#SOL17: First Day
The bus turns the corner.
My last check to see that everything is in my car.
One picture down. It’s kind of gloomy. No sunshine for this auspicious day.
The brakes squeak as the bus pulls to a stop in the road. I hear the stop sign pop as it is extended. “Smile! Just one more picture!”
He takes three steps, turns, and looks. I snap the photo. He starts up the steps.
I’m sure it’s blurred. Tears stream down my cheeks.
This would not be the day to take a lousy picture.
I watch as he walks down the aisle and chooses a seat. Third row. Behind his friends. He looks happy but he was so quiet this morning. Only the top of his head is visible from outside the window.
The driver looks down. Closes the door and the bus lumbers down the road.
I hop in my car. Five miles and I will be at school for my son’s second “First Day of School” picture. It’s 1995. The First Day of School. No digital pictures.
As a teacher, how do your own personal “First Days” impact your attention to detail in your classroom?
What are you planning for this year? Why?
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here. 
#SOL24: Greening
Early?
Late?
‘Tis the season.
I can smell the freshly mowed hay
the first cutting,
wind-rowwed,
turned up to the sun for drying.
Neat
.Orderly.
A pattern visible from the road.
But the green I am following most closely is
Peeking up through clumps of dirt.
Tendrils of green break through
To create a visible line of new green growth.
Repeating row after row after row.
A gentle rain helps break the crusty earth.
A downpour leaves puddles and yellowing plants drowning in pools of water.
Nature rations the “just right weather” as the sun heats up and the plants double daily.
The mainstay of so many Iowa farms:
Corn.
It may be green
But it’s really the gold . . . the green GOLD crop!
What are the signs of “growth” that you look for? And why? What cycles do we follow in life? In schools?
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#SOL24: Counting
Ace, Ace, Joker.
“20, 40, 90. Rats, not enough.”
A typical opening for a newly dealt hand. Counting out the meld. This time it was for the third round of Hand and Foot and 120 was the magic number. Close doesn’t count.
Hand and foot.
Played in multiple states. Played during a Caribbean Cruise. Played during a trip to Rome. Math. Counting. Canastas.
A version of the game can be found here. You definitely need to understand the house rules when playing. link
While last playing, I had a clean pile of seven “6” cards. Seven cards worth five points each for 35 points when counting. But as a book or a canasta, they were a clean pile worth 500 points. A second dirty book of eight “6” cards was worth 70 points when counting because of two 2 wild cards. And as a book or a canasta, they were worth 300 points.
These two books made me eligible to go out once I had played both my hand, 11 cards, and my foot, 11 cards from the person next to me.
15 cards worth a total of 35 + 70 + 500 + 300 + 100 for winning = 1005 points plus any others in play in front of me. It was a winning hand. Surprise, surprise!
Cards? Games? What traditions carry across the miles for you?
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#SOL24: Miles to go . . .
Yesterday began three states away.
One last hug, squeeze, and admiration of the happiest almost six-month-old baby.
Another thanks for the great extended weekend with family-filled events: soccer practice, shared meals, a soccer game, a birthday party, meals, time in the pool, tic tac toe, and book shopping together.
The forecast was okay for daylight hours as far as we looked.
The forecast does not contain those diamond-shaped orange signs.
Those signs with three words.
In our 519 miles traveled yesterday across multiple states, I counted 102 of those signs. 102. I could have miscounted because we had a lunch stop and two refueling stops and we were chatting and I just might have missed a few. That 102 count could be low if I missed some. I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t high as I didn’t need to “pad the numbers” to get to 102.
Have you guessed the three words?
Many other orange diamond-shaped signs informed our travel. Some said, “Right lane closed ahead.” Others said, “Left lane closed ahead.” I appreciated the ones where the signs matched the side of the road so I didn’t have to think hard about right or left while driving!
Have you guessed the verbiage on the 102 signs?
A clue. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Traveling by car can be entertaining and efficient when airlines don’t directly connect the right towns. The weather varied from sunny to cloudy, to rainy (about 30 min.), to clear, to cloudy again. A fairly pleasant drive. An hour gained with the time change as we headed west toward home.
It’s April and it’s already that season. The season of orange, diamond-shaped signs. Perhaps the same signs that were out in December when last we trekked eastward. Is this the new normal? 12 months each year of infrastructure work?
What do you notice when traveling by car? What patterns do you notice? What makes you curious?
Were you correct?
These were the signs.
It’s road construction season!
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#SOL24: Palindromes
I love the word. It’s so meaningful and such a delightful way to show off in the waning days of April. Today’s date is a palindrome, and in fact, the last ten days of April are all palindromes. It all depends on how you format the date!
Crazy that ten consecutive days can be palindromes. But let’s slow it down. Today is 4-23-24. So in reverse, which is a palindrome’s characteristic (reads the same way forward and backward), is 4-23-4.
