W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, October 8, 2025
My drive to school usually takes about a half an hour, sometimes a little more depending on the weather or the traffic or both. I’ve been driving the same route for over 25 years and sometimes I take the road less traveled.
Herrick Lake Road service entrance for Herrick Lake Forest Preserve, Wheaton, IL October 2, 2025 7:14 AM
Last week, I took the road less traveled and passed by the forest preserve in full sunrise. It was a humid morning with ground fog which scattered the sun’s light. It was beautiful.
Herrick Lake Road service entrance for Herrick Lake Forest Preserve, Wheaton, IL October 2, 2025 7:14 AM
September was dry and warm, especially the second half of the month. This past Monday night it rained hard, and the earth soaked it up; then yesterday afternoon cool winds, clear skies, and high pressure moved into the area bringing cooler fall weather. It was great sleeping weather last night, but I don’t think I’ll get the same shot this morning. Only time will tell.
It is Wednesday and today is going to be a wonderful Wednesday. I am going to take the alternate route and see what the sunrise brings. Sometimes a diversion is the best way to tackle a Wednesday. Today could be a million and six times better than yesterday. I’d better jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Making the Days Count, one day at a time, sometimes mixing it up on the way to school.
I didn’t find this week’s sign until I was there, I’d been there before, seen the sign, and turned right into the parking lot almost as if the car knew where to go.
My go to sign at the church lists October’s upcoming events and I didn’t find any signs until yesterday evening just before sunset, after I had loaded the car. And there it was, this week’s sign.
Our family has been visiting this farm for as long as I can remember…my first photo evidence is from 2011, that I could find, but that was about the time that Saturdays were filled with kid’s activities of sports and scouts and family and whatever else we could pack in. Now that they aren’t kids any more, we still visit.
The farm is an hour’s drive into the flat plains of northwestern Illinois farming country. Soybean and corn fields lined the road as we drove west. An occasional farmhouse and barn surrounded by trees greeted along our journey. It’s been dry, very dry, and we saw clouds of dust in the fields as farmers rushed to bring in this year’s harvest with their combines.
The farm we visit is a multi-generation farm and the original farmer has since passed on, but his family – his kids, and their kids, and their kids, kids continue the tradition. The daughters run the operation now, and they remember us, even though we haven’t brought our kids in a few years. They grow pumpkins, and the midwestern field crops as well as raise a few head of cattle, too. The farmhouse is decorated with pumpkins and gourds sorted by size and price and there is quite the variety.
the farmhouse and a large tree surrounded by all sorts of pumpkins
this wage has the eight dollar pumpkins
They also raise rabbits and goats’ a few years back we almost came home with a rabbit to go with our pumpkins.
We always arrive late in the afternoon and have picked our pumpkins, visited, explored, and loaded before the sun sets over the fields. We always stop for dinner at a local restaurant on our way home. It’s our tradition and it feels right. When dinner is finished, it is dark, and we drive home. It’s been a full day when we pull into the driveway and unloading the car will have to wait until the morning.
a ‘framed’ sunset – I couldn’t really see what I had until I had taken it….
unframed, the sun seems small
this tree ‘spoke’ to me and I had to take the shot
I woke later this morning, later than normal, but earlier than the rest of the house. I was rested, the country air is always refreshing, and I was ready for the day. I was a reading a few blogs and I came read Dr. Gerald Stein’s post – Our Questionable Progress, and I thought how appropriate it was as I was feeling overloaded starting the day. Sunday is always a busy day for me I never seem to get everything I need to get done. So today, I am going to breathe and get done, what I can and leave the remainder for Monday. No pressure.
It’s my youngest brother’s birthday – all three of us are sequential 61-62-63 until my birthday in November when I will be two to the sixth power. It’s also my 34th wedding anniversary and it seems like the other day when a ray of light beamed in through window above us and illuminated the two of us just as we took our vows.
Today is going to be an amazing day, I am sure of it. So, I’d better jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Today is going to be a great day. Making the Days Count, one day at a time, being patient, focused, and purposeful.
I am little behind on my Signs of the Week posts, but school is back in session and it seems I am busier than ever. Sometimes I worry too much about posting when I should be focused on being my best self.
