Reading Goals & Riding High: A Year-End Check-In

Sleepy Oliver on Christmas Eve

It feels like a good time for a rambling post about various things that come to mind while I write. I had to share sleepy Oliver on Christmas Eve in Lawrence. We had a fun time in Lawrence from Monday - Wednesday that found Oliver tired from keeping us all in line and staying up late a few nights. He needed the rest to be ready for the holiday season.

Washburn is closed December 23 - January 1. Carrie and I both took off January 2 and 3, so we have a two week time off of work which we are enjoying. No travel for us during this time off, but we are catching up on things around the house which is good. 

I have been enjoying various sporting events that have been happening during the holiday break. A few NFL games on Christmas Day, Thursday Night football, Saturday NFL games, and then of course Sunday NFL. Carrie is not a fan and is happy to know that the end of the NFL season is fast approaching. Me, I am not so happy. My fantasy teams this year were a disaster for a variety of reasons, but still, I had a fun time following fantasy teams this year.

My reading journey continues, but I will not be anywhere close to my reading goal for 2024 (see post). I am almost done with a book I got for free from Amazon and been reading for a while. I am about 70% of the way done without two hours of reading time remaining. I am hoping to knock out this last book before the end of the year. Doing so would put me at 12 out of 25 for the year. Not bad, but I am disappointed that I did not get close to the 25 goal I had set for the year.

On the exercise front, I am happy to report that I have continued to ride our exercise bike. I started riding on December 1 and I have been riding twice a week since then. I bought some new bike shorts to help with longer rides that provide some padding. I am currently selecting classes that are 30 minutes long which is about right for me at this time, but I plan to extend to 45 minute classes here soon that I will do at least once a week. I have enjoying getting back into live classes and my favorite day for live classes is still Sunday at 11 am CDT with Alley Love. There are usually around two thousand plus other riders in the class, so there is a lot of activity and a lot of high fives. It makes for a fun class and keeps me interested in doing the class each week.

Enough rambling for today. I hope you have a great finish to 2024 with only three days left. I am looking forward to 2025, where I will focus on my personal reading challenges, exercise and fitness, camping plans for the summer, and frequent travel throughout the year.

Battling the Elements: A Rainy Homecoming Adventure

Rainy but we have a tent

Saturday was Homecoming at Washburn University. The forecast for the day was rain all day long. That did not stop Carrie and I from going out to tailgate and watch some football. Carrie was a judge in the parade, so we had to get her out there at 9:45 to get instructions on judging. Yes, it rained the whole day and at times it poured so hard it was difficult to see the scoreboard or south end of the end zone. We persevered through the rain and stayed almost to the end.

There were three weather delays because of lightning strikes. We made it through the first two weather delays. However, the third delay occurred with about one minute and forty-five seconds left in the game, with the Ichabods facing a third down and trailing 14-13. When the third weather delay occurred, we decided to head home and listen on the radio. We got everything packed up and we were almost home when we listened to the end of the game.

Cold Carrie with Lots of Blankets

While it rained the whole day, I did not get cold until about the fourth quarter. My feet started to get a little cold after standing in puddles and mud in our corner.  We had to try and keep Carrie warm, so we gathered all the blankets and put them on her for the second half. She is a trooper going out to games with me this year. We had a blast tailgating and cheering on the Ichabods and I think Carrie enjoyed a parade for the first time in her life. She has never been a big fan of parades, but I think she liked judging and being actively participating in the process.

Carrie Judging the Parade

There was a good turnout for the parade even with the rain. The kids that did show up had all the candy they could collect. As we were leaving the game at the end of the day, I could see candy that had been thrown out during the parade on the ground, so it had not all been collected. It had been a while since Washburn had done a Homecoming parade. It was fun with around 95 entries and there was a good crowd around along the route. It was good to see and fun to see others out for the parade.

This will be out last game of the season. We will miss the game on November 9, so we said our good-byes until next season to Jonny who has been our tailgate neighbor for as long as I can remember. We told him there might be others in our spot for next week, but we would miss it. 

