The vortex

An alcoholic creates a vortex that sucks in everyone within reach, including family, friends, neighbors and anyone else who cares.

The vortex seems to be a part of the disease of alcoholism.

People who love the alcoholic rescue them over and over again from the consequences of their actions, often risking finances and sometimes risking their lives.

It’s hard for folks outside this vortex to comprehend the power of the disease to draw them in time and time again.

People feel responsible for rescuing children of the alcoholic. How can anyone with a heart let a child suffer?

Alcoholics Anonymous is the only effective way to combat this disease.

Following quote is from the Al-Anon website:

“Alcoholism is a family disease. The disease affects all those who have a relationship with a problem drinker. Those of us closest to the alcoholic suffer the most, and those who care the most can easily get caught up in the behavior of another person. We react to the alcoholic's behavior. We focus on them, what they do, where they are, how much they drink. We try to control their drinking for them. We take on the blame, guilt, and shame that really belong to the drinker. We can become as addicted to the alcoholic, as the alcoholic is to alcohol. We, too, can become ill.”

Busy life

I haven’t posted since Aug. 7 because too much has been happening to take time to blog about it until now.

We began the morning of Aug. 5 by signing papers to sell wifie's 1995 T-bird to her brother and sister-in-law, who had driven up the night before from Florida.

Next we hustled off to our church's all-day Marriage Equality Summit, which wifie had played a big part in organizing. She had arranged for the keynote speaker, Jack Senterfitt to come up from Atlanta where he is Senior Legal Counsel for Lambda Legal. Other speakers included Jerry Jones of Vanderbilt Medical Center’s Public Affairs Office and Randy Tarkington of the Tennessee Equality Project. Nashville in Harmony provided uplifting harmonies to send us on our way. Nearly 50 people attended from all corners of the state, including Memphis, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Oak Ridge and Murfreesboro.

Follow this link to a local news story about the Summit (complete with a picture taken by yours truly!).

Certain right-wing bigots in our state are pushing a constitutional amendment that would write discrimination into the state constitution. They want to define marriage as only between a man and a woman. The proponents believe that “straight” marriages are somehow jeopardized if people of the same sex are allowed to marry. I have trouble understanding how anyone else getting married could possibly harm my marriage.

They talk about preserving the “sanctity” of marriage. Look up the word “sanctity” in the dictionary: Mine has three definitions: (1) Holiness of life or disposition; saintliness; (2) The quality or condition of being considered sacred; inviolability; and (3) Something considered sacred. These are religious concepts, and according to my understanding of the First Amendment to the US Constitution, the government should stay out of the business of promoting religion. Furthermore, a Justice of the Peace or state judge can perform marriage ceremonies; a church does not have to be involved at all.

The civil institution of marriage gives 1,138 civil rights to married people. These rights are not granted to people in domestic partnerships or civil unions. Therefore, this battle is about civil RIGHTS, not religious RITES.

As a straight person, I have absolutely nothing to gain by putting myself on the line to defend the civil rights of same-sex couples. But look at history. White people needed to stand up for blacks in their struggle for civil rights, and men needed to stand up for women in their struggle for equal pay and civil rights. What side of this struggle is the right one, and which side do you want to be on?

I say it’s time for straight people to come out of the closet.

Three days later, on Aug. 8 wifie and I left for the 5-hour drive to the southern Illinois suburbs of St. Louis. It’s a long story, and I won’t go into too many details here. But it involves helping her sister fight to retain custody of her 3 small children and keep her ex from abusing her and them further. Wifie went to support sis, and I went to support wifie. We spent Tuesday night in a crappy Quality Inn in Caseyville, and then got up the next morning bright and early for the 9 a.m. court date in Edwardsville. She had brought along her mom plus the 3 kids (ages 8, 2 and 1). Her ex told her she had to bring the kids, but we know now that there was no reason for them to come. He didn’t even try to see them, although he knew they had made the 2-day trip up from Florida. So wifie’s sister, mother and 3 kids (2 in diapers) were crammed into a motel room. The only respite was the indoor swimming pool, which wifie and I enjoyed along with the 8 year-old.

