Predictions for 2027

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I hope my life isn't always how it is. In some areas, I am very happy -

• this list is NOT in order
1. I play drums in Bad Rumor. Bad Rumor has the following dates on our schedule:
1. Saturday, April 18, 2026, at Danny's on Donald in Waterloo, IA
2. Saturday, June 6, 2026, in Higbee, MO -- I am not playing this gig
3. Friday, June 26, 2026, at The Jobsite in Iowa City, IA
4. Sunday, June 28, 2026, at The House Divided in Ely, IA
5. Friday, July 17, 2026, at The Shack in Cedar Rapids, IA
6. Friday, August 21, 2026, at The Shack in Cedar Rapids, IA
2. I am the IT Manager - Disaster Recovery at work. I had a meeting on Friday, April 2, 2026, and know more than I will say "now" about my job.
3. I am married to Karen and 8-7-2027 is our 34th wedding anniversary.
4. I have two kids:
• Megan, my daughter, turns 30 on 8-14-2026
• Alex, my son, turns 28 on 10-22-2026
• Alex is married to Hannah
• Alex and Hannah have Wilson, the Austrailian Shepherd
5. My father lives in the Solon Senior Living Center and turns 89 on 4-25-2026.
6. I'm looking forward to a lot of things in life.

While other areas, I am very sad.

1. There are unresolved conflicts in my family and I feel powerless to effect change.
2. My father is unhappy that I am working on selling the house in CR and thinks he should be able to live there alone - he cannot do so.
3. Various little things not worth mentioning in public...

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Girl Dad vs Boy Dad

I sincerely agree with this video. I definitely remember doing things like this with Megan and Alex when I could pick them up.

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https://cldflus1.ifunny.co/videos/c04c044192726f126cb1c338867ffe3a07adf7a307c39470a125af6c83d18f27_1.mp4 - Girl Dad vs Boy Dad

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Prepping for the Belmont

These are the tunes I think Megan and I may hear when Belmont takes the stage on Thursday night.

1. Pushing Daisies https://youtu.be/nuYUQr9e4IM

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2. Browser's Castle https://youtu.be/4edAZvbU5gw

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3. By My Side https://youtu.be/Dv6DQliiHT8

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4. Deadweight https://youtu.be/cDAXCj0u2rY

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5. Convalescence https://youtu.be/Ll2R1Fb53Vc

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6. Hollowed Out https://youtu.be/tQoRslFa9jc

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7. Albert https://youtu.be/bfrU3SUIk2c

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8. BMC https://youtu.be/WUkZ_9b2Y1c

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9. Overstepping https://youtu.be/yZHu0VO1abI

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10. 731 https://youtu.be/uVHCnf7gRmw

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WWE Causes a Trip to be Taken

I don't think that pro wrestling - specifically, the WWE - do segments like this one from 2005 anymore. The title of the video is Kurt Angle, HBK, John Cena, Edge, Lita, & Big Show Carlito's Cabana Segment - RAW 10-10-2005 and it's a good segment. In modern times, it seems like the scope of "who" is going to contend for a championship is, in general, limited to one other person. In the segment embedded below, five WWE Superstars are in the ring, each claiming they deserve a championship match with John Cena. Cena doesn't make his appearance until towards the end of the segment, which is when his mic skills shine. He "criticizes" each of the 5 in the ring, including the ultimate scorching of Edge's girlfriend Lita with 4 words: Lita... you're a slut. When I was watching this segment in 2022, I burst out laughing at that line.Watch the video below.

Part I

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https://youtu.be/ -hbUAkItp84 - (I think this is Part I - I couldn't find "Carlito's Cabana with Big Show, Shawn Michaels, Kurt Angle, Edge & John Cena 1/2 (WWE RAW) HD | 2005"

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Part II

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https://youtu.be/ 70V-LXxfKjs - Carlito's Cabana with Big Show, Shawn Michaels, Kurt Angle, Edge & John Cena 2/2 (WWE RAW) HD | 2005

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So that segment is from October 2005. I can tell you that in October 2005, I lived in our current house and we were approaching our 1 year anniversary of doing so, which was going to be December 2005.

Want to know how my brain works when determining if I can write the following sentence: 

I can tell you that in October 2005, I lived in our current house and we were approaching our 1 year anniversary of doing so, which was going to be December 2005.  

It may be what other people do but I start with a major milestone in life and work my way forward. The milestone I use is 2004.

