Lucy's Journal

Lucy’s Journal – April 8, 2026

Dear Journal,

Today started with a very serious plan. Kiwi said we were going on an adventure—like in that movie where the kids walk along train tracks and have a big journey and discover themselves (or at least find something dramatic).

Peanut was immediately on board, mostly because he thought there would be snacks involved. The Quackers didn’t really understand the assignment but loudly agreed anyway, which is pretty standard for them.

So off we went.

Kiwi took the lead, puffed up like some kind of feathery explorer, declaring, “All great adventures require train tracks!” Peanut nodded like he knew exactly what that meant, even though I’m pretty sure he was just hoping for a hot dog stand somewhere along the way.

We walked. And walked. And walked some more.

Around neighborhoods. Past the river. Up a hill. Back down another hill. The Quackers argued the entire time about which direction “felt more train-tracky,” which, for the record, is not a real navigational method.

At one point, Kiwi climbed up onto a fence post, looked around dramatically, and announced, “They have to be around here somewhere!”

They were not.

Peanut started to get suspicious about an hour in.

“Are we sure Morgantown even has these things?” he asked, flopping down dramatically on the sidewalk.

Kiwi refused to admit defeat. “All great stories involve perseverance,” he said.

“Yes,” I said, “but most of those stories also involve actually finding what you’re looking for.”

After what felt like forever (and at least three wrong turns suggested by the Quackers), we all kind of just… stopped.

There were no train tracks.

No grand discovery.

No dramatic movie moment.

Just us, a little tired, a little confused, and very aware that we had absolutely no idea where we were going anymore.

That’s when Peanut said the smartest thing anyone said all day:

“Ice cream?”

And just like that, the adventure changed direction.

We found a little shop, piled in, and ordered way too much. Kiwi tried to “sample” everyone’s cones (without permission, of course), the Quackers managed to get ice cream on each other, and Peanut dropped his scoop and stared at it like his whole world had ended… before immediately ordering another.

We sat there laughing about how we set out for this big, meaningful journey and ended up completely failing to even find train tracks.

But honestly?

It didn’t feel like a failure.

It felt like one of the best days we’ve had in a while.

Turns out you don’t need train tracks to have an adventure.

Sometimes you just need your favorite crew, a questionable sense of direction, and a really good ice cream cone.

—Lucy

Wednesday

Tuesday's Tidbits

* Monday is over, now we are staring straight down at a Tuesday. Good time for a tidbits. I like these 8 hour days better. 

* It has been 22,747 days since I was born, that is 21 years using my new,  new, new, and improved 1,069-day Calendar. Mom is at 30,403, which would make her 28 according to my new and improved calendar. 

* It has been 8,001 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. Has it really been 8,000 days? 

* 6,595 days ago, Michelle and I had our first date together. Life has been much better since then. 

* 5,799 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 5,836 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 2,974 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 1,628 days ago today. 

* My older Brother Jonathan lived 21,280 days, I've now outlived him by 1,484 days, making me Senior Supreme Sibling once again! 

* Old roommate Gregg proposed to his fiancée 206 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 2,143 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.

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

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

* There are 261 more shopping days left until Christmas 2026. 

* There are 246 days until I hit the age of 63. Yeah I know, I'm really older than 21. 

* There are only 129 more days to go until Michelle and I will celebrate our 15th Wedding Anniversary......maybe

* There are 76 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 8,309 blogs in what is now 21 1/2 years of Blogging. 

* 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. And people wondered why I never pitched, seen too many of these through the years. 

* Hi hoi hi ho

Happy Birthday Terri Rehmani

I would like to take this opportunity to wish my amazing sister Terri a very Happy Birthday today, by my count she is still just 21, but I never use traditional calendars and use my own unique temporal measuring system. 

 
Terri is a strong and inspiring woman and now she has the title of Breast Cancer Survivor to go along with everything else. She is an amazing woman/ 

Terri is one of the most unselfish and amazing person you could ever meet or come across. If you have someone like this in your life you're pretty lucky and I'm pretty lucky. It was her that picked me up at the lowest point in my life and dusted me off and put me on the right path despite me having the fears that I had at that time, that makes her pretty damned amazing in my book and I'm thankful she is my sister.

Not sure if anyone will see Terri today, but if you are fortunate enough take a little bit of time out and wish her a very Happy Birthday today.

Happy Birthday, Terri.

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.

