I like teaching philosophy haiku … and kind people.

You framed it perfectly. Strange.

Leaning toward attending. I have some remaining professional development funds that I really should take advantage of. Would love to see you and others.

It was a pretty good run, but when I looked at the available symposia for BCCE 2026, I couldn’t figure out how to propose a talk that would fit well, or where I could offer something with real value, creativity or insight.

Hmm. I really am retired. It’s all good. 5/5

I won’t be talking about course innovations, or assessment, or screen-casting, or analogies, or molecular modeling in a non-majors lab, or teaching assistant training, or diversity, equity and inclusion.

That might still be true, but the deadline to submit a talk was yesterday (March 1) at midnight. I won’t be speaking. I’ll just be attending … maybe. Assuming I do attend, I will be there to see friends, catch up with them, support them, listen & learn, and maybe ask a good question or two.

For 20 years, I attended and gave talks at BCCE, the Biennial Conference on Chemical Education. Seventeen talks from 2004-2024. In 2024, I told friends from around the country and the world that I would be retired, but I would still see them at least one more time in 2026.

Yesterday, a year and a few months into retirement, I had a bit of an epiphany. At some point, you realize that things you’ve “always” done aren’t things you will do anymore. 1/n

Watercolor painting with 7 abstract “elephants with trunks raised” marching to the left. Each is a different color of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet).

I will send this simple little painting off tomorrow to Postcard Art Exhibit at The Hague, Netherlands. Hoping it arrives safely and on time!

Title: Marching!
Medium: Watercolor
Size: 5” x 7”

#postcardartexhibit
#paeartforacause
#postcardartexhibit26

What do you do when it is ridiculously warm for a number of days in February and the ground has thawed? You plant the tulip bulbs that you failed to plant last fall.🌹😂 It’s a hopeful thing to do on Ash Wednesday.

Two sets of legs wearing tubular metal snowshoes. Feet and snowshoes covered in fluffy snow.

It was a snowshoeing kind of day.

Violet sky over silhouetted treetops.

Maybe not as exciting as the IU game, but northern lights are back in Indiana! Here’s a slightly enhanced iPhone photo from around 7:30pm this evening. 10-second exposure, handheld, Brown County.

A cypress board shown with some wood chips removed as part of the carving process.

Cypress board taking shape with sloped ends and an oval-shape carved out on the top side of the tray.

Top view of oiled cypress tray/bowl showing the central bowl area and carved grooves decorating the top surface. The wood is a warm orange overall with the grain showing the contours of the piece.

Bottom side of the tray showing 12 grooves radiating from the center of the flat bottom. The sloped ends of the tray show “tree-ring” grain.

Retirement life is good. 😊 It’s been a number of years since I’ve done this kind of woodworking. Two in-progress pictures and two different views of the finished bowl/tray. After starting with the rectangular board, nothing by hand gouges and sandpaper were used to shape and smooth this piece. 💪

Here is my haiku from January 6, 2022, the one-year anniversary of the “peaceful protest.” Hard to believe it’s now been 5 years. You can expect to see this again and again.

Raw scenes I can’t quell
Leaders scared, crouching in fear
One Six … infamy

Twitter: #MyLifeInHaiku365 6/365

For anyone wondering, yes, we are those old people that have a lot of DVDs. Also in the running tonight was The American President (1995). Maybe sometime soon.

Tonight’s version of escapism: Desperately SeekingSusan (1985)

Goals for 2026: be a better friend, do more art, go to lots of county fairs, take as many walks as possible, get back to riding my bike, plant stuff (especially at The Farm), and work on the boxes of detritus that came home with me when I retired a year ago. And … be generous, happy, and hopeful.

Are we doing that “accomplishments for the year” thing? Maybe? Either way, here’s one for me.

Although I know it’s a meaningless and arbitrary number, I am pleased to announce that this 66 year old, type 2 diabetic, retired faculty member averaged slightly more than 10,000 steps per day for 2025!

I would probably agree that it is dying out. “Old” people like me, yes, we still do it. Younger generations, not so much. I would also say that in my mind it is more of a male thing. Women less likely to wave at random folks when driving.

My experience would be in the USA in rural Iowa and rural Indiana. A small wave or raising a finger or two off the steering wheel is pretty common. You don’t have to know the person in the other vehicle. It’s just a polite, neighborly gesture. Not at all common in metropolitan areas.

Three boxes of chocolates on a marble countertop. The boxes are open revealing 12 pieces of chocolate in each box. The edges of the boxes are red & white candy stripe, and the underside of the lids is bright lime green with a decorated tree picture in the middle of each lid.

Making candy before Christmas is the norm for me, but making candy anytime is good! Happy Holidays!

Photo of a snow-covered ravine in the woods. A wooden footbridge spans one part of the ravine. A snow-packed trail enters in the lower right corner of the photo and crosses the bridge toward the upper left at an angle. The sun casts artful shadows of the bridge and also the trees.

Why can’t we all just build more bridges?

I’m not really talking about physical bridges, but this is one I built this fall as part of our trail project at The Farm. Take care, friends … and build bridges if you can.

I’ve never seen them. Definitely a big deal for me!

Amazing!

Bright pink light filling the sky above silhouetted trees. Some vertical streaking on the right side of the photo.

Anybody else feel like tonight’s Northern Lights show is a “come together moment of amazement” like the solar eclipse?

Here’s one of my best 3sec iPhone pictures from Brown County, Indiana. VERY visible with the naked eye too!

Love it! 😂

Fruit trees, asparagus, and rhubarb! You definitely have to enjoy playing the long game. ❤️

Wow! We’ve got 4 trees, including 2 that we just planted this week. We’ve had a few peaches the last two years and are looking forward to more over the coming years. Like you, early spring warmth and late frosts/freezes where we live is a problem. Optimism reigns!

A whitetail fawn, seen from the side, with its head turned to look directly at the camera. The deer is standing in the lawn with a small peach tree, protected by a deer fence, a pond, and a home weather station, in the background.

Sometimes I watch the deer, and sometimes the deer watch me.

Check out Michael’s whole thread.

I was wondering the same thing.😕

Clear blue sky above lawn and trees framing a pond.

Sunday morning coffee view. Life is good on The Farm.