Was yesterday?
Try it!
Beginning on 4-20-24 and running through 4-29-24, it’s literally a run on palindrome dates. Is that news to you or was that already in the back of your mind somewhere?
I haven’t written about patterns like palindromes for a while as evidenced by this post last fall . link I have hit a few more in my car since that 111111, but it’s slower going through the miles these days.
Word or phrase palindromes are also fun. ” Yay, madam, civic, deified, racecar” are all palindromes. What about longer ones like “borrow or rob” or “Eva, can I see bees in a cave?” Or “A man, a plan, a canal — Panama!”
Number play or wordplay adds a bit of attentiveness to details, curiosity, and fun to classrooms at this time of year. How might you use these to spark student curiosity?
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#SOL24: Weather Ready
Tax day has come and gone. Four years ago we had four inches of snow and it was snowman-building, wet, slushy, packing snow.
This morning a boom woke me. Thunder. And then the tap, tap of raindrops on the window. Round one.
The meteorologists have been consistent all week about a weather alert. (As consistent as the #1 WNBA Draft pick!)
We need the rain. Parts of the state remain in a severe drought status. But I’m kinda partial to one weather at a time. It’s too warm for snow.
What a relief!
But it IS warm enough for severe weather. The 70s. Possible wind, thunderstorms, hail, and tornados. Dorechos seem to be in a two year cycle.
Miles to go today. Rain will be fine. Mother Nature can keep all the other icky weather stuff. Nice, easy, gentle, soaking rain. That’s my wish for today’s weather.
What weather will you see today? Rainy? Windy? Hail? A tornado or two? What’s your plan?
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#SOL24: Impact
In town, out of town, game day or not. I wear my colors. It’s not unusual to hear “Go, Hawks” and to respond in the NYC subway or out on the street. I also wear my colors a lot when traveling. It’s easy for my family/friends to spot me at the airport when I’m wearing black and gold. This year has been such a special year as we consider the impact of Hawkeye Women’s basketball around the world.
How it began? In Kinnick last fall with 55,646 fans.
How it ended? The #2 ranked team was #2 at the NCAA tournament with another sold-out stadium and 18 million+ TV viewers. And it wasn’t just a sold-out Hawkeye Carver Arena; it was a sold-out stadium where ever they played. Each game had its one share of stories of folks traveling miles to see Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes. Alumni returned. Famous fans were in the crowd and basketball icons and record holders were recognized in on-court ceremonies like Lynnette Woodard.
And it wasn’t just physical spaces as networks reaped the benefits.
ABC
Big 10 Network
Fox
FS1
NBC
Peacock
link for network viewership records
All six above had record-setting viewership.
Just a few accolades to share the range of Caitlin Clark’s impact (45 new records):
– NCAA D1 all-time leading scorer – women’s and men’s
– NCAA D1 single-season 3PT record
– NCAA Women’s D1 single-season PTS record
– Most Career Points in NCAA Tournament History
– NCAA Women’s D1 Career 3PT leader
– AP Player of the Year (2023, 2024)
– Honda Sports Award (2023, 2024)
– John R. Wooden Award (2023, 2024)
– Naismith College Player of the Year (2023, 2024)
– USBWA National Player of the Year (2023)
– 3x Big Ten Player of the Year (2022–2024)
– 3x Unanimous first-team All-American (2022-2024)
– 3x AP First-team All-American (2022–2024)
– 4x USBWA First-team All-American (2021–2024)
– 3x WBCA Coaches’ All-American (2021–2023)
– AP Second-team All-American (2021)
– 2x. Wade Trophy Winner (2023, 2024)
– James E. Sullivan Award (2023)
– 3x Dawn Staley Award (2021–2023)
– 3x Nancy Lieberman Award (2022, 2023, 2024)
– USBWA National Co-Freshman of the Year (2021)
– WBCA Co-Freshman of the Year (2021)
– 4x First-team All-Big Ten (2021–2024)
– Big Ten Freshman of the Year (2021)
– 3x Big Ten tournament MOP (2022–2024)
– 2x NCAA season scoring leader (2021, 2022)
– 2x NCAA season assists leader (2022, 2023)
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Elevate and Celebrate were two other words that I considered for titles for this post. The joy. The passion. The excitement. The boys and girls who had signed posters, jerseys, and shoes. The girls and boys who are out on basketball courts everywhere practicing because they BELIEVE that they, too, can be Caitlin Clark someday. (And the collegiate players who shoot from the logo mark on the floor in CHA as they warm up.)
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And yet there’s the humorous side. ESPN coverage of a fourth game, this one in Iowa City, Iowa had a banner on TV in a highly anticipated March matchup that said “Iowa State” with Hawkeye logo everywhere when it was Iowa vs. The OSU. Oops! Lack of attention to detail? A bigger issue? A bit disrespectful? Iowa State had a great season and ended up 25th in the final ranking for 2024 WBB. Bravo!
