Return of the----

Once again, no reason really, other than extreme laziness, a little apathy and lots of rationalization. But, I see that is's been a little over 2 years since my last post.

I started out thinking that I should do this every day. Then, when I didn't, I figured oh well, total failure.  A poor excuse if I ever had one. 

So, every now and then will be fine. Just like most everything else. 

There's been a lot of music over the last 2 years. Mostly in Susan's kitchen, or attic, with a few weddings and wine tastings interspersed with my  brother Tom's upper valley concert series annual meetings. The coming week, Tom and I will be at the Northeast Heritage Music Camp in Stockton VT for 6 days of intensive music learning and playing. It's the first time for both of us. He'll be concentrating on banjo techniques and I on guitar accompaniment. I've never really had any lessons before. After playing for about 53 years, this will definitely be a new experience and one I'm looking forward to having. Once again, Susan is the instigator of this experience.

Speaking of music, and musicians, it's been occurring to me that it's amazing how little importance is given to such an important part of our lives. Music is one of the few constants in every society. Other than the obvious necessities such as food and water, music exists everywhere and in wildly varied forms. It is, in fact, so omnipresent that a good argument can easily be made that it is as important to the mental health of life as food and water are to physical health.

Why, then, do we as a society in general seem to give so little to the local music scene? I'm not talking about huge festivals with 80,000 people in attendance. I'm talking about the local places where great musicians play in front of a few people for tips. This was really brought to mind last night when  I went to a taco joint in Montpelier to hear Michael Arnowitt play some improvised jazz. Michael is a world class pianist who has performed all over the globe in Carnegie Hall sized venues and yet here he was in his own home town playing in front of 9 people. I watched a few walk out without even glancing at the tip jar.

It brought to mind the Joshua Bell experimental concert in the subway station wherein people who had paid hundreds of $ a ticket to see him in concert the night before walked by without a second look as he played for free. 

It's a puzzle. I don't have answers to this, only the questions.

May, it seems, is going to be, and has already been, travel month for this spring.

The Southern tour went quite well with no major foul ups and substantially good weather. There was a lot of laughing and a lot of riding and a lot of generally good times. I got home and Charlotte had a pretty good honey do list, most of which I've managed to complete between lawn mowings and car fixings.

Tomorrow, 5/22, I am leaving for a cruise on the Chesapeake Bay with my 2 brothers and "uncle" Bill, who owns a 55' shallow water cruiser. This boat is just about perfectly suited for the water it is in. It only drafts about 3 feet and can be run up on a beach with no damage to the boat. It's great for exploring small inlets and rivers and will easily accommodate the 4 of us for the planned 4 day tour.

I haven't spent this much time in one shot with Tom and Jeff since we all moved away from home and started our own families. That was 45 years ago for me, longer for Tom and Jeff, who are both older. We are all bringing instruments to play in the quiet hours and books to read in the sun. I, and both of them, are looking forward to the experience and I think we'll have a wonderful time. No wimmin along, just the bonding man thing, though I am hoping to avoid drums, feathers, indian dances and the howling of wolves.

Once again, I need to go and pack. The clothing will be different than the last time, but it still needs to be organized. Charlotte will be meeting me, or rather I will be meeting her, at Dulles airport next Thursday and we will spend Memorial Day weekend with Matt and Cate, with Prairie Home Companion at Wolf Trap thrown in for good measure. Also thrown in for good measure will be C's cousin Jane and her husband Robert. We haven't seen them for a while either.

There it is again - Family!

It's April 30th. This means that tomorrow, May 1, is the start of the 2010 Southern Tour. The bikers 3 will leave from here, after a truly magnificent breakfast, and head for the twisty roads of the Southern Appalachians. The only real plans so far are the first night in PA and the second at my son's, and his wife's, house in Manassas.

We used to do a lot of planning for this trip, but after many years, most of the pre-planning has disappeared. Now, we're lucky if we discuss the leave date. I got an email from JVD yesterday asking me to confirm if we were going tomorrow. It's become pretty loose.

This annual chance to laugh with and at good friends is a much anticipated experience. I often wonder "why me?". The world of circumstance has blessed me with many things that I deeply appreciate. Good home, best friend wife, time to enjoy, time for music. I worked at a company for 32 years, during a time that it felt like one big family, and now they are paying me for the rest of my life for doing it.

