Other info from the weekend. This one deserves more detail:
Rounding up Daniel, Mike and Nick and going down to the South Side for Philly Cheesesteaks Thursday night after basketball. (Played pretty well that night, btw)
Watching "America's Next Top Dance Crew" Friday night while Daniel and Mike were at the Hetricks. Literally clapping my hands and saying "Wow!" over and over after one of the performances.
Steve arrived late Friday night. Very good to see him in Pittsburgh. It finally happened!
The glorious epitome of musical co-operation Saturday as we slugged out the drum tracks. Finally finding bass notes to play with Steve's quixotic achordal chorus. Warm wonderful bass harmonies for verse 2. That sweet sweet drum machine. Pounding toms. Oh the joy. OH THE JOY!
Tortilla pizzas Saturday afternoon. So. Incredibly. Good.
Church people Sunday. Helping on tech team and tear-down. Listening to the song in the car. Lunch at Panera. Actually got to hang out with Wes Sames, yay!
Football games, caramel latte, they win! They win!
Late night super hungry, sated with Taco Bell. Car acrobatics in the Maxi Saver and strip mall parking lots. Got a genuine feel for throwing the car around. Felt like I was actually moving my car in a macroscopic sense, not just drooling it along the road like I only ever do.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Over this past weekend I traversed the gamut of happiness.
I had a moment of exquisite joy standing at the synth, ready for Steve-O to hit record. A swell of total happiness at the song we were laying down, Steve being here, actually doing recording, having it go well, Daniel and Mike around, things going on.. everything in the world lining up just right.
Sunday I was jumping up and down and shouting in glee along with everyone else in the room as Polamalu dragged down an interception and fancy-footed his way into the endzone, sealing the deal against the Ravens. The Cardinals had won in an astounding game, the Pens had beat the Rangers in a shut-out, and all was as I would wish it could be on that day.
Later that night I had a couple moments of surreality as the heavenly sounds of Mew coursed through my car and I hurtled down the snowy parking lot, building up speed to swirl into a 180 as the night watched on in stillness.
Then Monday the reality that Daniel had left for the semester mixed in with the old familiar ache of a glorious weekend gone by, and I stood with my guitar, frustrated to an internal frenzy by other hands than mine controlling the computer, burned out on music, sad that the freshness of inspiration and cooperation were gone, tired of the song, and shadowed by the loom of cold joyless days ahead. The ache continued unabated as we finished recording, Steve packed up and left, and I dropped Mike off, late for work and alone.
If I could feel like that all the time, I think I would run like a puppy into God the Father's arms and never want to leave. But work is a numbing opiate, and my mind was blustered into business mode by the time I had reached the Tin Bath. As I knew it would, the future brightened back up, and my soul settled back into normalcy. All that remains is that lingering unsettlement - my constant companion, peeking around the corner when I let my thoughts soak down. All is not right, and this is not a game. Hell peeks around the corner, and I don't know what to do about it, or if it will be OK.
I had a moment of exquisite joy standing at the synth, ready for Steve-O to hit record. A swell of total happiness at the song we were laying down, Steve being here, actually doing recording, having it go well, Daniel and Mike around, things going on.. everything in the world lining up just right.
Sunday I was jumping up and down and shouting in glee along with everyone else in the room as Polamalu dragged down an interception and fancy-footed his way into the endzone, sealing the deal against the Ravens. The Cardinals had won in an astounding game, the Pens had beat the Rangers in a shut-out, and all was as I would wish it could be on that day.
Later that night I had a couple moments of surreality as the heavenly sounds of Mew coursed through my car and I hurtled down the snowy parking lot, building up speed to swirl into a 180 as the night watched on in stillness.
Then Monday the reality that Daniel had left for the semester mixed in with the old familiar ache of a glorious weekend gone by, and I stood with my guitar, frustrated to an internal frenzy by other hands than mine controlling the computer, burned out on music, sad that the freshness of inspiration and cooperation were gone, tired of the song, and shadowed by the loom of cold joyless days ahead. The ache continued unabated as we finished recording, Steve packed up and left, and I dropped Mike off, late for work and alone.
If I could feel like that all the time, I think I would run like a puppy into God the Father's arms and never want to leave. But work is a numbing opiate, and my mind was blustered into business mode by the time I had reached the Tin Bath. As I knew it would, the future brightened back up, and my soul settled back into normalcy. All that remains is that lingering unsettlement - my constant companion, peeking around the corner when I let my thoughts soak down. All is not right, and this is not a game. Hell peeks around the corner, and I don't know what to do about it, or if it will be OK.
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Pre and Post Christmas 2008
My last post detailed Christmas 08 with the family, in Chicago. I also did a lot with friends in Pittsburgh before and after said Midwest excursion, which would be a shame to forget and thus lose.
Before Christmas, Mom was already in Chicago--she'd been there since a week after Thanksgiving. Daniel got back I think Wednesday the 17th, I worked that day and the next, and then I was off on my long weekend, from Thursday 6pm till Monday 6pm. Daniel came home with Skipper and Chris, two guys from AEX, who stayed with us while they participated in Daniel's old roommate's wedding. Batchelor party Thursday night, Wedding Saturday. I spent a lot of time with Justin, burning the midnight oil, and making heavy use of the after-midnight diesel fuel as well :-)
I think Friday night I went over to the Harveys and Justin and I watched "The Untouchables" down in the basement. Saturday morning J and Wayne went out for lunch, and I got up and tried to figure out a good efficient plan between my to-dos and Daniel and his guys. I ended up swinging into Chick-fil-A for some food, and lo and behold! Justin and Mr. H :-) So I had lunch with Justin, and then we both headed to Cash-in Culture - the used CD and DVD store in the mall. I loaded up on music and movies, and then we split ways and I headed home.
Saturday evening the corporate mission was to watch all 3 X-men movies at the Harveys. I forget if anything else was going on, but we started out there with a bunch of people: Justin, me, Daniel and his guys, Steve Schuch, Anna, Betsy, I think Rachel, Mike, maybe Heather and Katie/Rebekah Calano, and Andrew Graham. Most folks left after #1, and everyone but Andrew was gone by the end of #2. Turns out Justin, Andrew and I had an awesome talk down in the basement, till about 4:30am. Andrew is a great guy - I'm a fan :-)
Dad and Daniel left Sunday from church, leaving me to run amuck for a couple days on my own. Justin invited me to the Harveys for the Steelers game, where I joined about 20 other peeps. I left when the game was over and went to Nate and Sarah's for a "dinner with engineers," which was a fun and classy affair. I kept inwardly shaking my head and wondering what the guys at the plant would think as we sat in the living room swirling glasses of wine and talking about biomed stuff. Sunday night my mission was to stay up late to prepare for night shift, and I FINALLY had Justin in town to do it with! He came over here, and we made mac 'n' cheese and watched Hero.
Monday and Tuesday nights I worked.. finished up Wednesday morning, drove the car to the airport, parked, made it to the gate, and flopped on the floor for a little bit of sleep. From there it was a somnolent plane flight and then I was in Chicago! And you know the story from there.
Post-Chicago, I arrived in cloudy rainy Pittsburgh at about noon, thankfully remembered where my car was parked, and headed home. Worked that night (Wednesday) and the next, and then I was off for the weekend, until Monday morning. Yay! During those two days I was working, basically everybody in Pittsburgh had been in Akron having amazing awesome times. Which was tough, and also strange, since Akron is like my city, and here's all these people there but not me.
Thursday afternoon saw Justin and most Pittsburghers, as well and Craig and Steve-O all heading to Pittsburgh. I made it through the night, slept till 3 on Friday, and then Justin called and the day began. I think there was some confusion regarding the plans, but what ended up happening was Justin, Craig, Steve and Steve Schuch came over here and we watched Rocky IV on TV. Then Heather, Erin, Anna and Rebekah Calano all came over, while most of us were jamming downstairs. They left, they returned, they toilet papered my house, they took it down, and then Katie and two friends Brenna and Debs arrived. A little later Rebekah Booher came as well, so we had a full house. There was all kinds of noise as people jammed downstairs and talked in the living room. Many folks were hungry, but my house was regrettably bereft of food since I'd been gone/working for almost 2 weeks! We ended up making eggs and scraping together enough butter packets to make macaroni and cheese. People started leaving around 11, and eventually Mikey was left on the couch, out like a 3rd strike, and I convinced Steve to stay here instead of going back to the Harveys. Turns out we had a really awesome time playing songs on my laptop, and then he got my guitar and we played through a lot of his songs, which are great and really need to be recorded. We finally went upstairs to bed, but laid there in my room talking until about 7:30. Pretty crazy.
Saturday I roused myself at 12:48pm, took a shower, and dragged Steve up around 2. We had various ideas floating around, but what I really wanted to do was hang around at the Harveys with lots of people and talk and play pool. The first step was meeting folks at Chick-fil-A for lunch: Justin, Anna, Craig, Megan, Janelle, Heather and Erin. Then we all trundled over to the thrift store and looked at clothes for awhile, eventually repairing to the Harveys, from whence to venture not again until Sunday for church. Mom, Dad and Daniel got home at 5:30pm that evening, and Daniel came to the Harveys awhile later, bringing Mike Q and Nick Schuch in tow.
The afternoon/evening proceeded pretty much as I had predicted: pool downstairs (with some occasional beating of drums and a lot of Rat Slap too), great conversation in the den upstairs, and less great conversation but good hanging out in the living room/kitchen area. Wonderful Mrs. Harvey made dinner for us all, and eventually, when the group was pared down a bit, we coagulated downstairs to watch Spinal Tap, which we had bought at the thrift store. I think just Steve, Steve, Craig, Justin and I were left for that. Very funny movie. Then came the best part of the weekend: Steve and I stayed up in the basement playing pool till about 4:30am. Craig joined in too, till his Nyquil took effect and he crashed. We just played and played, cheering not even so much to win, but just for either of us to have good shots and make them. Apparently the girls woke up at some point, 'cause Anna, Janelle and Megan came down for awhile randomly. Pretty much a great time. 'Course, I was deathly tired Sunday, but that's OK. I remember the sermon.
Sunday Justin, Craig, Steve and Janelle all left after lunch. Before that, though, we had a great big group of people at Quaker Steak 'n' Lube for lunch. Including Debs, who just moved here to intern with the Penguins as a staff writer. Like Steve Gole back in the day, she pretty much jumped right into things, and became one with the hanging out that day (and Friday night, as well). After some confusion and many rapid decision changes, Katie, Rebekah, Debs, Erin, Heather, Megan, Mike, Daniel, Nick and myself all ended up going to the Quinlisks, where we watched Hitch down in the basement. Then Debs and company made dinner for everybody, and I made espressos, lattes and noggtes. Then we went for a long walk in the graveyard in the mist and warm temperature, Mike flew his awesome new radio controlled plane, we played cards down in the basement, and at the last, Katie, Heather, Debs and I watched The Italian Job down in the basement. Somehow, I made it through the next day of work quite well, despite getting home at 2am, getting to sleep at 2:15, and waking up at 4:45. Not recommended, but I made it. And I don't regret it.
That's about it, folks. Last night (Monday night) I met up with some folks for dinner at TGI Fridays to celebrate Jess Mittelman's birthday, and we watched Office Space back at the Q's. Now I'm off for 2 days, and I actually woke up at 5am this morning since I crashed on the couch at 7:30 last night. Sleep is a wonderful thing.
Peace.
Before Christmas, Mom was already in Chicago--she'd been there since a week after Thanksgiving. Daniel got back I think Wednesday the 17th, I worked that day and the next, and then I was off on my long weekend, from Thursday 6pm till Monday 6pm. Daniel came home with Skipper and Chris, two guys from AEX, who stayed with us while they participated in Daniel's old roommate's wedding. Batchelor party Thursday night, Wedding Saturday. I spent a lot of time with Justin, burning the midnight oil, and making heavy use of the after-midnight diesel fuel as well :-)
I think Friday night I went over to the Harveys and Justin and I watched "The Untouchables" down in the basement. Saturday morning J and Wayne went out for lunch, and I got up and tried to figure out a good efficient plan between my to-dos and Daniel and his guys. I ended up swinging into Chick-fil-A for some food, and lo and behold! Justin and Mr. H :-) So I had lunch with Justin, and then we both headed to Cash-in Culture - the used CD and DVD store in the mall. I loaded up on music and movies, and then we split ways and I headed home.
Saturday evening the corporate mission was to watch all 3 X-men movies at the Harveys. I forget if anything else was going on, but we started out there with a bunch of people: Justin, me, Daniel and his guys, Steve Schuch, Anna, Betsy, I think Rachel, Mike, maybe Heather and Katie/Rebekah Calano, and Andrew Graham. Most folks left after #1, and everyone but Andrew was gone by the end of #2. Turns out Justin, Andrew and I had an awesome talk down in the basement, till about 4:30am. Andrew is a great guy - I'm a fan :-)
Dad and Daniel left Sunday from church, leaving me to run amuck for a couple days on my own. Justin invited me to the Harveys for the Steelers game, where I joined about 20 other peeps. I left when the game was over and went to Nate and Sarah's for a "dinner with engineers," which was a fun and classy affair. I kept inwardly shaking my head and wondering what the guys at the plant would think as we sat in the living room swirling glasses of wine and talking about biomed stuff. Sunday night my mission was to stay up late to prepare for night shift, and I FINALLY had Justin in town to do it with! He came over here, and we made mac 'n' cheese and watched Hero.
Monday and Tuesday nights I worked.. finished up Wednesday morning, drove the car to the airport, parked, made it to the gate, and flopped on the floor for a little bit of sleep. From there it was a somnolent plane flight and then I was in Chicago! And you know the story from there.
Post-Chicago, I arrived in cloudy rainy Pittsburgh at about noon, thankfully remembered where my car was parked, and headed home. Worked that night (Wednesday) and the next, and then I was off for the weekend, until Monday morning. Yay! During those two days I was working, basically everybody in Pittsburgh had been in Akron having amazing awesome times. Which was tough, and also strange, since Akron is like my city, and here's all these people there but not me.