After the hearing it became necessary for us to stay another night, because younger sister needed to meet with her attorney, and the only appointment available was late that night.

So picture me standing on the sidewalk in the hot afternoon sunlight with my cell phone, trying to find a motel with a 2-room suite and a pool for that night. Big, loud trucks rumbled by as I strained to hear. After several attempts I finally found another Quality Inn, this time in Fairview Heights that at offered what they call a “one-room suite,” which is somewhat larger a two-bed room with a couch. This one turned out to be much nicer than the previous motel, and they let us check in at 1 p.m., two hours before the published check-in time.

Wifie and I took the 8 year-old out for a late lunch at Chevy’s, then donned our bathing suits for a nice long swim in the motel pool.

Then I drove younger sister 30 miles to the attorney’s office in East Alton, where we waited from 6 to 8 p.m. to see her. I was fairly pissed by this time, but once we sat down with her attorney, I changed my mind. She spent a full two hours with us, and by 10 p.m. we had covered most of the bases. Two more hearings would be scheduled, one of which would require wifie, mother and several others to testify about the jerk.

Last Saturday (Aug. 12) we attended a memorial service for a friend whose son died an untimely death from a heart attack at age 27. It was a musical sendoff, like they do in New Orleans. Our friend asked me to lead off the afternoon, and I played an original song written by my college bandmate Wayne Jones (who died at age 25 of a heart attack). I accompanied two other singers, and we enjoyed 3 ½ hours of great music, most of it written by the performers.

Next week wifie and I have to drive back to Illinois to testify at a court hearing on Aug. 23. Hopefully this will be the last one, but you never know about these things.

You show up for family.

That’s one lesson life has taught me. I showed up for my mother during her last years of life, even though it precipitated the end of my first marriage. But I now realize that marriage had been over for years anyway. I showed up for my late wife when she was diagnosed with leukemia (and died a year later, in 2003). I show up for my late wife’s parents, who are in their late 80s/early 90s in Kokomo, IN. That’s what you do – you show up.

In this case, I show up to take notes and provide suggestions. But it’s a fine line to tread between helping and being too intrusive. A few months ago I may have been resented, but now my assistance is greatly valued.

So that’s why I haven’t posted more recently.

I hope to get back to posting funny stuff soon. I bring my camera along wherever we go, and I’ve accumulated some amusing photos that I’ll post soon. One was a sign we noticed in the elevator of the crappy Quality Inn. It was pasted over the little door to the elevator phone and said, “IN CASE OF EMERGENCE USE PHONE.” That’s right – EMERGENCE! We thought, “Wow – if something emerges from that door, I don’t think I’m gonna try to get the phone!”

If something started emerging from the phone door, it would be like….

SNAKES ON A PLANE!!!

My poetry form - what form are you?

Thanks to WIP for the idea.

I am heroic couplets; most precise And fond of order. Planned and structured. Nice. I know, of course, just what I want; I know, As well, what I will do to make it so. This doesn't mean that I attempt to shun Excitement, entertainment, pleasure, fun; But they must keep their place, like all the rest; They might be good, but ordered life is best. What Poetry Form Are You?

This little computer-generated verse actually reveals a lot about who I am. I am a lifelong professional musician by night and consultant by day. I am an inveterate writer of prose and poetry; my screen name is "RunAwayImagination." Music and words are very orderly - anything but random or disorderly. I pay a lot of attention to the order and structure in society and in the larger world. I make my living in the world of ideas, words and numbers. The world of music and the arts has its own structure. The dynamics of melody, rhythm and chord changes create power, which is one way in which I understand the importance of music and art in human culture.

Anticipation is over

The anticipation is now over. My boss finally told me.

I’m going to support a task force that will study and recommend a statewide home energy conservation plan.

It’s not a new job, and there’s no pay raise involved. So I have to admit that I was a little disappointed. It’s my own fault for getting my hopes up so high. (That’s my “Runawayimagination” at work - lol) However, on the other hand, and most importantly, I will have a chance to do something that could actually benefit the people of my state.

