Saturday, June 20, 2026
Friday, June 19, 2026
Friday, June 19
6:32 a.m. - It's Friday! It's been another long week, and a long summer week!
Yesterday, we returned from Sringfield and our leadership activity for the admin group. The activity was hosted by Battlefield Leadership, and the activity was titled Lessons from Lincoln. I liked it for me; it was "okay" for the admin group. There was a lot of historical information that was shared/presented by the facilitator. There was the occasional nugget information that was new for me, and there was a new Lincoln movie that I have never experienced, so I'll get trying to watch that sometime. And yes, there was the occasional discussion in and among the admin team of applying the information to our admin efforts. I tried to take opportunities to head that direction with discussion contributions, but there weren't a lot of other attempts. So for some folks who weren't interested in the Lincoln history, it was a longer day. The hotel was fine, the food was good, the drive to and back wasn't horrible. All in all, it was okay for me.
Today I have the day off from physical therapy and the IC Elementary office. We've reserved a campsite at Haven Hills, so my objective is to get the camper hooked up, throw some clothes in the truck, and head to Aledo. I'm a little disappointed that the weather forecast is now calling for a lot of rain on Sunday - I'm going to have to figure out what to do about that. That might mean just taking the camper to Loud Thunder rather than bringing it home and battling with the mud next to the house.
Things to do for School
- June 17-25 - ICE closed for waxing
- periodically check on mail at post office
- update attendance each week in SDS
- send any IEP notices to Mrs. Saey
OTHER THINGS
- Get items from Laura Hozak
- Kamp Komfort - campground for weekend if July 10-11
- https://kampkomfortcampground.com/
- made reservation for nights of July 9-10-11 on 5/28
- schedule dentist appointment when able
- use Dick's gift certificate
- a hood light switch for the Ford
- June 17-18 - trip with admin to Springfield
- June 19-20 - camping at Haven Hills
- June 20-27 - Shawn GONE - check on the house
- June 24 - 9:00 a.m. - ORA PT
- June 25 - 9:25 a.m. - ORA appt with Hussein
- July 10 - 7 p.m. - Shawn's ceremony in Bloomington.
- July 19-27 - Trip to Branson, MO (and Strawberry, AK) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D3BB0_IuwRs0WDKqm1Euor9WUH84SeF1DIwKi7OWeS4/edit?tab=t.0
- July 28 - Bus Refresher Course
- Nov. 5 - 10 a.m. - Milan Optical
- What/Where is South Buffalo Prairie School and for that matter West Buffalo School and East Taylor Ridge School? ugh.
- Friday Tidbit on the RR History Network Page
- March 11 - 10:25 a.m. - ORA Moline - Consult
- April 1 - 1:45 p.m. - ORA Moline - MRI
- April 9 - Walk in labs at Tr
- April 15 - Dr. Wang pre-op physical (surgical clearance) 8:45 a.m.
- April 28 - 9:40 a.m. at ORA Silvis
- April 30 - 10 a.m. - Milan Optical
- May 4 - surgery on left knee at Trinity Moline
- May 5- returned home from hospital
- May 6 - home recovery
- May 7 - home recovery
- May 8 - home recovery - visited ICE for about an hour - 9-10 a.m.
- May 13 - 8:45 a.m. Post-Op Appt Hussein
- May 15 - 8:20 a.m. - ORA PT
- May 18 - noon - ORA PT
- May 20 - 8 a.m. - with Brandon; 9:20 - ORA PT
- May 22 - 9 a.m. - ORA PT
- May 26 - 3:20 p.m. - ORA PT
- May 27 - 9 a.m. - ORA PT
- May 29 - 8:20 a.m. - ORA PT
- June 1 - 8:20 a.m. - ORA PT
- June 3 - 8:40 a.m. - ORA PT
- June 5 - 8:20 a.m. - ORA PT
- June 8 - 9:20 a.m. - ORA PT
- June 10 - 8:40 a.m. - ORA PT
- June 12 - 8:20 a.m. - ORA PT
- June 16 - 10:20 a.m. - ORA PT
Thursday, June 18, 2026
Thursday, June 18 - Happy Birthday Amber!
5:11 a.m. - I'm sitting in the Abraham Lincoln Hotel in Springfield, Illinois. I have a nice room with two beds all to myself. It's just after 5, and I'm up even though I don't have to be down to the conference until 8 a.m. at the earliest. I didn't sleep well, but that's not unusual. And I didn't stay up late, and I didn't drink but one Sam Adams at supper - and the supper was really good.