Thursday afternoon saw Justin and most Pittsburghers, as well and Craig and Steve-O all heading to Pittsburgh. I made it through the night, slept till 3 on Friday, and then Justin called and the day began. I think there was some confusion regarding the plans, but what ended up happening was Justin, Craig, Steve and Steve Schuch came over here and we watched Rocky IV on TV. Then Heather, Erin, Anna and Rebekah Calano all came over, while most of us were jamming downstairs. They left, they returned, they toilet papered my house, they took it down, and then Katie and two friends Brenna and Debs arrived. A little later Rebekah Booher came as well, so we had a full house. There was all kinds of noise as people jammed downstairs and talked in the living room. Many folks were hungry, but my house was regrettably bereft of food since I'd been gone/working for almost 2 weeks! We ended up making eggs and scraping together enough butter packets to make macaroni and cheese. People started leaving around 11, and eventually Mikey was left on the couch, out like a 3rd strike, and I convinced Steve to stay here instead of going back to the Harveys. Turns out we had a really awesome time playing songs on my laptop, and then he got my guitar and we played through a lot of his songs, which are great and really need to be recorded. We finally went upstairs to bed, but laid there in my room talking until about 7:30. Pretty crazy.
Saturday I roused myself at 12:48pm, took a shower, and dragged Steve up around 2. We had various ideas floating around, but what I really wanted to do was hang around at the Harveys with lots of people and talk and play pool. The first step was meeting folks at Chick-fil-A for lunch: Justin, Anna, Craig, Megan, Janelle, Heather and Erin. Then we all trundled over to the thrift store and looked at clothes for awhile, eventually repairing to the Harveys, from whence to venture not again until Sunday for church. Mom, Dad and Daniel got home at 5:30pm that evening, and Daniel came to the Harveys awhile later, bringing Mike Q and Nick Schuch in tow.
The afternoon/evening proceeded pretty much as I had predicted: pool downstairs (with some occasional beating of drums and a lot of Rat Slap too), great conversation in the den upstairs, and less great conversation but good hanging out in the living room/kitchen area. Wonderful Mrs. Harvey made dinner for us all, and eventually, when the group was pared down a bit, we coagulated downstairs to watch Spinal Tap, which we had bought at the thrift store. I think just Steve, Steve, Craig, Justin and I were left for that. Very funny movie. Then came the best part of the weekend: Steve and I stayed up in the basement playing pool till about 4:30am. Craig joined in too, till his Nyquil took effect and he crashed. We just played and played, cheering not even so much to win, but just for either of us to have good shots and make them. Apparently the girls woke up at some point, 'cause Anna, Janelle and Megan came down for awhile randomly. Pretty much a great time. 'Course, I was deathly tired Sunday, but that's OK. I remember the sermon.
Sunday Justin, Craig, Steve and Janelle all left after lunch. Before that, though, we had a great big group of people at Quaker Steak 'n' Lube for lunch. Including Debs, who just moved here to intern with the Penguins as a staff writer. Like Steve Gole back in the day, she pretty much jumped right into things, and became one with the hanging out that day (and Friday night, as well). After some confusion and many rapid decision changes, Katie, Rebekah, Debs, Erin, Heather, Megan, Mike, Daniel, Nick and myself all ended up going to the Quinlisks, where we watched Hitch down in the basement. Then Debs and company made dinner for everybody, and I made espressos, lattes and noggtes. Then we went for a long walk in the graveyard in the mist and warm temperature, Mike flew his awesome new radio controlled plane, we played cards down in the basement, and at the last, Katie, Heather, Debs and I watched The Italian Job down in the basement. Somehow, I made it through the next day of work quite well, despite getting home at 2am, getting to sleep at 2:15, and waking up at 4:45. Not recommended, but I made it. And I don't regret it.
That's about it, folks. Last night (Monday night) I met up with some folks for dinner at TGI Fridays to celebrate Jess Mittelman's birthday, and we watched Office Space back at the Q's. Now I'm off for 2 days, and I actually woke up at 5am this morning since I crashed on the couch at 7:30 last night. Sleep is a wonderful thing.
Peace.
Christmas 2008
Holiday Season 2008
Christmas '08... what did I do? How was it? My 24th ever, the 4th since Grandpa's health issues started.
Well, it was in Chicago this year, and everybody was there except Ken. He was leading a tour in Africa for some New York lawyer's family. I think that's the first Christmas that he hasn't been here at all. The other big difference was that Grandpa was in a nursing home. He went back to the hospital a few days after I left from my Thanksgiving visit, due to the terrible pain in his back. Turns out it's a crushed L3 vertebrae, and there isn't a "fix." So he was in the hospital for a few days, and he's been in the rehab section of Manor Care nursing home since then. He walks a few times a day, trying to build up strength, but he's very weak, and if his back flares up, he's pretty much laid out till some morphine can take effect. So, each day was structured around who was going to see Grandpa when. I think Grandma went almost every morning, and various combinations of us would come in the afternoon and evening, usually bringing him some sort of restaurant food for dinner and/or lunch. I flew in on Christmas Eve, rolling from work to the airport to Grandma and Grandpa's. That evening we all went to the nursing home together and had our traditional Christmas Eve program in the lounge. KFC replaced a home-made dinner, but we still did some scripture readings and carol singings, and UK provided tech support to play "A Charlie Brown Christmas" from his iTouch on the little TV in the room. Interesting the places life takes you.
Christmas day we all went to see Grandpa in the morning, and did presents back home later in the afternoon. I actually had good ideas for most everybody this year, hooking Dad up with some tools, getting a gadgety new wrench for UK, Fiesta bakeware for Mom, and some Starbucks lovin' for Danmybro. And UK got me an ESPRESSO MACHINE!! Apparently he and Daniel went on quite a quest to find a good one, but this one is solid, and gets the job done. It was fun concocting espresso-based beverages from the hissing steaming machine in the basement. Nogttes were definitely the favorite. And I kinda think Grandma's washer and drier will forever smell like coffee :-P
Most days were split up with different groups at Grandpa's, eventually congregating back home around 9 or 10 for a movie. There were a couple exceptions, though. Uncle Keith got 4 standing room tickets for a Blackhawks game, so us four men went to the United Center on the 26th, Friday. That day was freakishly warm - 60+ degrees! The day before the sidewalks had been over an inch thick with ice. Yes, we had strange weather. But weather notwithstanding, there was nothing wierd about how the Hawks TORE UP the Philly Fliers! It was a great game (my first hockey game ever), and the crowd definitely was full of energy. Record size crowd, by the way, and franchise record-tying 8th win in a row.
The other more differenter day--for Dad and me at least--was Saturday. I had seen an ad in the Chicago craigslist page for a "Sound City foot pedal synth." In short, a very odd and rare analog synthesizer, but not the $2000 dollar mainstream one, but an off brand cheap one! I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity, so Dad and I headed out to Burr Ridge at noon. I ended up buying the synth after checking it out and talking him down to $275. Then the day got pretty more cooler: turns out Lagrange, where Dad grew up, was just 5 minutes down the road! So we drove there, and Dad had a crazy trip down memory lane. We drove up and down his street, took pictures of his old house, found lots of his friends houses, his grade school and junior high school, and even ate lunch at the local Taco Bell, across the street from the Arby's where he got his first real job. Pretty cool for Dad, and I really enjoyed getting to see what was once so familiar to him. On the way home we stopped at 2 music stores, and I got some great help in my search for a satisfactory overdrive pedal. Pretty cool day, and we topped it off by picking up Aurelio's for dinner. Ahhh :-)
Funny as it sounds, one of the marks of this Christmas was BLU-RAY. Uncle Keith got Grandma and Grandpa a Blu-ray player, which puts their huge HDTV to good use. And he had a slew of Blu-ray movies, which we watched pretty much every night. I don't know why, and I don't know if it's definitely a bad thing to be avoided, but watching those movies was a fun thing that sorta brought us together. And the picture was impressive, no doubts. Quite remarkable.
As always, we had a huge spread of cookies and sweets on the side table, complete with Grandma's chocolate cookies, Fannie May buttercreams and mint meltaways, and much much more. The basement fridge was well stocked with Dr.P and Diet Pepsi, with a new addition: Diet Dr.Pepper. It has fallen into much favor with the diet drinkers. I never did have corned beef hash and eggs for breakfast, and without Grandpa we couldn't do the jolly jump-ups, which are his signature breakfast creation. Mom cooked up a great pork roast for Christmas dinner, which was a great spread. Other than that, and spaghetti 2 nights ago, we kinda ate out most of the time.
The trip ended for me on Wednesday. UK, Dad, Daniel and I dragged ourselves out of bed at 6:30 in the morning and piled into the Suburban. They dropped me off at Midway Airport, and headed from there to down town, where they hung out until the afternoon Bulls game that UK had tickets for. I got checked in and securitied pretty quickly, and chilled by the gate till flight time. Didn't really sleep, just laid there. I decided to watch the ground for the whole flight, since the pilot mentioned that it was only 50 minutes of actual air time. So, I watched every foot of ground between Chicago and Pittsburgh. Except where there were clouds. And then I watched the clouds. Hard to make myself think that we had actually traveled that much distance.
Thus sorta endethed Christmas 2008, but folks still had a few days in Chicago till they left on Saturday, and I still had great times with people who were back on break in Pittsburgh. More on that later.
Christmas '08: Grandpa in the nursing home, espresso machine, Blu-Ray... good times.
Christmas '08... what did I do? How was it? My 24th ever, the 4th since Grandpa's health issues started.
Well, it was in Chicago this year, and everybody was there except Ken. He was leading a tour in Africa for some New York lawyer's family. I think that's the first Christmas that he hasn't been here at all. The other big difference was that Grandpa was in a nursing home. He went back to the hospital a few days after I left from my Thanksgiving visit, due to the terrible pain in his back. Turns out it's a crushed L3 vertebrae, and there isn't a "fix." So he was in the hospital for a few days, and he's been in the rehab section of Manor Care nursing home since then. He walks a few times a day, trying to build up strength, but he's very weak, and if his back flares up, he's pretty much laid out till some morphine can take effect. So, each day was structured around who was going to see Grandpa when. I think Grandma went almost every morning, and various combinations of us would come in the afternoon and evening, usually bringing him some sort of restaurant food for dinner and/or lunch. I flew in on Christmas Eve, rolling from work to the airport to Grandma and Grandpa's. That evening we all went to the nursing home together and had our traditional Christmas Eve program in the lounge. KFC replaced a home-made dinner, but we still did some scripture readings and carol singings, and UK provided tech support to play "A Charlie Brown Christmas" from his iTouch on the little TV in the room. Interesting the places life takes you.
Christmas day we all went to see Grandpa in the morning, and did presents back home later in the afternoon. I actually had good ideas for most everybody this year, hooking Dad up with some tools, getting a gadgety new wrench for UK, Fiesta bakeware for Mom, and some Starbucks lovin' for Danmybro. And UK got me an ESPRESSO MACHINE!! Apparently he and Daniel went on quite a quest to find a good one, but this one is solid, and gets the job done. It was fun concocting espresso-based beverages from the hissing steaming machine in the basement. Nogttes were definitely the favorite. And I kinda think Grandma's washer and drier will forever smell like coffee :-P
Most days were split up with different groups at Grandpa's, eventually congregating back home around 9 or 10 for a movie. There were a couple exceptions, though. Uncle Keith got 4 standing room tickets for a Blackhawks game, so us four men went to the United Center on the 26th, Friday. That day was freakishly warm - 60+ degrees! The day before the sidewalks had been over an inch thick with ice. Yes, we had strange weather. But weather notwithstanding, there was nothing wierd about how the Hawks TORE UP the Philly Fliers! It was a great game (my first hockey game ever), and the crowd definitely was full of energy. Record size crowd, by the way, and franchise record-tying 8th win in a row.
The other more differenter day--for Dad and me at least--was Saturday. I had seen an ad in the Chicago craigslist page for a "Sound City foot pedal synth." In short, a very odd and rare analog synthesizer, but not the $2000 dollar mainstream one, but an off brand cheap one! I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity, so Dad and I headed out to Burr Ridge at noon. I ended up buying the synth after checking it out and talking him down to $275. Then the day got pretty more cooler: turns out Lagrange, where Dad grew up, was just 5 minutes down the road! So we drove there, and Dad had a crazy trip down memory lane. We drove up and down his street, took pictures of his old house, found lots of his friends houses, his grade school and junior high school, and even ate lunch at the local Taco Bell, across the street from the Arby's where he got his first real job. Pretty cool for Dad, and I really enjoyed getting to see what was once so familiar to him. On the way home we stopped at 2 music stores, and I got some great help in my search for a satisfactory overdrive pedal. Pretty cool day, and we topped it off by picking up Aurelio's for dinner. Ahhh :-)
Funny as it sounds, one of the marks of this Christmas was BLU-RAY. Uncle Keith got Grandma and Grandpa a Blu-ray player, which puts their huge HDTV to good use. And he had a slew of Blu-ray movies, which we watched pretty much every night. I don't know why, and I don't know if it's definitely a bad thing to be avoided, but watching those movies was a fun thing that sorta brought us together. And the picture was impressive, no doubts. Quite remarkable.
As always, we had a huge spread of cookies and sweets on the side table, complete with Grandma's chocolate cookies, Fannie May buttercreams and mint meltaways, and much much more. The basement fridge was well stocked with Dr.P and Diet Pepsi, with a new addition: Diet Dr.Pepper. It has fallen into much favor with the diet drinkers. I never did have corned beef hash and eggs for breakfast, and without Grandpa we couldn't do the jolly jump-ups, which are his signature breakfast creation. Mom cooked up a great pork roast for Christmas dinner, which was a great spread. Other than that, and spaghetti 2 nights ago, we kinda ate out most of the time.
The trip ended for me on Wednesday. UK, Dad, Daniel and I dragged ourselves out of bed at 6:30 in the morning and piled into the Suburban. They dropped me off at Midway Airport, and headed from there to down town, where they hung out until the afternoon Bulls game that UK had tickets for. I got checked in and securitied pretty quickly, and chilled by the gate till flight time. Didn't really sleep, just laid there. I decided to watch the ground for the whole flight, since the pilot mentioned that it was only 50 minutes of actual air time. So, I watched every foot of ground between Chicago and Pittsburgh. Except where there were clouds. And then I watched the clouds. Hard to make myself think that we had actually traveled that much distance.
Thus sorta endethed Christmas 2008, but folks still had a few days in Chicago till they left on Saturday, and I still had great times with people who were back on break in Pittsburgh. More on that later.
Christmas '08: Grandpa in the nursing home, espresso machine, Blu-Ray... good times.
