Aspiring Musicians

A very good friend of mine I grew up with, is an aspiring musician, and is brilliant when it comes to tweaking his voice to sound like absolute heaven. When I moved to this town when I about twelve years old, he was the first friend I made that lived right next door. Ever since we have been inseparable.

I even remember the first day we moved into our new home, I turned on the music in the garage and started doing cart wheels in the backyard, while he was jumping up and down on his trampoline in his backyard with a friend. Both of them were about 10 years old and had toy microphones in their hands, something I found later to be his sisters toy microphones. They were both singing and raping while jumping on that trampoline, it was too funny.

We noticed we all loved music, and we all started hanging out and playing together. I have watched him grow from that young boy into the talented man he is today. The last time I saw him was two months ago, before he moved about forty miles away to live with his girlfriend, whom is also a good friend of mine since forever ago. Before he left he invited me to a show his was performing at, and I was ecstatic to see him perform finally after all these years.

He expressed an interest in finding a microphone he could find for an affordable price, so he could practice at home before his show date. I remembered the night before coming across a site that offered just that, so I told him that there were microphones for sale as well as some sweet looking new and used mitchell guitars at M F’s, and to check their site out.

He called me a few days later and told me that not only did her order a microphone but he also ordered lehle amp that he found that he is absolutely thrilled to have now. I’m happy I could help him prepare for such a great event I can see him perform at, and see how he can change the world with his beautiful voice.

Green Issues

I figure that we need to go as “green” as we all can possibly become these days. I’ve been told that there are website hosting companies that are doing what they can in order to become environmentally friendly, which I think is pretty darn cool. I’ve always been a recycling freak. I grew up with parents from the “hippie” generation and recycling has always been something that just came naturally due to their generation and their lifestyles.

There is so much more to being “green” than recycling, but it is something that we all can do and should be doing as much as possible. Where I live our taxes pay for our trash removal and recycling pick-ups. They provide us with the bins, one for plastic and glass, the other one for paper.

Each week all we need to do is place the containers on the curbside and the truck comes and picks them up and hauls them away. The only way that they can make it any easier would be to provide a person to stand in the corner of the kitchen or garage and separate and dispose of the items, and that just isn’t realistic now is it.

So I don’t understand why there aren’t more blue bins on the curb on recycling day. It really irks me to know that people are just to darn lazy to make such a small effort that would make such a difference to us all in the end.

Dad, My Handy Man

At some point I will take the time and look for some new exterior shutters for the place. Each time my parents come over my father points out what a difference a pair of exterior shutters would make for the front of the house. He has even offered to look around for and with me when I’m ready to commit, so that would be cool.

My father has always been handy around the house and the yard, so any time he wants to give me a hand around the place, I’m all for it!

Finding The Perfect Boss Guitar Pedals

There was no way that I would have thought it to be such a challenge to find the right boss guitar pedal to give to my kid brother for his 19th birthday, which will eventually come this May 17th. I have  been looking online a bit here and there and I just felt that it was all over my head. I know that he really wants a boss guitar pedal, a tc electronic flashback delay toneprint  but there are just too many of them out there for me to choose from, so I am going to play it safe and give him a gift card for $100 and tell him to find the right one and put that money towards purchasing the correct one that he wants.

There is going to be a good sized birthday celebration dinner at our folk’s place. Not sure how many are expected to show up. But then we never know until it happens with this very large family that is know for last minutes circumstances. It’s such a drag that so many of us have moved so far away and we don’t get together much these past several years. So we will see who turns up to help celebrate Steve’s 19th birthday. This will be that last birthday that entitles him to be called and/or referred to as a teenager! It’s a pot luck dinner so I think that I’ll bring my well received meatballs to share this time around. I haven’t made them in a while and they are always a big hit.

Clocks, Clocks & More Clocks

My oldest niece is a dolphin fan. She wants to go to college and become a marine biologist and I think that she can do what it takes to make that dream come true. She gets good grades, has a great attitude and is all in all a real good kid. She has a birthday coming up and I want to get her something that she will like and appreciate, so I’ve been looking around at dolphin related products and found a really nice dolphin wall clock that I think would look good in her room, it is only $58.77 from 1-800-4clocks.com.

dolphin-clock

They have a huge selection of clocks to choose from at 1-800-4clocks dot com, grandfather clocks, grandmother clocks, wall clocks, mantel clocks, atomic clocks, old antique and new clocks as well. It was fun looking through them all last night. I saw many that brought back memories from my childhood. My grandparents had the most wonderful mantel clock that I’ll never forget and wish that it had been left to me, but alas one of my cousins beat me to it, sigh…….

