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Wednesday, May 20, 2026

Lucy's Journal


Lucy’s Journal Entry — May 20, 2026

The gang gathered down at the local Sheetz this evening after work. The humans thought everybody was winding down for the night, but that was absolutely not the case. Kiwi, Peanut, and the quackers had officially begun planning Memorial Day Weekend operations.

The air smelled like gasoline, pepperoni rolls, curly fries, and just a tiny bit of bad decision making.

Lucy slid into the booth first carrying three pepperoni rolls and a giant sweet tea like she owned the place. Peanut jumped onto the seat beside her pretending to look sophisticated, but immediately stole half of Lucy’s mozzarella sticks when nobody was looking.

Kiwi was already bouncing around the table screaming:
“THREE DAY WEEKEND! THREE DAY WEEKEND!”

The quackers were all crowded around a basket of fries, loudly arguing over whether ranch or honey mustard was the superior dipping sauce. Things nearly turned violent.

Eventually Lucy got everybody under control enough to discuss the official weekend plans.

Since Kiwi never did finish building his “luxury tropical backyard waterfall paradise,” the group decided they should visit a real waterfall somewhere in the mountains instead. Kiwi became extremely excited at the idea of swimming and immediately attempted to cannonball directly into somebody’s cup of Dr Pepper.

The tentative plan now includes:

  • Swimming all day in cold mountain water
  • Peanut supervising from a dry rock while judging everybody
  • Cooking hot dogs and burgers on a grill
  • The quackers stealing every single chip bag they can find
  • Kiwi attempting to become “King of the Waterfall”

Lucy said it actually sounded peaceful for once.

That peaceful feeling lasted approximately seven seconds.

Kiwi suddenly froze while staring out the Sheetz window into the parking lot.

There were cars everywhere.

Rows and rows of shiny clean cars.

Kiwi slowly turned back toward the group with the expression of a tiny feathery supervillain.

“There are too many cars,” he whispered.

The quackers immediately became interested.

Peanut narrowed his eyes and sighed because he already knew where this conversation was going.

Kiwi hopped onto the windowsill dramatically and declared:
“THIS PARKING LOT NEEDS MORE POOP.”

The quackers began quacking in support like tiny feathered henchmen.

Lucy nearly choked on her pepperoni roll laughing while Peanut buried his face in his paws and muttered:
“I can’t take these people anywhere.”

Kiwi then outlined what he called “Operation Memorial Droppings,” which apparently involves coordinated aerial chaos sometime this weekend. The quackers volunteered immediately because, according to them, teamwork makes the dream work.

Peanut has publicly denied involvement.

However… Lucy noticed him smirking a little.

This does not inspire confidence.

One thing is certain:
Memorial Day Weekend may never financially recover from this crew.

Wednesday

Tuesday, May 19, 2026

Tuesday's Tidbits

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

* It has been 22,789 days since I was born, that is 21 years using my new,  new, new, and improved 1,069-day Calendar. Mom is at 30,445, which would make her 28 according to my new and improved calendar. 

* It has been 8,043 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. 

* 6,637 days ago, Michelle and I had our first date together. Life has been much better since then. 

* 5,841 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 5,878 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 3,016 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 1,670 days ago today. 

* My older Brother Jonathan lived 21,280 days, I've now outlived him by 1,526 days, making me Senior Supreme Sibling once again! 

* Old roommate Gregg proposed to his fiancĂ©e 248 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 2,101 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.

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

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

* There are 219 more shopping days left until Christmas 2026. 

* There are 204 days until I hit the age of 63. Yeah I know, I'm really older than 21. 

* There are only 87 more days to go until Michelle and I will celebrate our 15th Wedding Anniversary......maybe

* There are 34 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 8,357 blogs in what is now 21 1/2 years of Blogging. 

* The students are Gone!!! Less traffic...or more road construction take your pick.  

* 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

* You know what I should do? Get my drone ready to fly, update and charge everything. It's been a few years. 

* This is my favorite Tictok, don't give Peanut any ideas. 

* Hi ho hi ho

Monday, May 18, 2026

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.

Michelle's right rear tire for some reason always loses air, we had 4 new tires put on a few years ago because the same wheel did the same thing. I half wonder if there is a problem with the rim. Kiwi and Peanut said they don't want to go to work with us today, but they would put in in Michelle's tire. They are such thoughtful pets, good thing I have an air compressor and a tire nozzle to fill tires with. 

