For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.
Crazy Uncle Dave's Sports Pages
A Quote to Start Things Off
Search Me!
Pictures of Memories I
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
A to Z 2024: One More Time and You Get a Parade Day
Thursday, May 11, 2023
My last 500 days of 50
Last 500 Days of My Fifties
5/12/2023 - 9/22/1964
I'm in my late 50's. I was born in 1964, the last year of the Baby Boomers.
The year before I turned 50, I wanted to do something special to commemorate my last year in my 40's. On or about my 49th birthday I was with my family visiting the elks in Elk Grove Village. Elk Grove Village is a suburb of Chicago located near O'Hare airport, It is where I grew up and where my parents lived until very recently. There is a forest preserve in Elk Grove that extends into neighboring towns like Schaumburg. Ever since I was a kid there has been a herd of Elk maintained by the Forest Preserve in Elk Grove.
As my family watched the elk, an idea came to me. I could write a limerick, and post it on Facebook every day until I turned 50. I wasn't completely successful in my quest, but I do believe that I wrote and posted over 300 limericks over that time period. Why limericks? I never did figure that one out, but I think I owe a lot of the personal poetry renaissance I have been going through the last 15 months due to my year of limericks.
As my mid 50's turned into my late 50's I have been thinking how to celebrate the last part of my 6th decade. No "elks" moment has hit me and I'm not sure my FB friends want a year of haikus or anything like that.
A couple of months ago an idea came to me that instead of having some special activity, I could just be more purposely reflective during the time. I decided since my 50's were ending that I could perhaps extend the year to 500 days. So starting tomorrow I find myself in the last 500 days of my 50's.
Today is May 11th so that means that there are 20 full days left in the month. There are 30 days in June, 31 in July and August and 22 days before my birthday in September. That's 134 days before my birthday. There are usually 365 days in a year, but 2024 is a leap year so there are 366 days from September 23rd, 2023 and September 22nd 2024. Some may wonder why I don't count until September 23rd, my birthday. The answer, of course, is because that will be the first day of my 60's.
So, what do I plan to do with this time period that 1150% greater than Lent? First of all, give it up for Lent, it's a great religious observance, and it doesn't get nearly the credit it deserves. I'm not sure really. I think what I'll do is when I'm reflecting on my adventures in ageing, or perhaps doing something for the last time in my 50's I might blog about it here. But mostly I'll do what I encouraged my 11 year old future sister in law to do 8 years before I courted her sister, and that is cherish the time.
In the Bible we are encouraged to number our days. By delineating the last 500 days in my 50's I am inviting myself to live purposely. It is of course very possible that I publish this post and then regular life and my ADHD conspire that I never think about it again. This is part of the reason why I'm publish posting this on my blog and on Facebook so I do pay attention during these final days of my fifties.
Dear Facebook friends, this doesn't mean that there will be no more limericks. It just means I'm commemorating the end of this decade differently than I did the last. In fact, I think I feel a limerick coming on now:
I really thought it would be nifty
To write a limerick a day 'til I was fifty,
The days in my fifties are numbered
I only have left 500.
I'll live them up, cause the will end swiftly.
Monday, June 27, 2022
What Jim Edmonds Greatest Career Catches has to do with my ADD
Tuesday, February 22, 2022
Tuesday 2-22-22 = Tuesday
Monday, February 21, 2022
Saturday, October 16, 2021
I'm trying an experiment.
It's been quite a while since I've posted here. So I have set my timer for 15 minutes have put on Larry Norman radio from pandora on Alexa which is playing Rich Mullin's oddly enough. I am going to just type for 15 minutes and see if I can produce a short message.
As the school. year started this year, for about 3 weeks I was working 3 jobs. I have had a long term sub assignment as an art teacher at my favorite elementary school. I also had been working along with my wife and daughter at a minor league baseball park selling concessions. There was a section in the employee handbook that said I had to disclose to my supervisor if I wrote in a blog, but I think that was written 20 years ago when blogging was more common place. The problem was that my supervisors would change with almost every shift and the supervisors I did tell didn't know what a blog was. I also continue to work 2 nights a week at the movie theatre. I was very glad when the baseball season ended in early September and I could get back to the relative ease of working only 2 jobs.