A frustrating season for sure for the Ichabods, but we had a great time tailgating and cheering on the Ichabods all season. We even made it to another stadium to watch them this year. We are ready for basketball season to start.

Until next time, have a great week!

Washburn Basketball, Movies, Weather, and NFL in this Update to Start the 2024 Year

Carrie and John at Washburn Game

Carrie and I attended our third game of the season. We have missed a number of early games in the season, but hope to make the remaining games of the season. With traveling, holidays, etc., we were unable to make games earlier in the season. We had a great time on Saturday. Washburn came away with the win. We attended the Washburn game on Thursday too and we won that game too.

While we were at the game, we decided we are going to attend one of the home track meets Washburn plays through January. I have never been to a track meet although I have watched them online, so I am looking forward to attending our first track meet at our very own Indoor Athletic Facility on the Washburn University campus.

Friday night, we stayed home and enjoyed watching movies. During the holiday break, we watched a movie, or two, every night. There were a few we did not get to, so we watched on Friday night. We were able to watch The Holdovers and it was fantastic! We watched The Holdovers on Peacock, but I know it is playing at Liberty Hall in Lawrence, KS. Worth checking out as the whole cast did a great job. From the same director who did Sideways (2004), Alexander Payne put together a good story that was heartwarming and brought tears to my eyes. After watching The Holdovers, we decided we would watch Sideways as it had been a long time since we had seen Sideways. Fun low key Friday night for us.

Trees and Lights in the Snow

Friday also brought our second snow to Topeka. It was not supposed to amount to much, but it did snow all day long and left the trees and shrubs looking pretty. A wet snow that covered trees, so Carrie snapped a picture of our trees and lit up snowman in front of our house as it was pretty. The forecast is for significant snow fall Monday through Tuesday, so we will see what happens. 

This is the last weekend of the regular season for the NFL. Many teams are playing backup players to save their starters for the playoffs which includes the Kansas City Chiefs who are not starting Mahomes and others to keep them fresh for the postseason. So I am looking forward to watching football all afternoon although Carrie is not thrilled as she will be happy when the season is over and no more football. 

A wondering ramble of topics for this week. Short week last week with New Years Day on Monday, but it was back to work. It was a good productive work week. I hope your year started out well and I will talk to you soon.

Fun Week at Work with Homecoming, Inauguration, and then Saturday was Tailgating and Football

Inauguration at Washburn University 

This was a fun past week with a lot of activity on campus. Events on campus for faculty, staff, and students to celebrate Homecoming which concluded on Saturday for the football game. This week also concluded Friday with inauguration for President Mazachek at Washburn University. My friend, Eileen, addressed the crowd as a representative of Staff Council and did an excellent job. It was a fun event to celebrate, officially, our new president. Since starting in February, President Mazachek has already done so much in the short few months since starting. I cannot wait to see where we go over the course of the next five to ten years.

Cold and Rainy Day

Carrie and I went to the game on Saturday. We knew ahead of time that the day called for cold, rain, and possibly flurries later in the evening. We had a great time even though Washburn lost 31-28. There was a good crowd for being cold and rainy. Carrie and I got over to our spot about 10 Saturday morning and we took the tent as we knew it would be raining starting around 1 pm. Our tailgate neighbor had an additional tent and two different heaters. At our spot, we had blankets, so I stayed nice and warm throughout the afternoon. Washburn moved to 1 - 8 on the season. We had a rain delay in the third quarter with lightening nearby and most people stuck around following the rain delay.

Carrie and Dolly

Instead of a parade this year, students were encouraged to do tailgate spots on the lawn. It was wonderful! So fun to see the different spots. The winner was a saloon with working doors. One tailgate spot was celebration of Dolly Parton and reading. The theme this year was Boots, Bling, and Bods which was fun. A variety of participants in the tailgate spots and it was fun to walk through the area to see what everyone had done.