December 11th
Days like today are sweet. They're days I feel pretty happy with myself. I had 3 agendas for the day: go to the strip district, meet with Mr. Pierson about Youth Camp, and make dinner. So, I got up at a quarter to 9, showered, grabbed some cashews and a Dr.Pepper, and headed out into the rainy greyness. The car rang with Christmas cheer, though, as I put together a playlist of Phil Keaggy, Keith Foley, Julie Andrews and the Canadian Brass - pretty much the top 4 all-star Christmas albums of my life. They brought back sweet and heart wrenching memories of the golden, blissful Christmasses of the past as I cruised down Carson Street.
At the strip I cruised right into a rockstar parking spot on the main drag, and started working on my missions: tortillas at Reynosa, ingredients for tomatillo salsa, goat cheese and a baguette from Penn Mac, random snacks and drinks from Hermanowski's, and fresh veggies at Stan's. I also found a new coffee shop that specializes in crepes, at which I purchased my lunch (turkey asaigo crepe - quite good, and pretty different). And of course, I had to get a couple scones at the biscotti bakery, 'cause they're ~amazing~. I was finished by 11, and made my last scuttle through the rain to the blue Mazda on the curb. Back into Christmas wonderland, this time sucking on a latte as I made my way through downtown and out to Bethel Park.
Ah, just like old times: hanging out in the church office, toting around my laptop case full of jumbled papers (but I know where everything is. ...roughly..), plugging into and out of the internet, printing docs, and sitting in the chair in Mr. Pierson's office talkin' youth camp. This was the first meeting for YC09, and we got through it in good time, with good action points and deadlines to go on. I also helped the ladies at the office dispatch some musical items in their efforts to organize the place. Jere was there, and she brought up a possible opportunity with a Christian coffee house in Homestead - just a few minutes from my home! I ended up calling the pastor who runs it right then, and we talked about his vision for the place and the musical help that he's looking for. Who knows what might come of it!
At 3:30 I headed home, dropping off Rick's compressor and nail gun on the way. "I should get the mail" flashed through my head as I pulled up to the house, but once I was in the driveway the cornocupia of bags and articles to unload had seized full reign of my mind, and the mail was forgotten. 4 trips in and out, and then relegating items to their proper resting places. Or... to the middle of the kitchen table, in the case of my laptop bag. Veggies to wash, and tomatillo salsa to make first so it'll be ready for dinner. Tomatillos, jalapenos, onions and garlic. Peel, clean, cut, de-seed, place, roast, preheat, crush, chop, saute, and then it all goes into the blender with cilantro, salt and pepper. VOILA! Amazing, moan-and-groan delicious salsa. It's a beautiful thing.
Then chop and dice and rinse and shred, and at last there's a big tub of salad, and another one of fresh veggies ready to go. By then the tilapia filets were thawed, but Dad had to leave for CGLAA at 6:30, so he ate leftovers and was out the door. It wasn't quite as fun cooking for just myself, but the fish tacos were still good. Sauteeing the tilapia and frying the corn tortillas, then quick putting it all together and trying not to squeeze everything out the back end as I chomp it down.
Cooking is pretty sweet, and right now I like it a lot. Yesterday I made teriyaki chicken and rice from scratch - even the teriyaki sauce! (Thanks to MAQ for looking up the recipe for me.) It's very cool to make good, full, healthy meals, especially doing it by the seat of my pants and coming out with something delicious.
House came on at 7, so I cooked and ate and sat and watched, and at 9 I went downstairs to play electric guitar. Ugh. I really need to change the strings on my SG. One busted, and I've been using the Telecaster since, and it just ain't the same. That SG is one SWEET guitar. I did get some great Phil Keaggy-esque volume swell stuff going, proving the DL-4's analog delay simulation to not be entirely useless. Pretty much got an idea for combining that sound with an acoustic guitar melody I've already written, to make what I hope will be a killer piece. And perhaps it will fit into my germinating scheme to create an album about the human story, starting with creation, through the fall, and to the actual redemption, since we all crave the human race being redeemed (which usually ='s it redeeming itself, in the movies). I hope I can gain enough creative and concrete momentum to get this idea off the ground, since I feel like it would be a great vehicle to use vocal harmonies, synth and electric guitar sounds, and all of that combined with acoustic guitar and full rock sets. We'll see.
The day ended off with playing a heartbreak song, a heavenache song, a sea song and a worship song on acoustic, and then writing this. The alarm will shriek at 4am tomorrow, but frighteningly, 11:55pm is pretty early for me on day shift. My teeth are brushed and flossed (despite the jarring pain in my left jaw when I move it certain ways), and I'm good to trundle Daisy upstairs, bed down under the covers, and satisfy this lurking desire to read the Bible that's been mulling around in me all evening.
Peace,
--JPB
P.S. "Your Cheatin' Heart" by Hank Williams, "A Long, Long Way From My Home" by Kaiser and Mansfield, "Leave Her Johnny, Leave Her" from Songs and Sounds of the Sea, and "King of Grace," from PDI Ministries. Keys of C, E, C and G.
At the strip I cruised right into a rockstar parking spot on the main drag, and started working on my missions: tortillas at Reynosa, ingredients for tomatillo salsa, goat cheese and a baguette from Penn Mac, random snacks and drinks from Hermanowski's, and fresh veggies at Stan's. I also found a new coffee shop that specializes in crepes, at which I purchased my lunch (turkey asaigo crepe - quite good, and pretty different). And of course, I had to get a couple scones at the biscotti bakery, 'cause they're ~amazing~. I was finished by 11, and made my last scuttle through the rain to the blue Mazda on the curb. Back into Christmas wonderland, this time sucking on a latte as I made my way through downtown and out to Bethel Park.
Ah, just like old times: hanging out in the church office, toting around my laptop case full of jumbled papers (but I know where everything is. ...roughly..), plugging into and out of the internet, printing docs, and sitting in the chair in Mr. Pierson's office talkin' youth camp. This was the first meeting for YC09, and we got through it in good time, with good action points and deadlines to go on. I also helped the ladies at the office dispatch some musical items in their efforts to organize the place. Jere was there, and she brought up a possible opportunity with a Christian coffee house in Homestead - just a few minutes from my home! I ended up calling the pastor who runs it right then, and we talked about his vision for the place and the musical help that he's looking for. Who knows what might come of it!
At 3:30 I headed home, dropping off Rick's compressor and nail gun on the way. "I should get the mail" flashed through my head as I pulled up to the house, but once I was in the driveway the cornocupia of bags and articles to unload had seized full reign of my mind, and the mail was forgotten. 4 trips in and out, and then relegating items to their proper resting places. Or... to the middle of the kitchen table, in the case of my laptop bag. Veggies to wash, and tomatillo salsa to make first so it'll be ready for dinner. Tomatillos, jalapenos, onions and garlic. Peel, clean, cut, de-seed, place, roast, preheat, crush, chop, saute, and then it all goes into the blender with cilantro, salt and pepper. VOILA! Amazing, moan-and-groan delicious salsa. It's a beautiful thing.
Then chop and dice and rinse and shred, and at last there's a big tub of salad, and another one of fresh veggies ready to go. By then the tilapia filets were thawed, but Dad had to leave for CGLAA at 6:30, so he ate leftovers and was out the door. It wasn't quite as fun cooking for just myself, but the fish tacos were still good. Sauteeing the tilapia and frying the corn tortillas, then quick putting it all together and trying not to squeeze everything out the back end as I chomp it down.
Cooking is pretty sweet, and right now I like it a lot. Yesterday I made teriyaki chicken and rice from scratch - even the teriyaki sauce! (Thanks to MAQ for looking up the recipe for me.) It's very cool to make good, full, healthy meals, especially doing it by the seat of my pants and coming out with something delicious.
House came on at 7, so I cooked and ate and sat and watched, and at 9 I went downstairs to play electric guitar. Ugh. I really need to change the strings on my SG. One busted, and I've been using the Telecaster since, and it just ain't the same. That SG is one SWEET guitar. I did get some great Phil Keaggy-esque volume swell stuff going, proving the DL-4's analog delay simulation to not be entirely useless. Pretty much got an idea for combining that sound with an acoustic guitar melody I've already written, to make what I hope will be a killer piece. And perhaps it will fit into my germinating scheme to create an album about the human story, starting with creation, through the fall, and to the actual redemption, since we all crave the human race being redeemed (which usually ='s it redeeming itself, in the movies). I hope I can gain enough creative and concrete momentum to get this idea off the ground, since I feel like it would be a great vehicle to use vocal harmonies, synth and electric guitar sounds, and all of that combined with acoustic guitar and full rock sets. We'll see.
The day ended off with playing a heartbreak song, a heavenache song, a sea song and a worship song on acoustic, and then writing this. The alarm will shriek at 4am tomorrow, but frighteningly, 11:55pm is pretty early for me on day shift. My teeth are brushed and flossed (despite the jarring pain in my left jaw when I move it certain ways), and I'm good to trundle Daisy upstairs, bed down under the covers, and satisfy this lurking desire to read the Bible that's been mulling around in me all evening.
Peace,
--JPB
P.S. "Your Cheatin' Heart" by Hank Williams, "A Long, Long Way From My Home" by Kaiser and Mansfield, "Leave Her Johnny, Leave Her" from Songs and Sounds of the Sea, and "King of Grace," from PDI Ministries. Keys of C, E, C and G.
Thanksgiving 2008
What did I do for Thanksgiving 2008? What was going on that fall? Say, wasn't that the last few months before I hit it big and toured the nation? :-D
Well, for Givingofthanks day I went to Chicago to be with Grandma and Grandpa while Mom, Dad, Daniel, Daisy and UK met up down in South Carolina. I took the weekend after Tday off, so I had 7 straight days off, which was great. Dragged myself out of bed Wednesday afternoon, packed up, and suffered through a few spots of holiday traffic to arrive at 10:30pm CST. Grandpa was doing pretty well when I got there, but things went downhill for a few days and he was in pretty bad pain, and really out of it until things cleared up Sunday afternoon. Before all that, he was moving around, helping Grandma make Jolly Jump-ups for breakfast, and even went to Baker's Square Friday night. Each individual thing, though, was a big deal, and he could only take 1 or 2 things a day. We did go to his first physical therapy appointment Monday, but after I left, his back has been so bad he's actually back in the hospital at the moment. Rough times now, but we had some good times while I was there.
I got to talk with Grandma a lot, which was great, and we all had a long discussion about my thoughts regarding Guardian, chemical engineering, music, and studying recording. I rented a peck of movies on Thursday, and watched one most nights after everyone retired. I also had my MicroKorg and drum machine set up on the coffee table, and would jam on those at times. Got some pretty deef jams recorded on my cell phone! Sunday I went to a Sovereign Grace-like church, which that week was sharing their service with a nearby smaller church and having a baptism afterwards. The one church was mostly white, and the guest church was mostly black, so it was a very interesting service, and really glorified Christ with the unity that they showed. Very cool churches.
I left Monday evening, heading out from fresh Aurelio's pizza and Monday Night Football countdown to traverse the long cloudy path to Akron. I rolled into Hoffmans' at 1:20am and me and Steve hung out till I fell asleep, around 3 I think. Over the next 36 hours I packed about a week's worth of action in, which made for a fun end to the whole trip. Steve and I woke up around 11, hung around the house for lunch with Scott and Philip, met up with Craig and Guitar Center, drove in my car to the dollar theater for a movie, hit a nearby mall to look for a coat for Steve, grabbed an excellent dinner at Red Robin, and went to the Manastary (house of christian college guys they all know). Jammed in Andy's room, shot some pool, and finally headed to Northside, where this SWEET guy was playing blues. Guitar, harmonica, and a mic'd box to tap his feet on, and he was good to go. I even got to play for awhile when he took a smoke break, which was sweet! Busted out some Johnny Cash and Hank Williams, and some old Leadbelly. Made me want to learn more songs (which I've done so far).
We wrapped up the night back at the Manastary, playing Mortal Kombat in the freezing living room and then watching a movie till 6am. The sun was beginning to paint the sky with light as we rolled back to the Hoffman's and bedded down in the den.
And that was about it. I got home close to 5pm, so it was tight getting dressed and ready for work, but I got there in time, and it all worked out. Definitely a good trip, very good and right to be there with G&G, and a sweet surreal time in Akron to cap it off.
What else is going on these days? My recording rig is still maddeningly on the fritz, but I just borrowed Justin's interface, 'cause it's been killing me to be unable to lay anything down. I broke a string on the black SG, and I want to find out what kind of strings the previous owner used, so it's still broke, and that's killin me as well. That guitar is so good! Mom is in Chicago again--rough times like I said--but this time she flew, so Dad and I still have Daisy. I'm off today (Wednesday) and tomorrow, and then it's the long weekend of days. Planning to go to the Strip District this morning to do some sophisticated grocery shopping :-)
Daniel is finishing up his semester, and the Grove City dynamic is changing as a lot of those folks I think are going to Dr. Duguid's church in GC now (which is cool - a great church). Ken is having amazing experience after amazing opportunity in Africa, and won't be home for Christmas (doing a private tour for some family related to the Rockefellers). Mom (when she's home) meets with lots of different ladies in the church, and continues to make marvelous, delicious and healthy food for the household. The new house plans are maybe kinda sorta on hold with all that's going on with Grandpa, and also all the projects that still need to be done/finished around this house.
I hang out with Mike Q a lot, especially on nights like this when I don't have anything the next day. It's cool to have a friend who isn't bound by regular job or school schedules. 'Course, he could use a job though :-)
I rear-ended somebody at a red light a few weeks ago (sun in my eyes), and it's been assessed, so I think tomorrow I'll be taking it in to get fixed. Still getting lousy mileage, so I'll probably have to take it to a mechanic and get it put on the diagnostic machine to see what's up. Drinkin' coffee/caffeine every working day. Still trying to gain back the weight I lost from the flu/stomach flu/food poisoning bout. Went ice skating Sunday, knees sore from that. Wanting to do the exercise bikes and get those knees into shape a bit. Listening to Christmas music, XM, and just whatever strikes my fancy. From sea shanties to Jet.
Right now it's 1:30am. I fell asleep in the basement watching TV, dragged myself up here around midnight, gathered up the garbage and took it now, got all wakey-wakey, wrote this, and now I'm going to set up and sleep out on the patio, since it's a freakishly warm 55 degrees out there.
If I think of any other bits of life these days, I'll jot 'em down here in the morning.
Light-up night
Bitter cold lately
Daisy's weight
YC09!