The problem with getting back into blogging was 2 fold. The first our family has 3 birthdays in a 3 week period in September which kept us all on our toes. The 2nd is that once you get too busy to do something like blogging or reading which both came to an abrubt halt it's hard to get them back going again.
I lost 30 pounds this Summer. The trick will be not to find it again this winter. I am counting calories consistently for the first time in my life and it seems to be working okay for me. My wife and I are doing it together which is better than going it alone.
My timer just went off so I will continue this again hopefully soon with the opening sentence. I always told myself that when I got under 250 pounds I would start running again.
Music listened to during past 15 minutes:
Larry Norman - UFO
Rich Mullins - If I Stand
Randy Stonehill - King of Hearts
Rescue Story - Zach Williams
Why Don't you look into Jesus - Larry Norman
Monday, May 10, 2021
The Best 82 I ever bowled
In April my blogging efforts are almost entirely spent on the A to Z challenge. This doesn't mean I don't have other content that I am pursuing. I just don't usually have the time, inclination or energy to get into it. On one of the last Friday's in March Amy, myself and the girls went bowling. I wrote a draft of this the next day but all thing A to Z kept me from completing it until now.
About 25 to 30 years ago I decided I would try to bowl in every state. When Amy and I got married, she embraced that and quite often when we were in a new state for the first time we woud bowl I'm not an especially good bowler, even though it used to be one of my favorite things to do . I used to bowl somewhere between 80 and 120 a game. If I broke 100 I'd consider it a good game. Over the last 10 years, 100 has become more of a rarity. I have my own ball, but lately when we have bowled it's been at the spur of the moment, and I have not brought my ball. My ball is probably a little too heavy for me now, but when I found out we were going bowling I decided to bring it.
I did not start well. I ended getting1 pin down in the first frame. two more in the second frame and then 2 straight gutter balls in the third frame.
At this same point all of my family members were bowling better than me, and my wife was suggesting that I switch to a lighter ball. I decided that better or worse I would stick with my ball. I knew though, that something needed to be done and on the next frame I decided to go with the Fred Flintstone approach.
I generally do this novelty move once each time I bowl and always have fun with it and also a bit of success. I have bowled many a strike with the "twinkletoes" approach. However, this was not the case on this occasion. I guttered to the left, mustered what was left of my pride and attempted the maneuver again only to gutter to the right.
3 pins in 4 frames, quite the auspicious start, So, when in the 5th frame when I got 7 pins down on the first roll it more than doubled my previous score even though I guttered the 2nd ball.
. In the 6th frame, faced with the prospect of my lowest score ever, things began to get a little better. I changed my approach and instead of bowling in stride I stopped at the line and then sent the ball down the lane. I got a strike and followed that up with a spare in the 7th or 8th. I knocked down pins in all of my first rolls during the 2nd half of the game. As I started the 10th frame. I had gained 59 points since the Flintstone debacle in the 4th frame, I was the last to bowl in our party and I had already caught up with my daughters and was just a few pins behind Amy. (Nobody was especially bowling well, but we were all enjoying our selves)
I was able to get a spare in the 10th frame and followed it up with a strike to end the game. It was a definite tale of two halves. I had a score of 10 entering the 6th frame and bowled 72 (88% of my total score) in the latter half to finish with a normally measly 82. But as I said in the title it was the best 82 I ever bowled.
I'm glad I got the ball rolling on post A to Z blogging. I may still have a little more A to Z aftermath in the near future, but it's good to be back to abnormal.
Monday, April 19, 2021
P is for Prokofiev
My Theme will be Capitals. Due to the random nature of my blog, and specifically my mind, each entry may only be somewhat related to the capital mentioned. For example, it is entirely possible that Friday April third's entry will feature the Krispy Kreme themed love song I wrote in 1995 because I wrote it while living in Columbia, South Carolina where I encountered my first Krispy Kreme.
