vacation continued

So, it started off a little shy of my expectations. The hot water heater went out and I had a turrets punctuated shower this AM. I tried to remain positive or regain that sense after I dried off. When I was taking the garbage out I ran into the complex handyman and he fixed me up in less than an hour. I think the return to positive vibes was key to the timely fix.

vacation time

Yes, yes, yes. I have begun a short period of time off from work. No, I do not have an agenda. Just going to relax and do a few local things. So far I have started my sauce for lasagna that I will make tomorrow. Yesterday I went out expecting to go to a farm/farmers market that was supposed to be enhanced with middle eastern fare; but, it was not at the address the net led me to. A bit of a disappointment to be sure. So, I swung back towards home with a few grocery type stops. Wold Market for some coffee & pesto, 14 Carrot for some Braggs, gluten and onion salted cashews with a small splurge on some organic dark chocolate with orange, then on to Publix for the basics. I will do a Goodwill drop off run, visit some local friends, write a letter and clean the house with a probable look at a potential rental in there too. I hope to feel much better about life and my expression of living as the week unfolds. I wish you a joyous week as well.

hmmm

Nothing really to say except that I have let almost a month of days slide past without a whisper.I've gotta wonder if mercury is retrograde. So, I looked it up and no it's not. Anyway the computer stuff has been glitchy today. I thought that it was just system stuff at work (which was considerable) but, I can't seem to get my video to play smoothly & this blogsapce has jumped a couple of times as well.
Seems to be a touch of good news for my dad after a prolonged batch of ailments. Not entirely what he had wanted to hear but some brightness just a couple of weeks before his 85th.

weekend lethargy

I don't know what the hell is going on with my pc today, for chissake it's like I'm at work waiting for the systems to react. The internetty is just real unpredictable. Some sites reacting in perfect fluidity and others acting like I shouldn't bother them.
I did manage to spend an inordinate amount of time on Zillow checking out properties, not that I have any ability to manifest at this time; hell I can't even afford to take a decent vacation.
Which brings me to: how do I gracefully let my family know that I probably won't take a trip up north this year? Especially when they have been so great about putting aside their personal stuff to pitch in and take care of dad. Seems that it's been a pretty good thing as far as the connectivity ratio between them. I on the other hand can only send an atta-boy (girl) pat on the back from afar. So, I broached it. I don't know if any of my sibs actually bother to read this little web presence of mine. If so they are now notified of my thoughts concerning visits.

sunday

I'll be damned. I just wrote a longer post than in a while and the damn thing went away.

Not feeling like repeating myself so just imagine that there really is some reading available here.

peace.

weird so this was written after the one above (after editing this one now shows on top). Seems there was some new editor update that I had to go and search around to find out. I guess we are good to go now.

sunday

Yes, another Sunday has rolled around and I am finally back at the keys. Finished my taxes yesterday except for mailing the state; seems when it's less than a full year you have to mail it.

I don't feel much like giving a family report as there is a lot of after surgery and hospitalization healing to be done from three different members. Just if it moves you send out a pretty emerald healing wave and we will wave back at you.

No not me as in needing healing but what the hell I could be better. I will wave back though I promise.

A lot of primarily African and roots playing. Put together a short sound track for Beth's upcoming art show. A group show of masks. So, there is a touch of New Orleans and Brazilian in the mix with a smattering of trance and George Benson's Masquerade.

Had some pre-reunion connects via facebook that should prove interesting in the near future.

And I hope you are doing well. Ciao.

sunday

About to go do some cooking and clean up the kitchen. Will be contemplating the devastation old Mother Earth has been doing via the ring of fire. Also mortality and aging etc. since dad has been in a bad turn. Seems he is healing albeit slowly and has returned home after a couple of weeks in the hospital. It's great that most of my siblings are all chipping in with their time and energy to facilitate his process of recovery. Thanks y'all.

wednesday

Finally making good on the Wednesday thing.
I'm tired and have been doing poorly at the tables. A little classical is playing on the net. Just finished watching MirrorMask by Gaiman for the second time. I did not remember that title when I ordered it but am glad to have seen it again.
Don't feel like reporting on the state of the family. It is not dire.