Scott and I at Tailgate

While it was just Carrie and I hanging out in our tailgate spot, we did some some visitors stop by to see us. Scott and Robin stopped by with Davis and used our football tickets to sit in our seats for part of the game too. It was good to see Scott and Robin to catch up a little. Davis was having fun with his dad playing catch while we talked. 

Carrie and I did not make it over to the alumni tent this time but we did see a number of people while walking across the tailgate area to get to the Ichabod Shop to buy some things. Carrie had made breakfast for us to eat and we snacked on it throughout the day even during the brief rain delay. 

Washburn University Marching Band

Carrie took the picture of the marching band to the right. She loves capturing the band playing. I was watching her and I thought she was going into the middle of their line to get a picture. She stopped short and snapped her picture. I do enjoy when the band comes through the tailgate area. Then later, when the team comes through the tailgate area is a special time that the fans enjoy.

Carrie and I at Tailgate

I appreciate Carrie going to the tailgate and watching the game with me. She is not a big football fan, but she goes because she knows I love and enjoy the time there even when it is cold and rainy. Carrie was a trooper today and told me how much fun she was having over-and-over. While I watched the game, Carrie was reading, people watching, and glancing at the game when she would hear me yell. We had good food, thank you Carrie, drinks, and a fun spot to tailgate on a cold and rainy day. While we did not win, I will remember this one as it had not been this cold/rainy in a long time for a home game.

Sleepy Oliver, Carrie, and John

When we got home from the game around 5 pm, we were both tired. Oliver did not attend, but he was tired from holding down the house while we were away. Carrie snapped the picture to the right while I was sleeping in my chair and she was trying to nap on the couch, Oliver decided he needed to lay on her and take a nap. It is so tiring holding down the fort while we are away from the house.

We thought about taking Oliver to a game this year, but we will need to wait and see what the last game of the season has in store for us in terms of weather. We might have to wait until next year for Oliver to attend his next game.

Until next time, have a great rest of your Sunday and a fantastic week!

Pictures, Memories, and Goal for More Pictures in 2022 to Help with Blog Posts

Beautiful Sunset on 12/5/2022.

Leaving work one evening, I looked out across the Washburn University campus and it was so beautiful, I had to snap a picture. Captured the color of the sky, the lights of Winter Walk, and I could not resist taking a picture. What a way to start December with beautiful scenery as I am leaving work. I remember driving home that evening and I could not take my eyes off of the western sky as it lit my way home. Reminded me of all of the perfect sunrises and sunsets I saw as I went to and from work in 2021 (see January 2022 post). One of those where I know it is happening all the time, but I am not in the right location to see the beautiful sky when it does happen. 

I am trying to take more pictures which will certainly be a goal for 2023. How many times have I seen something and walked away thinking I should have taken a picture. It happens all the time and so I am trying to change and have actually been increasing my picture taking the past few months. I want to keep it going into 2023 though and take even more pictures. Doing so allows me to use pictures I take for posts and I can often times wrap around a story to the picture. The pictures also allow me to go back and review what we did during a specif week, month, or year as I find that I do that often these days reviewing the almost 9,000 images on my Flickr Account. The same pictures are synced to my iCloud account, so I see many pictures on my phone, desktop, and iPad throughout the day.

Oliver Sleeping and Warm Face

As you can imagine, there are a lot of pictures of our dog, Oliver. We take pictures when watching television and look over and he is sleeping. The one to the left Carrie sent me one day when it was cold in our house and he was sleeping, but keeping his face warm in the blankets. Poor guy cannot get warm enough in our drafty house. So, there he is on my Flickr page for my memories to see over-and-over as it continues to display for me over the next few months on my various devices. Seeing these pictures makes me smile and can help to bring a calm during a stressful day when pictures of our dog display on my screen saver of my phone.

Here we are a week out from Christmas Day. So much to do before next weekend both at work and at home. Short week for work, so that will be good. Looking forward to seeing family, friends, and enjoying some time off of work.

Have a great week before the holiday weekend!