I have to tell you that they also have the most wonderful blog on this site as well. I don’t usually spend too much time reading companies blogs but I found the most interesting post there titled “Clocks White House History Throughout Time” that I would encourage anyone to take a few minutes and read. With the White House in the spotlight so much these days, I’m surprised that I hadn’t heard about all the clocks that have graced the White House’s walls and mantels, it really is an interesting read.

 

Sandwiches

I was in the mood for a sandwich earlier but I couldn’t find anything that tickled my fancy. Then it dawned on me that as a kid I used to really love peanut butter and honey sandwiches and I had both foods in my cabinet. It was a darn good sandwich, one that made my tummy happy and brought back some good memories. Not to mention that all of the ingredients are healthy! That’s a nice bonus!

a healthy sandwhich
Peanut Butter and Honey

We Have Each Others Back

There are so many ways that I see my sister healing with the help of a very interesting and creative Jungian Psychoanalysis that she has been working with for a few months now. Even though she lives so far away from where I live we are still very close and manage to communicate several times a week, so I know her pretty well.

We have lived together several times throughout our adult lives. It is great to know that my sister always has my back and she darn well knows that I’ve got hers as well. We do talk about how lucky and blessed we are to have such a great relationship despite all the other wacky family members that we have in the ever-growing family that we were born into. There are so many brothers and sisters that don’t remain close as the years tumble by.

I wasn’t all that knowledgeable about this particular New York Jungian Psychotherapy method, but I took the time to research New York Jungian Therapists as much as I could online and she seems to be flourishing, so I am thrilled. It really bites that I can’t see her as much as I would like to. A seven hour drive might as well be all the way across the country. But if need be it could and would be done, that much I know.

California Fires

The fires that are once again taking place in California are devastating to all concerned. California is so broke that they are having a difficult time providing for their citizens much less being able to afford fighting these horrible fires. I feel for the fire fighters that must be suffering terribly with the hot temperatures in California and with the heat of the fires on top of it must be hell.

Every year this happens and every year I wonder when the fires won’t have anything left to burn. It must be a scary place to live and work.

up in smoke out west
California Fires at a Glance

 

Web Hosting Issues

My brother has been urging me to switch my web hosting to Web Hosting Hub. He says that they offer reliable web hosting and that he has been happy with them for some time now.

My brother is a total computer whiz and I’m grateful for all that he has done for me over the years with my various computer issues and needs. He hasn’t steered me wrong yet, so I guess I’ll consider switching over. I don’t think that making a major decision or move right now would be in my best interest, but after the hot and humid days and nights are over and done with I’ll be back on track with most things and I think it would be the best time to make a change such as this.

I’m hoping that I’ll be getting a new laptop for my birthday, that would be awesome. My mother has been picking my brain for a few weeks now trying to find out what the perfect gift would be for her to give me on that morning and I’ve told her time and time again that I have everything that I need other than a new laptop. I don’t want to get my hopes up but it really would be a great if she did do that for me.

Do You Want to Be A Mermaid or a Whale?

Recently, in a large city in Australia, a poster featuring a young, thin and tan woman appeared in the window of a gym.

It said, “This summer, do you want to be a mermaid or a whale?” A middle-aged woman, whose physical characteristics did not match those of the woman on the poster, responded publicly to the question posed by the gym.

To Whom It May Concern,

Whales are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, sea lions, curious humans.) They have an active sex life, get pregnant and have adorable baby whales. They have a wonderful time with dolphins stuffing themselves with shrimp. They play and swim in the seas, seeing wonderful places like Patagonia , the Bering Sea and the coral reefs of Polynesia . Whales are wonderful singers and have even recorded CDs. They are incredible creatures and virtually have no predators other than humans. They are loved, protected and admired by almost everyone in the world.

Mermaids don’t exist. If they did exist, they would be lining up outside the offices of Argentinean psychoanalysts due to identity crisis. Fish or human? They don’t have a sex life because they kill men who get close to them, not to mention how could they have sex? Just look at them … where is IT? Therefore, they don’t have kids either. Not to mention, who wants to get close to a girl who smells like a fish store? The choice is perfectly clear to me: I want to be a whale.

P..S. We are in an age when media puts into our heads the idea that only skinny people are beautiful, but I prefer to enjoy an ice cream with my kids, a good dinner with a man who makes me shiver, and a piece of chocolate with my friends. With time, we gain weight because we accumulate so much information and wisdom in our heads that when there is no more room, it distributes out to the rest of our bodies. So we aren’t heavy, we are enormously cultured, educated and happy. Beginning today, when I look at my butt in the mirror I will think, ¨Good grief, look how smart I am!¨