Memorial Weekend visit to Virginia

This is a re-posting of a previous story from a couple of weeks ago. I tried unsuccessfully for weeks to post pictures to that blog. However, for some unknown reason Blogger allowed me to post a few to this one for a little today while until it quit. Then I read on a Google discussion group that someone had luck with deleting cookies first. So I tried it, and it worked!

Wife and I drove to Northern VA over Memorial Day weekend (1500 miles round trip) for a very pleasant visit with some of my family and friends.

Roger the cat thinks it's playtime whenever the suitcase comes out.














Going up we took I-40 east to I-81 north up the Shenandoah Valley, then I-66 east to my son’s house. We left Nashville at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday and arrived at my son’s place about 11:00 p.m. Long drive!



I-81 was blocked at Harrisonburg, so I took us up old Rt. 11 through the charming valley town and enjoyed roadside scenes like these.


















Thursday morning we visited Harper’s Ferry with wife’s cousin. Harper's Ferry is situated at the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers. It served as the jumping-off point for early expeditions to the western frontier in colonial times and hosted manufacturing plants of various kinds, but the town has been destroyed many times by floods. A big group of school kids had just left when we arrived, and the rain had just stopped, so there were no crowds, and it was dry.



















We enjoyed a leisurely late lunch at Hilltop House, an old hotel that overlooks the town and river from a high bluff. Here's a view from our table.











Friday night we accompanied my son and a friend to see a band at a local club. Three of the five band members were friends of mine with whom I had played for many years prior to leaving the area for Nashville in 1998.













They asked me to sit in and play keyboards on a couple of numbers (“Dixie Chicken” and “Mustang Sally”).













The drummer’s wife was celebrating her birthday; so many other old friends whom I hadn’t seen in 8 years were there too.















We made it a 2-day trip on the way back. First we took Rt. 7 over the Blue Ridge














and across the Shenandoah Valley, where we saw an unusually colorful barn.














We caught I-81 north to I-68 and I-79 across the stunning mountains of northern West Virginia (see wifie's pretty feet on dashboard).















































and spent a delightful night in Barboursville, which is near the West Virginia border with Kentucky.

The next day we continued west to the Bluegrass Parkway across Kentucky. On our way we passed by the Keeneland Race Track














and a beautiful horse barn that must be part of Keeneland.














The Bluegrass Parkway took us to I-65 and then south to home again.

New car!

Two weeks ago we bought a new Scion xB!



































It drives like a sports car and gets 30 mpg. It's tiny on the outside but HUGE on the inside and has a killer stereo system. I had an after-market electronics shop hook up connecters so I can use my XM Satellite radio box in the car or plug it into my PC at work.

Blogger problems

Blogger won't let me post pictures. I have lots of pictures that should accompany my previous post (June 9).

When I try to upload a picture, Blogger lets me browse and choose, and then it presents me with the "Done" box, which usually indicates that the picture has uploaded successfully. But when I click "Done," nothing happens - the picture never shows up on my blog. I've tried this multiple times on many days but to no avail.

The Blogger help group has an extended discussion of this problem, but apparently Google has not yet been able to come up with a solution.

Oy vey!

When it rains

…it pours.

A lot has happened since my last post.

Wife and I drove to Northern VA over Memorial Day weekend (1500 miles round trip) for a very nice visit with some of my family and friends. Going up we took I-40 east to I-81 north up the Shenandoah Valley, then I-66 east to my son’s house. We left Nashville at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday and arrived at my son’s place about 11:00 p.m. Long drive!

Thursday morning we visited Harper’s Ferry with wife’s cousin. A big group of school kids had just left when we arrived, and the rain had just stopped, so there were no crowds, and it was dry. We enjoyed a leisurely late lunch at Hilltop House, an old hotel that overlooks the town and river from a high bluff.

Friday morning we met with my financial advisor to plan for retirement (6 years away), spent the afternoon in Tyson’s Mall and later enjoyed a delightful dinner with my sister Mary. She was born mentally retarded, is now 56, lives in a beautiful group home and works in a sheltered workshop. Mary is fortunate to have been born in Fairfax County, which provides great social programs for folks like her. We took her to Outback for her favorite dinner, prime rib. My dear wife has forged a loving relationship with her, and as a result I am close to my sister for the first time in my life. Later that night we accompanied my son and a friend to see a band at a local club. Three of the five band members were friends of mine with whom I had played for many years prior to leaving the area for Nashville in 1998. Of course they asked me to sit in and play keyboards on a couple of numbers (“Dixie Chicken” and “Mustang Sally”). The drummer’s wife was celebrating her birthday; so many other old friends whom I hadn’t seen in 8 years were there too.

Saturday we drove with my son and his gf up to Fairfield, PA to visit my ex and her husband. This may sound weird, and I suppose it is. We were married 26 years and divorced 12 years ago. My wife is very supportive and has established a good relationship with my ex, which makes my life much easier.

We made it a 2-day trip on the way back. First we took Rt. 7 to I-81, then to I-68 and I-79 across the stunning mountains of northern West Virginia, spent a delightful night in Barboursville, then continued west to the Bluegrass Parkway across Kentucky, then to I-65 south and home again. The weather was perfect, the scenery was breathtaking and the car ran fine.