• 2004 was the Memphis in May concert that I went to with Phil, Jamie, and Serbi, which was then followed with seeing Godsmack open for Metallica in August 2004 in Moline and the reason I know it was in Moline is because my godson's birthday party was that same day in Blue Grass, IA, and I had arranged to have Serbi and ... hmmm.... You know, I don't remember who else was in our group that day. 
• I remember that I had arranged to meet my group at the Walcott Truck Stop so that I could ride with the group to the concert. Fast forward a bit, and I can say that I know that it was at this concert when Serbi told me that he and his wife were going to get a divorce. Their 11th wedding anniversary was going to be in 11 days, on 9-4-2004. In general, I would remember nothing about this concert if I had not purchased the live recording of it on https://www.livemetallica.com/live-music/0,62/Metallica-mp3-flac-download-8-22-2004-Mark-of-the-Quad-Cities-Moline-IL.html
• And the reason I know we moved into our current house in December 2004 is because when I went to Memphis in May 2004, Phil, Serbi, and Jamie picked me up at our old house.
• 2005 was the year Karen, Megan, Alex, Lou, Jean, and I went to Disney. 
• And the reason I know we had moved into our current house in December 2004 is because when we went to Disney, the 6 of us left our current house and drove to Dave's house in Blue Grass because he was taking us to the Quad Cities Airport for our flight. To continue along this path, I remember that we took a later flight that morning and because we had agreed to take a later flight, Allegiant Airlines gave us 6 flight vouchers, which is a key detail for how I remember the events of 2006. 

See how I did that? I used a major event in my life to work forward to where I wanted to end up. I can keep going:

• 2006 was the year Karen, Lou, Jean, Dave, Chris, and I used the 6 flight vouchers from the Disney trip in 2005 to go to the Grand Bahamas.
• 2007 was the Memphis in May concert that I went to with Phil, Kevin, and BSS. We took Phil's Honda Element, which was a very awesome orange car and the play was to be picked up at our current house. 
• I remember more about when I was dropped off than when I was picked up because I had bought a t-shirt for Karen in Memphis and a birthday card for Karen's birthday at a Wal-Mart along the way home, which was unimpressive to the birthday girl. 
• 2008 was the year that doesn't really jump out at me for having any huge milestones except that Karen planned a surprise party on my 39th birthday in December. That turned out to be a good thing because...
• 2009 was the year I turned 40 and was actually in UIHC as a patient for pneumonia on my 40th birthday. It was also the year that Megan tipped over a golf cart in Elkader because, as I was in my hospital bed in December 2009, Karen and I were discussing a bill we had received from the Elkader Country Club to pay for damages to the golf cart.

So that is how my brain works.

The Very H C

When Megan was a young child, I read this story to her many times. She never got tired of the way I used different voices to read it.

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https://youtu.be/ 75NQK-Sm1YY - The Very Hungry Caterpillar

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Funny and Truthful in Two Phone Calls

We've been getting too many phone calls from organizations associated with political parties. Because I worked as a telemarketer as well as an "Executive Interviewer" in my career, I tend to at least listen to the person on the other end of the phone - as long as it is an actual person and not an automated script. I don't pretend that what I say actually matters to the person on the other end as, because of the work I've been paid to do in those aforementioned roles, I know that the person on the other end sees my name and information as "just one more phone call I have to complete" before going home. I get it and, very sincerely, I have sympathy for the person on the other end of the phone who is being paid to call me. So, yesterday, I answered the phone twice.

I thought I was funny.

The first time, the person on the other end verified who I was and if I was registered to vote. Then she asked if I commented on political issues online or had a blog that talked about political issues. I paused and said, "Yes, I can answer yes to that question" because of this blog.

I thought I was truthful.

The second time, the person on the other end asked to speak to Megan. I typically pause when someone asks for her. I don't give out her number - ever. I tell the truth, "She doesn't live here anymore." The person on the other end said, softly, "I'm sorry to hear that." I think the person on the other end thought Megan had died or something tragic. I said, "Oh, no, she just moved out. It's okay." Megan has been living in her North Liberty town house since early July. It's early October as I write this. It was the first time I ever have said that "it's okay" that Megan is not living in our house. It took me by surprise to hear myself saying that, but I firmly believe that sometimes the truest form of honesty comes out of me when I am talking to someone who doesn't know me - I'm not saying I'm a liar or anything like that - I'm just observing a trait of my personality. I miss Megan, but I also want her to thrive as a woman independent of her father.

Funniest Series I Didn't Watch

Alex, Megan, Karen, and I are watching "The Office" together at night on Netflix.

• Alex has watched the entire series
• It is new to Karen and me.
• Megan says she doesn't find the series funny after watching one episode. She says she felt dumber after she watched it, which is what she said after Karen, Megan, and I watched "Weekend at Bernie's" last week. 
• Fact: "Weekend at Bernie's" is awesome!