I spent an afternoon researching on the Web and discovered that there are many government and private resources devoted to helping people weatherize their homes and pay for heating bills. I’m not sure exactly what more this task force can do, except perhaps to ramp up some of these programs a bit more. Maybe I’ll devise some innovative approaches.

Time will tell.

Earlier in my career such an opportunity might have meant a chance to position myself for a promotion. Maybe I would receive a bonus or merit raise if I did especially well at such an assignment. But now I work for the state, and state employees (at least the ones in my agency) never receive a bonus, and the only raise I’ll ever get will be the same annual “cost-of-living” raise that every state employee gets. And with only six years left to work, I doubt that any prospect for a promotion is realistic.

Does this sound like sour grapes? Maybe it is, but maybe it’s also just realism setting in.

I have found that true satisfaction in life cannot be obtained from material success. Every raise I’ve ever received has been spent on the necessities of life. I’m justifiably proud of what I have accomplished during my working life, but I’m much more proud of having raised a son and a daughter to adulthood. The pay I’ve earned has served as a means to that end.

Don’t get me wrong, though. I am justifiably proud of my professional accomplishments. In 1980 I wrote the first-ever book explaining how to forecast demand for local telephone service, and in 1991 I edited Bell Atlantic’s first Strategic Technology Plan. And there are many more. At the same time, I have maintained a parallel career in the arts, playing keyboards professionally, which I do to this day.

Life just looks different from the perspective of 60 years.

Being

Times of turmoil, times of ease.
Times of anxiety, times of peace.
Times of sorrow, times of joy.
Times up, times down.
Times young, times old.
Times healthy, times sick.

Nothing ever stays the same.

Always changing,
always moving,
always in the process

of becoming.

Something else

that is not yet

but forever

on the verge

of becoming.

So then life is a process,
not a state of being.

A vector,
not a location.

And this idea we call time
is only our way of understanding
the
flow.
of
Being.

For being is not being,
since how can something be
when it is constantly
becoming?

I was born, it is true, on 2/14/46 at 11:35 p.m.

But my birthing was only
a step
in my process
my flow
my vector.

Before that I was developing in my mother’s womb.

But before that I was raw potential
contained in a million million possibilities
of union
between
two
lovers.

Each of these possibilities could have
become
but did not.

I myself am a million million possibilities.
Things I might do,
Places I might go.

Only time will tell.

But whatever I might do is only a step in a much longer chain of doing that began before the sun was lit

and shall continue long after it burns itself into an empty cinder.

And every place I might go
is only a stop on my way to
someplace else.

As one word proceeds the next
and follows the one before,
until the last one this hand writes.

But my writing will continue
by another hand.
Perhaps by the hand of my son.

"Anticipation is everything"

My boss left me with those words yesterday afternoon.

The day before yesterday I had spoken to a task force at the state legislature about broadband deployment & adoption. My talk was very well received, and that afternoon my boss came into my office, sat down across from me and repeated what a good job I had done.

Then he told me that I my efforts might result in a new opportunity for me. I tried to prod him for more information, but to no avail.

Yesterday he gave me a summary of a report and asked my opinion about whether we should purchase it. I read through the summary, consulted with a co-worker and replied that I thought it was a good investment for us to make. He thanked me, and on his way out I asked if this was the opportunity he had mentioned the day before. He replied, “No,” and he grinned his final words, “Anticipation is everything.”

This makes me speculate that this might indeed mean a new job. Maybe a raise! My runaway imagination is now running wild (as it is wont to do).

