The Music Studio That Was Once a Parlor

Two A.M. They are still at it. Elijah and his good friend Marx. They have turned my parlor into a music studio and are recording the next big hits for the American listening market. Marx has a music set-up so precise that it corrects pitch slips and lowers the volume of the piano when it drowns out the voice. It's amazing. Even more amazing is the state of my room when I come creeping in at 6:00 A.M. to make my coffee and go for my walk. Yikes!

Shalom Aikido

Every night before it was time for VBS, I took care of all those who came early. We played "market music" down by the river. Anyway, Zaya is supposed to be a little Hebrew boy. He wanted "the white costume" and after I saw this clip I knew why. Here is the little Japanese video game fan doing a routine to Jewish music.

What is This?

The Art Santa came by Monday night with a pack full of treasures for Claye. It was Mary Lou. (I'll have to do an entire article about her some day) She had been given a couple of boxes of art stuff for cleaning out an old garage. There were paints, brushes, canvases, craft items and these two very intriguing little items. Does anybody out there know what they are? We're guessing either something for art or something for smoking pot.

The first one looks a little like a chess piece and it had felt glued on the bottom. The black stuff inside looks like ashes but it doesn't seem to have any smell. We don't know if the metal piece goes with the clay piece or not.














The second one is like a little strainer with a pot. However, it has a fixed, double bottom and when you tip it, it sounds like there is sand between the layers.

Gray Matters

I'm older. Each day I'm amazed
That I falter, I fade, and I'm dazed
Though I'm falling apart,
From my head to my heart
The real "me" is hardly fazed.

Inside I'm much younger than you
And my dreams are still lavishly huge
All the plans in my head
They're alive 'til I'm dead
And the thoughts that I think are still new.

This is a Limerick for Mad Kane's Humor Blog. The prompt was "Getting Older".

Bessie's Turn

I couldn't get this video to post with the others; maybe too much in one post, so here it is.

Claye and Two Cousins throwing Pots

We had a nice surprise on Saturday. My brother-in-law and his children had been camping with their church group in the area and decided to pay us a visit. Of course we just had to show them all the VBS stuff from our week, and Claye threw a pot for them. The oldest two--I'll dub them Bessie and Bert-- each tried a hand or two at making a pot and I took some video. The first one, Claye's, is actually quite long as she spent a little more time than usual, showing us different possibilities. Then we all had a taco dinner and polished off the day with cobbler and ice cream. Ah! Did I ever tell you how much I adore summer?
It's about over though. I start back to work Friday. Sniff Sniff.

Scary Words for Non-computer Nerds

Update! Do I Have To?

There are two terms that bring trepidation to my computing soul: power surge and new updates.

Our power isn't the most reliable here in the heart of Oklahoma; occasionally--most often during a high wind or winter ice storm--the electricity will fail. On rare occasions it will decide with its dying breath to seize my modem and drag it along to the grave for company. New modems aren't something I like to pick up with the groceries. They cost money and they may or may not work when you first install them. That's frustrating because you can't go online for the fix when the line is what's broken. Arrghh! However, when they do work, they work well. You see the three green lights all solidly on, and you experience the peace of a junkie waiting for the euphoria...well maybe that's carrying it a bit far, but you know what I mean.

The other problem isn't so simple: new updates. Now I realize that these should be met with wonder and glee: "Wow! What has Firefox come up with now? I can't wait to see!" "Oh, look at this: Google Earth has added a dimension; now we will be able to explore the seventh planet from the sun, if it is still a planet," but in my experience it's as risky as taking a random bottle from the medicine cabinet: "Oh wow, these little red pills look good for today, so round and harmless!" At least the manufacturers of those pills put all the "may cause" warnings: May cause violent stomach cramps and that other word that's hard to spell and harder to live through. The update people don't have those restrictions. And they are insistent: Everyone must be brought up to snuff. So I get tired of the messages popping up at the bottom of my screen: "You have 5 new updates ready to install". My hand hits the yes button before my mind is awake for the day...and I just lost the whole firefox option. It's gone. To gain internet access at all I have to go back to my former browser. Of course, that browser is miffed at me for having left it, so it won't remember all my passwords and proudly bring up my favorites. I lose "bloglines" and all my shortcuts and find myself having to access my blog through two other blogs...well you get the idea. But that's the least of my troubles; It seems my computer just took the opposite of the little red pills when it swallowed those updates. Lag lag lag. Arrghh! OK. Time for a system restore and a computer clean up operation. I'll have to be satisfied with googling earth in the old fashion way but my Firefox is smokin'.