Monthly summary of highlights of 2025
Previous years' monthly highlights: 2024,
January 2025
exercise: run 1-12; weights 1-10; guitar: 1-20
Power to garage fails; spend day trying to fix/ calling dad, run power line on Sunday from house;
Trip to New Buffalo (with a cold); Birds of Prey at Starved Rock;
VW gets fixed for AdBlu warning; JG $500 car repairs; then another leak "fixed" with clamp; take down Xmas lights; Shingles Vax #2; catch a mouse in the house
Talk to HDL to set up dinner; he cancels; HG noro virus; lots of BB
3rd school weekend with the Dave Vanderberg: 2-3 slot of HW on weekend;
Eat: make vegetarian chili on Sunday which lasts for 5 school lunches; spicy tomato chickpea w greens and lots of curry for 5 school lunches; NYT spicy bean soup w Kale; weekly rice krispie treats, granola
Reading: Light Eaters, The Searcher, Saving Time, River We Remember, The Notebook, Orbital, Invisible Life of Addie La Rue
Watch: Holdovers, Twisters; Hologram for a King, Master and Commander, Sideways
February 2025
exercise: run 13-22 (waterfall glen 1x); weights 11-20; guitar: 21-41
St Emily Gala where m&D win volunteer award
Moorings to help re-connect the mouse
out for breakfast with HDL and dinner with Todd and Larry
J's birthday - Paddington and Antininos
lots of HG BB
car says it needs engine coolant -- I add it
Write: 5 pantoums
Eat: BB chili, gnochi and brussels, chickpeas and hummus, chickpea salad sandwiches, overnight bread; 15 bean soup, pinto bean chili, cabbage soup
Read:Notebook: a History, Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, Small Things Like These, First State of Being, Patron Saints of Nothing, American Dirt, The Crucible, Project Hail Mary, 4000 Weeks, Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Watch:docs about Avicii, Aaron Rogers, Olin Obrein ?
Health: I get Covid; JG get it 2/21
March 2025
exercise: run 23-33; BTW 1-9; W 21-23;
HW 150, 120, 60; , go to Oak Park "Jazz Thaw"; Lyric Opera and Publican La Boheme; walk to FB on 58* Sunday; Moorings to help M&D with taxes; we get our taxes done at Master Tax; busy week of interviews at work; quick end-of-month trip to Delafield; J's spring break; Jeep "fixed" but still problems?
Garden: birds begin to sing at FB, first outside yard cleanup; maple buds extend fingers (week 11 - Mar 9-15), sandhills, tulips emerge; set up Aerogarden, set up flat of seeds;
Guitar: 42-58; begin Autumn Leaves
Eat: white bean skillet with tomatoes, chikeanspinach soup for lunch all week; granola
Read: read outside on sunny patio; Upstream, Gropius, Ingrained, Therese Requin, Ebert's A Life, Gastronomical Me
Watch: Big 10 Tourney; Wolf Hall
Health:
April 2025
exercise: run 34-43; BTW11-20; G59-77;
HW: 30,60,30,40,180,180,180,180,30,60,60
Spring break. HG also has it this week while JG works; Fixed the electric to the garage! and recaulk the downstairs bathroom; do schoolwork each day; go into school for a interview; J migraine;
See Bright Eyes at Salt Shed; help M&D send in e-File taxes; see Tim Montgomery Organ Trio in Oak Park, out to dinner at Ciro, suicide at HC; host easter; Jennie hosts Deborah Appleman at Naz; Pope Francis dies; see Joe Palicastro Trio at Skeleton Key
Write:
Garden:FB and Bemis just on the verge of greening in week 15 (Ap 6-13); plant first outdoor seeds on 4/13; plant peas on 4/20; cut grass 4/26 first time; straighten falling concrete stones in front; add engine coolant to VW (~May 1)
Eat:
Read: Therese Raquin, Gastronomical Me, Index, History of, In the Woods, In Praise of Slowness, Gathering Moss, Braiding Sweetgrass, Best Am Poetry, Close to Death, You Should Have Known, No Waste Chef