It is back into the offices today for both Michelle and I. She is coming off a five-day weekend, and I'm just finishing up a three-day weekend and rested and relaxed. I do go back to a normal 8-hour day today instead of those longer 10-hour days. You wouldn't think that's tiring, but in an office environment and sitting at a computer screen, that makes for long days, especially when you are doing tedious tasks like transcribing numbers from paper copies into a spreadsheet (handwritten, so OCR Readers are out of the question), so I can convert the coordinates into a geospatial dataset. It'll help us improve spatial integrity with where things are located. 

It was nice to see Hayley, Tyler, and Luke yesterday. They all came down for Easter Dinner thar Michelle (actually Peanut and Kiwi) prepared. It was an absolute feast, and it was great to see everyone. I hadn't seen any of them since Thanksgiving. 

So what is coming up in the week ahead? I have a weekly meeting first thing this morning, we use it as a skull session as to how we will be addressing projects. Michelle has an ever-expanding role where she picks up new skill sets all the time. She is quick to pick up on things, so she is becoming a bigger and bigger asset every day. She actually closed a $4 Million deal last week, which she was quite happy with. I asked her if we get to keep the whole $4 Million, the answer, unfortunately, was no. 

Have yourself a great day. 

Hi ho hi ho

Happy Easter

Here I sit in a quiet household, well, that's a lie, as Kiwi and Peanut are begging me to go and hide some Easter Eggs so that they can find them. I told them I don't hide Easter Eggs, the Easter Bunny does. Kiwi asked me if this Bunny goes all around the world hiding Easter Eggs, ala like Santa does, and I said yes. They both think he is a righteous dude for doing that. 

Hayley, Tyler, Luke, and maybe even Gracie (who is getting old) will all be coming down for the day to celebrate Easter with us. It will be the culmination of a very busy but relaxing weekend for both Michelle and me. It'll be nice to see them, considering they don't get back to Morgantown that often when we are home, and we rarely get up there to visit. Busy lives, busy world, and everyone's schedules just don't seem to cooperate. 

I do love this time of the year, all the colors of springtime, the families getting together, and it's a rebirth of the earth after months of shorter, drab, and colder days. This is my favorite season of the year, always has been, I guess. You can open the back door up and let the soothing and natural smells of budding foliage emanate throughout your home, without it being too hot where you need to fire up the Air Conditioner. 

Have yourself a great day, make some memories. 

Saturday

Here I sit in a semi-quiet household, we're celebrating Michelle's long weekend and my three-day weekend. Kiwi and Peanut, or should I say the Chef Pets, have been starting to prep for Easter Dinner tomorrow. I did have to lie to Kiwi and tell him the deviled eggs were actually Pig Eggs, and he believed me because of the Ham. They are such helpful animals. 

Not sure what today really holds for us, I see that Morgantown has finally announced its Summer Concert Series for 2026. I like the Fabulous Thunderbirds and .38 Special, I have actually seen .38 Special before when they were at the Greer Pavilion years ago. I remember going to Greer and buying my tickets and going to Westover Park when they had the old bleachers from the old Mountaineer Field in there. There are a number of good acts and a nice mixture of artists, but I'm sure I'll cover that this summer on Fridays. 

Michelle has the grocery shopping and the Sam's Shopping done. Hayley, Tyler, Luke, and maybe Gracie will be coming down for Easter Dinner. I haven't seen them since Thanksgiving, so it will be nice to see them. I might try to put the Air Conditioner in the Bedroom Window. I'll get Tyler to assist if the weather permits. 

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 Good Friday!!!

Kiwi and Peanut are celebrating Good Friday, Michelle is off and I think I may be off as well with me working the longer shifts this past week. I think they are just sucking up for some of Michelle's Deviled Eggs to be honest with you. 

Plans for the weekend? I think the kids are coming down on Sunday to visit, Michelle invited Hayley, Tyler and Luke to come down for dinner. Other than that no big plans for the weekend. I think Michelle may actually do all of her shopping today since she will be off, but you never know. 

I think my life has become so repetitive that there really isn't any excitement anymore to be honest. We go to work, do things around the house and lather rinse and repeat. I'm like clockswork. 

Have yourselves a great day. 

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 one goes back to either 1977 or 1978. I had bought my first camera, a Kodak 126 (That was the film). It was the summer after Grandpa Hall had passed, and we were having a cookout at our house. This was Grandma Hall, you can see my dog Rocky off in the distance and we were playing a game of croquet in the side yard. We usually set up back by the garden, but we sat it up here for some reason. 

I grabbed a Picture of Grandma Hall that day as well as a few other ones, but this one means a lot to me. It was a time when it was just Me, her and Rocky. 

Have yoursleves a great day

Hi ho hi ho