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Boredom Creeps

The joke is that there is a cartoon series for kids called "Veggie Tales" where vegetables, that talk, tell stories from the Bible. Two of the main characters were "played" by a cucumber and a tomato. Alex and Megan used to like watching "Veggie Tales."

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Read the Obit and Felt Tears in My Eyes

It's a Monday morning and, before I go for a quick walk, I was trying to catch up on my emails, which is why I was reading the following email that was sent to me at work on 12/20/2019:

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From: Office of the Dean of Students
Sent: Friday, December 20, 2019 3:23 PM
To: Me
Subject: [UnivAdm] A Message to the UI Community

Dear members of the UI community,

I am saddened to inform you of the death of a student from the Hawkeye family. Kenzie Gamble, fourth year human physiology, health and human condition minor, psychology minor, and pre-physical therapy major, died on December 16, 2019. We offer our deepest condolences to Kenzie's family, friends, and loved ones. Kenzie's obituary may be read here: https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/davenport-ia/mckenzie-gamble-8964599.

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Take care,
Angie Reams, PhD
Associate Vice President and Dean of Students

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I just read the obituary for a U of I senior, Kenzie Gamble. She fought a two year battle with ovarian cancer and passed away at the tender age of 21 years, 10 months, 4 days (7977 days) old. While I never met or knew of her existence, I couldn't help but feel wetness in my eyes as I read the words about her. I don't mean to be selfish about the loss her family is now coping with but it occurred to me that Alex is 21 years, 1 month, 3 weeks, 3 days (7725 days) old and that's only 252 days different. I need to make sure I embrace every day I have with my family.

Let It Never Be Forgotten!

No Personal Experience

I did not sneak out when I lived with my parents.

Alex and Megan did not sneak out when they were 17.

That said, I like this Quora thread:

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Not All Heroes Wear Capes

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Stepping On Fall Prevention Program

I received this email today:

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From: Kathleen Lee - Injury Prevention Coordinator
Sent: Friday, August 23, 2019 8:07 AM
To: Me
Subject: [DeptInfo] Stepping On Fall Prevention Program

Stepping On
Building confidence, reducing falls

Please join us for this 7-week workshop series to learn important exercises and strategies to prevent falls.

What is Stepping On?
Stepping On is a program that has been researched and proven to reduce falls in older people. It consists of a workshop that meets for two hours a week for seven weeks.
Workshops are led by two trained Stepping On professionals who partner to provide participants with a quality adult learning environment. In addition, local guest experts provide information on exercise, vision, safety, and medications. Topics include:

Simple and fun balance and strength training
* The role vision plays in keeping your balance
* How medications can contribute to falls
* Ways to keep from falling when out in your community
* What to look for in safe footwear
* How to eliminate fall hazards from your home

This workshop, which is co-sponsored by University of Iowa Health Care and the Visiting Nurse Association, will be held at the Visiting Nurse Association building,1524 Sycamore St, Iowa City, IA 52240

There is a morning class and an afternoon class:

To register for the morning class held on Thursday mornings, Sept. 19th- Oct. 31st
Time:9:30 am - 11:30 am, please visit:

https://ezregister.com/events/29620/

call 319-337-9686 ext. 1100

To register for the afternoon class held on Thursday afternoons, Sept. 19th- Oct. 31st
Time: 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm, please visit:

https://ezregister.com/events/29619/

call 319-337-9686 ext. 1100
Registration fee: $30
(covers costs of exercise manual, handouts, snacks, and rental of weights)
*Limited partial scholarships available if needed

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Which prompted this response:

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Kathleen,

Thank you for having this program as I know from personal experience the impact a fall can have on older people!

You see, on Sunday, July 28th, my mother-in-law went on a bus trip to Milwaukee to see her beloved Chicago Cubs with my father-in-law, my son, and my son’s girlfriend. They live in Balltown, which is a town with two streets, a stop sign, a feed store, a church, and the oldest restaurant in Iowa (Breitbach’s). When the 4 of them returned to their house, it was around 11:30 PM. For some reason, my mother-in-law decided she should show my son and his girlfriend the lights on their back deck. She wanted to adjust a light but had to be on the ground to do so she reached for the railing to go down the steps. Unfortunately, she misjudged where the railing was when she reached out her hand and lost her balance, tumbling down the 4 steps. Right away, she knew that something was wrong. She instructed my son to sit her upright because she couldn’t catch her breath despite my son telling her that he knew that he shouldn’t move her because she may do further damage. She insisted, though, and when he sat her up, she could catch her breath – she now says that if my son wouldn’t have sat her up, she would have died! - and then instructed my son to call 911 because they needed an ambulance. She also was very insistent that the ambulance not turn on their lights or siren because she didn’t want anyone to wake up due to her. After the ambulance was on its way, the next task was to have my son pound on the locked basement bathroom door to interrupt my father-in-law’s shower – he wears hearing aids – and tell him what had happened. This shook up my 83 year-old father-in-law who couldn’t immediately comprehend what my son was telling him. After my mother-in-law was loaded on the ambulance, my son’s girlfriend drove from their house the 25 minutes to Dubuque because both my father-in-law and son were shook up by all of this. I commend her for doing that as I have been driven with my father-in-law on countless non-stressful trips and have had to bite my tongue many times and to have her drive him in a stressful situation? Wow, my son needs to keep her around! (They have been dating for just under 2 years and they are both students at UNI).