Watch: Wolf Hall, Fault in Our Stars
Health:
May 2025
exercise: R44-51; BTW 21-30;
HW -60, 120, 60, 30, 180, 60, 60, 60; 60
Guitar: 78-88
Son Volt at Fitzgerald's w Todd and Julie; Standard Market for Mother's Day breakfast; host Anita, Harry, spouses for brunch; HG Golf tournment (2 days); overserved at Alter Brewing CLT; busy end of year (need to hire for Yearbook (ends up being Hannah Haworth) and maternity leave), retirment party for Heather and Angelique
HW every day; Memorial Day weekend trip to Madison w J; visit m & d for Memorial day at Moorings;
Garden: mulch, weed, cut grass, plant cukes, zucchini, beans; planters, hanging baskets in week 22 (May 25-31); JG's instagram nearing 750 followers;
Write:
Eat:
Read: Close to Death, Best Poetry, the Latinist, Standing at the Edge, Survivor's Song
Watch:
Health: dental cleaning
June 2025
exercise: Run 52-60; G:89-93
daily HW for 120 for 5 days;; COD art museum Hokusai; make raised bed and refinish old school chair; refinish teak chair; develop workbench plan; purchase tabletop; 3 hours on "summer cookbook" (never finished!) see Neal Alger at Imperial Oak; last CSO for season; garage cleanup; Morton Arb for father's day; EOD text from CCL, next day HDL; art institute for Frida Kahlo exhibit; Vistro for anniversary; breakfast with CCL @ college costs; drive to Black River Fallsf for Daniel Brethaueer's wedding (to start vacation); last week: Door County trip with JG and HG; stay at Westwood shores; While HG and JG golf: bike around Penninsula SP on sunset trail, swim at Nicolet Bay, bike from Egg Harbor to Bailey's Harbor; hike Toft Point; also: Inland Pizza, Blue Front Cafe, Eagle tower; several swims at resort, lots of reading: Carl Rogers, Roger Ebert, Walmart of earwax dissolver, start new way of blogging 3x/day; Green Bay bird sanctuary; when we get home, host HG birthday part (paissans pizza?)
Write:
Garden: daily 60-120 mins
Eat: Willy Street Salad, make chickpeas and hummus, pickles, onions, start sauerkraut; make first pesto (June 18?)
Read: There, There, Passage of Power, Crime and Punishment, Rules of Civility, Life Itself
Watch: Mountain Detective, JFK movie,
Health:
July 2025
9047 left; back to 120 min HW each day; meet new hires x2 to talk about AP planning; in to HC for book order;Anita has hip surgury; make Apps script for "on this day" on blog; VW oil change; Moorings to help with computer mouse reattachment; altering vacation plan to cut out west coast of Michigan;
J&I road trip to Marquette and Houghton (pictured rocks, Estivant pines, Dead River coffee shop in Marquette, Kavarna Cafe in GB, small craf beer garden in Houghton; Hungarian FAlls, Horseshoe Bay, Sauna, Copper Schoop Ice cream in Calumet
Weekend trip to Madison - Lallande, Westside Farmers Market, Dodgeville, Verona; bike Cenential w Erwin; very humid 77 dew point multiple days;
doing water color 10x10; TRS meeting - find out that I will retire in 2030; take mom to Avanti for her birthday
exercise: run 61-70; 3 60-minute walks; did a 10K walk in 93*
garden: cut a couple limbs from junk trees; remove peas July 6; beans lenghtening
Write:
Eat:
Read: David Copperfield, Passage of Power, Fever Beach, 10 Windows, Cafe with No Name, In Too Deep
Watch: Complete Unknown; Department Q; 13 Days, Tour de France
Health: weight avg: 187.6->184
August 2025
exercise: R71-82; BTW 1- 11; Guitar 94-113