I started work with the state six years ago, having moved to Nashville after wrapping up a 29-year white-collar career with Bell Atlantic (now part of Verizon), then spending 18 months playing music professionally. Imagine a 53-year old man touring the US with a country-rock band, driving 7,500 miles crammed into a 1991 Econoline van with six other people, pulling a 2,000 lb. trailer laden with instruments and luggage, driving 19 and 26-hours at a stretch. Playing music for a living (well, not “quite” a living, but let’s say a ‘career’), writing a book about my experiences while living a real-life Odyssey – an internal journey of self-discovery wrapped inside an external journey across the country. I learned that my keyboard chops were up to world-class standards at the same time that most of my Bell Atlantic cohorts were settling into their comfortable front porches after having secured financial security for life. I gave it up for love (another long story for another post).

Then reality began to set in. The purchase of a house required a regular income, and one thing I had learned so far about the music business was that even the best players were unable make a living in Music City by playing music. The key to a successful music career is called “day job.”

So began the job search, my first since 1969.

After nine months of intensive searching and increasing desperation, I began to wonder if I would soon take my place alongside the kids bagging groceries at Kroger. Then one day I noticed an ad in the employment section of the classifieds. A state agency needed someone with telecom experience, and I knew I was their man. It would mean a $32K cut in pay from what I had been making in 1998, but it was a Helluva lot better than any alternative that had presented itself up to then.

There was a lot to learn, but I absorbed it easily and began applying my writing and computer skills to the job, settling into a relatively unchallenging job and riding out long periods of nothing to do by inventing challenges for myself.

The task force presented me with a rare opportunity to demonstrate my public speaking skills and ability to summarize complex information for executives.

So what could this new opportunity mean?

Like my boss said, “Anticipation is everything.”

Triumph!

Yesterday morning I presented a summary of a GAO report to a task force at the state legislature, which included a state representative and senator who had sponsored the bill creating the task force.

This was my first major presentation since I retired from Bell Atlantic (now part of Verizon) in 1998. I knew it was a “big deal” and was understandably nervous for weeks beforehand. Usually we dress in “business casual” for work, but yesterday was an occasion for me to wear my new suit.

I batted “cleanup.” The speakers who went on before me represented the telephone companies, cable TV companies and organizations that provide backbone facilities to major research institutions, universities, public schools and libraries. But all of those speakers either dodged the central issue or danced around it, which is, “why are our rural areas unable to get broadband access to the Internet?”

They all had their own turf to protect. Neither the phone companies nor the cable TV providers want to show their hand to their competitors, and so they didn’t really reveal very much about where they had deployed broadband infrastructure around the state.

By the time my turn came, time was running short, and the task force was becoming frustrated by the lack of useful information provided thus far. But I had sensed early in the morning that this situation was playing directly into my hand.

Without going into a lot of detail in this post, I was able to summarize the 70-page GAO report in about 15 minutes, looking directly into the eyes of the Task Force members instead of at my slides (since I had pretty well memorized my presentation). I used my best calm but authoritative voice to deliver them the message they needed to hear:

Broadband take-rates (the likelihood that people will buy broadband if it is available) are determined primarily by income and education, not rural versus urban environments.

However, this is a “chicken and egg” situation, because:

Access to broadband Internet is critical to 21st century education and income opportunities, particularly for small, isolated communities.

There is a win-win solution to this problem.

I introduced them briefly to the ConnectKentucky program, in which the government served as a catalyst by creating a public-private partnership involving computer manufacturers, providers of Internet access and other major industry players, all of whom who stand to benefit by increasing the number of broadband subscribers. I think this is a good model for our state to emulate.

They seemed very interested.

I showed them some tables I had created that listed broadband penetration rates by state. I had created the table by using housing unit estimates I got from the Census Bureau and numbers of high-speed lines serving residential households from the FCC. It showed that our state was 5th in our region and 37th in the US.

In case you’re interested, the state with the highest broadband penetration rate is Connecticut with 45%, and the state with the lowest is Mississippi with only 14%. The US average is 31%, meaning that only one in three US households have access to broadband. Chances are that you are one of these, because uploading and downloading large files is very time-consuming on dialup.

Lastly, I showed them where the US ranks in the developed world in terms of broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants. We are #12.

Who’s ahead of us? Iceland, South Korea, the Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland, Finland, Norway, Canada, Sweden, Belgium and Japan.