I found these gems on a sign back to back in front of the First baptist Church along M55 in Prudenville, Michigan over the Labor Day weekend a few weeks back. I found a couple more that’ll have to wait for another week or so, depending on what I find in my travels this coming week.
This is the other side of the sign, it was on the sunny side, facing west.
I was reminded that detours can be good, even if they don’t seem to be at the time.
Yesterday, while volunteering at Loaves and Fishes on my normal Saturday morning shift I got to talking with a fellow volunteer whom I have worked with many times before – at east the past couple of years…..the conversation went like this…….
Me: “What do you do when you are not volunteering at Loaves?”
KS: “I work in IT.” What do you do?
Me: “I teach middle school science?
KS: “Really, where?
Me: “Scullen Middle School…”
KS: “Really, I have 6th grader at Scullen…..”
Yep, and she’s in my class, my tenth period class which is my last of the day and a great way to finish every day.
It’s a small world and sometimes our detours are really good things.
I am wrapping up my sixth year of volunteering at Loaves and Fishes. I started volunteering because I wanted to be a positive example for my son, who’d landed in a tight spot and needed some community service hours. He volunteered and served the hours he needed, but has since moved on to other things. Things he should be focused on – marriage, parenthood, building his career, and other things a late twenty-something should be paying attention to.
And me a sixty-somethings? I am doing what I should be doing with the detour, practicing for retirement and staying active in the community. I get as much if not more from my time helping others get what they need to thrive.
I have a few more years before I hang up the chalk for good, but I am always learning, always thinking, and always being curious. Making the Days Count, one day at a time, and trying to look at things differently, even detours.
Have you ever had a detour that turned into a blessing?
And by the way, if you missed my post about my visit to the Netherlands, check out Operation Market Garden…
I am a history buff. When I was dreaming of becoming a teacher, I dreamed of teaching American history and sharing my love of the subject. Instead, I’ve taught other subjects as my primary assignment – ELA (or English), Geography, and Science. In my twenty-seven years of teaching, I’ve been able to teach American history as my primary subject for one year. It was glorious.
It was during that year that I first heard of PFC James E. Wickline. It was the 2015-16 school year, and it seems very long ago.
I can only remember a few of the names of kids in my classes from that year. When I pass the framed class photos lining the main hallway, I sometimes stop at the 2016 class photo and read the names, the photos jog the memory, but sadly I recognize only a few of the hundred and twenty or so from the class I had in my classroom that year.
Interestingly, one of the people I volunteer at Loaves and Fishes is the mother of one of the boys from that class. He’s grown, graduated from college, and is working in Atlanta as an actuary. I sometimes wonder what happened to the rest of them. They were the class whose high school senior year was derailed by the COVID lockdown and many of their freshman years at college were spent isolated in remote learning.
When my wife and I were planning this past summer’s European trip she asked what wanted to do and see. My list was short, but it included visiting PFC James E. Wickline’s grave in the Netherlands American Cemetery near Margraten, Netherlands.
The tower at the entrance t the cemetery
the American flag flies among the graves
lily pads in the reflection pond of the tower
lily pads in the reflection pond of the tower
it was 2016, when I learned about Maarten Vossen, a Dutch man, who had adopted Wickline’s grave in the Netherlands American Cemetery when he was thirteen years old in 2002. The people in towns surrounding the Netherlands American Cemetery adopt the graves of fallen American servicemen and there is a waiting list.
Since 1945, the Netherlands American Cemetery is the only cemetery where the locals have adopted every single one of the fallen U.S. Soldiers—all 8,288 headstones as well as the 1,722 names on the Tablets of the Missing in the cemetery’s Court of Honor. In fact, he explained, the waitlist to adopt is so long that people are waiting more than 10 years, and the organization heading up the project is no longer taking new sign-ups. Read more at Honoring our legacy: Locals adopt graves of U.S. Soldiers.
As I learned more about the story, the more I wanted to learn, and the more I wanted to share.
