W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, April 9, 2025
It is Wednesday afternoon, and I am home after a week-long vacation by the ocean for spring break. It was great to get away with my wife and another couple whom we know very well.
We stayed in the same place we have stayed for the past several years; the only year we have missed in the past decade was the Covid spring break when we went to the lake instead. Continue reading W^2 – Friday sunset
W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, April 2, 2025
It is Wednesday and I am by the ocean for a week. I haven’t thought about school in a couple of days or grading papers. The third quarter finished a couple of weeks ago and I was able to square up the gradebook for the work submitted for the fourth, and final quarter, on the last Friday of March before spring break began.
I was reminded of how far I have come in mid-March when we said goodbye to Ivy, our faithful and loving Brittany Spaniel. Ivy was a puppy when I started blogging at MtDC and I know I have written about her adventures with us many times, too many to link. Ivy celebrated her fifteenth birthday in February, and we would’ve celebrated her fifteenth ‘gotcha day’ tomorrow. She was an amazing dog, and she taught us to be better humans.
B, O, Fern, and I surrounded her for her final breath and W had said his goodbye the night before. It was a sad day, but it was time for her and us.
It has been quiet in the house since, and I miss drinking coffee with her in the morning. She was an amazing dog, and we miss her, we miss her a lot.
Today is going to be a great day, an amazing day, in fact. I know it and I can feel it, so I’d better jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Making the Days Count, one day at a time, enjoying the sound of the surf, the wind, and sun. It’s what Ivy would want.
How are you making your days count?
I created the graphics below for my daily reflections…. each is from a different time we had with her…..
W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, October 23, 2024
Yesterday, it rained for the first time in a couple of weeks. It didn’t rain much but our streak of clear skies came to a halt. it’s been a dry summer and early fall.
This morning it was overcast, and I couldn’t see the stars, or Jupiter, when I walked Ivy into the backyard for her morning business. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel well this morning and elected to use one of my sick days. By midday, the clouds had been replaced by a fabulous fall blue sky.
I was on the porch when I leaned back and looked up. This is what I saw.
Amazing, soon these leaves will carpet the backyard before being raked, bagged, and sent away.
The color this year has come late, but it is beautiful. I am going to appreciate the color before it gone for the season. It’s been a full day, even for a sick day. I am feeling much better, and I’ll be back in front of my kiddos tomorrow. It’ll be a great day, maybe a million and six times better than today, but who knows. In the meantime, I am going to proof, edit, upload, then head to bed. Making the Days Count, when I am sick, when I am well, and every time in between.
How is the color in your world?
W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, October 16, 2024
Tonight, my wife and I popped in the car to travel a little further west to see the early evening sky. We took off after sunset I’ve been excited about watching sunsets and looking up at the sky since I shared this month’s edition of the Jet Propulsion Lab’s What’s Up: Skywatching Tips from NASA with my kiddos. I’ve added the video below. We are learning about light, it’s that time in the school year.
I was excited when I learned we might be able to see a comet this month if we looked at the western sky close to sunset. That’s what we were looking for, but all we could see was a pretty sunset, Venus and a couple of stars. If I looked the other way, I could see the waxing gibbous moon rising in the eastern sky.
This past weekend we were at the lake, but we arrived too late Friday night to look for the comet and Saturday and Sunday were cloudy, so I couldn’t look for the comet away from the light pollution of the big city. But I am not giving up. Tomorrow night I’ll be outside to see the setting sun and I am hauling along a pair of binoculars for tomorrow night’s volunteer shift at Loaves and Fishes. Continue reading W^2 – comet chasing
W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, September 25, 2024
This week’s photo isn’t a photo it’s a video of a squirrel with graphics.
A squirrel chirps away at me… Wheaton, IL Sunday, September 22, 2024 8:50 AM
Mr. Squirrel and I met Sunday morning, a little more than an hour after the autumnal equinox. I was sitting in the screened-in porch, the three-season room, minding my own business when Mr. Squirrel began chirping and chattering at me as if to say I was in the wrong place.
I took the video and sent it via text to O at college.
ME: Play this for Fern… let me know what happens
A couple of hours later….
O: She’s looking for a squirrel
I laughed, I figured right. Fern might not be able to recognize a photo or video, but she can hear and understand a mad squirrel.