AEX football game?
Well, for Givingofthanks day I went to Chicago to be with Grandma and Grandpa while Mom, Dad, Daniel, Daisy and UK met up down in South Carolina. I took the weekend after Tday off, so I had 7 straight days off, which was great. Dragged myself out of bed Wednesday afternoon, packed up, and suffered through a few spots of holiday traffic to arrive at 10:30pm CST. Grandpa was doing pretty well when I got there, but things went downhill for a few days and he was in pretty bad pain, and really out of it until things cleared up Sunday afternoon. Before all that, he was moving around, helping Grandma make Jolly Jump-ups for breakfast, and even went to Baker's Square Friday night. Each individual thing, though, was a big deal, and he could only take 1 or 2 things a day. We did go to his first physical therapy appointment Monday, but after I left, his back has been so bad he's actually back in the hospital at the moment. Rough times now, but we had some good times while I was there.
I got to talk with Grandma a lot, which was great, and we all had a long discussion about my thoughts regarding Guardian, chemical engineering, music, and studying recording. I rented a peck of movies on Thursday, and watched one most nights after everyone retired. I also had my MicroKorg and drum machine set up on the coffee table, and would jam on those at times. Got some pretty deef jams recorded on my cell phone! Sunday I went to a Sovereign Grace-like church, which that week was sharing their service with a nearby smaller church and having a baptism afterwards. The one church was mostly white, and the guest church was mostly black, so it was a very interesting service, and really glorified Christ with the unity that they showed. Very cool churches.
I left Monday evening, heading out from fresh Aurelio's pizza and Monday Night Football countdown to traverse the long cloudy path to Akron. I rolled into Hoffmans' at 1:20am and me and Steve hung out till I fell asleep, around 3 I think. Over the next 36 hours I packed about a week's worth of action in, which made for a fun end to the whole trip. Steve and I woke up around 11, hung around the house for lunch with Scott and Philip, met up with Craig and Guitar Center, drove in my car to the dollar theater for a movie, hit a nearby mall to look for a coat for Steve, grabbed an excellent dinner at Red Robin, and went to the Manastary (house of christian college guys they all know). Jammed in Andy's room, shot some pool, and finally headed to Northside, where this SWEET guy was playing blues. Guitar, harmonica, and a mic'd box to tap his feet on, and he was good to go. I even got to play for awhile when he took a smoke break, which was sweet! Busted out some Johnny Cash and Hank Williams, and some old Leadbelly. Made me want to learn more songs (which I've done so far).
We wrapped up the night back at the Manastary, playing Mortal Kombat in the freezing living room and then watching a movie till 6am. The sun was beginning to paint the sky with light as we rolled back to the Hoffman's and bedded down in the den.
And that was about it. I got home close to 5pm, so it was tight getting dressed and ready for work, but I got there in time, and it all worked out. Definitely a good trip, very good and right to be there with G&G, and a sweet surreal time in Akron to cap it off.
What else is going on these days? My recording rig is still maddeningly on the fritz, but I just borrowed Justin's interface, 'cause it's been killing me to be unable to lay anything down. I broke a string on the black SG, and I want to find out what kind of strings the previous owner used, so it's still broke, and that's killin me as well. That guitar is so good! Mom is in Chicago again--rough times like I said--but this time she flew, so Dad and I still have Daisy. I'm off today (Wednesday) and tomorrow, and then it's the long weekend of days. Planning to go to the Strip District this morning to do some sophisticated grocery shopping :-)
Daniel is finishing up his semester, and the Grove City dynamic is changing as a lot of those folks I think are going to Dr. Duguid's church in GC now (which is cool - a great church). Ken is having amazing experience after amazing opportunity in Africa, and won't be home for Christmas (doing a private tour for some family related to the Rockefellers). Mom (when she's home) meets with lots of different ladies in the church, and continues to make marvelous, delicious and healthy food for the household. The new house plans are maybe kinda sorta on hold with all that's going on with Grandpa, and also all the projects that still need to be done/finished around this house.
I hang out with Mike Q a lot, especially on nights like this when I don't have anything the next day. It's cool to have a friend who isn't bound by regular job or school schedules. 'Course, he could use a job though :-)
I rear-ended somebody at a red light a few weeks ago (sun in my eyes), and it's been assessed, so I think tomorrow I'll be taking it in to get fixed. Still getting lousy mileage, so I'll probably have to take it to a mechanic and get it put on the diagnostic machine to see what's up. Drinkin' coffee/caffeine every working day. Still trying to gain back the weight I lost from the flu/stomach flu/food poisoning bout. Went ice skating Sunday, knees sore from that. Wanting to do the exercise bikes and get those knees into shape a bit. Listening to Christmas music, XM, and just whatever strikes my fancy. From sea shanties to Jet.
Right now it's 1:30am. I fell asleep in the basement watching TV, dragged myself up here around midnight, gathered up the garbage and took it now, got all wakey-wakey, wrote this, and now I'm going to set up and sleep out on the patio, since it's a freakishly warm 55 degrees out there.
If I think of any other bits of life these days, I'll jot 'em down here in the morning.
Light-up night
Bitter cold lately
Daisy's weight
YC09!
AEX football game?
Friday, November 14, 2008
A bit of an update
Tonight I made tomatillo salsa: oven-roasted tomatillos and jalapenos, sauteed garlic, onions and jalapenos, all blended together with some salt, pepper and lime juice. Fry up some eggs and refried beans, and you've got a plate of huevos rancheros - a Ken classic and one of my favorites. It was so good I just made another plate now! So that's 7 eggs, most of a can of refried beans, and about a cup of salsa. I'm always glad when I want to and am able to eat a bunch of hearty food like that.
The idea and ingredients for the salsa came from the Strip District, where Mom, Melanie and I went yesterday. Mel spent the day with us, which was cool. We had a great lunch at a swanky "Island cuisine" place at the strip, and for dinner we had wine, crazy cheeses, fruits and baguette. Really good stuff. Not the way I expected to spend my day off, but not a loss by any means.
I've got a story for you: Back in the day we had this tape labeled "Songs and Sounds of the Sea," and we boys would listen to it and drink in the hearty vocals and tight harmonies, all exuding the mystique of the old whaling sailing days. I tried to find a copy of that album about a month ago, but my google search showed that it was a National Geographic Society record made in the 70's, and never re-released. After a couple emails I contacted a "John Roberts" from a seafaring music website, and he said he had a CD copy of the record that he'd made. A week later, I got a package in the mail, and there it was! Turns out John Roberts is one of the artists on the album, too! So I've been eating it up, and it has fueled my taste for genuine, folk-type music. If anybody's interested, I'd be happy to hook you up with a copy of the CD. As far as I'm concerned, it is fanTAStic music and well worth investing in. There's a spark in that album that just.. ah man. I dunno :-)
Today I had some swelling poking down from the top of my mouth, back by my throat. ARG. The classic beginning sign of a cold. Dude, I've just spent the last MONTH being sick. M O N T H. First regular flu killed about 2 weeks. Then I was over it and up to Akron for a weekend, but my stomach started giving me problems, and I got dizzy a few times, and slept a bunch, and when I got home Monday I had full-blown stomach flu for 2 days. Then Thursday, when I was all better, I tried eating normally, and had a reaction to something that caused my gut to empty itself over the course of a couple hours. Like, empty. Not a good time. So I took it even slower with foods after that, and at last the next Tuesday I was back to normal. Then, a couple hours after lunch at work, the exact same rumblings started down in my gut. In a second my mind made the connection: My vitamins! I take a multivitamin, glucosamine for my crappy joints, and "chorella," which is like a concentrated green vegetable supplement. I think it's the chorella that racked me out. Anyway, I cried to God in desperation and dismay, and by His mercy (and a lot of concentrating and laying motionless in the hot end locker room), I made it out with just one puke. No more vitamins for now! :-/
So yeah - I really don't want to be sick again. We'll see. I slept a lot today. Ugh. Another day off basically wasted -- waiting for the time to pass.. drifting semi-aimlessly, sleeping if I feel tired, potsing about on the exercise bike, grabbing a guitar for a few minutes, changing the membrane on our water filter system, watching TV for a couple hours... a day almost utterly wasted. This is killing me at this moment: it's like I have no vision, but really I have no drive. No drive to buckle down and read a bunch of the Bible, or do a study, or try to fix my recording interface again, or get my butt outside and rake the leaves, or SOMETHING! People who accomplish stuff don't waste time, and I'm sitting here at the end of one of many days that I have basically wasted.
I don't think things will stay this way indefinitely, but it still kills me. It kills me not so much that I wasted the day, but that I'm not the kind of person who uses their time with purpose and drive and diligence. You don't accomplish things like writing books or recording albums or gaining experiences or moving upward in any area or profession if you don't live that way.
We'll see what God has for me to do. For now, I've gotta get up at 4:30am tomorrow and go to work.
The idea and ingredients for the salsa came from the Strip District, where Mom, Melanie and I went yesterday. Mel spent the day with us, which was cool. We had a great lunch at a swanky "Island cuisine" place at the strip, and for dinner we had wine, crazy cheeses, fruits and baguette. Really good stuff. Not the way I expected to spend my day off, but not a loss by any means.
I've got a story for you: Back in the day we had this tape labeled "Songs and Sounds of the Sea," and we boys would listen to it and drink in the hearty vocals and tight harmonies, all exuding the mystique of the old whaling sailing days. I tried to find a copy of that album about a month ago, but my google search showed that it was a National Geographic Society record made in the 70's, and never re-released. After a couple emails I contacted a "John Roberts" from a seafaring music website, and he said he had a CD copy of the record that he'd made. A week later, I got a package in the mail, and there it was! Turns out John Roberts is one of the artists on the album, too! So I've been eating it up, and it has fueled my taste for genuine, folk-type music. If anybody's interested, I'd be happy to hook you up with a copy of the CD. As far as I'm concerned, it is fanTAStic music and well worth investing in. There's a spark in that album that just.. ah man. I dunno :-)
Today I had some swelling poking down from the top of my mouth, back by my throat. ARG. The classic beginning sign of a cold. Dude, I've just spent the last MONTH being sick. M O N T H. First regular flu killed about 2 weeks. Then I was over it and up to Akron for a weekend, but my stomach started giving me problems, and I got dizzy a few times, and slept a bunch, and when I got home Monday I had full-blown stomach flu for 2 days. Then Thursday, when I was all better, I tried eating normally, and had a reaction to something that caused my gut to empty itself over the course of a couple hours. Like, empty. Not a good time. So I took it even slower with foods after that, and at last the next Tuesday I was back to normal. Then, a couple hours after lunch at work, the exact same rumblings started down in my gut. In a second my mind made the connection: My vitamins! I take a multivitamin, glucosamine for my crappy joints, and "chorella," which is like a concentrated green vegetable supplement. I think it's the chorella that racked me out. Anyway, I cried to God in desperation and dismay, and by His mercy (and a lot of concentrating and laying motionless in the hot end locker room), I made it out with just one puke. No more vitamins for now! :-/
So yeah - I really don't want to be sick again. We'll see. I slept a lot today. Ugh. Another day off basically wasted -- waiting for the time to pass.. drifting semi-aimlessly, sleeping if I feel tired, potsing about on the exercise bike, grabbing a guitar for a few minutes, changing the membrane on our water filter system, watching TV for a couple hours... a day almost utterly wasted. This is killing me at this moment: it's like I have no vision, but really I have no drive. No drive to buckle down and read a bunch of the Bible, or do a study, or try to fix my recording interface again, or get my butt outside and rake the leaves, or SOMETHING! People who accomplish stuff don't waste time, and I'm sitting here at the end of one of many days that I have basically wasted.
I don't think things will stay this way indefinitely, but it still kills me. It kills me not so much that I wasted the day, but that I'm not the kind of person who uses their time with purpose and drive and diligence. You don't accomplish things like writing books or recording albums or gaining experiences or moving upward in any area or profession if you don't live that way.
We'll see what God has for me to do. For now, I've gotta get up at 4:30am tomorrow and go to work.
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Life in America
Blech. If I was reading this blog, I probably wouldn't read this post. But when I clicked on a yahoo news link by accident, I found an article which demonstrates my thoughts so well that I can't pass up the opportunity to succinctly state them. [And I did put a LOT of effort into writing this post well.]
It would be best to read this yourself first. But if you hate clicking links of any sort as I do, I'll sum it up:
"Microwave ovens pose a serious safety hazard to young children, a new study of scald burn injuries demonstrates."
"Hot foods or liquids from microwave ovens were the fourth leading cause of scald injuries in children under 5 years old, a review of records from the University of Chicago Burn Center shows."
Studied 140 cases. Now they're calling manufacturers to make a way to prevent little kids from opening microwaves.
My thought is that America is chasing a million improvements like this, and I feel like they all end up with the same fundamental action point: a new requirement for everyone to prevent harm to a few. Bluntly, we're trying to make life dummy-proof and risk-proof.
Many of these improvements, like alcohol thermometers instead of mercury ones, and forklifts that won't move until someone is sitting in the driver's seat, make a lot of sense, and it's a blessing that we have been able to address the accidents that brought about their development. Almost all of these improvements, like getting manufacturers to make microwaves that infants can't open, are valid and right in and of themselves.
But your average joe can't work on his own car anymore because of all the emissions and efficiency and safety systems, and how many cars have been classified as totaled because the airbags went off in a fender bender and it's too expensive to replace them? How many manufacturing jobs are no longer in America due in part to the cost of meeting the extensive and voluminous requirements for environmental and occupational safety? What is the effect on our sense of personal responsibility when "Caution, the beverage you are about to enjoy may be hot" is on every coffee cup lid? What I see from a zoomed-out perspective is a burgeoning structure of abridging the freedom and taxing the resources of the majority to prevent harm to a few. To prevent risk.
I am in an impossible situation here: these improvements, these requirements, do worthy things. It would be evil to stop putting airbags in cars just so they're easier to fix. What?? I would have workers die in accidents so companies can save some money on their Responsible Care departments? What if it was MY kid that got scalded? But along with all the good they do, there is a sum effect of these advances--the good ones, the nit-picky ones, the life-saving ones, the far-fetched ones, all of them--that is to me wearisome, sad, and damaging at a deep and subtle level.
So which would you rather have? More freedom and a healthier nation (in ways you probably don't even realize)?
Or the two (or twenty) friends that would have died by now 100 years ago?
