We could not have made it very far on our Europe trip without these signs. London, Paris, and Amsterdam are HUGE cities, and they have remarkable transit systems. Chicago has a good system as well, but I don’t travel to the city often. Even with the train, subway, tram, and buses we averaged 20k steps each day on our trip.
Paris
paris
Paris
Paris
Boston
This past weekend in Boston I used Boston’s transit system and found it as easy to use as those in Europe. I was two stops from Fenway and used it to get to the airport with ease. Even still I averaged 14k steps over the weekend.
I live in a world with transit, but it is not practical from me. Last night at Loaves we had a bus drop off and pickup for a couple of clients and we have ride share clients as well, but the suburbs are car reliant. I was grateful for transit when I need it.
Next school restarts for another year, my twenty-seventh. Last night at Loaves and Fishes I ran into a fellow volunteer who’s I daughter I had in my first class in August 1999. We reconnected a few years ago when I recognized her name in the Loaves and Fishes newsletter. Since then, I’ve run into other volunteers whose kids I had or were former students. Serving others is universal and it makes our world smaller.
Today is going to be a great day, but I am going to rely on my car and my feet to get where I need to go and be. So, I’d better jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Today could be a million and six times better than yesterday. Making the Days Count, one day at a time making time to move with a purpose.
Is there reliable transit available where you live? Do you use it?
This past weekend I completed one of my bucket list items – I made to Boston and Fenway Park to watch a baseball game and my thirtieth MLB franchise. I have been looking forward to this game since last season. It was a great weekend, and I watched all three games between the Hoston Astros and the Boston Red Sox before flying home Sunday night. It was a full weekend.
Boston Logan peaks at me through the clouds
Fenway Park is the oldest ballpark in the major leagues and has been used by the Boston Red Sox since 1912. The Chicago Cubs home Wrigley Field is the second oldest having been in use since 1914.
Every ballpark is different. Each ballpark has its own traditions and routines, but in the end it’s that brings us all together. All the fans I interacted with over the weekend were friendly and fun to talk with during the game. They knew the game and enjoyed baseball and were passionate about their team.
Singing “Sweet Caroline” is one of the traditions at Fenway. It is sung in the eighth inning, and it is sung with gusto. I remember learning to play “Sweet Caroline” in seventh grade band. I was so excited to play something fun and upbeat, and my trombone part included playing the tune, rather than in the playing in the background which many of the scores we played had for the trombone.
Where it began I can’t begin to knowin’ But then I know it’s growin’ strong
I didn’t last long in band and quit when high school started. Like many of my peers, I was drifting and wouldn’t really find myself or my place until my junior year.
Sweet Caroline Good times never seemed so good I’ve been inclined To believe they never would
I took an early flight to Boston and landed before noon. I had hoped to use public transit to get to the hotel but was confused and chose a ride share to get to my hotel. It wasn’t until I left Sunday that I realized my mistake! Next time I’ll get it right.
Boston is one of the oldest cities in America, but its history pales in comparison to the cities I had visited in Europe – London, Paris, and Amsterdam. I spent Friday afternoon walking the historical areas in downtown Boston before the game Friday. It was a lovely afternoon, perfect for walking and exploring.
the Boston massacre Memorial on the Boston Common
‘The Embrace’ a memorial the Martin Luther King, Jr and his wife Coretta Scott King
The 54th Massachusetts Memorial – an all black regiment with fought in the Civil War, led by Bostonite Robert Gould Shaw
Benjamin Frankin was born in Boston
the Old City Hall
the memorial to visitors of the Irish Famine 1948-49
the old South Meeting House where the ‘Good Trouble’ began the original ‘resist’ movement
the site of the Boston Massacre, memorialized
I had great seats for Friday’s game – 7 rows behind home plate and on the aisle! There was a family behind me; the grandpa and I talked baseball throughout the game. Sadly, the Astros lost the game in extras 2-1, but it was the best game of the weekend.
the view from the ‘Green Monster’ the 37 foot high left field wall
pre-game view from my seat
the classic peanut photo….
And before I knew it, Friday melted into Saturday morning. Saturday’s game was a 4:10 start and I wanted to arrive early enough to walk the ballpark and take it all in, so I decided to go visit the Boston Museum of Fine Arts which has a special exhibit I wanted to see.