school year begins early August; seal coat driveway; finish 2 10x10s: watercolors and Rogers notes; mom and dad come so I can help rotate tires; buy Akai keyboard; lots of rain 5" one week; 5" then next; Ben Lange wedding in Springfield; ride bike to haircut; Labor Day trip to Madison, Viroqua; (Fairchild dinner, lunch at Wildwood Cafe, woodworking shop, Cross Plains SP, UW union, mean text from CCL, Alice Good, Mt. Horeb, Duluth (boots, shirts) AG German KLW, Coop in Viroqua)increasing tension between Matt and J about HS for HG
HW - 120, 30, 60, 150, 60, 60, 90, 60, 90, 60
Read: City Primeval, Salt Stones, Buffalo Hunter Hunter
Watch: Unforgiven season 6
Health: weight 184->179, bad sleep a couple nights bc itchy arms;
September 2025
BTW 12--25; run 83-92; LOTS of HW thru week;
Labor Day trip to Verona, Viroqua, Beatlefest in Spring Green;
by 14th "mild/moderate UC flare up - gas, mucous, crumbly poop" in the same week of HW Su, M, Tu, W, Th, Sa (all 60 or 120 mins) - "buy school week - Solstice, Dept mtg, new teacher training)
See Matt Ulery in St. Charles jazz fest
HG has VB and XC; Anita helps pick up HG all week; she's done with hip recovery
garden: still daily tomatoes, lots of greens, by week 39 (sept 21-27) "big drop off in # of hummingbirds"; chain saw limb, cut grass, pull first tomato plant and tomatillo
health:UC 2nd half of month; Dr. Patel for Rx refill; J has Covid
reading: Is a River Alive? Buffalo Hunter Hunter, Never Let Me Go, I was a Teenage Slasher, Lost Words, Dream of Earth, begin The Antidote and But Beautiful
TV: we begin watching (and loving!) Professor T
October 2025
BTW 26-38; Run #93-101
Ulcerative Colitis flare up impacts every day;
J nearing 5000 IG followers towards begining of month; 7700 towards the end.
Lots of HW ("HW every day and both days of weekend")
Begin 3x10s: try to do a little writing (haikus), a little weightlifting (foot exercise, some major muscle group, yoga).
Evanston Farmers Marker (oct 10) - apples from Nicols Farm
Check on camper in Big rock, show camper to Dunlavy
Basement project begins in earnest: cleaning up 2x4s, taking out ceiling tiles and bracing. florescent light falls and shorts the circuit.
Garden: plant mums, tomatoes slowing, cut limbs from junk tree
Watching: Professor T
Reading: The Antidote, Arbitrary Stupid Goal, Secret of Secrets, Breakneck, Best Am Poems '18, But Beautiful. When We Cease to Understand the World, begin John and Paul and My Friends
November 2025
Health: Ulcerative Colitis impacts every day. I don't run at all this entire month. I don't bike to work a single time. I finally go to doctor Gerard in third week of month. It takes over a week to get prescription filled because BCBS gives Gerard runaround.
We host Thanksgiving for 6 parents and Aunt Laura. My daily work in basement progresses steadily and slowly: hang soffit in NE corner, cut 2x4x12s with dad, install roughly half of the ceiling nailers; dad comes again to help figure out electric (fix 3-way switch, remove 2 last florescent lights, install single dimmer). I go to Big Rock a couple times - first to check electric and pump tires, then to wrap it by myself. J hits 10K, then 11K followers on IG. I have written 40 daily haiku in a row. Three weekends of raking. Snowstorm (8-9") the 29th.
Reading: My Friends, John & Paul, Only Good Indians, Kairos, El Dorado Drive, Comfort of Crows, Draft No. 4. J and I watch seasons of Professor T.
December 2025
add engine coolant to VW (~Dec 10)
exercise:
Write:
Eat:
Read: Comfort of Crows, The Secret of Secrets, A Gentleman in Moscow, Erasure (Everett), Startlement (Limon), Stone Yard Devotional
Watch:
Health: UC impacts every day.
On This Day (12/27):
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