I am content to be where and when I am. But I thought I would express this view I have--this conundrum that vexes me--since it is a frequent presence in my thoughts, and undergirds my view of everything around me.
Personally [and that's an important qualifier], I wouldn't mind trading #2 for #1. Bring on the risk and pain: let's LIVE!
--JPB
It would be best to read this yourself first. But if you hate clicking links of any sort as I do, I'll sum it up:
"Microwave ovens pose a serious safety hazard to young children, a new study of scald burn injuries demonstrates."
"Hot foods or liquids from microwave ovens were the fourth leading cause of scald injuries in children under 5 years old, a review of records from the University of Chicago Burn Center shows."
Studied 140 cases. Now they're calling manufacturers to make a way to prevent little kids from opening microwaves.
My thought is that America is chasing a million improvements like this, and I feel like they all end up with the same fundamental action point: a new requirement for everyone to prevent harm to a few. Bluntly, we're trying to make life dummy-proof and risk-proof.
Many of these improvements, like alcohol thermometers instead of mercury ones, and forklifts that won't move until someone is sitting in the driver's seat, make a lot of sense, and it's a blessing that we have been able to address the accidents that brought about their development. Almost all of these improvements, like getting manufacturers to make microwaves that infants can't open, are valid and right in and of themselves.
But your average joe can't work on his own car anymore because of all the emissions and efficiency and safety systems, and how many cars have been classified as totaled because the airbags went off in a fender bender and it's too expensive to replace them? How many manufacturing jobs are no longer in America due in part to the cost of meeting the extensive and voluminous requirements for environmental and occupational safety? What is the effect on our sense of personal responsibility when "Caution, the beverage you are about to enjoy may be hot" is on every coffee cup lid? What I see from a zoomed-out perspective is a burgeoning structure of abridging the freedom and taxing the resources of the majority to prevent harm to a few. To prevent risk.
I am in an impossible situation here: these improvements, these requirements, do worthy things. It would be evil to stop putting airbags in cars just so they're easier to fix. What?? I would have workers die in accidents so companies can save some money on their Responsible Care departments? What if it was MY kid that got scalded? But along with all the good they do, there is a sum effect of these advances--the good ones, the nit-picky ones, the life-saving ones, the far-fetched ones, all of them--that is to me wearisome, sad, and damaging at a deep and subtle level.
So which would you rather have? More freedom and a healthier nation (in ways you probably don't even realize)?
Or the two (or twenty) friends that would have died by now 100 years ago?
I am content to be where and when I am. But I thought I would express this view I have--this conundrum that vexes me--since it is a frequent presence in my thoughts, and undergirds my view of everything around me.
Personally [and that's an important qualifier], I wouldn't mind trading #2 for #1. Bring on the risk and pain: let's LIVE!
--JPB
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Real Life
Ever since everybody went back to college, I've been spending the dedicated portions of my free time doing "real life" stuff, which has become the distinguishing mark of this period of time. I was originally planning on buckling down with music stuff after the summer and putting an album out there for people to listen to, but Dad had some home projects, and it was absolutely the right thing to do to help.
Coming out of summer, after my long and glorious tour of Akron, Cleveland and Grove City, Dad started tearing apart the upstairs bathroom to replace the floor tiles, and I replaced the kitchen sink. Once the new floor was in, I took up the job of painting the bathroom walls. Which got extended to include the ceiling, and lengthened by the difficulty of fully covering the original light blue color (not so "light" after all). In the midst of this, Dad was socked with buying a new van after ours got totalled by somebody tearing up the hill and smashing into it. He was also dealing with insurance people to look at the damage to our property: torn up driveway, demolished mailbox, and two mashed up tree trunks. He and Mom went down to West Virginia overnight to pick up our new minivan (White Dodge Grand Caravan, sunroof, 3.8 V6, leather seats, DVD player... pretty nice!), and despite taking an entire week off of work, he barely touched the house plans, which was his original goal for that week.
Now I'm starting on the trim for the bathroom (which looks nice, btw), the pressure's on for finishing the house drawings, and the water filter for the kitchen sink is messed up. Oh, and the sunroof on the new van is busted too. And for me, the software for my recording interfaces is shot to hell, and after a night of intense misery, I have nothing but an indeterminite period of difficulty awaiting me when I try again to fix it.
Although at this moment we're all feeling pressed down by all this stuff that keeps breaking, in general this has been a good time for me of doing real things. Something just clicked when Dad started laying out all these projects, and my mindset has been that this is what I'll do, and I'll get things done. It's satisfying to get experience and learn how to do house stuff, but above everything else, it is very gratifying to be able to help Dad in a way that's meaningful to him. To take these things off his back so he doesn't have to worry about them is a valuable contribution, and it makes me happy that I'm able to do that. It's something a 24-year-old son living at home ought to do for his father. So I'll do everything I can, and I'll come out a little more prepared for taking care of my own home, and Dad will come out with more things fixed than he would have been able to do himself.
Tomorrow I head to Lowes to scope out options for the bathroom trim. Hopefully they have good wood in stock.
Hm... there's a Chick-Fil-A at the Waterfront too... :-)
--JPB
Coming out of summer, after my long and glorious tour of Akron, Cleveland and Grove City, Dad started tearing apart the upstairs bathroom to replace the floor tiles, and I replaced the kitchen sink. Once the new floor was in, I took up the job of painting the bathroom walls. Which got extended to include the ceiling, and lengthened by the difficulty of fully covering the original light blue color (not so "light" after all). In the midst of this, Dad was socked with buying a new van after ours got totalled by somebody tearing up the hill and smashing into it. He was also dealing with insurance people to look at the damage to our property: torn up driveway, demolished mailbox, and two mashed up tree trunks. He and Mom went down to West Virginia overnight to pick up our new minivan (White Dodge Grand Caravan, sunroof, 3.8 V6, leather seats, DVD player... pretty nice!), and despite taking an entire week off of work, he barely touched the house plans, which was his original goal for that week.
Now I'm starting on the trim for the bathroom (which looks nice, btw), the pressure's on for finishing the house drawings, and the water filter for the kitchen sink is messed up. Oh, and the sunroof on the new van is busted too. And for me, the software for my recording interfaces is shot to hell, and after a night of intense misery, I have nothing but an indeterminite period of difficulty awaiting me when I try again to fix it.
Although at this moment we're all feeling pressed down by all this stuff that keeps breaking, in general this has been a good time for me of doing real things. Something just clicked when Dad started laying out all these projects, and my mindset has been that this is what I'll do, and I'll get things done. It's satisfying to get experience and learn how to do house stuff, but above everything else, it is very gratifying to be able to help Dad in a way that's meaningful to him. To take these things off his back so he doesn't have to worry about them is a valuable contribution, and it makes me happy that I'm able to do that. It's something a 24-year-old son living at home ought to do for his father. So I'll do everything I can, and I'll come out a little more prepared for taking care of my own home, and Dad will come out with more things fixed than he would have been able to do himself.
Tomorrow I head to Lowes to scope out options for the bathroom trim. Hopefully they have good wood in stock.
Hm... there's a Chick-Fil-A at the Waterfront too... :-)
--JPB
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
New York City!
Two years ago, Nate, Katie, Sarah and I spent 4 days in Chicago, doing a lot of walking, and getting to know that majestic city. Since then we've been talking about going to New York, and last weekend--pretty much at the last minute--, that talk became reality. Katie and Rebekah pulled into Nate and Sarah's driveway at 4:45am Friday, we piled our bags into the white minivan, and the five of us headed off into the thin morning light. Off to New York City!
The trip really didn't come together for sure until a couple days earlier, when we worked out our housing arrangements and I got Monday off of work (I'm back on shifts, which respect neither holiday nor weekend). Rebekah had been vascillating, but Mr. Calano said she oughta go, and so we were five. That strengthened the "Calano Girl" contingent, which changed the dynamics of the trip from how Chicago had been. And as far as differences go, having a car and driving gave a different feel to our being in the city, and our accomodations were very different on this trip.
Our time in New York was actually shaped a lot by our housing arrangement. Nate and I stayed at the house of a family from the Sovereign Grace church in Brooklyn, and the girls stayed with their Aunt Janet at her apartment, only 10 blocks away. The logistics of getting to and from Manhattan shaped each day prominently, and gave our time in the city less of an "abiding" feel. That was fine, though, 'cause not having to pay for a hotel was a remarkable blessing, and we got to know the city in a different way. Instead of only seeing the impersonal megapolis of Manhattan's soaring buildings, we walked the streets and spent time in the comfortable brownstone houses and thick brick apartments that coat Brooklyn's earth so densely with humanity. In fact, some of the best memories that stick out in my mind are from there.
Friday we walked around Times Square and the surrounding area after arriving and finally finding parking at about 1pm. Saturday we bustled our way through Chinatown and Little Italy in the morning and early afternoon, finishing off with a little Frisbee in Central Park. The later afternoon and evening were then taken up with getting back to our separate residences in Brooklyn, freshening up, getting back together, and driving to some of the Calanos' relatives in the area. We went to Aunt Jo's apartment first for a brief call, and then hurried post-haste to Aunt Rosemary's, where a large contingent of semi-distant, highly-Italian Calano relatives were gathered, eager to see Tommy's girls and Sarah's new husband. I had heard about their Uncle Rocky, food food food, kissing on the cheek when greeting, and other aspects of the side of the family that Mr. Calano came from, and I was quite curious to see if they were exaggerated, or what.
Well, they were all true. And I had a blast! The little Brooklyn house was packed with folks, and they were all friendly, and I got to have several nice conversations and a lot of great food. The New York City urban life is quite different from my experience, and nothing could have shown me it as well as that evening.
The other "induplicable" touch of real NYC life was the apartment where the girls stayed. Their aunt Janet is a lawyer in Manhattan, and her apartment is the entire 15th floor of a building. Nate and I got to stay there Sunday night since Janet was out and we had the place to ourselves. It was a really nice place, and every window greeted you with an airy view of the city. Sunday night I spent an hour just sitting in the window well of the pool table room, soaking in the sea of lights stretching out from my perch, and listening to the breathing of the metropolis. Something about cities gets to me really deep, and that night and that apartment let me take it in like nothing else could have.
Nate and I got to see a more yuppie aspect of NYC life via the Roses, the family who very kindly hosted us Friday and Saturday nights. They were a young family with two young kids, in a small but comfortable Brooklyn apartment. Rick worked right off of Times Square, and they hadn't owned a car since moving to the city. The Sovereign Grace church (City Church) is within walking distance of their house, and so are most of its members. Rick helps on the sound team Sunday mornings, so I came early with him and helped set it up and run it for the service.
It wasn't a *New York* experience per se (other than the 3-race diversity of the 4-person worship team), but it was one of my highlights from the trip. Like I said when I ran sound for Chad and Abbey's grad party a few months ago, I am rarely happier than when I'm behind the wheel of a sound system. Ooh ooh - and the bagels! Rick had mentioned the bagels they have every morning before the service, and asked if we'd had New York bagels yet. His hearty recommendation had me kind of excited, and my hopes were not disappointed when I finally had a chance go go back and grab one before the service started. Lest you think "New York bagels" is just a platitude, let me assure you: they were de-SHILL-ous! The fundamental texture and basic flavor way outclassed even the asiago cheese or cinnamon sugar of a dense, lifeless Panera bagel.
[Don't get me wrong: I still highly enjoy Panera. I'm not complaining, and I'm not ungrateful for what we have here, and neither should you be. Being made to enjoy less something over which you have no control is poison. I am solely commenting on the specialness of the New York trip.]
So yeah - Sunday morning was cool, and touching the healthy, solid ground of a Sovereign Grace church was a great anchor point for the trip.
As far as what we saw in Manhattan during the days, it was mostly the classic New York sights that don't require a large block of time or money to see. We didn't go up any buildings, didn't go out to Ellis Island or the Stat of Lib, didn't see a Broadway show, and didn't go to any museums or music venues. We did spend time and money browsing & shopping in Chinatown and Little Italy (Littaly, as I like to call it), walking around Central Park and Times Square, riding the Metro, seeing Grand Central Station, and getting food from such places as Pellegrino's, a gyro stand, Jamba Juice (Katie's favorite!), and Famous Famiglia Pizzeria. We walked the Brooklyn Bridge (absolutely stunning. And mind-blowing when you think that they built it just a few years after the Civil War!), rode the Staten Island Ferry, and walked past dresses that were worth more than our combined monthly salaries on Madison Avenue. We didn't learn about the city in a museum or catch the big hits on a bus tour, but we saw its life in progress at eye-level:
Whellnow, on the way back Monday evening, we pulled off the turnpike at the Sideling Hill plaza as the light was fading from the Pennsylvania sky. As we pulled into our spot, I noticed the sign for the restaurants: Famiglia Pizzeria! So I got all gee-hawed up and ordered me a slice of pepperoni, happy to know that this place was really good, and I had a good dinner coming.
Bite.
Squish.
Glop.
Bleah.
The cheese was like slime, the sauce choked the pizza with tasteless tomato acid, and the whole piece sagged and slumped in my hand like a fine upstanding lad who'd had his backbone pulled out.
Here's the thing though: Yes, my dinner that night was a disappointment. But it crystallized in my mind that we had been somewhere special that night in Times Square. Oh, the turnpike one might have had the same picture of Famiglia guys tossing dough in the Macy's Day Parade hanging on its wall, but the food behind the counter was just a sad, mediocre placeholder flying under the same name. "Famous Famiglia" was started in the heart of New York City by the four Kolaj brothers, who arrived there with their mother in 1970 [ref]. Not only were we at probably one of the first locations they opened, but just a few miles away from where we sat, colossal ship yards were drawing in goods from all over the world, piping them through New York's labyrinthian conduits and out to the rest of the United States. Where could you find fresher Italian goods than right there? New York has the authenticity of true value: it's not just a tourist trap - it really is one of the shipping capitals of this hemisphere. It really was history's epicenter of immigration from everywhere across the ocean. And it really is the place to put something if you're only gonna make one of it.
We were at a special place during our trip, and from gazing at the sprawl from the window of the apartment to staring at the grafitti flashing by in the subway tunnels, from the shrimp scampi in Little Italy to the ferris wheel inside the Times Square Toys 'R' Us, from the ~noo ywok~ accent in the little Brooklyn apartment to the men playing guitar and hammered dulcimer and selling their CD in Central Park, New York City wasn't an imitation, it was the real thing. And I liked that!