My mother-in-law has had a rough couple of years, but she continues to fight as she recovers. In 2017, she went through having all of her teeth being extracted to prepare for the fight against cancer in her jaw, which was officially diagnosed on my birthday on 12/4/17. Then, in 2018, she began her fight against cancer, going through radiation and chemo treatments. My in-laws lived with my wife and I in North Liberty during her treatments at UIHC. Her final cancer treatment was around Easter 2018. With those in the past, we went on a family vacation - my wife, son, and daughter - to New York. When we were in New York City, we went to the studio where “Good Morning America” is taped with our “Go Team Jean!” cardboard signs. Robin Roberts saw our sign and, one thing led to another, until we were face-timing my in-laws with Robin and Michael Stratham. My father-in-law said that Robin and Michael “looked familiar” to him. <hee hee> Then, we were brought into the studio where we were on live TV – my 1 minute of fame: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c45YP3q3m74!

Fast forward to this week and she has been busy! Despite being in a lot of pain from the broken ribs she suffered, she continues to fight and be feisty. On Monday, 8/19, she had a checkup scan which was negative for cancer. She has been going to UIHC every 3 months for appointments and she was told that after her next appointment in December, she will only need to come in every 6 months.

Back to the purpose of your email, I am really happy that you are putting on this program to help reduce falls in older people. I hope it is a very successful program!

Sincerely,

Likely to See A with M

Movie Review – Aladdin (2019) http://flip.it/YqVGvd

Great Picture

UNI Graduate in the House!!

It's a new era on this blog. My daughter is a college graduate!! To download the program for the UNI graduation ceremony, see this link.

Yes, there were a zillion pictures taken on Saturday and I will (eventually) add them to this post.

I Was Active!

I didn't walk as much as I should have from when I woke up until 2 PM yesterday - I had ~5000 steps. As you can see, after 2 PM, my day picked up. I went home to talk to a fence company about an estimate to replace the fence in our backyard (actually, our neighbor's fence), then came back to work for ~15 minutes, then left to pick up Karen by 3:30. I drove from UIHC to our house, then left our house for Cedar Falls in the Ford F-150. I stopped at the Center Point gas station and purchased an ice cream sandwich - called "Big Bopper" - and two Mountain Dews - 1 a Live Wire (orange), the other a Pitch Black (dark). When I reached Cedar Falls, I coordinated with both Alex & Megan as to where to meet me with their stuff. We loaded the back of the Ford F-150 and, by 7 PM, I was back on the road for North Liberty. I stopped at the McDonald's in Evansdale and purchased a double quarter pounder sandwich with fries and a Coke, which I ate as I drove southbound on I-380. When I reached our house, Karen was not home. I unloaded the Ford F-150 and put their stuff in the living room until the entire F-150 was unloaded. Then I changed into shorts because I was already hot and feeling like I was going to sweat. The next phase of the night involved carrying their stuff up to the third level of our house, which is where their bedrooms are located. It was only after I had already walked up and down the stairs several trips that I noticed the bowl of jelly beans on our sofa table. It occurred to me that even though it felt like I had walked up and down the steps a zillion times, I know I did not actually walk up and down the steps that many times. It occurred to me that, in the future, I plan to place a second bowl next to the bowl of jelly beans and, when I am moving a large quantity of stuff up third level of our house, which is where their bedrooms are located to the returning from a trip upstairs, I will put a jelly bean in this second bowl as a tally. I know that I did not walk up and down the steps a zillion times, but it sure felt like it! A more realistic guess would be 25 trips up and down the steps. After all of their stuff was completely on the third level of our house, which is where their bedrooms are located, I took a shower. I wasn't dripping in sweat, but I knew I needed a shower. Shortly after I was dressed, Karen came home. I folded the laundry that was in the dryer and put that away. By then it was 10:10 PM. I could have sat down to watch the new with Karen, but I decided to take two Melontonin and go to bed.