I mention that here. because today's post about Sergei Prokofiev will tell you probably a lot more about me than Prokofiev. But let's at least start with Prokofiev.
Sergei Prokofiev
Tuesday, December 22, 2020
Monday, December 7, 2020
A Lesson From the Box Score
The Year In Sports
Twenty 20
Covid 19
The coach of Twenty was quoted at the press conference.
"Covid put up quite a fight, but we knew if we worked together as a team we would persevere and prevail in the end."
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Zuckermans Famous Pig (from "Charlotte's Web") - One Man Barbershop Mult...
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Hat Pan Lifter
Sunday, January 25, 2015
21 minute blog salute
Another reason why I don't blog as much as I used to, is because since I'm easily distracted, and that tends to suck a lot of my time away and generally after 15 or 20 minutes I have nothing accomplished.
A third reason is that, as someone who is just one step ahead of being special needs and also a perfectionist(a unique but challenging combination) I often struggle with writers block.
So for today's post, I am trying to conquer those 3 reasons at the same time. I am using speech recognition software and speaking this post. I am only using my keyboard when, for example, the software interprets this post as with both and then interprets with both as with bull and then interprets with bull as with all.
I also, set my timer for 21 minutes, to avoid the time suck involved. I am also using the Amy plays Balderdash method of blogging. Which means I am just saying the first thing that comes to my head. I may edit my head later.
I set the timer for 21 minutes and now have six minutes left. I'm going to play to the buzzer, but by the small content I have achieved in 15 minutes, you can see what kind of time suck I am up against.
I've been working a lot of overtime at my job lately, which may explain why this is my first post in eight days. It's better than the months at a time absences I usually experience. I am trying to use some time to expressing myself in blog form at least twice a week.
I am not sure if this speech software will work for me or not. We actually got it for spider droid, so this is just a secondary use of it.
I am currently reading a book. It is the first book in a mystery series that has Peter Rabbit author (that's the timer but I will finish this thought) Beatrix Potter as it's protagonist. I read through the historical note at the end of the book today. And I'm going to put this Beatrix Potter quote on the blog masthead. She said it of her rabbit Peter when he died in 1902. "Whatever the limitations of his intellect or outward shortcomings of his fur, and his ears and toes, his disposition was uniformly amiable and his temper unfailingly sweet. An affectionate companion and a quiet friend."
Well I am past the time I assigned for myself. So I will and now (but first I'll add punctuation).
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Six Word Saturday Physical Education Edition
My Six:
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Six Word Minimum
It's been far too long since I participated in Six Word Saturday at Showmyface.com. I talked about my new job in my last post. I didn't mention that I am earning minimum wage for the job. This fact gave me two (count them) different six word reflections . . .
Haven't made minimum wage since 1996
I make 13.75 cents a minute.
I prefer the second one because it require more math. It also puts a more positive spin on it. That's 20.625 cents a minute if I can get some overtime going.
For more six word Saturday click here.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Neighborhood
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Time to (Re) Make the Donuts.
A few years ago we had a family website and I would write occasional articles on it. Consider it a pre-blog blog. I named those articles Memo: Random. Occasionally I am going to post them here under Random Postings. This one is back 7 years ago from 1/27/2002.
Recently, I have been waking up in the middle of the night, usually around 3 A.M. Most nights, I go right back to sleep, but sometimes I don't even try. This morning was one of those occasions.
I woke up at 4:30 after 4 hours of sleep. My wife, Amy, was feeding our soon to be 3 month old boy. She put him into bed and went back to sleep; but I was wide awake. So I got up, went into the computer room and looked up some things on the Internet.
At about 6, our daughter walked in the room. In order to let the other half of our family stay sleeping, I quietly got her dressed and we went out to buy donuts. I didn't have any cash on me, so we went to a Dunkin Donuts that I "remembered" accepted credit cards.
