Month: August 2026

Just this past Saturday morning the plantar fasciitis in my left foot was really acting up and I woke up to a horrible burning sore throat.  I can handle headaches, stuffy noses, stomach issues, etc. but a raw throat leaves me beyond miserable! Plus, I had a huge pile of laundry to finish.  Being on summer break meant doing minimal washes since I live in my swim suit, a couple pairs of shorts and 3 or 4 t-shirts.  Now that we’re back in school, I have loads of slacks, shirts, socks and underwear to wash. Feeling sick and overwhelmed I was in a pissed off foul mood.  Why was all this coming down on poor me?  A pity party for 1 please!

Then a quick web surf to Facebook healed me.  I saw a video clip of a woman taking her young cat crazy niece to an animal shelter to visit kitties. That girl was so sweet and taken by the many felines there.  Then I popped into the Marklund Homes Facebook page and saw pictures of their multi-needs residents who enjoyed a recent field trip to Rate Field, the home of the Chicago White Sox. The beaming smiles of those folks with developmental disabilities and serious medical needs were a strong wake up call for me.   I thought to myself, “Dude, you have a normal, healthy and pretty much trouble-free life.  Stop acting like a whiny baby!”  Message received, loud and clear.

THE GOOD FOLKS AT MARKLUND HOMES HAD A GREAT DAY AT THE HOME OF THE WHITE SOX, RATE FIELD.

We’re closing in on the start of the regular Bears season which should be a fun one.  Ben Johnson’s team won’t be surprising opponents like they did last year and they have a much tougher schedule.  My prediction, the Bears will win 10 & lose 7.    

Regarding the back and forth over whether the Bears will move to Hammond Indiana or build a new home in Arlington Heights; I don’t think the Mc Caskeys really want to move out of state.  But they may have to if their desired incentive requests from Illinois legislators don’t happen. 

Here’s how I see this mess.

To the Bears, Arlington Heights was the beautiful rich girl who they thought they could easily land on their terms but the team learned that she’s not so easy. Hammond is the tipsy girl who’s draped all over them as closing time at the club approaches.  The tipsy girl could win this battle.

By the way, the Elmhurst History Museum has a new exhibit on the long history of the Bears that I’ll definitely check out.

CH. 2 NEWS DID A NICE FEATURE ON THE NEW BEARS TEAM EXHIBIT AT ELMHURST HISTORY MUSEUM.

Last week marked the 40^th anniversary of the release of Paul Simon’s landmark album “Graceland.”  I like all the songs on that record and the title track has one of the best opening lines of all time.  “The Mississippi Delta was shining like a National Guitar.”  How Paul Simon came up with that line I’ll never know but I love it!

PAUL SIMON’S “GRACELAND” ALBUM IS 40 YEARS OLD AND IT HAS AGED WELL…

This coming Labor Day weekend marks the last three days East End Pool will be open for 2026.  It’s been a fun but weather messed up summer. During this season, I went through two tubes of Banana Boat 30 SPF which yielded me a dark tan and no sunburns.  Also, my Reef brand flip flops started falling apart in the last couple weeks but I was still able to wear them through the season. The countdown to next year’s pool opening starts the day after Labor Day.

LABOR DAY WILL BE OUR LAST DAY OF THE SEASON AT EAST END POOL.

NEXT BLOG- Party on Garth!

It was a good six-week break.  Here’s what I was doing.

School work- Despite being on ‘vacation’ I completed all 51 training tutorials that our staff was assigned.  They weren’t due to be done until the end of August but I wanted that stuff out of my way.  I also outlined the first book my students will be reading in the new school year, “Crush” by Gary Paulsen.

Personal Reading– For fun, I read Clint Black’s recently released autobiography, “Killin’ Time.”  I learned new things including his father’s suicide and the throat surgeries Clint underwent a few years back after a bad bicycle accident.  One GLARING omission- Clint gave no mention of the out of wedlock daughter he fathered back in 1990.  Fact- Clint fully supported his love child financially until she turned 18 but had nothing to do with her.  This now woman, Chelsea Bain, is an aspiring singer herself.

The other book I read was one that came out in 2023, “Life in the Fast Lane” which is the third Eagles biography I’ve consumed.  Many of the same tales from the first two were in it but also other unknown facts.  This book seemed to have less of an axe to grind than former Eagle Don Felder’s did and also “To the Limit” which was written by Marc Eliot.

Someone needs to make an unauthorized movie about the band’s long and storied history.  However, the biopic idea might scare some studios because both Don Henley and the band’s mogul manager Irving Azoff are lawsuit happy.

Clint Black’s autobiography was a fast and fun read. In my radio days i got to hang with Clint a few times and always found him to be a good guy and very funny with a dry sense of humor.

I saw NO movies at the theater.  Nothing interested me.  I read The Odyssey in high school and am not into the giant epic style films.  There are some late summer/early fall flicks I do have interest in seeing.

On the small screen I re-did my membership to Netflix and really liked the Martin Short documentary “Life is Short.”  I also streamed the newly issued three-part series “The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare” on Netflix. This one has interviews with the friends and families of the young murder victims along with the police who were on the scene from that very first day when the crimes were discovered.  It IS a heartbreaking watch but as I’ve said before, these kids deserve to be acknowledged.  I taught high schoolers who were about to graduate and move forward with their young lives, just as these college kids were moving forward in theirs.  Heck, we ALL have been that same age, (early 20’s) and can recall the dreams and expectations we hoped to make happen.  Maddie Mogen, Kayla Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin never got to do that.

I also was blown away by “A Toxic Love Story” on Netflix.  It’s a ninety-minute true story documentary that has more twists than you can imagine.  Here I thought I’d seen it all in relationships… I was wrong! 

This 3 part series is worth seeing and those 4 kids deserve our attention and respect.

I watched plenty of Cubs and White Sox games on TV and even geeked out by keeping scorecards for some of those contests.

Odds & Ends- Back in late-April I had a slight fender bender and needed to get the hood of my car repaired along with getting a new front headlight.  That finally happened in early July with help from A-Z Auto Body in Villa Park.  Excellent work done at a very fair price from those folks.

I got my teeth cleaned for the first time since before the pandemic. No cavities but my poor hygienist (who’s also a neighbor of mine) had some serious work to do when clearing and polishing my choppers. From now on, I’m seeing my dentist every six months with the next appointment set for January.

A former co-worker of mine was in need of a new teaching job and asked me to be a reference which I gladly did.  She got the job so I may have been a small part of her landing that position, a job I know she’ll do so very well.

I also was the conduit for helping my cousin Linda get in touch with a reputable breeder of Boston Terriers and this fall she’ll get the pick of a new litter of pups.  Boston Terriers are a great breed of dogs; Linda had one years ago and she is thrilled about welcoming another to her home.  I could not be happier for my cousin who I love dearly.

Pool It. Of course, most of my days were spent doing early morning lap swimming and mid-day water walking with my summer family at East End Pool. 4^th of July’s weekend was rained and power outage out and we lost another day due to the Canadian wildfires smoke but most other days were good.  We still have 3 more weekends to enjoy at East End.

I spend so much time at East End Pool so maybe I should have my mail forwarded there.

At the midway point of my break, I started personal and professional projects that are in their infancy.  More details on those will be shared in the coming months.

My Summer Break 2026 was graded a B+ and hopefully 2027’s will be even better.

NEXT BLOG– When I know, you’ll know.