Yesterday was an accomplishing day I guess, but weather seemed to always be around. The plan was to get to Farm-N-Fleet and get tires on the truck. And instead of waiting in the service center, I would walk down and try that new coffee place on the other side of Menards. And then the rain came and ruined those plans. It was just starting to rain in Edgington at around 7:15 a.m. when I left, and it rained the entire time, even after the truck was done, and I drove to the coffee place to try it out. (The coffee and breakfast burrito were really good.) And it was still raining when I got back home, and it was after 11 a.m. And yes it kept raining - even until I drove up to the school to get with my ride to head to Springfield at 1 p.m. And yes the backyard is once again a lake, so I'm glad I mowed the grass on Tuesday. And it would have been nice to have been done with the weather, but no. After arriving in Springfield around 4 p.m., then the supercell storms arrived, and a tornado warning erupted with sirens going off in the city. Needless to say, I got to experience my first basement adventure in a hotel while talking to guests and hanging out in the basement while the storm passed. That one was a confirmed tornado just north of us, but little did I know then that the East Central portion of the state was in for a tornado outbreak. When I got back to my room in the evening around 8 p.m. there were tornado warnings south and east of Springfield, and I imagine there are a lot of folks in clean-up mode this morning. The conference I'm attending is called "Lessons from Abraham Lincoln" by a company called Battlefield Leadership. Our facilitator is a graduate of West Point, and she served three tours in Iraq. She later returned to teach at West Point before taking this job and is listed as the Chief Operating Officer and senior historian of Battlefield Leadership. So she's a pretty big deal, but yet she seems really down to earth - at least she was last night. She presented our group with a lot of Lincoln history background, which was really fun for me, but I'm wondering what the other admin were thinking - whether it was boring to them or not. Also down here are Marcus, Taylor, Ty, Jon, Sara, Brittany, Daphne, Brock, and Jenna. There are six "case studies" in the booklet that we received last night, and there are areas of "field notes" that apparently we are going to be writing down. The case studies are reading passages, but there really aren't directions/instructions pointing to a direction of what the assignment for each reading passage will be. And again, the reading passages are some of the biggest events of Lincoln's presidency, so I'm wondering what the other admin will think. So from 9-noon, we'll be working with these case studies, and then we are scheduled to break for lunch from noon-1. We have another hour of work after lunch, and then we are scheduled to visit the Lincoln Museum, which isn't far from this hotel. I don't know how long we'll be at the museum, and then we will head home. It's going to be a long day, and I'm not sure I'm going to get home in time to join Amber at Texas Roadhouse for supper for her birthday. I hope she has a good day and is able to some fun stuff. I think she was planning to go on a bike ride with Kristi to start the day.
Things to do for School
- June 17-25 - ICE closed for waxing
- periodically check on mail at post office
- update attendance each week in SDS
- send any IEP notices to Mrs. Saey
OTHER THINGS
- Get items from Laura Hozak
- Kamp Komfort - campground for weekend if July 10-11
- https://kampkomfortcampground.com/
- made reservation for nights of July 9-10-11 on 5/28
- schedule dentist appointment when able
- use Dick's gift certificate
- a hood light switch for the Ford
- June 17-18 - trip with admin to Springfield
- June 19-20 - camping at Haven Hills
- June 20-27 - Shawn GONE - check on the house
- June 24 - 9:00 a.m. - ORA PT
- June 25 - 9:25 a.m. - ORA appt with Hussein
- July 10 - 7 p.m. - Shawn's ceremony in Bloomington.
- July 19-27 - Trip to Branson, MO (and Strawberry, AK) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D3BB0_IuwRs0WDKqm1Euor9WUH84SeF1DIwKi7OWeS4/edit?tab=t.0
- July 28 - Bus Refresher Course
- Nov. 5 - 10 a.m. - Milan Optical
- What/Where is South Buffalo Prairie School and for that matter West Buffalo School and East Taylor Ridge School? ugh.
- Friday Tidbit on the RR History Network Page
- March 11 - 10:25 a.m. - ORA Moline - Consult
- April 1 - 1:45 p.m. - ORA Moline - MRI
- April 9 - Walk in labs at Tr
- April 15 - Dr. Wang pre-op physical (surgical clearance) 8:45 a.m.
- April 28 - 9:40 a.m. at ORA Silvis
- April 30 - 10 a.m. - Milan Optical
- May 4 - surgery on left knee at Trinity Moline
- May 5- returned home from hospital
- May 6 - home recovery
- May 7 - home recovery
- May 8 - home recovery - visited ICE for about an hour - 9-10 a.m.
- May 13 - 8:45 a.m. Post-Op Appt Hussein
- May 15 - 8:20 a.m. - ORA PT
- May 18 - noon - ORA PT
- May 20 - 8 a.m. - with Brandon; 9:20 - ORA PT
- May 22 - 9 a.m. - ORA PT
- May 26 - 3:20 p.m. - ORA PT
- May 27 - 9 a.m. - ORA PT
- May 29 - 8:20 a.m. - ORA PT
- June 1 - 8:20 a.m. - ORA PT
- June 3 - 8:40 a.m. - ORA PT
- June 5 - 8:20 a.m. - ORA PT
- June 8 - 9:20 a.m. - ORA PT
- June 10 - 8:40 a.m. - ORA PT
- June 12 - 8:20 a.m. - ORA PT
- June 16 - 10:20 a.m. - ORA PT