Yes, you guessed it Van Gogh. The exhibit highlighted the artist’s work in the south of France in the last few years of his life. He painted a postal worker and his family while living in the yellow house. I enjoyed the exhibit very much.
yep, it’s me
the postal worker – Joseph Moulin
the famous bedroom
another Van Gogh selfie..
and another selfie with a selfie
Joseph Moulin’s wife, Augustine
another Van Gogh selfie.. they are all very different
Joseph Roulin, the postman
Augustine and her newborn daughter, Marcelle
Saturday’s original plan was to go to the game directly from the museum, but I needed to return to the hotel before the game, and it worked out as I befriended a couple at the tram stop near the hotel. We ended up having a beer before the game.
I tried to connect with my favorite player, but was too late and batting practice was over when I arrived, but I did run into the Friday’s evening’s usher who recognized me and he exclaimed,
“You’re back!”
to which I replied, “You’re back, too!
And we laughed. The grandpa from Friday night had mentioned that he and the usher had gone to high school together and I mentioned it to the usher, and he said,
“Yes, but he went to Harvard.”
I asked where he went, and he replied,
“Williams.”
I smiled and I replied,
“Which is better?”
and he replied,
“Williams!”
And both we laughed.
Then I was off to Saturday afternoon’s seat. I decided to sit in the right field bleachers for Saturday’s game. I found my seat and talked with the usher, Ed, about Fenway and baseball. It is always fun to engage with folks at the ballpark.
Saturday’s game was fun, but like Friday my team ended up on the short side of the score 7-3.
Fenway is on the national Register of Historic Places and there are plaques and markers throughout the park
pre-game photo from my seat
scouting Sunday’s seat on Saturday
a great sign and good advice, and I love the colors of the wall it makes the sign standout, much like to colors in an art museum…
The game ended around 7 PM and I decided it was a nice evening for a walk back to the hotel.
Sunday’s game was an 11:35 AM start and I needed to cleanup, pack up, and checkout of the hotel before going to the game.
I was able to write a few postcards before checking out and taking the tram to the game.
I chose to sit along the first base side in the right field stands for Sunday’s game. I had scouted the seat Saturday and decided where I was going to sit the day before. There were two seats available – seats 12 and 13. I am funny about the number 13, so I chose seat 12. I also, thought (secretly hoped) no one would purchase seat 13. I was wrong, but the person who bought the ticket never showed up; nor did my team and they lost a third game in a row, 7-1.
another sign, filled with great advice
Sunday’s game view
another peanut photo for the collection
seen on the way out – we all have different name. An excellent 70th birthday gift for a baseball fan…
Sweet Caroline Good times never seemed so good I’ve been inclined To believe they never would, oh, no, no
That’s baseball. The season is 162 games long, which is a long time. The season begins in late March and finishes at the end of September followed by a month of playoffs ending in the World Series and a serason’s champion. It’s a long haul, much like my bucket list journey. It started with my first game in the 1970s and I added a second stadium in 1986, then a third in ’87, a fourth in ’88, and many more finishing in Boston. It has been fun; and I’ve enjoyed the travel, the people I’ve met, and the games I’ve seen.
a view of Boston Harbor on the way home…
Today is going to be a great day and it could be a million and six times better than yesterday. So, I’d better jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Making the Days Count, one day at a time, looking back and savoring the experiences, but with an eye on the present.
Do you have a bucket list? If so, what is it?
“Sweet Caroline”
Was in the spring
And spring became the summer
Who’d have believed you’d come along
Hands, touchin’ hands
Reachin’ out, touchin’ me, touchin’ you
Sweet Caroline
Good times never seemed so good
I’ve been inclined
To believe they never would
But now I…
…look at the night
And it don’t seem so lonely
We fill it up with only two
And when I hurt
Hurtin’ runs off my shoulders
How can I hurt when holdin’ you?
Warm, touchin’ warm
Reachin’ out, touchin’ me, touchin’ you
Sweet Caroline
Good times never seemed so good
I’ve been inclined
To believe they never would
Oh, no, no
Sweet Caroline
Good times never seemed so good
Sweet Caroline
I believed they never could
Sweet Caroline
Good times never seemed so good
Written by Neil Diamond
a great sign and good advice, and I love the colors of the wall it makes the sign standout, much like to colors in an art museum…
It’s Sunday morning and I am starting the day in the summer office. It’s cool for the moment, but today’s forecast calls for afternoon temperatures to reach a high of 93 (34C).
The Arizona weekend began with an early Saturday morning flight to Phoenix, renting a car, grabbing a bite to eat on the recommendation of a friend before finding the right spot for my ‘signature picture’ which I share with my brothers and a few friends. It’s a silly picture, but fun.