Still planning on working 10 hour shifts this week, I'll have to do it next week as well to make up for the Holiday, but I have my routine and I'm used to it, so it's really no big deal. 

Michelle is only working four days this week, she is off Friday and next monday to make it a 4 day weekend. 

Have yourselves a great day. 

Hi ho hi ho

Sunday, May 17, 2026

Oh I almost forgot

As Michelle and I were driving to DiCarlo's yesterday on the trip up, I had noticed that the old Washington Mall had basically been demolished, as in gone. So we go to DiCarlos then to Hayley's and as we were coming back through on I-70 I decided I was going to screw with Hayley a little bit. 

So I called her and played the what did you do to the mall game, pretty much blaming her that this huge structure was gone. 

She informed me that they are tearing the Mall down (It's basically gone) and they are going to build a COSTCO in that location and it is due to open up some time next year. We are already Sam's Club Plus Members, meaning our Membership pretty much pays for itself in rewards, but I can see picking up a COSTCO membership as well. 

Michelle said their is a BJ's up in Bridgeville as well that she would like to check out. I think all three are pretty much the same, membership clubs and same deals and incentives pretty much. We do take our weekly trip to Sam's Club. 

I'm so glad I was able to cut Grass yesterday morning, it's supposed to be warmer today, but everything is still wet and my grass was three weeks grown. I even put the mower blade on 6 and ran across where the big industrial garage used to be, ad least in the flat areas. I'm going to have to get that ground flattened out  first, still a number of big divots. 

Sunday Morning Rambling

Here I sit on a quiet Sunday Morning, Kiwi and Peanut are both chowing down on the remaining DiCarlo's Pizza that was left over. They both love it and declared cold cheese on top of a hot pizza is amazing. 

So yesterday was pretty amazing, Michelle did the shopping as I cut the grass, and it has been three weeks since I last cut it. It definitely needed cut and I wanted to cut it before the rains came. Mission accomplished.

When all the chores were done, we headed to Wheeling West Virginia to get a DiCarlos Pizza. Michelle ordered a big tray and we had a couple pieces there and then delivered the tray to Hayley and Tyler at their home. They have an Osso's right down the road, but they are just a DiCarlos knockoff. DiCarlos is the original and the best tasting of everyone who tries to imitate them. Hayley, Tyler and Luke were all very appreciative of having us bring them a pizza. 

When we got home eventually is was raining pretty heavily, so that was pretty much it for us and the day and evening. 

Have yourselves a great day. 

Saturday, May 16, 2026

Saturday

Here I sit in a semi-quiet household, Kiwi and Peanut are up and working some kind of  Jigsaw puzzle of a moose. These two are always innovative and I just never know what they are getting into. I'm just thankful it doesn't concern hammers, torches or construction materials and it's not something competitive. Peanut ordered this puzzle and was a little upset when she figured out she spelled mouse wrong. 

So what is on today's agenda? With any luck and if the weather holds up I am going to try to cut grass. It has been three weeks and it's due to be cut. I would have cut it last weekend but we had other priorities that needed to be attended to. Michelle is going to be doing our grocery shopping for the week and that will be it for chores on this day. 

She has talked about running to Wheeling because she wants some DiCarlo's Pizza. The one we used to go to all the time is gone, but there is one at the Cabela's exit back there in the plaza and one in Glen Dale that I have been known to frequent. There is also one in Wheeling, but I've never been to that particular one. 

Today is the 22nd Anniversary of me Graduating from WVU and it was 49 years ago today that Grandpa Hall had passed away, so May 16th is always a date I tend to remember. 

Have yourselves a great day, go make some memories. 

Friday, May 15, 2026

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!!!

Life can finally slow down a little bit after today, the past week and a half have been kind of hectic and to be honest with you I'm glad we are on the back side of that block of time. 

We had a great time last night, Layla Graduated from the MedEd Program and Michelle and I attended. This is the one where she spoke at and was most important to her. It has been an honor watching this young woman grow up to say the vey least. She was Michelle's Flower Girl for our wedding. 

No plans for the weekend yet, just coming back to reality. 

Have yoursleves a great day

Hi ho hi ho

Thursday, May 14, 2026

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.

This is one that I saw on Facebook last week and it was the essence of Nick, especially since he did so many encouraging and uplifting tictok videos building his business. I knew this had to be my photo flashback the moment I saw it. 

Have yoursleves a great day. 

Hi ho hi ho