Update

I’m back from my adventure in New York. I still feel like I could use some sleep.

I only have two weeks until classes start again. Where did the time go?

Here’s hoping I feel like writing again before I run out of time.

Big Audacious Goal completed!

I made a Big Audacious Goal that I would blog for 365 straight days and I did it!

I made the goal because I have a tendency to drop things when I get bored, and I want to break that habit. I don’t know that I have, but 365 sustained days is an accomplishment.

I’m going to take a short break and then begin to blog again. See you later!

One more day

One more day after today and I will reach my Big Audacious Goal of writing every day for a year!

A Little Late Today

I normally write this blog at 6 AM, before I start my day. On days when I’m doing Moulage (casualty simulation) at an exercise, I’m elbow-deep in nose and scar wax at that point. So I have to wait to blog until after I’ve finished and scrubbed my hands of all the fake blood.

One intense day done, and I’m in the middle of intense day #2. I am so tired. I’m getting 5 hours of sleep a night, and I can tell. I’m dreaming of sleeping in tomorrow.

No pictures from the event, because all mine are gory.

Writing late today. I have already done morning moulage, making up several people to look like victims. I’m dragging a bit even though I got enough sleep last night. It’s a long couple of days. Wish me luck.

Am at my destination. Participated in an excellent leadership workshop (which continues today) and didn’t get enough sleep, which is par for the course for New York Hope.

In four more days, I will have done a whole year of daily blogging!

Really quick note ..

Still on the road — it’s amazing how much sitting in a van for 12 hours really tires one out. Nothing to take pictures of in Elkhart IN, but here we are. See you tomorrow!

Quick post

Quick blog post — we’re packing for our adventure to New York. We have to pack a lot with the moulage and everything. I’ll keep you posted.

Big Audacious Goal Alert

Eight days till my Big Audacious Goal of blogging every day for a year is realized! The only problem is that, starting tomorrow, I am on the road for my annual disaster training exercise in New York State. (As a reminder, I do casualty simulation for this and another exercise in October.) This means two days in a van in each direction, and a disrupted schedule. If there was any time I could fail, it would be this week.

Photo by Nubia Navarro (nubikini) on Pexels.com

I am probably going to write short blogs those days, because I will likely be writing some of them from the van, and I am the sort who gets carsick if I do too much writing in cars. I will try to keep it interesting enough, though, and write a minimum of “contractual obligation” posts.

Maybe I’ll take pictures. I don’t take pictures often enough. I’ll try not to get gross casualty simulation pictures, though.

An Uninteresting News Article?

“Township bonds won’t be certified”. Maryville Forum, July 10, 2025

The assignment was to find some uninteresting news and tie it into my life. I find most news interesting, but this article from my hometown paper about three townships in Nodaway County, MO, not getting road bonds certified failed to capture my imagination.

The townships in question failed certification because they had not advertised the election to pass the bonds in local newspapers, which happened in part because newspapers in the area are no longer daily.

This affects me because I am a Nodaway County resident, and although I don’t travel through those townships often, I pass through them occasionally. If this delays roadwork in the townships, I may ride some bumpy roads. Some roads in this county could use some repair, especially the more rural county roads.

The hardest part of this assignment was finding uninteresting news. I find news interesting, especially human interest news. Writers of news articles don’t try to write boring news. My attention got hooked on an article about a lawsuit. The lawsuit was against police in St. Joseph for withholding information that would have exonerated a woman wrongfully imprisoned for 45 years.

Everything connects to something, sooner or later. I suppose it would have been harder connecting some shipping news to my condition, but I could have done it, because my mind works that way.