It's almost scary to write this down. I really don't want to upset the apple cart here. But when I see the ordeals to which others must submit, I consider myself pretty lucky. So far, I have food, health and a great family. Something must be being done right.

I plan to write a trip report of this year's tour, much like last year. This year, I have a netbook computer to bring with me, and if I can, I'll post frequently. You'll be able to find it here: http://www.playa.info

Click on the forum tab at the top of the page, and scroll down to Trip Reports: Us and Canada and click on it. The thread title will be Southern Tour 2010. (You can see Southern Tour 2009 here also.)

Anyway, I gotta go now. Need to finish packing. There's an unbelievable amount of stuff that is carried by the bike: tent, mattress, pillow, clothes, guitar. It looks like a Barcolounger when I'm done.

Talk atcha later

It's been awhile. A fairly long while.

No reason, really, just a total lack of ambition, or some such. I keep seeing the blog icon on my desktop and thinking "maybe tomorrow".

Well, tomorrow finally arrived.

We survived New Years, a short and mild winter, and a trip to Playa del Carmen in MX. The later was more enjoyment than survival.

There is always a massive workload caused by winter here. Plowing, shoveling, de-icing, thawing-- it seems to be endless. This makes the short sojourn to sunnier and milder climes such a necessary and pleasant occasion. Every year, when we are asked how it was, my wife exclaims "best trip ever!".

I generally agree with this. Whether or not there is really a measurable difference between one year and the next is inconsequential. The fact is that additional years on the life-span calendar seem to add to the pleasure of a winter's respite. Just the fact that we can sit on a warm beach in paradise and read worthless mystery novels without feeling guilty about not being more productive becomes more and more valuable each year. So, best trip ever becomes almost automatic.

Spring has arrived so early this year that fears of a late frost destroying tender blossoms and the efforts of our bee population are at the forefront. Our forsythia has already bloomed and is going by, though this is normally reserved for the second week of May. Day lilies are 10" tall and there are lawns that have been mowed. The appearance of lawn care service trucks is pervasive, and loads of scrap metal exposed by the melted snow and going to the local scrap yard are abundant. Mud season is already over, that's a biggy, and I expect black flies any day now. The peeper frogs in the river have been singing for 2 weeks!

We view all this with mixed emotions. It's wonderful to have early spring, but is it global warming related? Personally, I suspect not. It's too much of a change all at once to be attributed to such a long term problem, but who am I to say?

The motorcycle gang will go on yet another southern tour this year, starting on May 1 for about 2 weeks. In the middle of the month, I will have about a week free, when I will again go so south for a 4 day cruise around the Chesapeake Bay with my 2 brothers and "Uncle" Bill, who has a 55 foot shallow water cruiser. I don't know which experience I am looking forward to more. The cruise will be followed immediately by our now annual Memorial Day excursion to our son and daughter-in-law's home in Manassas, VA to see them and Garrison Keillor and Prairie Home Companion at Wolf Trap. My Wife's cousin and her husband will be there also.

I've said it before, will say it now, and will again later. Family and friends are the ultimate experience. We may think other things matter, but in the end, they don't. It's the relationships that make us happy, or sad, or both-- Everyone knows this, it's just that it gets lost now and then. Nothing like an occasional refresher to keep us honest.

Whew!

Once again, we have survived the Christmas season.

We seem to do this more and more easily each year. Don't get me wrong. There is still, and I suspect always will be, a certain amount of holiday hysteria. But each year it becomes less and less as we and our extended family understand more and more about the real importance of the season. It's not that we didn't before, but now we seem more able to enjoy each other as a Christmas present (instead of racing around after last minute gifts that mean little). The more that happens, the more I look forward to and enjoy the whole experience.

My oldest son, his wife and 2 children, my brother and his wife, and my youngest nephew, his wife and baby were all here for Christmas day. We did sit around and do a gift giving thing, but way more important was everyone just having a really good time. (Of course, the grand kids did have their new iPod touch gizmos to play with, but they did so in the same room as all of us and even occasionally conversed with us old fogies.)

It was a wonderful day. We had a ham dinner with way too much food and it was well after dark before anyone started to leave.