30 Years

There's an anniversary to mark today: it was 10957 days ago when I met my wife, Karen, on 9/18/1988 - 30 years ago. I was on a Mount Mercy College bus trip to see the Chicago White Sox play the Minnesota Twins with Mark Klamut. Per http://www.baseball-almanac.com/box-scores/boxscore.php?boxid=198809180MIN, the final score was Chicago White Sox 8, Minnesota Twins 5. While the Twins lost, I won!

1784 days (4 years, 10 months, 2 weeks, 6 days) later, we were married.
1103 days (3 years, 1 week) later, Megan was born.
1902 days (5 years, 2 months, 2 weeks, 1 day) later, Alex was born.

None of the above milestones would have happened if I had not been on that bus trip.

Easter 2018

Trauma for the Kids

I don't tend to write a lot about what my kids are going through in life - I tend to use my private journal for pondering those thoughts but today, I want to capture how something that impacted me has really impacted the kids as well, specifically Alex.

I left work yesterday so I could be home when the kids got home from UNI for Christmas break. I had bad news to tell them - that their grandma, and my Favorite Mother-in-Law, was in surgery at UIHC. We had made the decision to not tell them about this because they had finals Monday - Thursday and we wanted them to concentrate on their academics. It was a decision we made about a month ago and pretty much each day, either I or Karen pondered whether it was the right decision. We struggled with the idea of 'hiding' information from the kids and whether we, as kids, would want to know what was happening and, if we did know and we were in their shoes, with finals, would we be able to concentrate on our studying and test prep or would we be sucked into worrying and fretting about the surgery. Ultimately, we feel we made the right choice but I just wanted to document it wasn't an easy choice.

Fast forward to yesterday and I am home when the kids get home. Megan noticed that both cars were in the garage - Karen & my father-in-law had taken his car to UIHC & I had taken the 2005 GMC Canyon to work so that meant both the 2016 Chevy Equinox & the 2007 Ford F-150 were in the garage. She immediately questioned why we were both home. I said, "I need to talk to you both." There was a panic in Megan's voice as she told Alex to get inside because "Dad has to talk to us." When Alex came in to the kitchen, he had kind of a pale look on his face - I could tell he knew something was wrong because there I was, at home at 1:45ish PM, when I am usually at work.

I can't remember each and every word I said to them as I told them about the surgery. It was very difficult to tell them. I would never wish having to tell your children what I told mine on anyone.


Eventually, we had Megan's car unloaded and were in route, in the 2005 GMC Canyon, to UIHC. It was my job to drop them off at UIHC because I had to go back to work for a meeting about my disaster recovery documentation with my manager's manager and other Senior Directors in my department. The meeting I needed to attend is an important meeting. It is scheduled to be once a month, but it had been canceled the last 3 months (September, October, & November) so with the December meeting not cancelled, I felt it was critically important for me to be present to provide an update because - make no mistake - it's my meeting to report to upper management on a monthly basis about how my work has been progressing. I have never really had a monthly status meeting with senior leadership at any other time in my career as a technical writer. I fully realize how valuable it is to have their collective ear.

I wrote all of the above to set up the following revelation: why Alex thought I was home when they got home. He thought it was because I had been laid off from work. I know that being told the Unnamed Hellhole in southern Iowa and I were going to part ways in April 2011 and then that being told Pearson had eliminated my position in January 2016 wasn't easy for me. Call me selfish, but until Alex told me that was his first thought, I never realized that what had happened to me had made a very strong impression upon him.

As for how my Favorite Mother-in-Law is doing, she made it through her surgery. She seemed in good spirits when I talked to her in her hospital room, which was shortly before I drove my father-in-law & the kids home. Karen was going to stay with her at UIHC while the rest of Karen's family was going to be returning to Dubuque or Blue Grass. Only my brother-in-law Mark from Cedar Falls stayed at our house, mainly because they are doing renovations to their house in Cedar Falls and the workers come early (7 AM) so he knew he would get more sleep at my house than if he drove 1.5 hours back to Cedar Falls and then was awakened to the workers at 7 AM. We didn't get back to my house until after 11 PM.

And yet, there I was, leaving the house at 6:10 AM today. I told the kids I didn't care who did what, but the dishwasher needed to be emptied and the clean clothes in the laundry room needed to be put away - most of them are either mine or Karen's but since I was sleeping in our bed, I couldn't really put them on our bed and not expect a mess in the morning. It felt funny (to me) to tell my two college student children that they had tasks they have done for many years assigned to them. It was why I think coming home was a cause of trauma for the kids - being assigned chores by their parent when they are in college.