Next on the list: Go there with Steve Hoffman. :-) :-)
The trip really didn't come together for sure until a couple days earlier, when we worked out our housing arrangements and I got Monday off of work (I'm back on shifts, which respect neither holiday nor weekend). Rebekah had been vascillating, but Mr. Calano said she oughta go, and so we were five. That strengthened the "Calano Girl" contingent, which changed the dynamics of the trip from how Chicago had been. And as far as differences go, having a car and driving gave a different feel to our being in the city, and our accomodations were very different on this trip.
Our time in New York was actually shaped a lot by our housing arrangement. Nate and I stayed at the house of a family from the Sovereign Grace church in Brooklyn, and the girls stayed with their Aunt Janet at her apartment, only 10 blocks away. The logistics of getting to and from Manhattan shaped each day prominently, and gave our time in the city less of an "abiding" feel. That was fine, though, 'cause not having to pay for a hotel was a remarkable blessing, and we got to know the city in a different way. Instead of only seeing the impersonal megapolis of Manhattan's soaring buildings, we walked the streets and spent time in the comfortable brownstone houses and thick brick apartments that coat Brooklyn's earth so densely with humanity. In fact, some of the best memories that stick out in my mind are from there.
Friday we walked around Times Square and the surrounding area after arriving and finally finding parking at about 1pm. Saturday we bustled our way through Chinatown and Little Italy in the morning and early afternoon, finishing off with a little Frisbee in Central Park. The later afternoon and evening were then taken up with getting back to our separate residences in Brooklyn, freshening up, getting back together, and driving to some of the Calanos' relatives in the area. We went to Aunt Jo's apartment first for a brief call, and then hurried post-haste to Aunt Rosemary's, where a large contingent of semi-distant, highly-Italian Calano relatives were gathered, eager to see Tommy's girls and Sarah's new husband. I had heard about their Uncle Rocky, food food food, kissing on the cheek when greeting, and other aspects of the side of the family that Mr. Calano came from, and I was quite curious to see if they were exaggerated, or what.
Well, they were all true. And I had a blast! The little Brooklyn house was packed with folks, and they were all friendly, and I got to have several nice conversations and a lot of great food. The New York City urban life is quite different from my experience, and nothing could have shown me it as well as that evening.
The other "induplicable" touch of real NYC life was the apartment where the girls stayed. Their aunt Janet is a lawyer in Manhattan, and her apartment is the entire 15th floor of a building. Nate and I got to stay there Sunday night since Janet was out and we had the place to ourselves. It was a really nice place, and every window greeted you with an airy view of the city. Sunday night I spent an hour just sitting in the window well of the pool table room, soaking in the sea of lights stretching out from my perch, and listening to the breathing of the metropolis. Something about cities gets to me really deep, and that night and that apartment let me take it in like nothing else could have.
Nate and I got to see a more yuppie aspect of NYC life via the Roses, the family who very kindly hosted us Friday and Saturday nights. They were a young family with two young kids, in a small but comfortable Brooklyn apartment. Rick worked right off of Times Square, and they hadn't owned a car since moving to the city. The Sovereign Grace church (City Church) is within walking distance of their house, and so are most of its members. Rick helps on the sound team Sunday mornings, so I came early with him and helped set it up and run it for the service.
It wasn't a *New York* experience per se (other than the 3-race diversity of the 4-person worship team), but it was one of my highlights from the trip. Like I said when I ran sound for Chad and Abbey's grad party a few months ago, I am rarely happier than when I'm behind the wheel of a sound system. Ooh ooh - and the bagels! Rick had mentioned the bagels they have every morning before the service, and asked if we'd had New York bagels yet. His hearty recommendation had me kind of excited, and my hopes were not disappointed when I finally had a chance go go back and grab one before the service started. Lest you think "New York bagels" is just a platitude, let me assure you: they were de-SHILL-ous! The fundamental texture and basic flavor way outclassed even the asiago cheese or cinnamon sugar of a dense, lifeless Panera bagel.
[Don't get me wrong: I still highly enjoy Panera. I'm not complaining, and I'm not ungrateful for what we have here, and neither should you be. Being made to enjoy less something over which you have no control is poison. I am solely commenting on the specialness of the New York trip.]
So yeah - Sunday morning was cool, and touching the healthy, solid ground of a Sovereign Grace church was a great anchor point for the trip.
As far as what we saw in Manhattan during the days, it was mostly the classic New York sights that don't require a large block of time or money to see. We didn't go up any buildings, didn't go out to Ellis Island or the Stat of Lib, didn't see a Broadway show, and didn't go to any museums or music venues. We did spend time and money browsing & shopping in Chinatown and Little Italy (Littaly, as I like to call it), walking around Central Park and Times Square, riding the Metro, seeing Grand Central Station, and getting food from such places as Pellegrino's, a gyro stand, Jamba Juice (Katie's favorite!), and Famous Famiglia Pizzeria. We walked the Brooklyn Bridge (absolutely stunning. And mind-blowing when you think that they built it just a few years after the Civil War!), rode the Staten Island Ferry, and walked past dresses that were worth more than our combined monthly salaries on Madison Avenue. We didn't learn about the city in a museum or catch the big hits on a bus tour, but we saw its life in progress at eye-level:
- Two, no three, no four generator trucks humming at the curb with rivers of power cables snaking off to a giant tent dominating a block-sized park. "Pardon the inconvenience as we continue to make New York a fashion capital of the world" read the signs. Thanksgiving day fashion show, I believe.
- Peeking over the fence into a roadwork zone, where bundles of pipes and conduits took up about as much volume as actual dirt below the pavement.
- Orange and green caught my eye in the random block where this sushi place was supposed to be. A shorter building was tucked inbetween 500-foot giants, and the entire top area was done up in striking orange, green and white. "Permanent Indian Consulate to the United States" was engraved on a plaque in the 20-foot bronze doors that loomed above me like a mysterious gate from a Kipling story.
- Dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of people strewn over the sunny grass in Central Park, and walkers, runners and bikers pouring along the path as we sat on a bench and ate our toasted bagels and Jamba Juice smoothies for breakfast.
Whellnow, on the way back Monday evening, we pulled off the turnpike at the Sideling Hill plaza as the light was fading from the Pennsylvania sky. As we pulled into our spot, I noticed the sign for the restaurants: Famiglia Pizzeria! So I got all gee-hawed up and ordered me a slice of pepperoni, happy to know that this place was really good, and I had a good dinner coming.
Bite.
Squish.
Glop.
Bleah.
The cheese was like slime, the sauce choked the pizza with tasteless tomato acid, and the whole piece sagged and slumped in my hand like a fine upstanding lad who'd had his backbone pulled out.
Here's the thing though: Yes, my dinner that night was a disappointment. But it crystallized in my mind that we had been somewhere special that night in Times Square. Oh, the turnpike one might have had the same picture of Famiglia guys tossing dough in the Macy's Day Parade hanging on its wall, but the food behind the counter was just a sad, mediocre placeholder flying under the same name. "Famous Famiglia" was started in the heart of New York City by the four Kolaj brothers, who arrived there with their mother in 1970 [ref]. Not only were we at probably one of the first locations they opened, but just a few miles away from where we sat, colossal ship yards were drawing in goods from all over the world, piping them through New York's labyrinthian conduits and out to the rest of the United States. Where could you find fresher Italian goods than right there? New York has the authenticity of true value: it's not just a tourist trap - it really is one of the shipping capitals of this hemisphere. It really was history's epicenter of immigration from everywhere across the ocean. And it really is the place to put something if you're only gonna make one of it.
We were at a special place during our trip, and from gazing at the sprawl from the window of the apartment to staring at the grafitti flashing by in the subway tunnels, from the shrimp scampi in Little Italy to the ferris wheel inside the Times Square Toys 'R' Us, from the ~noo ywok~ accent in the little Brooklyn apartment to the men playing guitar and hammered dulcimer and selling their CD in Central Park, New York City wasn't an imitation, it was the real thing. And I liked that!
Next on the list: Go there with Steve Hoffman. :-) :-)
Thursday, August 28, 2008
One Crazy Long Weekend
I tried to savor it as much as possible -- driving around in the afternoon sunshine of a Monday.. waking up at 10am on Tuesday... 5 straight days without work!
Here's the backstory: After 2 weeks on the 12-8 schedule, I was informed Friday morning that I was being put on D crew as the fill-in hot end supervisor, until a bona fide replacement can be found. 12-hour shifts on a rotating schedule, starting out on days (6am - 6pm) on Wednesday. Aha! An extra 2 days off, courtesy of my boss. AND, with the way the schedule works, I work Wednesday and Thursday, and don't have to come back till Monday night (6pm - 6am)! Except I'm taking Monday off to go to New York City!
So yeah - lotsa days off in a short space of time. Something to savor indeed.
And before the NYC trip hits, I want to jot down what I did with all those days.
Friday I slept till about 4pm, packed up and hung out with Daniel as he packed up for Grove City, and reluctantly left at 5:37pm -- 37 minutes after I planned to leave, and 97 minutes after I should have left to get to frisbee on time. Yep: a frisbee game in Akron - the kickoff to a long-overdue Ohio weekend. Even though I didn't arrive till almost 8, I still caught a lot of great frisbee action, as the sunset painted the sky light orange and the breeze was warm over the drying August grass. We hit Zack's (excellent frozen yogurt) after it was too dark to play any more and we were tired of playing while it was too dark to play any more. Then the night changed from the plan. Chad and I went to a good-bye party for Dave Davis at the Chimas, and I ended up hanging out there with Brian and Nick, Steve, Jes Arlia, Joel Putnam and some others until around 3am. Everyone would say we had a good time, but I wonder about the usefulness of a bunch of immature people lounging around talking about nothing and making each other laugh. We did go to Taco Bell, though, and that was definitely time well spent :-)
Slept till noon Saturday up in Craig and Chad's room, and wiled away the afternoon hanging out with Collin and going on a couple errands with him and Craig. Not real purposeful, but I wouldn't call it a waste. Since Steve-O had slept in from the night before, he was working late, and then going to a movie, so I shrugged my shoulders and accepted the Tuminos' invitation to come along to a birthday/anniversary gathering with their relatives. Ended up being a sweet time at a really nice house, eating some good food (yes, including corn), talking to some new and very pleasant folks, climbing saplings, and jumping a badminton net (which amazed everyone there). Craig, Chad and I left early, listened to some of my recordings on the way home, and ended up watching "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly" for the evening. Great movie! Aa-ee-aa-ee-aaahhh....
Thus endeth the chronicles of the Tumino house era of my trip. Beginneth "Smorgasbord Sunday." Woke up at the Tuminos, went to church (sans breakfast), enjoyed the Chad-led worship service and Randy Stewart-preached sermon, chatted about, double-entreed at Chipotle with Steve-O, picked up some shingles, and sat in the parking lot watching a TV show on Steve's iPod while waiting for the rain to clear up so we could finish this roof he was working on. OK, so, the rain's not clearing up. Off we go to the (old) Roberts Care Group farewell picnic, where I have a couple good conversations, grab a burger, and head off down the road following Cory Thompson's Jeep Cherokee towards Cleveland. Cutting out the details, I end up standing on the floor of the House of Blues with Craig, Cory, Steve-O and Charlie (my buddy from Pitt), waiting for Styx to hit the stage. And they hit it! And boy howdey did they hit it good :-) A dazzling and entertaining display of proficiency and experience. Maybe a little too up close and personal for a band of that style and age, but everyone basically said it was the best concert they'd ever been to. The night ended flopped upon the couch in the Hoffman's den at 2am with Brandy curled up at my feet and Steve-O getting out his schedule to discover what classes he had tomorrow and when he should get up. Ah yes.
Thus endeth the Akronian segment of my saga. Now beginneth the brief, second, Cleveland excursion. I got up as soon as I could drag myself out of bed (about 9) and drove to Charlie's place to hang out for the morning. We took a long walking tour of Case Western and got lunch at this sweet place called Tommy's (which ironically is right by the Grog Shop, where I saw State Fair play with Golinski and Shannon).
Now we enter the Grove City portion of my wanderings. However, we don't enter it easily, since my cell phone absolutely refuses to get charged, and by this point is completely dead. I called Daniel from Charlie's phone right before I left, and left a voicemail to the effect of "Hey, I'm coming... um, I don't know where your room is, or what your class schedule is.. and I don't have any way to call you again, and you don't have any way to call me... but here I come!" So we set sail to GC with a broken telegraph and no wood to make a fire for smoke signals. Fortunately the celly takes enough charge to get a text with his room location. Unfortunately, the driver is dumb and goes on the wrong highway. Fortunately, there's a Rita's where he cuts through to get back on track, and cotton candy ice is deLISHious. Daniel is asleep peacefully on the couch when we arrive.
It was interesting being at Grove City on the first day of classes, but not being a student. Lots of people greeting friends they hadn't seen in awhile, and lots of bustley class stuff. We ate dinner in the cafeteria with a few guys from AEX, and went to the hall afterwards and chilled for awhile. It's fun seeing the fun and funny things that transpire in a dorm hall, and get little pictures of people as they stop in the room for a minute. Eventually we got our butts up off the couch and went to Wal-Mart with Jess. Pretty much the classic thing to do when visiting a GCC student :-)
The rest of the night was spent in Daniel's room, with a morphing group of people occupying the room as time went by. Eventually Daniel, Tim and myself were left, talkin' about good stuff and relaxing in the light of the white mesh Christmas lights. Then people started getting back from the freshman square dance, somebody was talking in a hillbilly accent, three people returned pieces of western garb borrowed from Daniel, and EVERETT finally came in! I had been waiting to meet Daniel's roommate, and I was unprepared for how sweet he is. He seems pretty easy-going and considerate, and he's got a good streak of random humor, which will serve him well in his Daniel-roommate capacity. Definitely a good guy.
Sleep that night, wakeupfulness the next morning, lunch at Taco Bell, and off down the sun-baked highway home. I'm SO glad I got to see Daniel's setup, see some of the faces around him, and get a little feel for where he's at. His room's quite nice, with a couch and two big chairs and carpet, and there seem to be a lot of solid guys in his hall. I'm sure he'll be going over to the AEX hall a lot, and I'm looking forward to seeing Skipper and Shane and other quality dudes from there as I drop by over the semester.
Thus endeth the saga. Thanks for reading! I'm sure my next post will be even harder to keep from being too long. New York, here we come!