The tree is still up and will be till new year's day. We have one more party to have, that being the new year's eve card party we've been having for a number of years. I'll fry a turkey, which will disappear like magic and we'll all sit around playing pitch until the wee hours. The hours are actually not quite as wee as they used to be, but 1:30 AM won't be a surprise.

Mother nature does seem to have her own little sense of humor. It snowed this AM and when things started to clear off and warm up, I went out and cleaned off driveways and walkways, and salted the hilly drive that needs it constantly all winter. Half way home, it commenced snowing again. Oh HA HA!! Very funny mommy N.

Tonight is the last Meg's Kitchen rehearsal before our First Night gig, at the Bethany church, in Montpelier, on 12/31, at 5:00 PM.... The song list has come together nicely, with two songs that actually require singing. We don't do that too often, so it will be an interesting experience. It will be nice if I can get through my song without the yodeling that sometimes appears unexpectedly.

Time to cook supper. Split pea soup and grilled "last of the ham" and cheese sandwiches. Good warmth food.

It's been a long November and December (so far) without snow, until today.

Today's is a mixed blessing.

We really do need the snow. It supports us in the winter months when a major part of Vermont's livelihood depends on snow related activities. Skiing, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, cross country-- it all depends on a good ground cover of white gold.

At the same time, it is a serious life adjustment, with which some seem to have trouble.

Yesterday was a little squally, with intermittent snow showers occurring around the state. One such dumping involved a heavy 10 minutes of white out just outside Richmond, about 15 miles north of Montpelier. It also involved route 89. The result was icy conditions on the highway and a 16 car pile up beginning with a tractor trailer and a car. There was little foresight involved with this mess. A small helping of caution could likely have avoided it, but when you're on the interstate going 65 or 70 mph, slowing down isn't always the first thing to come to mind.

This seems particularly true to those of the driving public who travel in all wheel drive vehicles. Apparently the prevailing opinion is that if you have this marvel, you can go as you please and do anything you want. It's kind of like a moving version of the "You can park anywhere if you turn on your 4 way flashers." rule.

Just a few years ago, it was possible to drive the 35 miles to Burlington and see pristine snow banks by the roadside all the way. Not so any more. After a storm like today's, there will be several dozen places where the banks have been pushed back by surprise plowing incidents. Sometimes they keep going long enough to get back on to the road, but mostly they just go further than necessary into the median. It's interesting that as the winter progresses, this phenomenon continues. Experience doesn't seem to make a difference.

However, even though I'll spend the next several hours plowing and shoveling, the snowfall is a welcome occasion. It looks as it should, it feels as it should, and with any luck I'll keep out of the gutter myself now that I've complained so perfectly about all those other all wheelers.

Charlotte went for her final resection check up today and got a clean bill of health.

We've been talking about this whole episode and about how quickly everything has happened. In hindsight, it's nearly as if it hasn't happened at all. They discovered the polyp and removed it, did a colon resection a few days later and now she's back at work. The biggest memory of all this is having to drink the damned electrolytes to flush her out. It was the worst part of the whole thing.

We haven't really had a chance to think about any of this. Cancer is discovered; fffft, it is removed, and on we go. There's no call for follow up treatment and Charlotte is free to do anything she feels can be done. In a weird sort of way, I almost feel like saying "Wait a minute. Is that it? Isn't something else supposed to happen?"

The specter of cancer is such an ugly thing. All my life I've been conditioned to be terrified of a cancer diagnosis and yet, when it actually happens, it's all over so fast that I don't have a chance to give it any thought. How can anything this disastrous and important be resolved so quickly? Do we now have to wait for the other shoe?

The doctor at today's appointment, who did the surgery, is very happy with her condition. He foresees no problems, and other than regular checkups and colonoscopies everything is headed to normality. Obviously this is what we want to hear and it makes our lives much easier hearing it.

But, we can't carry on as if none of this ever happened, even though that's what we would like. Each one of these occurrences gets added to life's portfolio and there it permanently changes the future in some way.

It did finally snow yesterday. Not much, but enough to make white scenery. So, time continues to pass at high speed and events continue to unfold. This blip hasn't slowed the progression down, and we're thinking it shouldn't slow us either.