Marten Vossen turned adopting Wickline’s grave into a mission to learn more about the soldier. Eventually, he traveled to Wickline’s home in West Virginia in 2012, and again in 2014, when a few in the community learned of his mission and began to help Vossen realize his dream to honor the fallen soldier. In July 2015 a bridge was dedicated in his honor as the PFC James E. Wickline Bridge near his home in Osage, West Virginia. (video at the end of the post)
In 2016, Marijn Poels, a Dutch independent filmmaker, released the documentary Ageless Friends about Vossen and his dream to honor Wickline. It’s an inspiring story.
In 2017, when we arrived at that point in American history I shared the story with my history classes and we watched the video and completed an assignment. I refined the assignment – making changes and adding and removing parts which didn’t work in 2018, 2019, and to finish the COVID year in 2020. I think the story impacted a more than a few of students and for a moment they were able to think beyond their 8th grade selves.
I went back to look at their reactions to the story, here are a few….I didn’t edit any of the remarks except the perfect generation comment….
Why do you think Maarten Vossen was drawn to adopt James Wickline’s grave marker in the Netherlands American Cemetery?
Because he was a solider and american solders are the reason he has freedom.
He was probably drawn to adopt a grave because he wanted to pay his respects to the people who served in the war. He wanted to be a part in what happened and help the people who were in the war. He probably was also intrigued to what happened to the men who fought. He wanted to help the people who helped his country.
I think he wanted to adopt a grave to show his appreciation for the American soldiers that liberated the Netherlands. He also wanted to help care for the grave and be helpful to the family that can’t put flowers on his grave because they are to far away. Lastly, he was interested in learning about the grave he adopted and wanted to know the backstory of how he passed.
What surprised you about the story of Maarten Vossen and James Wickline?
I wasn’t expecting them to be so close to each other. The lengths Maarten took to learn more about the man, whose grave is the one under his care.
That Maarten did not stop when he found out that James hardly saw war. What surprised me about James is he had so many people that remebered him and told so many stroies to help out Maarten get more information on James.
Maarten did not even know James and he did all of this for him
I feel the same way, that is why I wanted to visit his grave and pay my respects to PFC Wickline and the Netherlands American Cemetery.
So, we did. Saturday, July 19th we left Paris by train and traveled across Belgium arriving at the Schiphol train station to rent a car for the day.
The journey took longer than I anticipated with a few wrong turns adding to our travel.
I may have found a bench for a future post….
We arrived after a little after four and with a closing time of five o’clock my visit was hurried. After a brisk walk and nervous few moments when I realized I had incorrectly interpreted the cemetery’s grid system for locating a burial plot; I found Wickline’s final resting place.
I took a few pictures and spent a moment of prayer and reflection.
the American flag flies among the graves
I had so many questions, with no one to answer them. Like my students from 2019 I was filled with humbleness and awe.
As I write and reflect, I know that this story could fill a book. Maybe one day this might happen, but there is more I need to learn, more I need to see and in the words of eighth graders from 2019…
What’s one important thing you learned in class today?
I learned that there are good people in the world that will do the utmost to make sure someone is given recognition
i learned that it is very important to remember our fallen soldiers and the “perfect (I think he meant ‘greatest’) generation”. I also learned that if you put your mind to it you can do anything.
I learned that you don’t have to contribute something big to be a hero. Heroes come from many things.
I don’t think I could have said it better.
I’ve been working on this post for a long while and I am setting it to go live midday on September 17, 1944. The day PFC Wickline jumped from a c-47 in Operation Market Garden 81 years ago today and his parachute didn’t open.
“May we never forget the sacrifice of those who gave their lives for our freedom.”
Making the days Count, one day at a time, telling the story of someone’s life to inspire others.
For more of the story, I have added videos about the cemetery and dedication ceremony for the PFC James E. Wickline Memorial Bridge in Osage, West Virginia.
I am a sucker for a sunset, especially when the sun sets over water.
last night’s sunset – Lake Margrethe Grayling, MI September 13, 2025 7:46 EDT
I am skipping this week’s sign of the week post because there are so many signs that fall is coming, then winter.