I don't know what they are playing but it is kinda Russian sounding to me, with a slight pastoral and gloaming quality.
Laundry is really beginning to stack up.
Small parade with a drumming representation this Saturday, my ankle isn't up to it, but I hope that there will still be a Friday night gathering on the riverwalk. I can manage the terrain this week probably without my balafon.

More lively music now. Bach I believe.

Have a nice one. ciao.

sunday

Another Sunday, another coffee. Sittin' with my foot up ace-bandaged and ice-packed, still fighting the swelling and discomfort. Dad's in the hospital still and I can't even talk to him. He can't put his hearing aid in and cannot hear much of anything without them. This is a result of machine gun fire in WWII. Dishes are being run through the machine, bread is rising, trash is ready to go to the bin, toaster waffles with peanut butter have been consumed and Frostwire is taking over for the now in stasis Limewire. LaLupe is the present search target along with Lady Gaga and Esperanza Spalding, obviously I am not genre focused. About to hit the phone lines , so have a wonderful day.

inertia of rest

Long weekend with the plans abolished. Well not all of them. I did drop off my Explorer to get some work and assessment done. Yes, it did a) cost more than I had wanted, needed or planned & b) took much longer than ditto, ditto & ditto.
Left the garage yesterday morning and about half way home (nice weather, thought I could use the exercise) I twisted my ankle pretty bad; the last 1/2 mile was pretty slow, ungraceful and painful.
I did not do much on my mental list yesterday or today for that matter. Got the vehicle back around 13:45.

superbowl sunday

Been draggin'
no news

we'll see

So, yes more than one Wednesday has passed; not keeping with my previous statement. But, really does anyone care? I don't seem to have much of a leash on coherent insights that can readily be transferred at the times I am here at the keys.

I am leaving this post open and going about my chores with a bit of alphabetical doodling punctuating my Saturday post noon post. (I'll be back!)

Some blusey jazz music is playing and I don't feel too much like expressing the mood, but I will continue to listen and feel.

So, what the fuck is the deal with time anyway?
Is it the slow ever marching bandit, laying detritus of decreptitude to linger and adhear to the once svelt exterior and burden the beast? Is it the fluid and malleable fourth dimension? Is being a time lord such a great thing? Just some hmmm; as the aging rhapsody of creaks and graons set in. Acknowledging that more stories are to be told than lived in this nexus.

gonna post this trashy litlle ramble and go do some creative cooking. More to the point, see what is in the freezer and see if it wants to be dinner.

new year

Happy New Year
I guess if I had blogged this a day or two ago it would have been smoother. This was not a very special day as work issues seemed to be ever-present on the heels of a sleep deprived night.

No, no resolutions, not that I didn't contemplate such.

I am going to try and input at least weekly this year. Wednesday is my target for regular jots.

More later.

Christmas day

Merry Christmas
yep, it's Christmas day and I am home after traveling to CT to be with my family after the passing of my mom. We seemed to be able to have a lovely Christmas celebration even so. We were all ready and expectant of the spiritual release of mom from the skin and bone cage that was having a less and lesser grip on that splendid spirit I knew as mom.

open letter

This is to thank the Columbia, SC area drumming community for a warm welcome and to say that last night's last jam of the year was great. I haven't availed myself of the offerings of this area very much but, I have found some warmth and the beginnings of friendship growing with some of you. So, thanks and may your holidays be special. Let's make some more joyful sounds in the coming year.

cold

It's pretty damn cold here for here. Gees but I dislike the cold. I have become pretty narrow in my temperature comfort range. Is this a regular thing as we get older or have I driven myself in this direction? Southern living, mindset and a strong shift from an out of doors type to a cage dweller. Those seem like pretty strong factors. I hope wherever you are that you find your comfort.

first weekend in December

Great little drum circle last night. I've been stressed and bummed out, the state of mom is principle to this. So, I disappeared into the balafon for a great jam with some of the core. First really good Friday night in a while.