St. Louis – July ’23
the first ‘bad picture’ Seattle – May ’23
on the way to Sunday’s game, Phoenix October ’23
I had to find the ‘right’ cactus, Arizona September ’23
My hotel was within walking distance to the stadium, and I paced myself in the heat. Chase Field has a retractable roof, the first of its kind when it opened in 1998. The roof was closed because it was 100 degrees (38C) late in the afternoon before game time.
The Astros won Saturday night’s game 1-0 (nil) and clinched a playoff berth as did the Diamondbacks with a Chicago Cubs loss. I walked home and grabbed some tacos for dinner at the hotel.
Sunday morning, I woke early and planned the day. The hotel I was staying was architecturally cool. It was constructed in the 1930s and had been a bank before being converted into a hotel and legend had it that the penthouse was once inhabited by Alfred Hitchcock.
coffee Sunday morning in the hotel lobby…an impressive Art Deco building from the 1930s
I had a breakfast date with a fellow blogger, Ingrid from Live, Laugh RV: Our Next Chapter. She and her husband were originally from Chicagoland not far from where I love before moving west, then retiring and deciding to live the RV life. Ingrid’s posts left yearning for travelling in retired RV lifestyle from one location to another while exploring and enjoying being outdoors. Her photographs were always stunning. It was wonderful to meet Ingrid in person, and we were never at loss for something to say over breakfast. After breakfast, we took an ‘ussie’ and I headed back to the hotel to pack and get ready for the last game of the season.
Ingrid and I after meeting for breakfast, October 1, 2023
On the final day of the season, all baseball games begin about the same time Sunday afternoon. I arrived when the gates opened found my seat behind the Astros dugout in hopes of seeking out my favorite player, Maurico Dubón.
Summer break, my annual audition for retirement began yesterday after I finished getting my classroom cleaned, organized (that might be a stretch), and stored for the summer cleaning and learning season.
most of my work is done on my mobile device, but I had to work with this one on my desktop…. a color vision is posted at the end of the post
This year’s edition is seventy days long. It will be filled with family, grandies, travel, baseball, creativity, and dogs. I can’t wait.
TRAVEL and GRANDIES This summer my wife and I will be traveling to Europe for a two-week vacation starting in London, then Wales, back to London, then to Paris, and finishing in Amsterdam before returning home. I am excited and nervous all at the same time. This trip is similar to the one I took fifteen years ago to take my father’s cremains home, except this time we will return our step-mother’s cremains to where she wanted to spend eternity. Like that trip to honor my father, I plan to blog along the way.
seven months old and growing by the day… soon they will be crawling.
Summer would be summer without a few weeks as the lake. This year we will host our grandies for the first time. We are excited and looking forward to the summer with the family.
It has been a long time since my last post, rumors of my passing are greatly exaggerated as Mark Twain said or wrote. I haven’t been writing much, though I’ve had ideas and photos I’ve wanted to post, but I have been keeping up with other blogs.
from “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and Horse”
Since my last ‘real’ post in August (Day 64 – Dog Days) I’ve gone back to school (twice), our grandies – a phrase copied/borrowed/stolen from Beth at I didn’t have my glasses on… -have arrived, and my wife has recovered from her hip surgery, and so much more.
Christmas I’ve been on break from school for the past week and the week has screamed past. I have been busy, and it was Christmas the first with our grandies. Our daughter and her dog have been home on break, too and it adds to the festiveness as well. We hosted Christmas Eve afternoon and attended Christmas Eve service, it was a good service with the traditional candle lighting and singing of ‘Silent Night’ to close worship. I cannot sing ‘Silent Night’ without thinking of my last Christmas in wife’s hometown ten years ago. For Christmas our daughter roasted the prime rib and for the first time ever, it was perfectly done even though it was almost an hour behind schedule. We enjoyed it at the table before exchanging gifts with our son, his wife and the grandies. I expect the coming week and New Year’s will be as busy and pass as quickly as this past week had.
W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, September 11, 2024
I am back at school, sort of.
It is good to be back at school. To be teaching and learning with kids and helping them see things from a new perspective. To have a schedule and do something productive. To be with colleagues who share your passion. To be growing with a purpose.
But sometimes you must be step back and take care of things at home. Since this past Monday, I’ve been at home taking care of things here. It’s my turn to be the caregiver. It’s hard. But it’s where I need to be. Forty years and almost thirty-three of them, married. I am thankful.
At school, my kiddos at school are in great hands. These are the same hands that took care of my kiddos when I had my second knee replaced in December 2018 and the same one who stepped up at 2 AM when my son had his motorcycle accident, five years ago. She’s been their countless times when I needed to be somewhere else, or when I was too sick to be at school. I am thankful.