My wife is doing better, and I am back at school. Three days in. It’s good to be back where I belong in September. Teaching kids and learning new things.
Today was an amazing day. I am hoping that tomorrow is a million and six times better. This morning, I started early and was out the door as the sun was rising. I am going to wrap up the day with this post and press publish. Making the Days Count, one day at a time making time, listening to the squirrel chirp making me smile.
So squirrels chirp at you??
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 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
W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, August 14, 2024
It is Day 72 with four remaining before it’s back to school.
Time flies.
It’s six months with three more before my son’s twins arrive, we can bearly (sic) wait. Always making the days count.
This past week has been a flurry of activity, and the next four days will be, too. This past weekend was our daughter-in-law’s baby shower, and we helped our son get his yard and house ready. It was a beautiful day, the yard looked wonderful, and it was a great day to celebrate the coming arrival of our first grandchildren. Exciting.
Time flies.
Today we are back to Michigan and the lake to help our daughter move into the house she and some friends have rented for her senior year.
Time flies.
Today is going to be an amazing day. I know it and I can feel it so, I’d better jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Making the Days Count, one day at a time making time, because time flies.
How has your time been flyin’?
W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, July 24, 2024
It is Wednesday, almost Thursday. Fern and I wrapped up our business in Illinois and we loaded the car and drove back to the lake this afternoon. She was a fabulous driving companion and slept most of the trip curled up in the front seat or laid out in the back seat.
Last Sunday, Fern and I met B (my wife) at Stephan Bridge several miles downstream on the Au Sable River to watch the canoe racers pass through on their trip down the river to McMaster’s Bridge. It is a timing station for the BIG canoe race this weekend. It is also a great place to watch the canoes approach from down river, and if you are hungry there is an amazing restaurant on the south bank. Continue reading W^2 – pretty girl
W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, July 17, 2024
It is Wednesday morning, and I have returned to the lake after a quick trip to Houston and back. The lilies are still blooming, and Fern and Ivy are enjoying their time here, just as we do.
I flew to Houston last Thursday morning and drove back over the weekend stopping Saturday night at my favorite bed and breakfast in Vicksburg, Mississippi. I had gone home to collect a cedar chest which had belonged to my paternal grandparents and had been sitting in storage since we had cleared my stepmother’s apartment this past January.
I arrived in the wake of Hurricane Beryl to find Houston reeling in power outages, downed trees, and sweltering heat and humidity. Though the latter is normal for summer in southeast Texas, the lack of power and air conditioning made conditions in the city much more unpleasant.
My trip was successful, and I was able to visit with my brothers and nephew, clear out the storage locker, collect the chest, and take in two baseball games at Minute Maid Park as well as collect more material, aka stories, to share through MakingtheDaysCOUNT.org.
I left after breakfast Saturday morning, and I took the long way home stopping in Vicksburg Saturday night. I had planned a side trip to Oxford to take one final look at Juliana’s home which sold in February ‘23 before finishing the drive home on Sunday.
In all there were three planned stops, at least 1,265 miles, and over 19 hours of driving. Continue reading W^2 – farming
W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, July 10, 2024
It’s been thirty years this summer that the cottage my kids and I know has been here. For my wife and her siblings, it goes back to their childhoods.
When we were first married, I visited the ‘old cottage’ a few times. It was a cozy two-bedroom log cabin with an open kitchen, dining, and gathering area with a large window gazing upon the lake. in the summer of ’93 my wife’s parents made the difficult decision to re-build with an eye on the future and the cottage I know was constructed in 1993-94. Since my first trip to move in and setup in July ’94, I’ve been here countless times. First without kids then one, and the other. Our kids learned to fish and ski , both water and snow, and they’ve found lifelong friends and we’ve been here in every season: summer, fall, winter, and spring.
When I see the lilies blooming in summer, I think of my mother-in-law and her passion for the summer day lilies. We planted and gardened those first few summers planting day lilies along the front facing the lake. One spring, fifteen years ago, she arrived to discover the deer had dug up the lilies and eaten them. We spent the summer of 2009 replacing them. While the deer still roam when we aren’t here (and even when we are), the lilies have remained undisturbed since.
It’s astonishing how our brains are wired to recall past events and how seemingly disconnected things are connected. Today is going 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 making time, remembering how I got here.
What does a day lily, or any flower, remind you of?