November weekend

Thanksgiving has passed and I worked a short day Friday. I seem to be having some trouble with brittle making, which I remember having in the past as well. Tried to make some with splenda for dad, but that stuff is even harder to get to set without burning. The cashew brittle is okay but I have to work with a smaller deeper pan I think or else try the microwave version with a large glass measuring style bowl, the kind with a handle on it.

I think I may have some mild frustration with the whole holiday thing, doing these creative processes keeps me thinking about everyone...

I started this a while ago but the cable was unstable; wrote more but it wasn't able to save it

sunday

Timeslip; closer to Thanksgiving and of course all of the days beyond.
Been mulling over the concept of a "Christmas letter" not to Santa but of the state of the person/family type. Maybe fictitious at the start and owning more as the words unfold. We shall see.

a short string of basic american english

No real news, seems to be a more common thread in this my life's tapestry. Sometime that is not now I will indulge in some story telling from my personal past, no doubt transitioned into whatever version is still available in this less than crystalline ego.


There are a number of people that I do and have been thinking about and since I no longer enjoy the pen to paper scribbles that are my poor excuse for writing and I figure a modified expansion could be duplicated and without stealth included with a personal communication to travel to coordinates in space and time and be received by the intendeds.


A loaf of rye bread will be reported on during the course of this input. In this recipe cocoa powder and molasses were added to the rye and whole wheat flours.


Today is the third day of a four day weekend. I achieved relaxation. No, I didn't take that trip across the state line that I had considered. I have goofed off, primed a surface for painterly creative surface treatment, I have met some local artists, made an eye exam appointment and driven through previously unexplored local areas. I did not drum as the circle seems to be on hiatus while looking for an indoor venue to meet through the shorter days of the year.


I miss a number of people in my life but have not yet realized instant bi-location and have capitulated to the present reality.


I lean back, light a cigarette and see the reflections along the timestream and can glimpse only partial histories along the multitude of divergent pathways. There is the one where I didn't sell my house in Neptune Beach and the one where I stayed in (haha, fill in the blank).


It's probably time to reread the Liz Green book on Saturn return (I am definitely in my second).


Blues accompaniment: NRBQ, Robert Plant, Julie London, Phoebe Snow, Lou Rawls...
reload: Hot Tuna, Harry Chapin, Janis Joplin, Joe Walsh, John Lee Hooker...


I punched down the dough although it hadn't risen as much as I usually wait for. Seems to be rising slower than the wheat I often make. It's a bit cooler in the house than it has been (finally broke 70 outside) denser flours and thicker liquids must all contribute.


Dinner was leftovers but quite good, wish I had been motivated to make a salad. Turkey Italian sausage, oyster mushrooms, spinach and cheese tortellini, black olives, onion, multiple peppers (red, green, yellow, cubanelle) tomato sauce.


So, I don't know when I will upload and print this as the full belly slow down is upon me. Looks like some half nods in front of the tube and I will return either later this eve or tomorrow.



Well it's tomorrow by the previously stated, but of course it's today too.
Still into the blues for accompaniment
Joe Cocker, David Bromberg, Bonnie Raitt, JJ Cale, Keb Mo, Paul Butterfield...
I'm prepping a group for burning. Need some more soundtracks at work.



The bread came out good. A little altitude challenged but tasty none the less. That's the picture at the top.
Just finished Blackening some chicken, will use it in conjunction with bitter salad and blue cheese, mostly for this weeks lunches. Trying to get more fresh greens in me during the week.

Halloween, bad movies and the calendar turns another page.

Think that I'll make a few phone calls after I post this while I sort through some more tunes.

I wish you all well. Thanks for stopping by.