And so after 6 years of working for the state and not doing too much really exciting or very important, yesterday I got my moment in the sun.

I’m still basking. Opportunities like this don’t come often, and so you have to make the most of them when they do come around.

Seven deadly sins

Greed:	Very Low
Gluttony:	Low
Wrath:	Very Low
Sloth:	Low
Envy:	Very Low
Lust:	Low
Pride:	Low

Take the Seven Deadly Sins Quiz

Survey says...

1. FIRST NAME - You already know it if you're close to me
2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE – Yes, since I’m a Junior I was named after my dad. He was named after family friends, one of whom was a cowboy, and the other was killed by a runaway horse team in the early 1900s.
3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY – Today when talking on the phone with a friend whose partner’s son was found dead yesterday.
4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING – No, it’s complete crap and always has been. I lost the ability to write in cursive sometime in my 20s. My signature is somewhat artistic, although you would never discern my name from it.
5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT – About any kind – I’m not picky.
6. KIDS? – Daughter 36 and son 34.
7. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Sure, it wouldn’t be hard being friends with myself (although it’s taken me some years and lots of effort to understand who I am). The hard part would be being another person.
8. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? Yes. I’ve documented my life in great detail.
9. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? Not when I can help it.
10. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Nope; had ‘em taken out when I was ten.
11. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Noooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not risk-adverse, but I don't believe in temping Fate, either.
12. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Crunchy oat stuff.
13. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Yes.
14. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? Yes, pretty strong. I’ved Jazzercised for 18 years.
15. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR? Chocolate! (but most any flavor will do – like I said above, I’m not picky.)
16. SHOE SIZE – 10D
17. RED OR PINK? Red.
18. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? Soft teeth & flat feet. Other than that I’m just fine. Oh, sometimes a tendency to introspect a little too much and get too down in the dumps about stuff. But wifie always picks me back up.
19. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? My 2nd wife who died of leukemia 3 years ago, and my father, mother and grandparents. I suppose I miss all the people I love who I’ve lost.
20. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? If they want to, sure.
21. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Tan pants and shoes.
22. LAST THING YOU ATE? Frozen chicken alfredo
23. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? XM Radio -- XM Cafe. XM rocks, y'all.
24. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Dark red.
25. FAVORITE SMELL? Wifie’s unadulterated fragrance, good coffee brewing, homemade bread baking, wifie’s perfume (that I got her, of course).
26. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? Wifie.
27. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU ARE ATTRACTED TO? That they are attracted to me? (What kind of question is that?)
28. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? Oh YEAH!!
29.FAVORITE DRINKS? Fresh coffee in the morning, cold water during the day and an occasional Cosmo or Margarita on weekend nights (prefer my own homemade).
30. FAVORITE SPORT? Frisbee and volleyball
31. EYE COLOR? Blue, sort of
32. HAT SIZE? 7 1/2 (large)
33. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? No; I wear glasses.
34. FAVORITE FOOD? Homemade pancakes or waffles, a good steak on the grill
35. This question was blank. I wonder what’s supposed to go here? Maybe the author wants to see if I’m creative enough to answer an un-asked question. Umm… lemme see…. THREE! That’s the answer!
36. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED AT THE THEATER? An American Haunting
37. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? tan
38. SUMMER OR WINTER? I guess you mean what season is my favorite? I’d say fall and spring.
39. HUGS OR KISSES? Both! Bring ‘em on!
40. FAVORITE DESSERT? Frozen custard or malted milk or banana split or… (you get the idea)
41. WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? http://nashvilleworkinprogress.blogspot.com/
42. LEAST LIKELY TO Someone who doesn’t read this blog. I dunno – maybe Chairman Mao?
43. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING? Old Jules by Mari Sandoz (from the same town as my dad)
44. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSEPAD? I don’t have one, since I use a trackball. But before I got a trackball I had a mousepad with a design made by my oldest granddaughter.
45. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST NIGHT ON TV? "The March of the Penguins" (DVD)
46. FAVORITE SOUNDS? Dear wifie sleeping, dear cat purring, birds at night before they bed down, the sound of XM radio, the sound of a band I'm playing in. (You can see I'm very much into sounds.)
47. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? What kind of question is that?
48. FURTHEST YOU'VE BEEN FROM HOME? Tofino, which is on the Pacific coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
49. WHAT'S YOUR SPECIAL TALENT? Playing piano
50. WHEN AND WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Feb. 1946 in Arlington, VA.
51. WHAT IS THE MOST ROMANTIC THING SOMEONE HAS DONE FOR YOU? The first time I met wifie we went for a ride in the car after talking for two hours in Applebees. The most romantic thing was when she gently placed her hand on my arm and said softly, “I think I need to kiss you now.”
52. WHAT WAS YOUR PROUDEST CHILDHOOD MOMENT? When I was accepted into my first rock band at age 15.
53. STAY HOME OR GO OUT? Usually stay home but can be enticed to go out if there’s something better out than there is at home (which is very rare).
54. FAVORITE MOVIE? I'm not much of a movie person, but I loved Airplane, Top Secret and Monty Python & The Holy Grail.
55. WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? I stole it from http://nashvilleworkinprogress.blogspot.com/.

