Lucy's Journal

March 25, 2026

Dear Journal,

Today started out like one of those “this seems like a peaceful idea” kind of days… which should have been my first warning that it absolutely was not going to stay that way.

Ed suggested we all go fishing down at the Monongahela River. Fresh air, calm water, maybe catch a few fish—nice and relaxing, right? So of course I packed up Peanut, Kiwi, the Quackers, and the rest of our usual troublemakers and off we went.

For about… oh, I don’t know… six minutes, everything was perfect.

Peanut was sitting on a rock like a seasoned fisherman, tail wrapped neatly around his paws, staring intensely at the water like he was about to solve the mysteries of the universe. Kiwi, on the other hand, was NOT interested in patience. He kept hopping from shoulder to shoulder yelling, “FISHY! FISHY! GET THE FISHY!” like a tiny, feathery coach who had way too much caffeine.

And then… the Quackers.

At first, they were actually fishing. I know. I was shocked too.

But the moment the first carp was pulled out of the water, it was over.

“I caught the biggest one!” shouted one.

“NO YOU DID NOT, MINE IS CLEARLY BIGGER!” yelled the other.

They started lining the fish up side by side, measuring them with sticks, wings, and at one point—I am not kidding—one of them tried to eyeball it by comparing it to his beak.

Kiwi immediately declared himself the official judge, which somehow made things worse.

Peanut just slowly blinked and moved three feet farther away.

The argument escalated quickly. Voices got louder, wings started flapping, and before I could step in—

SMACK.

One of the Quackers slapped the other with a fish.

And that, dear Journal, was the exact moment things went completely off the rails.

Within seconds, it turned into an all-out dead fish food fight.

Fish were flying everywhere.

Kiwi was dive-bombing through the chaos like a tiny green missile, squawking battle cries and somehow throwing pieces of fish mid-flight. Peanut tried to maintain dignity for approximately two seconds before getting smacked in the side by a rogue carp—and then he joined in with surprising enthusiasm.

I tried to stop it. I really did.

But then I got hit.

Right in the shoulder.

With a fish.

And honestly? At that point, it felt personal.

So yes, I regret nothing.

There we were, a full-blown fish fight on the banks of the Monongahela, laughing, slipping, dodging flying carp like it was some kind of bizarre Olympic event.

By the end of it, we were all exhausted, smelled absolutely terrible, and had probably scared off every fish within a mile.

Peanut was covered in fish scales but looked oddly proud of himself.

Kiwi declared it “BEST DAY EVER” approximately 47 times.

The Quackers? Still arguing about whose fish was bigger.

Of course.

We packed up what little dignity we had left and headed home, leaving behind what I can only assume will become a very confusing story for anyone else who visits that spot.

All in all?

Not exactly the peaceful fishing trip we planned…

…but definitely one I won’t forget.

—Lucy

Wednesday

Tuesday's Tidbits

* Monday is over, now we are staring straight down at a Tuesday. Good time for a tidbits. 

* It has been 22,735 days since I was born, that is 21 years using my new,  new, new, and improved 1,069-day Calendar. Mom is at 30,389, which would make her 28 according to my new and improved calendar. 

* It has been 7,987 days since I graduated from WVU with a Degree in Geography. I love what I do and am thankful to still be working in my field. 

* 6,581 days ago, Michelle and I had our first date together. Life has been much better since then. 

* 5,785 days ago, I proposed to Michelle in the backyard at 4:00 in the morning. I've been the luckiest guy since that fateful day. 

* It was 5,822 days ago in front of our closest friends and family, for the most part, Michelle and I became husband and wife at the Marilla Center, it was a great day with friends and family. 

* I have now lived 2,960 days longer than my Dad did and I'm still going strong, slowing down but still going. 

* Michelle has been living a clean and productive life and beat that alcohol demon 1,614 days ago today. 