When we returned we discovered that lightning had struck a tree in our neighbor’s yard just at the edge of our driveway, spraying bark at a velocity so high it broke a window in our garage door and punched 3 holes in the siding. We also lost our CATV box, our cable modem and wireless router. Less than a week later, the following Saturday we got struck again; this time we lost our VCR plus our modem and router again. The next day when I started to plug the blender into an outlet in the kitchen, FIRE shot out of the outlet, and I could see that it continued burning behind the plate. I ran downstairs and flipped the breakers; luckily the fire didn’t catch inside the wall and burn our house down! The electrician said he’d never seen anything like it; apparently the electrical surge from the lightning strike fried the GFI electronics in the plug, disabling it from performing its protective duty.

That Saturday we also bought a new car, a 2006 Scion xB. Wife’s brother wants to buy her 1995 T-bird, so we needed to replace it. It’s very fuel efficient, inexpensive (as new cars go) and fun to drive! I would post a picture of it, but Blogger has been unable to post any pictures for the last couple of weeks.

So you can see that in my life, when it rains, it really pours. And sometimes lightning strikes.

How language flattens perception

On my drive into work this morning, I began thinking about how language flattens perception. The innate ideation inside of our heads is not innately verbal, but in order to communicate our thoughts, we must translate these thoughts into words. And words, as any artist will tell you, are often poor substitutes for reality.


















Why can poetry convey much more emotional content than prose? Why can a piece of music inspire the listener to tears? Why is a picture worth a thousand words?











I am a musician, and music plays constantly inside my head. I don’t usually hear the lyrics, but rather sonic images, echoes or ghosts of music I’ve heard in the past, and sometimes music I’ve never heard before. Who hasn’t seen a stunning sunset and attempted vainly to capture it in words? How could you describe the color red to a blind person?














This discussion brings up the larger question: What is reality, anyway? I discovered long ago that reality exists only in the mind of the perceiver.
















I stumbled on this truth some years ago after being stymied in my attempt to understand why most people can’t hear what I hear in music. We each have a unique, individual reality that is ours and ours alone.












When we try to communicate to others, we must utilize the common denominator of language.













And like any common denominator, language squashes out the uniquely individual elements of perception in order to achieve a translatable symbolic representation of what is at its heart non-translatable.











And so language is metaphor. It is symbol. Language is not reality. Reality is something inside my head, and inside yours.

Reunion!

Tonight I reunite with my dear wife.








She drove to Memphis Tuesday with a friend,




















and this afternoon after work at 4:30 I start the 3-hour drive there from Nashville.

















Tomorrow we're having lunch at the Brushmark Restaurant,


















which is part of the Brooks Museum of Art.















That afternoon we may visit the new Memphis Farmers Market that opens tomorrow.













Then tomorrow night we'll have supper at Abuelos Mexican restaurant.











Sunday morning we may attend services at a liberal church in Memphis. We are active in our own church's GLBT+F (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender & Friends) group. We believe that it's time for straights who support equal civil rights for our GLBT friends to come out of the closet!
















Sunday we'll have Memphis' best BBQ at the Commissary in Germantown (east of Memphis)










before heading back to Nashville.

Car fever!

It's time for us to replace one of our two cars, a 1995 T-Bird. Wife's brother wants to buy it, so we have an opportunity to get a more economical car. The T-bird gets 18 mpg and uses premium gas.














We're looking at small cars like the Toyota Corolla











or the Honda Civic.











either of which would save us $1100 a year in gas at the current cost of $2.89 per gallon.

That's because I now drive my 1998 Plymouth Grand Voyager minivan 26,000 miles a year. Most of those miles get driven on my 46-mile round trip to work, plus our 60-mile round trip to church.

The van is the best car I've ever owned; I can easily get all my keyboard equipment in it, along with four passengers if need be. In 1998, a few months after buying it, my wife Nancy and I drove it on a 14,000 mile, 3-month driving trip through the northwestern US and southwestern Canada. It' s a great road car with excellent visibility, smooth and quiet ride with plenty of power. But it's got almost 200,000 miles on it and even though it's still running like new, I know that one day we'll have to replace it. And it'll be better if we don't have two car payments at once.



















We looked at the new hybrids, like the Toyota Prius that get an average of 44 mpg,

but they're in such demand now that a buyer has no leverage, meaning that you pay a premium of $3000 to $5000 more than you'd pay for a comparable gas-powered car. I calculated that a Prius would save us about $500 per year in gas over a Corolla/Civic, so it would take ten years to recoup the difference in price ($17,000 for a low-mileage used Corolla compared with $22,000 for a used Prius).

Kill the computers

My wife worked online until several months ago. Today she got several IMs from anonymous individuals who apparently got hold of an employee list from one of her previous employers. This really makes my blood boil!












One idiot knew her real name and the city where we live.









I'm sure I know how this happened. We have learned that many of these online employers have been downsizing

















and moving more of these jobs offshore.
















No doubt there are plenty of pissed-off former online workers,

and all it takes is one of them to decide to seek revenge by releasing sensitive information,












thus (the idiot apparently believes) potentially exposing the employer to lawsuits from people like us.













I'm about ready to throw #$%^&@ computer out the window!