An untimely death

We were shocked to get the call yesterday afternoon.

A good friend's son was found dead in his car of an apparent heart attack.

He was only 27.

He had just started to get his life back on track after a very difficult period and had begun a steady job.

He was her only child.

My son is 34.
My dad died suddenly of a heart attack at age 57.
He died shaking my hand after my 25th birthday party.

I lost my wife 3 years ago to leukemia.

My wife lost her husband 7 years ago to a heart attack.

The death of a loved one almost too much to bear;
especially an untimely death.

But bear it we must.

Russellville trip and philosophy

The weekend before last we decided to take the new car out for a country drive.

It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon. The ostensible reason for our trip was to find a butcher shop. It seems that the part of Nashville in which we live is bereft of such establishments, but wifie found a listing on the Internet in Russellville, KY.






As is our wont, we took the back roads.




























Rt. 76 took us from White House west to Springfield, then we followed Rt. 431 north into Kentucky and finally Russellville, which we found much to our delight is richly populated with proud old homes like these.
































On our way back my wife drove so I could snap pix of the many picturesque barns that dot the landscape. Some of the barns are very traditional in their shape and color. I'm sure that http://prairiebluestem.blogspot.com/ can tell us the purposes for which these structures were built.














Others are more like large sheds.











































Others are a bit more interesting.















Some of the structures are in the process of being digested by the landscape from which they arose.














I find a subtle kind of beauty in the way the old houses and barns gently sag under the weight of time and the ravages of termites and eventually succumb to Mother Nature's beckoning call.
At first the paint peels off,














Vines begin to gain purchase on the rough wood














and before long the timbers begin to crack under the unrelenting attack of the elements.














and even the homes that once housed the barns' owners are slowly digested as well.














Before you know it, the housing stock of a new generation arises from the ashes.
















And Interstate kitsch appears near the exits.















I am tempted to draw value judgments from my observations about the demise of rural America, the pollution of our environment or the unsustainability of our modern lifestyles.

However, I believe that in the broader sense we and all that we build are destined to be consumed by Nature.

I suppose a future generations' photographers (assuming the human race doesn't extinguish itself before then) will lament the demise of our quaint lifestyle, along with our quaint Internet, our quaint little laptops, quaint little cell phones and so on.

Remember, high tech is always disposable, never permanent and always in the process of becoming something else.

Just like life itself.

I tagged myself

Several blogs I read have been tagged. It sounds like a fun idea, so I decided to post my own answers.