* My older Brother Jonathan lived 21,280 days, I've now outlived him by 1,470 days, making me Senior Supreme Sibling once again! 

* Old roommate Gregg proposed to his fiancée 192 days ago, I'm happy for those two. I asked him a couple weeks ago if they set a date yet, he said we would be the first to know. 

* I have 2,157 days to go until I retire, give or take a few hundred days here or there, but I love doing what I do. Who knows, though, doing what I do I may never retire.

* 315 more days until Phil steps to center stage once again for Groundhog Day. I'm still mad at the damn rat

* 282 more days to go until my Goodbye 2026 Blog is posted. 

* There are 2765 more shopping days left until Christmas 2026. 

* There are 260 days until I hit the age of 63. Yeah I know, I'm really older than 21. 

* There are only 143 more days to go until Michelle and I will celebrate our 15th Wedding Anniversary......maybe

* There are 90 days until my second favorite season begins, Summertime!!!!!!

* It has been ∞ (infinity symbol) days since I have hated both Pitt and Penn State.

* I have written 8,292 blogs in what is now 21 years of Blogging. 

* I've taught 3 of the 4 in-person classes, I have one more to do then I may have to do another one on Microsoft Teams for another group that we are going to integrate with by the end of the year. 

* Progress on my Selfie in Space, right here. We are ready for liftoff and holding. 

* Looking for Girl Scout Cookies? Ryleigh's Page

* Looking for Girl Scout Cookies still? Arabellas Page

* This is my favorite TicTok of the week. Got to love animals and how they interact

* Hi ho hi ho

Monday

All good things must come to an end—but if you’ve got to wrap up the weekend, today’s a pretty exciting way to do it. Now it’s time to take our collective noses and press them firmly back onto the grindstone of life. Back to work, back to the hustle, back to doing our part to make this spinning rock a better place.

Kiwi and Peanut have decided that since their humans are heading back to the office today, that they are going play a few holes of Golf in the Backyard. Michelle's Dad was a golf pro and made custom golf clubs and mad both of them their own custom sets of clubs years ago, they are just how getting around to using them. Kiwi thinks he has a big advantage, because he is a Natural Birdie on every hole. 

So what is up with me this week? Back into the office slaving away and churning along on entering GPS coordinates by hand. They will have a number of attributes associated with them and I'm up over 14,000 points so far. I'll create a service for everyone once it is completed. Things are going great for both Michelle and I, she loves what she is doing and the company she works for. 

We did do a little bit of running around yesterday, went to Shoe Carnival and found a couple pairs of Hey Dudes and a Pair of Levi Shoes all on discount, probably saved over $100 on my three pairs as did Michelle. We stopped by where Jim was set up in the old Sycamore Lanes parking lot srlling his tools, and Trish, Layla and Makayla (Arrons wife) stopped by. It was really nice to see them. 

Have yourself a great day, go help Kiwi and Peanut play golf if you want. 

For us however.....Hi ho hi ho

Sunday

Here I sit in a household that has a lot of laughing going on. Kiwi and Peanut are playing a game of Pictionary and Peanut keeps laughing at Kiwi's drawing. I hope she doesn't give him any ideas about going to Art School or anything, that's all I need for the Jack of all trades Conure to do, pick up another skill/hobby. 

Michelle did the grocery shopping yesterday morning and ran into Debbie Koon, she asked us to convey a message to Mom that Cousin Judy was in the Madison House so I passed that message on to her and spoke to her a little yesterday morning. Gerald seems to be doing much better as I spoke to him a couple of minutes as well, he speech is sounding better and that quick wit is in full force again. 

I was going to take the Parsons equipment over to Mail and More, but I got an email Friday that they have a scheduled pickup for Monday, so rather than lug three huge boxes over there, I'll let FedEx come and get them. All I needed was a laptop but they sent me all kinds of equipment that needs to be returned. 

