up well before the rest of the house. It was a beautiful Michigan July summer morning; temperatures in the upper 40s, fog hanging close to the still mirror-like lake, and clear blue skies. The past few days began the same with highs in the low 80s. It promises to be a beautiful day.
Friday afternoon on the lake under the sun
Today is also Day 38 of summer break with thirty-six days remaining. I keep track of the days only to remind myself that summer is finite. Yesterday was the tipping point of summer. It was the point at which the first part moves into the second part or the first half changes to the second half. Summer is an arc, either way it means that I am on the downward side of the arc. Continue reading Tipping point→
It’s summer, day 9 to be precise. I am a counter. I count the days and I try to make the time count, too. Sometimes I do, sometimes I come up short, but I am reminded that
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens…. Ecclesiastes 3:1
It reminds me to do better and to be present.
I am at the lake for a short trip, and I am headed home early Monday morning to do some of the things I said I’d do when summer came and so far, it’s a work in progress. This morning I awoke to a silent lake and fog lifting off the surface and hanging over the lake. It happens when warmer water interacts with cooler air – it’s science in action and I love how it looks in the early morning light.
morning fog, Lake Margrethe, Grayling, MI June 11, 2022 at 6:29 EDT
I re-read last year’s summer post Three things for a mid-June Sunday morning and I did well in 2021. I wrote when I could, and I enjoyed the backyard birds and even branched out to birding by the lake. I re-centered myself last summer and I think last school year was my best year as an educator, yet there is still room for growth, there always is.
W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, December 8, 2021
Cleaning out an attic and what do I find? A Reading FC mug. Oxford, MS December 3, 2021, 5:59 PM
It’s been almost two years since my stepmother has lived in her home in Oxford, Mississippi and we are (finally) beginning the process of emptying the home, saving the special things, discarding those things that aren’t and finding new homes for many of the things we can’t keep. It’s a process and there’s a lot to go through, but we are making headway.
She and my dad lived in Reading, England for several years in the late 70s and early 80s. I remember visiting several times and spending Christmas and New Year of 1978 with them. There are lots of memories in this cup.
Like so many things in life, there more to this story. A connection from the late 70s to the present day and possibly well into the future. It’s gonna be a great day, but first I must press publish and get to school. Making the Days Count, one day at a time, digging up the past and illuminating the present.
What is something that you pulled out that brought back a strong memory? Please share.
We are up at the lake for the race, the famous canoe race. Canoe race weekend is an important time for us as a family and I have written about this weekend in past years. The canoe race is always the last full weekend of July.
The canoe race is begins in town and ends 120 miles down the Au Sable River in Oscoda, Michigan where the river empties into Lake Huron. For many, the race defines this town, but Grayling is much more.
the view from my perch at the table… I can see the lake and both feeders.. and Saturday morning’s gentle rain
The rivers have been important where trapping along the three rivers – Au Sable, Manistee, and Muskegon – which begin here in the Michigan Highlands was the first industry when Europeans arrived in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Grayling, the town, was established as a logging town when it was settled in the late nineteenth century. Logging, forestry, and wood products are still key industries in town, but tourism – hunting, fishing, and recreation – is the industry that sustains this little town near the headwaters of the Au Sable River.
When the pandemic began last year, the cottage along the lake was my hideaway. I spent the last two months of the 2019-20 school year teaching remotely from our place on the lake up here. I felt safer away from our densely populated home region. In many ways we were safer here – there are significantly less people in the county and the reported COVID cases were significantly lower here than our suburban county.
And because there are less people wildlife thrives and is more abundant in the absence of people.
During this time by the lake shore, the beginning of the pandemic, change, real lasting deep change, began for me and my family.
We spent more time paying attention to nature and spent more time walking. I walked more last year with my wife and kids than I remember. I also stopped listening to music, podcasts, or audio books when I walked and I started listening to the birds, the trees, and nature around me.
And, I have paid more attention to nature.
For Father’s Day, my wife gave me a couple for bird feeders and shepherd’s double crook to hang the feeders for our lake house. I placed it just off the deck where we can see it when we are sitting in the front room or on the deck. Continue reading Friday morning birding on Saturday→
It’s Wednesday again, somehow that happens with quite a bit of regularity and without prompting. Wednesday follows Tuesday and precedes Thursday, always.
It’s early in the morning and my coffee has yet to take full effect, but it seems as if the past week has been fluid, but when I look back at the daily Instagram photographs, there were distinct events, moments which mattered.
the White Sox were better than my Astros – the score was 10-1. We got clobbered
The back yard is in full bloom. My wife’s planning and hard work are evident. My role is garden assistant and enjoyer. Nature has cooperated by providing ample sunshine and rain.
The backyard birds continue to visit the feeders. and I continue to refill them. The squirrels and bunnies continue to tease and taunt (mostly the squirrels) Fern and Ivy. Continue reading Days of Summer: Week 6 – fluid→