Here's the backstory: After 2 weeks on the 12-8 schedule, I was informed Friday morning that I was being put on D crew as the fill-in hot end supervisor, until a bona fide replacement can be found. 12-hour shifts on a rotating schedule, starting out on days (6am - 6pm) on Wednesday. Aha! An extra 2 days off, courtesy of my boss. AND, with the way the schedule works, I work Wednesday and Thursday, and don't have to come back till Monday night (6pm - 6am)! Except I'm taking Monday off to go to New York City!
So yeah - lotsa days off in a short space of time. Something to savor indeed.
And before the NYC trip hits, I want to jot down what I did with all those days.
Friday I slept till about 4pm, packed up and hung out with Daniel as he packed up for Grove City, and reluctantly left at 5:37pm -- 37 minutes after I planned to leave, and 97 minutes after I should have left to get to frisbee on time. Yep: a frisbee game in Akron - the kickoff to a long-overdue Ohio weekend. Even though I didn't arrive till almost 8, I still caught a lot of great frisbee action, as the sunset painted the sky light orange and the breeze was warm over the drying August grass. We hit Zack's (excellent frozen yogurt) after it was too dark to play any more and we were tired of playing while it was too dark to play any more. Then the night changed from the plan. Chad and I went to a good-bye party for Dave Davis at the Chimas, and I ended up hanging out there with Brian and Nick, Steve, Jes Arlia, Joel Putnam and some others until around 3am. Everyone would say we had a good time, but I wonder about the usefulness of a bunch of immature people lounging around talking about nothing and making each other laugh. We did go to Taco Bell, though, and that was definitely time well spent :-)
Slept till noon Saturday up in Craig and Chad's room, and wiled away the afternoon hanging out with Collin and going on a couple errands with him and Craig. Not real purposeful, but I wouldn't call it a waste. Since Steve-O had slept in from the night before, he was working late, and then going to a movie, so I shrugged my shoulders and accepted the Tuminos' invitation to come along to a birthday/anniversary gathering with their relatives. Ended up being a sweet time at a really nice house, eating some good food (yes, including corn), talking to some new and very pleasant folks, climbing saplings, and jumping a badminton net (which amazed everyone there). Craig, Chad and I left early, listened to some of my recordings on the way home, and ended up watching "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly" for the evening. Great movie! Aa-ee-aa-ee-aaahhh....
Thus endeth the chronicles of the Tumino house era of my trip. Beginneth "Smorgasbord Sunday." Woke up at the Tuminos, went to church (sans breakfast), enjoyed the Chad-led worship service and Randy Stewart-preached sermon, chatted about, double-entreed at Chipotle with Steve-O, picked up some shingles, and sat in the parking lot watching a TV show on Steve's iPod while waiting for the rain to clear up so we could finish this roof he was working on. OK, so, the rain's not clearing up. Off we go to the (old) Roberts Care Group farewell picnic, where I have a couple good conversations, grab a burger, and head off down the road following Cory Thompson's Jeep Cherokee towards Cleveland. Cutting out the details, I end up standing on the floor of the House of Blues with Craig, Cory, Steve-O and Charlie (my buddy from Pitt), waiting for Styx to hit the stage. And they hit it! And boy howdey did they hit it good :-) A dazzling and entertaining display of proficiency and experience. Maybe a little too up close and personal for a band of that style and age, but everyone basically said it was the best concert they'd ever been to. The night ended flopped upon the couch in the Hoffman's den at 2am with Brandy curled up at my feet and Steve-O getting out his schedule to discover what classes he had tomorrow and when he should get up. Ah yes.
Thus endeth the Akronian segment of my saga. Now beginneth the brief, second, Cleveland excursion. I got up as soon as I could drag myself out of bed (about 9) and drove to Charlie's place to hang out for the morning. We took a long walking tour of Case Western and got lunch at this sweet place called Tommy's (which ironically is right by the Grog Shop, where I saw State Fair play with Golinski and Shannon).
Now we enter the Grove City portion of my wanderings. However, we don't enter it easily, since my cell phone absolutely refuses to get charged, and by this point is completely dead. I called Daniel from Charlie's phone right before I left, and left a voicemail to the effect of "Hey, I'm coming... um, I don't know where your room is, or what your class schedule is.. and I don't have any way to call you again, and you don't have any way to call me... but here I come!" So we set sail to GC with a broken telegraph and no wood to make a fire for smoke signals. Fortunately the celly takes enough charge to get a text with his room location. Unfortunately, the driver is dumb and goes on the wrong highway. Fortunately, there's a Rita's where he cuts through to get back on track, and cotton candy ice is deLISHious. Daniel is asleep peacefully on the couch when we arrive.
It was interesting being at Grove City on the first day of classes, but not being a student. Lots of people greeting friends they hadn't seen in awhile, and lots of bustley class stuff. We ate dinner in the cafeteria with a few guys from AEX, and went to the hall afterwards and chilled for awhile. It's fun seeing the fun and funny things that transpire in a dorm hall, and get little pictures of people as they stop in the room for a minute. Eventually we got our butts up off the couch and went to Wal-Mart with Jess. Pretty much the classic thing to do when visiting a GCC student :-)
The rest of the night was spent in Daniel's room, with a morphing group of people occupying the room as time went by. Eventually Daniel, Tim and myself were left, talkin' about good stuff and relaxing in the light of the white mesh Christmas lights. Then people started getting back from the freshman square dance, somebody was talking in a hillbilly accent, three people returned pieces of western garb borrowed from Daniel, and EVERETT finally came in! I had been waiting to meet Daniel's roommate, and I was unprepared for how sweet he is. He seems pretty easy-going and considerate, and he's got a good streak of random humor, which will serve him well in his Daniel-roommate capacity. Definitely a good guy.
Sleep that night, wakeupfulness the next morning, lunch at Taco Bell, and off down the sun-baked highway home. I'm SO glad I got to see Daniel's setup, see some of the faces around him, and get a little feel for where he's at. His room's quite nice, with a couch and two big chairs and carpet, and there seem to be a lot of solid guys in his hall. I'm sure he'll be going over to the AEX hall a lot, and I'm looking forward to seeing Skipper and Shane and other quality dudes from there as I drop by over the semester.
Thus endeth the saga. Thanks for reading! I'm sure my next post will be even harder to keep from being too long. New York, here we come!
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Be not anxious
Rest easy, world! Mothers, tuck your children back in bed and whisper words of comfort in their ears. Be at peace citizens, for watchful eyes are over the glass plant while you sleep and night embraces the land.
In other words, I'm now working midnight - 8am for a month or so :-)
I volunteered for this shift to help out as we make some changes in how the tin bath is being run. There's another guy who's working 4 - 12, so between him, myself and the daylight folks, we've got 24-hour coverage for most of the week.
So how is it?
Well, things started out rough. I couldn't make myself go to sleep Sunday evening, so by the end of my first night I'd been going 25 hours straight. Worse than that, we had a size change (going to a different width and thickness of glass ribbon) that went awry and cost us a lot of production, and seemed to be due to me failing in my purported role.
Tuesday was better, since we didn't have any size changes, and the crew that was on for most of the night was one of the best. It got even better at the end as I talked to my boss when he came in. Turns out I did OK the night before, and the focus of the problem lay elsewhere. WHEW. I had had faith going into this, which turned to despair, but God didn't let me sink. I still need him every hour of every night, because I have a lot to learn about this process, and when things start going wrong, I don't have a big pile of experience to turn to.
Wednesday I tore my to-do list UP, baby! Good to feel productive, and to be so, demonstratively.
Tonight is real quiet, and the network is having issues, so I can't do most of what I need to do. Which is why I wrote this.
I'm sleeping fitfully (meaning I'm waking up 4 or 5 times) from 9 till 4 or so. I drag at the end of the night, but when the sun comes up, the day shift comes on, and the world wakes up, I get all perky again. Although I'm getting more sleep than before, it's not as deep. I ain't fooled by no shade over no window, bubba -- it's light outside and I know it!
Good: I still have evenings free, which is when other earthlings are typically free and foraging about for hang outage.
Bad: No more sleeping out on the deck. In fact, no more sleeping at night at all, which I find myself lamenting.
Good: The plant is peaceful, and I'm by myself at my desk.
Bad: Dismissing myself from whatever's going on at 11pm and going off, not to close my eyes in slumber, but to work a full workday. This was hard last night at the GROW picnic: saying my good-byes in the middle of everybody sharing what God had done over the summer.. leaving that rich group of people circled around the campfire, the warmth of fellowship and the glow of the firelight. It was also hard tonight, when I had to quick lay down my last idea for the bass line and shut the studio down in the middle of a spurt of jubilant inspiration on a new song. Oww my most of me! :-/
Good: Change, stretching, growth. God. God's presence. Which I need to remember and listen to more. But which is comforting nonetheless.
Time to go see how the tin bath is doing.
--JPB
In other words, I'm now working midnight - 8am for a month or so :-)
I volunteered for this shift to help out as we make some changes in how the tin bath is being run. There's another guy who's working 4 - 12, so between him, myself and the daylight folks, we've got 24-hour coverage for most of the week.
So how is it?
Well, things started out rough. I couldn't make myself go to sleep Sunday evening, so by the end of my first night I'd been going 25 hours straight. Worse than that, we had a size change (going to a different width and thickness of glass ribbon) that went awry and cost us a lot of production, and seemed to be due to me failing in my purported role.
Tuesday was better, since we didn't have any size changes, and the crew that was on for most of the night was one of the best. It got even better at the end as I talked to my boss when he came in. Turns out I did OK the night before, and the focus of the problem lay elsewhere. WHEW. I had had faith going into this, which turned to despair, but God didn't let me sink. I still need him every hour of every night, because I have a lot to learn about this process, and when things start going wrong, I don't have a big pile of experience to turn to.
Wednesday I tore my to-do list UP, baby! Good to feel productive, and to be so, demonstratively.
Tonight is real quiet, and the network is having issues, so I can't do most of what I need to do. Which is why I wrote this.
I'm sleeping fitfully (meaning I'm waking up 4 or 5 times) from 9 till 4 or so. I drag at the end of the night, but when the sun comes up, the day shift comes on, and the world wakes up, I get all perky again. Although I'm getting more sleep than before, it's not as deep. I ain't fooled by no shade over no window, bubba -- it's light outside and I know it!
Good: I still have evenings free, which is when other earthlings are typically free and foraging about for hang outage.
Bad: No more sleeping out on the deck. In fact, no more sleeping at night at all, which I find myself lamenting.
Good: The plant is peaceful, and I'm by myself at my desk.
Bad: Dismissing myself from whatever's going on at 11pm and going off, not to close my eyes in slumber, but to work a full workday. This was hard last night at the GROW picnic: saying my good-byes in the middle of everybody sharing what God had done over the summer.. leaving that rich group of people circled around the campfire, the warmth of fellowship and the glow of the firelight. It was also hard tonight, when I had to quick lay down my last idea for the bass line and shut the studio down in the middle of a spurt of jubilant inspiration on a new song. Oww my most of me! :-/
Good: Change, stretching, growth. God. God's presence. Which I need to remember and listen to more. But which is comforting nonetheless.
Time to go see how the tin bath is doing.
--JPB
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
A couple days...
[I started this post I think at the end of this week, and got up to Tuesday. Now I don't remember what I did the rest of the week. Alas!]
Sunday 8/3 - Another splendidly long Summer weekend day. Went to church early with Daniel and Chad, and played my synth along with practice to try to start learning what sounds good in a worship setting. Mr. Pierson dished out another fantastic sermon, and after lunch all the Ohio folks and a lot of 'Burghers hit up Panera for lunch. Chad, Abbey, Hannah and Halley (and Nick Schuch) came with us back to our house, where we lolled about in the family room, played some music, and then went out and... picked blackberries in the woods! Which turned out to be a great time despite the voracious thorns. Wild blackberries aren't consistently sweet or flavorful, but those that are are exquisite. And there were TONS of them. Patches of berry-clad brances that make your eyes light up. After berrypicking we cleaned up and worked on dinner. I grilled the dogs, and we all sat out on the patio and ate in the perfect summer air, laughing a lot, and having some good convo as well. Cornfolks headed out shortly thereafter. "Chad we just, oh Chad.." :-P Really good times with those folks. AND THEN, Daniel and I left for Schenley Park, where a big group of church folks were gathered on the hill to toss a disc and watch the "Cinema Under The Stars" movie. Frisbee was sweet on the long slope, and the movie's mediocrity was redeemed by the STUNNING vista spreading out behind it. A smoky gradient of blue to red at the horizon, and a thin sliver of moon, turning blood red as it sank into the blinking lights of the city skyline. Never has Pittsburgh seemed so broad, open, and plain cool! A memorable night. Followed up by Fuel & Fuddle!! Ah, it was an amazing night, let alone the fantastic day preceding it.
Monday 8/4 - The hardest day of work since things started going better. I will never again come in to work at 8:00 on a Monday. I had 3 days to report on for the 9am morning meeting, and simply not enough time to prepare. Earl and Kirby were gone, so I was pretty much alone getting grilled by the plant manager and not having the answers. Left a lousy taste in my mouth that lingered through the rest of the day's stressfulness. That evening Steve Gole came over for dinner, talkin' and jammin', which was sweet! He hasn't been around for a month, so it was good to catch up, and Daniel joined us for the music, which was a lot of fun.
Tuesday 8/5 - "Heathen Night." :-) Daniel was going with Mr. Harvey to give stuff out and talk to homeless folks, so the rest of GROW banded together for the evening. We went to Schenley Park and played frisbee till it was too dark to see (well, past that point, actually), then we took a long leisurely walk to Dave 'n' Andy's, which is a famous Pittsburgh homemade ice-cream joint. Even I liked it, and I don't get very excited about ice-cream. On the walk back to the cars I halted the group and encouraged us toward profitable discussion, which everybody did very well. We walked up to the cars, and stood around and kept talking for 30 minutes! Good times in the car with Shannon and Heather on the way there & back.
...that's all folks...