Michelle did DE-St Patricks Day Decorate yesterday and put all of those decorations into totes, and we pulled out the Easter totes and now the place is full of pastel spring colors and Easter decorations. She decorates for every season now and has a system. We have an artificial tree up with programmable LED Lights that allows her to pretty much determine what color or colors and any patterns she wants to use. Yes we have an Easter Tree with Easter Eggs hanging on it and bows, pastel lights and a number of gnomes. 

Have yourself a great day. Make the most of it. 

Saturday

Here I sit in a semi-noisy household, both Kiwi and Peanut are super excited to cheer on the WVU Women's Basketball Team this afternoon in the sold-out Hope Gas Coliseum at 5:00. The game will be on ESPNU, but Kiwi is flying through the roof, unrecognized and plans to have courtside seats for today's game. They are super excited for the game. 

This is a sold-out game, and traffic is going to be heavy this weekend. The students are coming back from Spring Break, the NCAA Tournament here and there is a statewide swimming and diving Championships here as well at Mylan Park. Not to mention that the WVU Baseball team is hosting BYU for the rest of the series today. Morgantown is going to be busy, and there is going to be a much heavier flow of traffic than normal, so allow yourself a little extra time to get to where you are going if you are anywhere near being on this side of town. 

Michelle is going to do the grocery shopping this morning and is talking about going up to visit Hayley later this morning. Gracie is getting a little old and is having trouble getting around. They are thinking it might be getting close to that time, so Michelle is going to go up and visit her. 

Have yourself a great day, make it memorable. 

Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes, it is once again that time of the week that we all look forward to when we can take time to cease the labors for the week and take a little bit of needed time out to enjoy the fruits of those labors. It is again the dawn of another weekend and a Big Ole Hairy Friday!!!

Kiwi and Peanut said they are going to spend the whole day watching the NCAA Basketball Tournament. They love watching it and cheering for the underdogs. Needless to say they will both be preoccupied all weekend watching College Basketball. 

It's the end of another week at work, and I have now trained 3 of the 4 groups on the new Outage Management System that we are implementing at work. I started last week and did two more this week, now I'm looking at the home stretch early next week. Don't worry, I have plenty of other things to be doing as well, I'm getting pretty good at this multi-tasking...lol

Have yourselves a great day

Hi ho hi ho

Photo Flashback Thursday

Once a week, I like to take a little bit of time out, time to look at some of the 30,000+ photos that I have stored on my computer. Little lost moments in time that I either captured with a lens, scanned, or just stole from somewhere on the internet. I like to find just one and post it up, recalling or reliving the picture to the best of my ability. Sometimes this is a pretty easy task, and sometimes it's not that easy, but one thing it has always been a lot of fun.

Yes, this is a real picture of the celebrities of Lucy's Journal that posts every Wednesday, the Quackers. Kynlea bought a couple of Ducks last year at I think Rural King and they named them the Quackers. They stay in the back yard and were a couple of really fun birds when I met them last Summer. 

Have yourselves a great day.

Quack Quack Hi ho 

Happy Birthday Amy Dalton

I would like to take this opportunity to wish my wonderful niece Amy a very Happy Birthday today and it is a very special birthday for this amazing young woman, it's her 21st (actually it's her 40th) Birthday!!!

Amy is amazing and inspiring to all, she is one who sets out goals and goes out and accomplishes them, no matter how big or how small. Whether it be raising a family, career path or simply building and paying for a new house for her and her family. She is always focused and goal-driven. 

Amy is also a very creative photographer as well as a number of other things like organizing fundraisers and cookouts.  She has that photographer's eye on how to create a great shot that I wish I had but do not. It takes a certain level of creativity that she exhibits and I don't have.

She's an amazing mother with two kids with all the tools and guidance to accomplish anything they choose and that starts in the home that Amy and Ralph have created.

If you happen to see this amazing young woman today, make sure you wish her a Happy 40th Birthday.

Happy Birthday, Amy.