I’ve been talking to her and hearing what my kiddos have been doing with her at school, while I am at home taking care of home. I am thankful.
This past summer was a whirlwind of sorts. heck, this past year!
summer’s last sunset (and a beer) Lake Margrethe, Michigan, August 31, 2024 8:03 PM
Summer finished at the lake with all of us – W, O, and B at the lake to close it down for the season. That’s the first picture. Continue reading W^2 – indecisive→
I could hear the gentle rain tapping on the roof this morning when I got up before Ivy. Yesterday the weather made a turn. It’s cooler today after several days of warm, sometimes hot, muggy stillness of the dog days of August.
Later this morning, we will be going home. It is both exciting and bittersweet.
Ivy was a puppy when I first started blogging, now she’s a senior dog, the senior dog. She doesn’t move like she once did, which is a blessing because I can remember many times trying to find her when she wandered away from the cottage and took off into the woods. We’ve learned a few things since those early days, but Fern is a lot like Ivy, but she will return when you call her. We have an Invisible Fence at home and both dogs know the boundary. At the lake we’ve been using a training collar, but that doesn’t contain either of them, especially Fern who has been known to return home with a deer leg, or two. It is bittersweet watching Ivy age, but it’s heartwarming seeing how Fern interacts with her. (NOTE – edited, last sentence added after publishing)
Fern and her deer leg from our trip here in April ’24
It’s Tuesday and time for another edition of Tuesday’s Tune. A couple of weeks ago, I went home for a brief visit. Down Thursday, home Sunday.
the original ‘peanut photo’ taken June 2019
WARNING: While my trip how was brief, this post is not. It’s a long read.
Home is Texas, Sugar Land, to be precise. Sugar Land is a town southwest of Houston, though it’s hard to tell the dividing lines between the two these days.
The stars at night Are big and bright Deep in the heart of Texas The prairie sky Is wide and high Deep in the heart of Texas
It was a business trip of sorts, my stepmother died in January after a brief illness. She would have been ninety, ten days ago on the thirteenth. When she died, in January, we sorted through her apartment and dispersed what remained of her belongings. In the end, I packed several boxes full of pictures, letters, family memorabilia and shipped them to her niece and nephew in England. What we couldn’t keep, we donated. I decided I wanted a cedar chest which had belonged to my paternal grandfather. At the time, I tried to have it shipped home, but I couldn’t find a cost-effective freight forwarder or another way to do it, so I placed it in the storage locker and planned to come back during the summer to pick it up.
Fly down, rent a car, and drive back. I wrote about the return trip, or at least a part of it last week in my W^2 – farming post.
There is a lot to process when you lose a loved one. Saturday was the fifteenth anniversary of my dad’s death in ’09. His death, and my grieving, is part of why I started blogging in the first place. Therapy of sorts, I am work in progress. Continue reading Tuesday’s Tune – Deep in the Heart of Texas→
O my, I am dropping the ‘h’! and it is Tuesday and time for a Tuesday’s Tune, Canada style. I am in Toronto for my 29th baseball stadium. It’s been an adventure.
Yesterday morning, I woke up early and drove from northern Michigan to Toronto, Ontario. It was a six-and-a-half-hour drive, and it was smooth driving, even when I got close to Toronto.
When Major League baseball released the 2024 schedule way back in July of ’23, I began looking ahead. At that time, I had my ’23 trips planned – Colorado, Baltimore, Tampa Bay, Miami, and Arizona, which left two teams: the Toronto Blue Jays and the Boston Red Sox. When I planned my baseball trips for this season, I was looking for games when the Houston Astros played the Toronto Blue Jays and the Boston Red Sox to complete my bucket list of all 30 teams. For the Blue Jays, the schedule read four games: Monday July 1 to Thursday July 4. I didn’t realize the significance of the date of the July 1st game, I knew the significance of Thursday’s game – July 4th, but not Monday’s game.
July First in Canada is Canada Day and it’s a BIG DEAL.
It is the day Canada celebrates as it’s ‘birthday.’ But that is an oversimplification. It’s the day when Canada (Quebec and Ontario), New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia became a country under the Dominion of Canada within the United Kingdom. It happened in 1867, two years after the ending of the American Civil War and two years before the founding of the first professional baseball league. Canada would add the remaining provinces to become the nation I know as Canada. But they are still part of the Commonwealth of Nations under the British crown. Continue reading Tuesday’s Tune – O Canada→
It’s 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, you’ll 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 don’t 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→
