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Monday, April 8, 2024
A to Z 2024: G is for Going to the Zoo
Saturday, April 6, 2024
A to Z 2024: F is for Final Words
By John Salmon, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link
, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link
Thursday, April 4, 2024
A to Z 2024: D is for Discover National Parks
A moorland scene Pic taken from the path to Lad's Leap, centre skyline is the Pennine Way to Black Hill with Bareholme Moss to the right.
By John Fielding, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link
Alport Dale. Looking southeast down the dale, Alport Castles is on the skyline with the Towers just centre right.By Eirian Evans, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link
The Lake District
, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link
, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link
Snowdonia is a National Park in Wales and if the picture below is any indication it is strikingly beautiful.
, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link
Friday, March 10, 2023
Blog Tryouts Results Show
Blog Insider: An unsolicited and superfluous look inside the minutiae.
I'm a big fan of blogroll (Don't know what blogroll click here to find out.) At present, I have 8 different blogrolls on my home page, and we all know how painful that can be. The most recent one is called Blog Tryouts. I just started it earlier this year.
Blog Tryouts is exactly what it sounds like. I chose 8 blogs that I was not currently linking anywhere else in my blog and placed them in their own section. Some of these blogs like The Comics Curmudgeon and We Are That Family have been on my blogrolls before and I have decided to have another look at them. Others like Chicken Spaghetti and Laws of Gravity are blogs I have recently discovered and placing them on a blogroll for the first time.
Since the beginning of the year, I have been enjoying going to these blogs on multiple occasions and have added 3 to some of my more permanent blogrolls.
Laws of Gravity as I mentioned last month on my Januarying post is a blogger/substitute teacher and I have really enjoyed her tales from the front lines of education. I have added her blog to my Education and Special Needs Blog blogroll. Her most recent post is called Oblivious.
Rambling Ever on may well be my favorite of the blogs from blog tryouts. I feel like I have found kindred spirits in the group of writers who contribute to this blog. They have a very good 5 part series called The Forgotten History of Christian Rock with 5 Spotify playlists to help you not forget. I really enjoyed their recent post called I Love My Boring Church as our family has been on a church search for some time now and the post served as something of an oasis for me. I wasn't sure which blogroll to place Rambling Ever On, it could certainly go into my Bloggy Blogs category as they spray all to fields, but for now, anyway, I'm including them in the News, Faith, Opinion, and Insight Blogs section.
The Third Blog that earned a place on my blogroll team is Reflections On The Teche. I've seen this blog on several occasions through Poetry Friday. This week's Poetry Friday is at My Juicy Little Universe by the way. Feel free to stop in. I really like the poetry at Reflections On The Teche. I've even signed up to take part in the kiddie-lit progressive poem she's spearheading in April. One feature she does on her blog is This Photo Wants To Be a Poem. I particularly liked the submission called Sunrise Field. I have placed Reflections On The Teche in my Writing, Poetry, Publishing, and Book blogs section.
I will keep all 8 blogs up in The Blog Tryouts section until the end of March. In May I plan to link blogs that I discovered or rediscovered during April's A to Z challenge.
Friday, April 1, 2022
A is for Awana, Allen, and Ample.
Good morning and welcome to another year of the A to Z Challenge. This year I chose 3 themes for the challenge: Limericks, MLB Sluggers in my life time, and A to Z Wordles. For more information about these themes click here.
I did not grow up attending the kind of churches that participate in the children's program Awana. So, it was not until Amy and I started our own family that we participated as parents and volunteers.. Awana is a program that among other things promotes the memorization of bible verses from children 2 -18. They are in many ways similar to a youth scouting program and one of their biggest events is the Awana Grand Prix which is very similar to the Pine Box Derbiesthat I participated in as a Cub Scout. Awana is something that worked for out family for many years which I 0ne reason why I penned this limerick 8+ years ago.
Tell folks, tell friends, tell an iguana.
There's plenty of fun at Awana
We learn that God is King
We play games and we sing
But never Hakuna Matata
From My Facebook page 3/5/2014
Sunday, March 6, 2022
A to Z challenge 2022 Theme Reveal
When I guest posted last month at the A to Z challenge blog I kinda did my theme reveal a little early.
Just in case you missed it, I said that this year I will be posting limericks that I have written. Because it's the A to Z challenge, the theme of each limerick will start with a different letter of the alphabet. It turns out that April is National Poetry Month so the timing works out well.
Limerick, Ireland |
Why limericks? It all started almost 9 years ago when I wanted to do something to commemorate my 50th year on the planet. So on Facebook from the day I turned 49 until the day I turned 50, I tried to generate one limerick a day and post it there.
Here is my limerick from 8 years ago, March 6th, 2014
Just allocated our tax refund
Most for debt and a little for fun
Now that I'm done taxing
It's time for relaxing
Watching Star Trek with daughter and son
For the a to z challenge I have chosen 9 of those Facebook limericks and will post them on the appropriate date for the appropriate letter. Many of those FB limericks were about friends having birthdays or such things; don't expect to see any of those here. In the month of March I plan to pen 8 more limericks, and if all goes well produce 9 final limericks in April on the day they drop.
This is where my announcement begins to resemble a late night infomercial, because besides the 26 limericks, you also are going to get 2 more wonderful A to Z products.