A) Four jobs I've had in my life

Rodman on USGS survey team (summers of 1964-65)
Naval officer (1968-69)
Local Area Forecaster for the Telephone Company (1972-90)
Professional musician (keyboards, 1962 to present)

B) Four movies I would watch over & over

Groundhog Day
Airplane
Monty Python & The Holy Grail
Dead Poets Society

C) Four places I have lived:

Falls Church, Virginia
Newport, Rhode Island
Williamsburg, Virginia
Nashville, Tennessee

D) Four TV shows I love(d) to watch:

The Daily Show
The Colbert Report
My Name is Earl
The Office

E) Four places I have been on vacation:

Jamaica
Canada
Outer Banks of North Carolina
Yellowstone

F) Web sites I visit daily:

Yahoo! News
Blogs of http://nashvilleworkinprogress.blogspot.com/, http://prairiebluestem.blogspot.com/, http://obxbill.blogspot.com/, http://dreammom.blogspot.com/, http://fatdoctor.blogspot.com/ and http://www.capriquarian.blogspot.com/
New York Times
Snapfish

G) Four of my favorite foods:

Spicy stuff
Sweet stuff
Salty stuff
Crunch stuff

H) Four places I would rather be right now

Jamaica
Outer Banks of NC
Hawaii
British Columbia

I) Four friends I think will respond:

I have no idea. Let’s see.

Chattanooga getaway

This past weekend wife and I took a little jaunt down to Chattanooga to see a good friend of ours, Ann Rabson perform at the Chattanooga Billiard Club. It's only a 2 1/2 hour drive from Nashville and a beautiful one at that. [I appologize for some of the pictures being out of line with their captions, but Blogger refuses to cooperate with my attempts to align them.]












We saw four award-winning singer/songwriters including Dalton Roberts,













Tom Horner,













EG Kight

and of course our friend Ann Rabson

Here they are together after the show.

Here are short bios of these fine performers:

Ann Rabson is a nine-time Blues Music Award nominee. She was inducted into the Boogie-Woogie Hall of Fame in 2003 in honor of her "lifelong dedication and contribution to the art of boogie-woogie piano." Ann has recorded 28 original songs among the tunes on her three solo CDs and her many albums with Saffire -- The Uppity Blues Women, the acoustic trio she co-founded in 1984. Her piano playing, expert guitar work and soulful vocals express the humor and pain of the blues.

Dalton Roberts picked up a guitar at the age of 13. His career took many turns, including one that led down the path of music. Besides being a musician and songwriter, this colorful Tennessean is a poet, philosopher and humorist. Dalton attributes his creativity to "taking good lines out of bad songs." He has written numerous songs and is a favorite in Chattanooga and beyond.

EG Kight, the "Georgia Songbird" is a five-time Blues Music Award nominee. Two of these nominations were for Song of the Year -- one for "Southern Comfort" and the other for "Nothing Ever Hurt Me." Koko Taylor recorded EG's "Fuel to Burn" on her Grammy-nominated album "Royal Blue." EG considers her writing a vital component of her artistry, sharing inspiration gathered from everyday life with the listener.

Tom Horner has played many roles in the music business. A singer, musician and songwriter, he is a two-time winner of Billboard Magazine's Annual Song Contest. He has collaborated many times with fellow songwriter EG Kight. The two artists received a 2004 Blues Music Award nomination for Song of the Year. Horner was the lead guitarist for Sweetwater during the early '80s. He continues to perform, record, produce and write with various artists in many music communities.

I studied with Ann in the early 1990s. I signed up for Blues Week, which is part of the Augusta Heritage Workshops, held in Elkins, WV. Ann was one of the piano teachers, and it quickly became evident that my skills and experiences put me on a par with the instructors instead of the students. So Ann and I became collaborators, jamming and trading stories.

It was past 2:30 a.m. when we finally returned to our motel. Sunday morning we slept late past the Comfort Inn's "free breakfast" time and took the scenic route home through Soddy Daisy and across scenic Rt. 111

and enjoyed a country breakfast at the Dunlap Restaurant in Dunlap, TN. Then we headed across Tennessee on Rt. 30 to Woodbury, where we had a milkshake at the McDonald's. Armed with sufficient nutrition, we continued westward to Murfreesboro where we picked up I-24 and finished the trip home to our patiently waiting cat Roger.

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.