Last week I noticed acorns in the driveway and sidewalk from the towering oak tree across the street. I’ve noticed it is getting light outside later and dark earlier in the evening. Last night, I noticed that the location where the sun sets has shifted from the west end of the lake towards the hills and the next time, I visit the lake, the shift will be even greater. I’ve noticed fewer hummingbirds at the feeder than a couple of weeks ago. The signs are here.
Memorial Day weekend sunset – Lake Margrethe Grayling, MI May 24, 2025 8:54 EDT
It is Sunday and the cottage is quiet. Even the dogs are tired after yesterday’s work party. We’ve got a few more chores before I return home later this afternoon as I drive into today’s sunset.
I am going to relish in the last few moments of solitude before I jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Today is going to be a great day. Making the Days Count, watching the world come into and out of focus.
Saturday, I took the longest hike in a long time – just under three miles with two dogs in tow. Or rather being towed by one dog and staying out of the way of the other.
In the past couple of years, I’ve gone on shorter hikes but I haven’t been getting out for longer hikes for more than a while. It’s a new year for the Take a Hike Challenge from the forest preserve and I skipped ’23 and ‘24’s challenges but I am back this year.
outward bound Herrick Lake Forest Preserve, Wheaton, IL September 6, 2025 3:53 EDT
Saturday Fern, Nova, and I walked through Herrick Lake Forest Preserve. It’s a favorite of mine, it’s close and a good length with forest and prairie landscapes with just enough up and down to get the heart moving while the feet are following each other round moving me from start to finish.
on the way back to the trailhead. Herrick Lake Forest Preserve, Wheaton, IL September 6, 2025 4:22 EDT
When I got home, I had enough energy to refresh the bird feeders and a few other chores before calling it a day. Fern and Nova were completely spent, too.
It is Wednesday and today is going to be a wonderful Wednesday. It’s the middle of the week and school has a late start with a faculty gathering first thing at 7:30 AM. The bells will ring before I know it, so I’d better jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Making the Days Count, one day at a time, one foot after another is way to tackle life.
Is there something you’ve recently re-started that you’ve been avoiding?
Last week I came up blank, this week I have plenty of material. I can always count on churches, especially the churches up north near the lake.
NOTE: I didn’t see that I had left the ‘G’ out of the word sign so the e-mail notification read “sin of the week.” But it is still in the url….. oops.
I found this sign in Gaylord, Michigan after dropping off one of the boats for service and winterization. Gaylord is a forty-minute drive north from the lake and on the edge of the snowline in the lower peninsula. Last season the area received over a hundred inches of snowfall and was devastated by an early spring ice storm. Our place got less than a hundred and was spared the worst of the ice storm.
no caption required. Gaylord, Michigan September 1, 2025 10:20 AM EDT
The church’s message is a good reminder to be better every day. We all need help and in turn we can help one another, but together we can help a community. This church has been around a while as evidenced by the historical marker. They’ve been lifting people up for more than a hundred and fifty years.
It’s been a great week, and I finished Friday checking in the science safety agreements I handed out Tuesday. The turn in rate was pretty good at just over 70%, so I’ll be tracking down the remainder next week. For the coming week I’ll be helping my kiddos practice a few more science skills including the difference between an observation and an inference and encouraging curiosity.
I’ll be on the lookout for more signs, but I have a few more churches saved in case I come up blank again.
Today is going to be a great day. It will be busy helping people at the food pantry, then a few errands, and more to-dos than I have time, but I’ll make it count. So, I’d better jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Making the Days Count, one day at a time, helping kids learn and helping people get what they need.
The week’s Sign of the Week is a throwback to last week.
I passed by Wiesbrook Elementary’s sign Thursday evening and found a gem and then went back in time to find some old photos.
Time flies…. when I was posting to Instagram, I added the song, Don’t Blink by Kenny Chesney,
Don’t blink, you just might miss Your babies growing like mine did Turning into moms and dads
Dads yes, have twin grandsons who are then months old tomorrow. Moms NO, unless you count the dogs, because she is a dog mom to two. But she’s grown and starting to test her wings.
This week flew past and when I blinked, it was Friday morning, the Saturday.
