wednesday's words and wanderings and wonderings

Well, oops...I scheduled this post to hit cyberspace at noon instead of midnight. That's what happens for putting this together late night and a little bit sleepy.

I like to listen to XM Channel 25 (Classic Rewind) on my car radio. Lots of now oldies but still goodies from the late '70s and '80s that are reminiscent of college days, the early years of marriage, and having three kids (#4 was born in 1990) - a fun and exciting time of life. One day while out and about, Journey's "Be Good to Yourself" came on and I was in the mood to crank up the volume and sing loud. This could be my anthem for 2026. We all need to be good to ourselves.

In the vein of "Be Good to Yourself," I attended a yoga class under the rotunda at the historic Dayton Arcade which was built in 1904. Over the years the Arcade has undergone three renovations, with the most recent being completed in 2021. I worked in downtown Dayton in the early 1980s, when the Arcade was a vibrant fixture in the downtown scene. It's good to see it in use once again and refurbished to its original beauty. (That's my pink mat).

January in Ohio is typically gray and cloudy but we have had some beautiful sunsets. After a gray day on January 2, the sun said, "Enough!" and set the sky ablaze at the end of the day. Our son was sick with Flu B and asked us if we would mind if his dog came to stay with us until he felt better. The next morning at 6:00 a.m. I took the dog out for an early morning walk, grumbling because it was cold and I was still sleepy. The sky was clear and when we turned the corner, January's Super Moon (the Wolf Moon) was descending in the western sky. Ohmygosh...it was beautiful...and the sight of it took the grumpies away. I tried to take a photo but my old phone is showing its age and getting a good photo of this gorgeous sight didn't happen.

In 2025 we welcomed two new family members, our granddaughter Hallie and daughter-in-law Kelsey. Keeping with tradition, I made Christmas stockings for them but  didn't want to post them before they got the first looks. So without further ado...ta-daaa...here they are! Hallie is 9 months old for her first Christmas. Kelsey's favorite holiday is Halloween so her stocking is Christmas with some touches of Halloween.

Two of the grandbabes live in Cleveland and northern Ohio got a lot of snow over the Christmas holiday. Andrew and Jen bundled their littles up for some sledding fun and then spent 10 minutes outside before taking them back in from the bitter cold. Owen's 3 1/2 year old face shows the joy of being pulled around in the sled and Hallie's thinking, "I'll have more fun next year!"

We have season tickets to University of Dayton basketball games and last night UD played George Washington University. Dayton's two big guys are both injured, GW has a lot of big guys and in the first half GW was in charge of the game. Second half Dayton figured out what they needed to do, did it, and won the game. Both teams played well. George Washington University's nickname used to be the Colonials but due to concerns about the connotations "colonial" brought about, they changed their name to the Revolutionaries. The explanation for this change: A desire for a more unifying name that better reflected the university's values. I don't know if Revolutionaries is any better than Colonials but as they say, "Not my circus, not my monkeys." There's plenty of other things to think about.