When we got out of the car, the store looked how I expected a donut shop to look at 6 o'clock on a Sunday morning: sparsely populated. There was one car in the drive-thru, one customer ahead of me, and one "regular" nursing his coffee in the corner booth.
When it was our turn, I made our order, making sure to get a good variety. I asked my daughter to tell the man what kind she wanted and in language typical of a 2 year old, she said she wanted a white one while pointing to a powdered donut. (If 2 year olds couldn't point it would be a lot harder to understand them.)
When it came time to pay, I pulled out my check card and much to my surprise and dismay was told I "remembered" wrong about them accepting credit cards. They did not!
I rather sheepishly had to admit, I had no actual money on me. My plan was to run to an ATM, get cash, and pick up the donuts. The counter person told me to just take the donuts and pay him back another time. I was reluctant to accept his offer but he insisted.
We took the donuts, went back to the car, got cash at the ATM and came back. By this time, activity at the store had perked up a little. I got in line to pay the guy back. At the same time the "regular" got in line behind me. I thought he was just refilling his coffee but he had come to talk to me.
The man was probably my Dad's age (late 50's/ early 60's). He was the kind of person my daughter would refer to as a Grandpa. To her, there are four types of males (Baby, Kid, Man and Grandpa). He told me that I did not have to pay for the donuts, that he was picking up the tab.
The most embarrassing part of this incident of not bringing cash was the implication that our family was destitute and needed to panhandle for donuts. Thinking this was his impression, I politely declined indicating "I have money." He responded, "No, I've got it. It's for being honest and coming back."
I was still tempted to refuse his offer, but I think I correctly labeled that temptation as stubborn pride thanked him and went back home.
Many thoughts have penetrated my cranium about what kernel of truth to pull from this man's act of kindness. The first thought I had was that honesty must be a small commodity these days when a total stranger thinks it an oddity that needs to be rewarded. Another along those same lines was that honesty should be a given and needs no reward. The third was always keep $10.00 in the glove box for donut related emergencies. Finally I latched onto this:
Honesty, like any virtue should be pursued, taught and praised when seen in action. As a member of our society, the "regular" was simply affirming the ideal of honesty by giving my family breakfast on the house.
As my children grow up, Amy and I will try to teach them many valuable lessons about character. I can think of none stronger than when you spot virtue in our fallen world: be the guy who buys the donuts.
Meanwhile in 2009: The Dunkin Donuts was torn down recently and a new Dunkin Donuts just opened up at the same location. They now accept credit cards at least I "remember" using one there. :)
Back in 2012 again. I thought of this incident a few Saturday's ago when I walked about a mile and a half with my current 6 year old to get cash from Walgreen's to buy donuts at the donut store around the corner from our house. I walked all that way because that donut shop does not accept check cards. It turns out, that now they do and I walked a mile and a half out of the way. I have been able to pay forward that regular's investment in honesty in several ways over the past decade and will continue to be on the lookout to applaud the virtuous.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
How to say Marshmallow in Russian
Play-A-Ways - A play a-way is an audio book in it's own mp3 type player. They are available at our public library. When we go on a long trip (like this one to Michigan) The kids and sometimes the adults get some Play-a-ways from the library. Our kids love books and listening to books in the car is one of their favorite ways to pass the time,
Madlibs, Random and other word games.
Random is a game I was taught in 1986. I have been a devotee for more than a quarter century now. Here is a previous post about it. Mad Libs and Random are great games because they are both fun and educational. I guess mostly fun.
Kid Directed Play.
The kids create games that they play on car rides. The ones they play most often are the frowning game, which is very similar to Make me Laugh and the Dolphin Game, where they pretend they are workers or animals in a zoo. Amy and I can entertain ourselves just listening to them.
We do lots of other things on car trips, but that's a pretty good list for now. I'll be back tomorrow with some Donuts.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Boring, a nice place to visit.
- Website with some interesting facts about Boring, MD.
- Website describing Boring, OR as an exciting place to live.
These Blogs Are So Last Year
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Does Grief Last Forever?1 year ago
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Growing Up1 year ago
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