As you may or may not know Leap of Dave is a conglomeration of 4 blogs I used to write simultaneously. First, I changed my blog Home School Dad to Leap of Dave. Then I discontinued.my blogs Dave Out Loud (a vlog), Crazy Uncle Dave's Sports Blog and Random Acts of Roller and transferred them here. In the past I have participated in the challenge from all 4 blogs. This year while I will only be participating once, each post will contain 3 separate parts.
After the limerick I will be featuring a baseball player who hit at least 100 career home runs in my life time. In the past at Crazy Uncle Dave's I have done this same type of theme for Chicago White Sox Players and Chicago Cubs Players. There will be some repeats of those players but mostly it will include players from all around the league. To give it more variety I will have at least 5 players whose main homer contributions were in the following periods: 1964-1975, 1976-1987, 1988-1999, 2000-2010, and 2011- 2021.
Nothing says Home Run more than the late "Hammering " Hank Aaron |
So you get A to Z limericks. You get A to Z Sluggers ...
But Wait, There's More!!!
Like many people over the past few months, I have been playing the game Wordle on line. On March 1st my starting word began with the letter A. Each day this month I am starting with the next letter in the alphabet. On April 1st I will share the word that began with A and my subsequent guesses until I finally got the correct Wordle of that day.
A sample Wordle |
So to sum up:
L is for Limericks, Long Balls and Lengthy Wordle explanations.
I am looking forward to sharing my love of poems, baseball and word games with you guys next month. I hope you are all planning on participating this year by at least reading a number of other peoples' posts. If you are thinking about participating in the challenge this year as a blogger, stop thinking about it, and do it! If you have your theme reveal ready, click here and enter it so we can all see what you're up to.
See you guys in April!
Tuesday, February 22, 2022
Tuesday 2-22-22 = Tuesday
Wednesday, February 2, 2022
Jeremy Hawkins Tribute
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, May 3, 2021
1921 A Musical Review: A to Z Reflection Post
Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn MonroeRosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, "The King and I", and "The Catcher in the Rye"
Eisenhower, Vaccine, England's got a new queen
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana, goodbyeWe didn't start the fire
It was always burning, since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight itJoseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc
Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron
Dien Bien Phu falls, "Rock Around the Clock"Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland
Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Krushchev
Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the SuezWe didn't start the fire
It was always burning, since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight itLittle Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, "Bridge on the River Kwai"
Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkweather homicide, children of thalidomideBuddy Holly, Ben Hur, space monkey, mafia
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go
U2, Syngman Rhee, Payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the CongoWe didn't start the fire
It was always burning, since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight itHemingway, Eichmann, "Stranger in a Strange Land"
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion
"Lawrence of Arabia", British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson
Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex
JFK – blown away, what else do I have to say?We didn't start the fire
It was always burning, since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight itBirth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline
Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan"Wheel of Fortune", Sally Ride, heavy metal suicide
Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz
Hypodermics on the shore, China's under martial law
Rock and roller, cola wars, I can't take it anymoreWe didn't start the fire
It was always burning, since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
But when we are gone
It will still burn on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on
I knew I was going to mention more than 26 people alive in 1921. That being said, I was very surprised when I tabulated that I had mentioned 69 people and 1 stuffed bear that were around in 1921.
At the first mention of each these people, I always included how many years they had lived before 1921 and after 1921. On average these people lived 30 years before 1921 and 48 years after. This means my average subject was born in 1891 and died in1969. In 1891 there were 44 states in the U.S.
During the challenge I tried to include material from my other blogs, both new material and previously published material on the people I was profiling. I also tried when possible to include people living in 1921 who were still alive in 2021. I started with Al Jaffee on my first post, Prince Phillip passed away during the challenge before I got to Q for Queen's Consort. I discovered today that I had already included someone years ago in the A to Z challenge who is currently living. In 2015 I participated in the A to Z challenge from, Crazy Uncle Dave's Sports Blog and my theme was White Sox Home Run Hitters. For E I wrote about Eddie Robinson. At the time Eddie was 94 years old and the 21st oldest living major leaguer. Since then, Eddie has become the oldest living major leaguer. He was born December 15, 1920. That means I began the A to Z challenge with someone from 1921 who is still alive and I get to end the challenge the same way.
I really enjoyed participating in the challenge again this year. I have my theme all set for next year but first I'm going back to the simpler non a to z blogging lifestyle. I am looking forward to the a to z road trip after a little rest. Working for a century can do that to you.
Friday, April 30, 2021
Z is for Zero,
Thursday, April 29, 2021
Doctor Knows Best
Wednesday, April 28, 2021
X= X eX WhitesoX
X is a very versatile letter. It also sidelines as a Roman Numeral. So for todays installment I give you 10 White Sox Players from the 1919 World Series. The owner of the White Sox was Charles Comiskey and his nick name was the Old Roman. So if you're the kind who needs the X justified, I believe I just did.
In 1919 several White Sox players conspired to throw the World Series. In 1921 These players were acquitted in a Chicago court room of any wrong doing. However Judge Kennesaw "Mountain" Landis imposed a lifetime ban on 8 of the players. Infamously referred to as the Black Sox or the 8 Men Out.
Why Sidewalks should have Spell Check.
This is part of Wordless Wednesday. I'll Be back a little later today for my 1921 X in this years A to Z Challenge. Click here to see whose lives we've already looked at this April.
Tuesday, April 27, 2021
W is for Waltons
Monday, April 26, 2021
V is for Venn
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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