Or an ESPN “analysis” crew who took the credit for the championship viewership before the game to “watch us” who sounded a bit like “The View” or “The Talk” except that would be an insult to the members of “The View” and “The Talk”. Long on personal glory stories and way short on the “analysis”. Hmm. Disrespect from WNBA players? Members of a league that wants respect for its players, its games, and higher salaries disrespecting players and teams? Surely not.
And of course, there were those “analysts” who just wanted the players to “play” without officials impacting the final results of a game. So the rules should be applied differently at the beginning of a game vs. the end of a game?
David Suggs at “The Sporting News” also came up short when reporting facts. link If it was baseball, he’d be out for his mention of the Hawkeyes at home in Des Moines THREE times in this article. Errors in reporting? Is there no fact checker?
Hawkeyes everywhere need to celebrate the impact of their WBB team. Take the final Top 25 ranking. The Hawkeyes beat 7 of those teams this year. What a ride! The impact of one, single FIVE STAR player on the roster. Thanks for the teamwork! Thanks for the joy! Thanks for the fun! Thanks for playing your hearts out!
How do you determine impact? Is it internally driven? Externally driven? How do you set your goals?
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#SOL24: Gameday Prep
Misting again. I parked as close to the entrance as possible. A quick “in and out” as I only needed three things. Habit had me grabbing a cart instead of a basket.
Soda sale required a minimum of three for the price. Not today.
The sale on cut fruit and veggies caught my eye. One of each. Yes, please.
My favorite sliced smoked turkey is on sale. Score!
“I have crackers, so cheese?” But the end cap with queso on sale caught my eye so another yes. A different cheese.
I’m up to five items and ready to be done but . . .
NO chips so instead of carbs, a dip for my veggies and on sale at half price.
Six items.
Folks in all the aisles. Not my normal shopping time. “I’m ready to be done.”
A cold diet Pepsi and I’m in the checkout line. Two bags of groceries and I’m in my car ready to set my brain for the game.
Did you watch the highly touted Elite Eight game? Eight points in the first three minutes!!! On fire. More on the games when the whole tournament is over next week. How did you prepare?
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#SOLSC24: Finale
“All good things must come to an end.”
Ah. “The alpha and the Omega.”
“So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye.”
And then a Google search has Quora saying this . . .
After 31 days of writing, I’ve not yet settled on a way to end this month. I’m leaning towards a bit of “The Sound of Music” and “So long, Farewell.”
Who doesn’t like a song by Oscar Hammerstein Ii / Richard Rodgers and sung by Julie Andrews. And the costumes. Drapes turned into children’s play clothes.
And that reminds me of Scarlett O’Hara and her dress in “Gone With the Wind” and I’m lost down a rabbit hole. Thoughts. Memories. Goodbyes.
It’s been fun. I’ve learned a lot more about my writing process and style. I write best in the morning unless I’m drafting the evening before and let the post simmer overnight. Simmer. Mmmm. Menu for tomorrow and it’s another rabbit hole.
Losing focus . . .
It’s not goodbye forever as the Tuesday weekly slice is nearing.
So I’m choosing this short piece . . .
Flit, float, flee, and fly.
See you on Tuesdays!
What’s your favorite way to say goodbye? Least favorite? Sadly ending March but ready for April! How and what will you celebrate?
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#SOLSC24: March Countdown
What’s so important about March?
5 Important Things
- Writing every day with slicer friends
- Conference tournament excitement
- NCAA brackets
- Being in the NCAA Sweet Sixteen
- Needing ideas for slices every day
4
- Flowers that bloom even when covered with snow
- Days when temperatures rise above 70
- Reading and responding to so many clever slices
- Needing ideas for slices every day
3
- The yo yo temperature swings of 50 degrees in less than 12 hours
- A #G2Great chat with Nawal about Nourishing Caregiver Collaborations
- Needing ideas for slices every day
2
- Keeping track of so many more tasks than ever dreamed!
- Needing ideas for slices every day
1
One more day of slicing with TWT and slicer friends!
As I added my link on the Slicer page, I was just above this more cleverly crafted 5-4-3-2-1 post of Donnetta’s.
What have you discovered this March? What have you learned? What will you revisit?
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#SOLSC24: Good Friday
All Fridays are good for a myriad of reasons. But this Good Friday . . .
Nestled between Sweet Sixteen for Men’s and Women’s basketball
Temperatures in the low 70s
Sun shining brightly
Sun . . . that bright star, finally gracing us with its presence
Perhaps you have the day off (or part of it)
Perhaps you can linger in the weekend.
My Good Friday ’24
Meatless
Snackless
Soaking up the sun
Counting my blessings
Preparing for the Easter celebration.
What’s up for your Good Friday? Do you celebrate? How?
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