School’s back in session and I really made this last week count. It’s Saturday morning and I am off to Loaves and Fishes to serve others, but I’ll be home to make the afternoon count with the ’21 grad and dinner and maybe a walk with the dogs at one of my favorite forest preserves.
This could possibly 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
Making the Days Count, one day at a time, looking back to see where I’ve been, but keeping my feet firmly planted in the present.
The signs are everywhere – stores, roads, churches, and schools. Yes, even on the faces of parents and kids; It’s time to go back to school.
My neighborhood’s schools open yesterday and other schools around me opened Thursday, and few like mine, open next week. There isn’t a set day to go back or let out. The only days many of our school districts have in common are the holidays and spring break in my county.
the sign on Wednesday – two days before school… it was hosting an open house and meet and greet – the streets were filled
I passed the elementary school where our kids went from August 2003 until May 2014 and where we spent Halloweens, parent conferences, daddy-daughter dances, carnivals, and much more. Our kids had only one year when both were attending together; one was in fifth grade and the other a kindergartner.
I asked them for their memories of their time as Tremendous Tigers and this is what they responded:
“0ne time I got a splinter playing capture the flag”
“The memories of spectacular field days filled with fresh watermelon, with class filled participation and always looking forward to explore more days at the end of each year”
Both were nominated at some point as “Tremendous Tigers.”
My kids are not going to back to school this August, their days are done for the moment. One is raising twin boys, and the other is figuring out next steps.
I am headed back for my twenty-seventh year as a teacher, but I am still learning.
I’ve been back for two days – mostly meetings to go over new initiatives and procedures, celebrate accomplishments and career milestones, and for an hour on Thursday – meeting a few of the kiddos and parents I’ll have in my classroom. It was the best hour of the two days.
It’s Saturday and the last weekend before the kiddos arrive on Tuesday. I have Monday to work in my classroom and prepare for the first few days. I’ll be looking for signs and taking the first steps to welcome kiddos to their first year in middle school.
The Sign of the Week has been published on Fridays, but I ran out of time this week. I’ll be looking for new signs and maybe a few old ones this coming week. And who knows, I might even publish on Friday next week.
Today is going to be like the all of the Saturdays since school ended – AMAZING. 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, getting ready for a new year of teaching and learning, always paying attention to the signs.
W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, August 13, 2025
The Great hall – Union Station, Chicago, IL Sunday, August 10, 2025 5:10 CDT
Summer break is finished. Every year when I get to this point, this day on the calendar, and I ask myself the question,
Did I do enough?
This year, I can answer yes.
Of course there are things I didn’t do, but I did a lot.
This past summer I passed through several train stations – Paddington, Swansea, St. Pancras, Gare du Nord, Amsterdam’s Schiphol, Central, and North, and this past Sunday – Chicago’s Union Station.
Sunday, I used public transit to attend a baseball game on the southside. It was a good game and getting to the city and back was easy and efficient.
After the game, I sat in the Great Hall of Union Station waiting for my train and mind wandered and I thought of another great hall, the main hall of the Musée d’ Orsay, which was once a train station. As I sat and took in the hall, I went back to look at the photos I took when I visited Paris. There were similarities.
Musée d’ Orsay main hall, Paris, France July 17, 9:50 GMT-1
Union Station, the Great Hall, Chicago, IL August 10, 2025 5:03 PM
Musée d’ Orsay the main hall Paris, France,July 17, 2025 9:55 GMT-1
While the Musée d’ Orsay is significantly larger the two stations were built in similar time periods at a time when train travel was the only way travel long distances.
Musée d’ Orsay, Paris, France July 17, 2025 10:00 GMT-1
Union Station, Chicago, IL 5:14 CDT
I wondered what these stations might have looked like in their heydays.
Musée d’ Orsay, Paris, France July 17, 2025 10:07 GMT-1
Musée d’ Orsay, Paris, France July 17, 2025 10:07 GMT-1
I am partial to the black and white, which do you prefer?
It’s the last day of summer break and I am going to finish strong and be ready when the alarm rings early tomorrow morning. Today is going to be like the last sixty-nine days have been – AMAZING. 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, especially when a last day leads to a first day.
