rock on......

I went to see my nephews band (the Detours) play a gig last night. Tremendous- great sound and a good solid set- all originals!

Amazing to see a young band up on stage with total confidence. No Covers, all new. All Thriller, no filler.

As I watch my mind starts to make connections- His dad is a drummer in a band, his cousins play instruments, his uncles have all played in bands, his grandfather was a guitar player, great grandfather played for years in an Irish band, accordion and penny whistle.

And now there he is up on stage.

I was reminded of a photo I have of him when he was about two years old. He had a big head of curly blond hair- in the photo he looks exactly like my fathers mother, a woman who had passed away a few years before he was born.

Today I was doing some cleaning, some re arranging, some pulling and hauling and I came across some boxes of photos. Old, old, photos- so of course I had to take a break and look thru the pictures. I came across a seventy five year old photo that I had never seen before. It was a picture of my mothers sister, who died as a child, not long after the photo would have been taken. She was the absolute image of my niece. the only difference was the hair color. Otherwise they are identical.

Interesting thing this life

time...... marches on

Here is an observation from my road tip last week.

To catch up all you latecomers, I took a drive upstate New York, last week. I visited a bunch of towns/cities, lots of places that have some sentimental value. Some of these places , I've been visiting on and off for nearly 40 years!!!!! incredible.

There is a timeline, a story, a narative (isn't that word overused these days? everything is part of 'the narative') here it is;

In the late 60's / early 70's,the down town part of the city is in decline. What used to be grocery stores and hardware stores, and shoe stores are now empty. Those stores are all moving to the 'shopping center' at the edge of town.

Late 70's, early 80's, someone gets a great idea-" Lets turn Main St. into a pedestrian mall!"  So the main drag is closed to traffic and some trees are planted and some benches are set up.

Now the Main St. is filled with little specialty shops ( candles and such) and restaurants (Hooligans; an eatery) The Movie theater now has two screens. On friday nights  in the summer,the community orchestra plays.

Late eighties- The shopping center out at the edge of town is half empty because the new mall has opened up out by the thruway. The Movie theater is closed. Every other boutique on the Main St is closed. No more Ochestra nights.

You can see where this goes- The mall is vacant ., Wal Mart, Costco.  have arrived . The shopping center is deserted,. Forget Main St.

We all know that change is inevitable and the good old days never really were, but it still seems to me that we are very short sighted in our planning. No one sees more than 10 years into the future. Maybe thats for the best.

All I know is that for about two years in the 80's I lived in central New York and there was a spectacular supermarket (Tops) within walking distance of my house.  When I was there the other day, I saw that to go food shopping I would have to get in the car, get on the highway and drive.

feh!

thanks big brother

In my last post I mentioned anxiety- today as I logged on to my computer , all the ads were for some anti- anxiety or depression medication.

It's nice to know my friends on the interweb care so deeply.

lust, wander

I don't believe in drugs.

Okay, let me start over, I know that drugs exist.

I'm just not a fan. For the sake of clarity, the drugs i am referring to here are of the prescribed pharmacological variety.

I'm not a fan of the recreational variety either. Never used them, never understood the attraction. The other day I discovered that a friend of mine, a bright intelligent young man, had a hernia operation. To make a long story short- the hernia was caused by drug abuse, oxy contin.  A drug he had been abusing (at 50 dollars a pill!)

I suffer from a familiar laundry list of maladies-  Middle aged, lapsed Catholic,depression, overweight, nearsighted, peter pan syndrome, bad knees, etc..........

On occasion I have been known to have the random panic attack (in a book store about 10 years ago! that was a doozy).

I won't bore you with details, but recently I was becoming the poster boy for general anxiety. It had gotten to the point where everynight for a week I was having full blown nightmares. I never have bad dreams, My dreams are usually  of the puppies and kitties and  rainbows variety ( and occasionally , hot dogs chasing donuts thru the Lincoln tunnel)

What to do?  Years ago, I had a  guy who helped me thru some rough times, but he has long since gone to that big 45 minute hour/ august vacation practice in the sky.

As stated earlier- no interest in "better living through chemistry"

Hmmmmm. So I got in the truck and went on a road trip. a short hop, 4 days. I hadn't been able to do that for years and now I had that opportunity.

I feel incredible. Better than I have in a looooong time. Behind the wheel, I would turn off the radio and just drive. Upstate. No traffic. Open road. 65 mph. And the weight lifted. And balance took it's place.

Oh, I still have all the same problems, but now I have perspective, now I have..........grace.

Driving. Moving. Is it a Man thing? Is it an American thing? I do know that ever since I was a little kid I have loved getting in the car and going. My Dad worked in schools so every summer we would get in the car and go. Still love it.

I have been having some very agreeable  dreams since I have returned, thank you very much.


(I'm sure some of you will have paused at my use of the term grace in the above- I have been meditating on that word for the past few years.  Lots of time dedicated to the idea.  Then on my road trip I saw the movie 'Tree of Life' and the idea of 'grace'looms large. A must see)

theory of relativity ( revised)

Indulge me, please.

Everyone has stories about their family or friends or pets. We enjoy telling these stories. 

Many of us enjoy hearing these stories. I will say that overall our enjoyment hinges on how close we are to the weaver of the tale and the subject of same.

If I know your kids, I'll smile and hang on every word.  If not.............

Again, indulge me.

You don't know the cat who shares my house.

In general he is an even tempered fellow, he will sit by the screen door or an open window and watch the world go by. Sometimes another cat will wander by, or a squirrel, even the neighborhood bunny- no reaction. But , when something flies by, a bird , or a bug, or even a plane- he is not happy. The chase is on. I think in general he feels that flying is ostentatious, needlessly showing off. I can't say for certain , he hasn't confided in me, it's just a feeling I get from him.

The other day, a big round bumble bee got in the house. He was so large he could only fly about three feet off the ground. And if i had to describe his speed of flight , I would say he was "strolling"

I feared the worst, surely when the cat walked in , the bee's time was up.

I was in for a surprise, the cat was totally captivated by the bee. He followed him around all morning, just walking behind . When the bee would land and rest, the cat stopped and watched.

After an hour or so the bee discovered an open window (screened) He flew against the screen, the cat sat next to him- finally I walked over and opened the screen. The Bee was on his way. The cat watched him leave and then went back to his regular schedule.

Thank you for your kind attention

I return. ( i will take a baby step back by posting a video) I just discovered this singer, Ingrid Michaelson. Where have I been? eveyone else knows her. An incredible songwiter with the voice of an angel, drop dead beautiful, and a delightful sense of humor. I am in awe of her ability to (quietly) hold the audience in the palm of he hand. shhhhh listen.......