Binary thinking

Well, it's been a good week for bad news close to home.  The kind of stuff that leaves you thinking things like, "what is this world coming to." and "what a bunch of savages in this town."  Now I know this is a common theme nationally recently and as in the past, recent events have made me contemplate finding a cave in the mountains to live in and leave society behind.  It can seem pretty bleak and one can feel that there isn't much a regular Joe or Jane can do to make things better.  However recently a quotation shed some light onto my dark thoughts.  “I used to think I was gonna change the world. Now I just let people onto the freeway.”  I read this line in this blog article, and it settled into my psyche like warm coco in your stomach.  Because it's not the grand gestures or marvelous acts that are going to save us.  It's the little things we can all do.  The small kindnesses. The easy ways we can all be a better neighbors, citizens, people that are going to ripple out and make a difference.  I can be grumpy and downright anti-social at times but I'm making a point to let people merge in traffic.  Because there is a voice in my mind that tells me, 'you're gonna be late' or ' you were here first, they'll need to wait their turn'  and I used to listen to this voice often.  But I've realized that everyone listens to this voice and that is why it seems that, in general, people don't seem to give two shits about each other.  It's rationalized insensitivity. Well I'm tired of thinking along those lines.  I've realized that I'm not going to solve the world's food crisis or save the rainforest, but I am going to stop and see if someone needs help when their car is broken down, or just say hi to people I pass on the street.  And you know what not only will it help that person and make them feel better but it will make me feel better, too. 

Recalling the sights of a random trip to work in September

What have you seen lately?  On my ride home I saw a woman out walking her Macaw. That's right, just walking along with her big blue bird perched on her shoulder like it ain't no thang.  I also saw a cool crumbling barn and three abandoned produce stands. It was much better than the view from my windshield.

Friday tunes

Church

can be different things for different people.

Friday tunes for the season

Fog + Frost =

A cold ride to work.  The sun was out but not warming things up too much.  To take my mind off of my numb toes and fingers I tried to coin a phrase to describe a phenomena that I was experiencing.  A beard full of Fog or Cloud Beard.  There seemed to be an excessive amount of condensation happening in my face region this morning.

Who's ready to race?

Me.  That's who.  My lovely and talented wife is helping to organize this race which will benefit my kid's school. Besides that it will be a fun day, as you would imagine any event with a promo video like this to be.

Friday Tunes

FYI don't do a youtube search for Botfly.  It ain't pretty.

Cool cats..

  

hangin' in front of the liquor store in B-ton.  This picture has made the rounds on the internets and is awsome.  I did not take it.  Sorry.

Beach Week

A few weeks ago I spent a week at the beach with some of the best people in the world.  We played games (new game of the summer: Crokinole, played music, soaked in the sun, and solved the world's problems over a few cocktails and beers.  I spent loads of time skimboarding with Ry and searching for hermit crabs with Adi.  Now here are some photos to prove it happened.

 

Storytellers

I first saw Nico Case in a small bar in Fargo, ND.  I had heard of the New Pornographers and thought I'd check it out.  I was blown away by the show.  Both her and her opening act, Jim and Jennie and the Pine-tops, were phenomenal and both grew into the sound track of that summer of my life.  Fast forward 6 months and I had moved to Vermont and was working running lifts at Smugglers Notch.  Talking music with a fellow liftey, J, J, and the PTs came up and he informed me that Jennie grew up or lived in Elmore VT  and he had played with her as he was a banjo picker in a few local bluegrass bands, and it added up that more that one of their songs were obviously written about that part of VT.  Fast forward 10 years and Nico case is now lives in VT.  Who knew that that one show would hold so many connections to my future.

BTW Nico Case has  a new album out and it rocks.