Sunday 8/3 - Another splendidly long Summer weekend day. Went to church early with Daniel and Chad, and played my synth along with practice to try to start learning what sounds good in a worship setting. Mr. Pierson dished out another fantastic sermon, and after lunch all the Ohio folks and a lot of 'Burghers hit up Panera for lunch. Chad, Abbey, Hannah and Halley (and Nick Schuch) came with us back to our house, where we lolled about in the family room, played some music, and then went out and... picked blackberries in the woods! Which turned out to be a great time despite the voracious thorns. Wild blackberries aren't consistently sweet or flavorful, but those that are are exquisite. And there were TONS of them. Patches of berry-clad brances that make your eyes light up. After berrypicking we cleaned up and worked on dinner. I grilled the dogs, and we all sat out on the patio and ate in the perfect summer air, laughing a lot, and having some good convo as well. Cornfolks headed out shortly thereafter. "Chad we just, oh Chad.." :-P Really good times with those folks. AND THEN, Daniel and I left for Schenley Park, where a big group of church folks were gathered on the hill to toss a disc and watch the "Cinema Under The Stars" movie. Frisbee was sweet on the long slope, and the movie's mediocrity was redeemed by the STUNNING vista spreading out behind it. A smoky gradient of blue to red at the horizon, and a thin sliver of moon, turning blood red as it sank into the blinking lights of the city skyline. Never has Pittsburgh seemed so broad, open, and plain cool! A memorable night. Followed up by Fuel & Fuddle!! Ah, it was an amazing night, let alone the fantastic day preceding it.
Monday 8/4 - The hardest day of work since things started going better. I will never again come in to work at 8:00 on a Monday. I had 3 days to report on for the 9am morning meeting, and simply not enough time to prepare. Earl and Kirby were gone, so I was pretty much alone getting grilled by the plant manager and not having the answers. Left a lousy taste in my mouth that lingered through the rest of the day's stressfulness. That evening Steve Gole came over for dinner, talkin' and jammin', which was sweet! He hasn't been around for a month, so it was good to catch up, and Daniel joined us for the music, which was a lot of fun.
Tuesday 8/5 - "Heathen Night." :-) Daniel was going with Mr. Harvey to give stuff out and talk to homeless folks, so the rest of GROW banded together for the evening. We went to Schenley Park and played frisbee till it was too dark to see (well, past that point, actually), then we took a long leisurely walk to Dave 'n' Andy's, which is a famous Pittsburgh homemade ice-cream joint. Even I liked it, and I don't get very excited about ice-cream. On the walk back to the cars I halted the group and encouraged us toward profitable discussion, which everybody did very well. We walked up to the cars, and stood around and kept talking for 30 minutes! Good times in the car with Shannon and Heather on the way there & back.
...that's all folks...
Friday, July 25, 2008
Que esta pasando
The summer continues with its craziness. I'm consciously putting recording, jamming, room cleaning, and even sleep and working out on hold, in order to capitalize on the people availability that I believe this summer extends uniquely. GROW is drawing a bunch of folks together with a ready zeal to hang out, and Daniel and Justin's job at the church office gives them flexible hours, and plops them right in the middle, locationally and vocationally, of what's going on. At some point last week Daniel had seen the Graham brothers for 7 straight days in a row! I want to be able to say that I used the legendary Summer of '08 to its fullest potential.
Thank God I haven't gotten sick, and I've been actually much better at work being alert and involved (which has more to do with God "loosing the bonds" on my understanding than with the caffeine I hit up every morning), despite getting 4 - 6 hours of sleep almost every night. The main toll that takes is in not being able to work out. The heartiness of my joints is directly linked to the amount of sleep I get, and I can't tear them up lifting weights if I don't give them sleep to heal up. But that's an OK exchange for now.
Wednesday was decent sleep-wise. I went to the middle school after work and helpd Ryan set up the new sound board and rework the whole sound system. By God's grace we had it all rockin' and rollin' for worship practice, which ended at 9:30. I am rarely happier than when I'm running sound, and that night was especially joyous because my abilities in that area were directly able to benefit Ryan, and the worship team, and ultimately the whole church. I've been wishing for a way my music stuff could be used in God's service without being antagonistic to His purposes, so I was very grateful for that opportunity. After practice Daniel, Justin, Heather and I chilled and watched the clouds and stars at Q Park till 10:50pm. Then shut it down, drove home, and hit the sack.
Yesterday I was somewhat reasonable with sleep as well, which I think made Mom happy :-) I slept for almost 2 hours after work, which was my contingency for going swing dancing, since that went till midnight. It worked out pretty well. I even helped Mom for awhile before hitting the sack, and she was cool with me bypassing dinner. 'Course, when I got home at 12:30am I went downstairs and jammed with my Scholz Rockman for an hour. But I don't regret that either, 'cause it convinced me that it really is a quality piece of gear, despite its cheesy plastic body. Swing dancing turned out to be fun, as well, and we got into the groove decently well towards the end. Makes me want to keep doing things like that until I'm comfortable in general with dancing and can improvise with grace.
Today I try to flee the premises as close to 4:30 as possible, zip home, pack up quick, and head to the church office for the GROW camping trip (woo hoo!).
Lunch break ends... NOWNOWNOWNOWNOWNOWNOWNOWNOW
[Any Flaming Lips fans out there? If so, you'll get that.]
Thank God I haven't gotten sick, and I've been actually much better at work being alert and involved (which has more to do with God "loosing the bonds" on my understanding than with the caffeine I hit up every morning), despite getting 4 - 6 hours of sleep almost every night. The main toll that takes is in not being able to work out. The heartiness of my joints is directly linked to the amount of sleep I get, and I can't tear them up lifting weights if I don't give them sleep to heal up. But that's an OK exchange for now.
Wednesday was decent sleep-wise. I went to the middle school after work and helpd Ryan set up the new sound board and rework the whole sound system. By God's grace we had it all rockin' and rollin' for worship practice, which ended at 9:30. I am rarely happier than when I'm running sound, and that night was especially joyous because my abilities in that area were directly able to benefit Ryan, and the worship team, and ultimately the whole church. I've been wishing for a way my music stuff could be used in God's service without being antagonistic to His purposes, so I was very grateful for that opportunity. After practice Daniel, Justin, Heather and I chilled and watched the clouds and stars at Q Park till 10:50pm. Then shut it down, drove home, and hit the sack.
Yesterday I was somewhat reasonable with sleep as well, which I think made Mom happy :-) I slept for almost 2 hours after work, which was my contingency for going swing dancing, since that went till midnight. It worked out pretty well. I even helped Mom for awhile before hitting the sack, and she was cool with me bypassing dinner. 'Course, when I got home at 12:30am I went downstairs and jammed with my Scholz Rockman for an hour. But I don't regret that either, 'cause it convinced me that it really is a quality piece of gear, despite its cheesy plastic body. Swing dancing turned out to be fun, as well, and we got into the groove decently well towards the end. Makes me want to keep doing things like that until I'm comfortable in general with dancing and can improvise with grace.
Today I try to flee the premises as close to 4:30 as possible, zip home, pack up quick, and head to the church office for the GROW camping trip (woo hoo!).
Lunch break ends... NOWNOWNOWNOWNOWNOWNOWNOWNOW
[Any Flaming Lips fans out there? If so, you'll get that.]
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
I just recounted my past week for Jess, to explain how I don't even eat, sleep or brush my teeth consistently, let alone have regular devotions. Since I made myself recall it all, I'll put it down here, and as much before and after as I can remember.
Monday 7/7 - The first full day that Mom, Dad, Daniel and Daisy were home from Kentucky. I was supposed to help clean up the house that night, but I found a SWEET guitar on craigslist in the afternoon, so I drove out to Mt. Oliver and bought it before dinner. After cleaning up for several hours that night, Daniel and I headed to the Harvey's for Justin's general-purpose birthday gathering. Whereat we spent the night. Great times with this summers' group of people: Daniel, Justin, Tim, Betsy, Katie & Rebekah C, Rebekah B, Jess, DK, Quinlisks, Chelsea, Schuchs, and others I'm sure. We also had some Allisons there, and Janelle McCombie from Indiana, which was sweet.
Tuesday 7/8 - GROW! It was Nick's birthday, so several of us gathered at the snow cone stand before GROW, and Betsy brought a cake. Then after the meeting we congregated at the Schuch's house for a late night pizza party for Nick. I had to peel myself away around midnight to go home and sleep.
Wednesday 7/9 - Domenica had free tickets to the Pirates-Astros game, so I headed to PNC Park after a brief stop at home and met Nate, Sarah, Anna B, Domenica and the Graham Brothers at the Clemente statue. It was a PERFECT night, and though the Bucs let themselves loose, it was fun to sit and talk and enjoy the sights.
Thursday 7/10 - The hits just kept coming. Thursday I drove straight to the Rutmans' after work for dinner and a trip to Monroeville with Nate Dogg to check out a guitar. We also hit up the Guitar Center out there, and hit some traffic on the way back. Then back to my house where I soldered up a busted speaker while Daniel and Justin put together a 2-person cow suit and Tim Whitbeck watched in amusement. Good man-times after that, sitting around in the back yard talking and enjoying the benefits of our age.
Friday 7/11 - Friday morning I packed for the next 4 days or so, and headed out. I went to Chick-fil-A for lunch and got free food because of the cow shirt I made the night before (Did I mention Friday was Dress Like A Cow Day?). Work finished up splendidly (thank you Lord, and friends for praying), and I headed to the Harveys. Some hecticity, ending up at C-F-A for dinner (more free food!) with great GROW folks, and back to the Harvey's for the dub feat -- double feature movie night. I loved Luther, but wasn't feeling Amazing Grace, so I crashed on the floor at about 11pm. One of the best decisions of the weekend.
Saturday 7/12 - Up at 7:30 and drove to Akron. Hung around, helped the Tumino's set up for Chad and Abbey's grad party, made a Dr.P run :-), grad partied, frisbeed, grad party tear-downed, showered at the T's, and went to Dave Potter's for his graduation/21st birthday party. I finally crashed in the Tumino's living room at about 1:30 as everybody sat around and watched Looney Tunes. Looking back, Saturday felt more like 4 days, not 1. Four good days.
Sunday 7/13 - Church (hooray for Jason Reyes and the Stewarts!), Chipotle take-out to the Allisons, and then the rest of the afternoon there hanging out with a big group of Akronites. I ended up in a group around the piano, playing and singing worship songs for something like 3 hours. Eventually we left there and hung around at the Tuminos for a few more hours eating dinner and playing grand rounds of knock-out. Departure: ~9pm. Harveys: 12:15am. Whereat I spent the night.
Monday 7/14 - I actually just came home after work Monday. Grandma Sweetie and Aunt Diane were spending the night on their way home from visiting Kristin, so we all ate dinner out on the patio and went to Handel's to satisfy Grandma's insatiable love of ice-cream. I was dead tired, but Mom had to drag me away from the synth at 10:30. I had discovered that everything I'd played around with till then was just side "A" out of TWO banks of presets!
Tuesday 7/15 - Another GROW day. Justin, Daniel, Betsy and I congregated at the snow cone stand beforehand, and I got a steak & egg hoagie from a sweet local place near our property. We did sword drills for a starter game, and I got to stop and pick out prizes at the dollar store on the way :-D Slept out on the deck again after taking the garbage out. Haven't slept in or on my own bed in... a month? Something like that.
Wednesday 7/16 - Don't remember! Other than the money I made, this day is lost to me. I do know that during this whole week, work was excellent. Something clicked (i.e. God worked), and I was able to simultaneously understand and take ownership of much more of what's going on.
Thursday 7/17 - When it was my turn to answer my own question around the fire Thursday night, I had a tough time picking a highlight for the day. They took me out to lunch for my birthday, and Olive Garden was REALLY good... but that wasn't the highlight. Being really hot and sweaty and getting a guava snow cone from Nick's stand was wonderful... but not the highlight. Daniel and Justin bought a bunch of deluxe food and we cooked dinner at the property as we sipped ice cold Dr.P's and IBC root beers, and then a bunch of people came at 8:30 and we talked and I played some of my songs... and ultimately maybe that was the true highlight. But the one that had me wiggin' out with excitement and disbelief was tucked in the middle. I saw some guitar effects listed on craigslist, did some brief research, and immediately called the number listed. He'd had all kinds of people calling about them, but if I could meet him soon, he'd give me all 4 I wanted, for the price of two! So I freaked out, finished up a bunch of work stuff, and headed down 51 to meet him at the Goodwill store. He had the reverb, EQ, chorus and Scholz Rockman, all for $150, and they looked SWEET. But the highlight was talking after the sale-- he has a studio in Carnegie, and buys and sells all kinds of instruments, and invited me to come hang out anytime. I haven't had a free evening yet to take him up on that, but I 100% plan on doing so. My first Pittsburgh music connection had me trippin' along as I drove off towards the snow cone stand. We'll see what comes of it!
Friday 7/18 - I'm 24! Earl was gone, so I ran the hot end for the day. It was about the same as the days at youth camp-- running around, tending to this and that-- which was sweet. Care group that night, and a followup bonfire at the Quinlisk's with leftovers from Thursday. Fell asleep wrapped in a groundcloth, and got all bit up by some bugs.
Saturday 7/19 - Slept in till 11, and hung out in the living room playing my synth while Mom cooked. Breakfast plans got scrapped, but we had lunch after Dad got back from mowing at the property, and not long afterward we all headed out (in one car! Together!) to the Calvetti's for Rochelle's surprise birthday party. Good times hanging out with the kids. That night I recorded some jams with my synth, but of course, since I was recording, and not jamming, it didn't relaly flow, and most of it sucked. Funny how that little red "R" button kills all inspiration, eh? :-/ Nick slept over that night.
Sunday 7/20 - Went to church at 10, and sat with the Caprios and Wes. The Stewarts were in from Akron, and Randy's sermon was great. After some hecticity, 9 of us ended up meeting at Wendy's, grabbing some lunch, and heading to the Youghiogheny River Outfitters to canoe down the river. Abbey was in town for the day! We got rained out right before heading out, and after playing frisbee in the downpour for an hour, we packed it up, Abbey headed for Maryland, and we headed back. Sad maybe, but we still had fun :-P That afternoon was SWEET! Instead of buying some overpriced undergood-tasting food at some restaurant, our group headed to the Caprios, where we all made dinner. Betsy and I did some shopping and got materials for chicken terriyaki and stir fry. I directed the operation (and cleaned under the leaking garbage disposal :-/ ), and we ended up sitting out on the back deck eating some pretty good food, talking, and feeling pretty cool :-) That evening we walked to a little field nearby and played frisbee for hours. A perfect summer day I will not soon forget.
Monday 7/21 - The GROW girls made dinner for all the guys... and then sent us out as 3 teams on a **video scavenger hunt**!! Coffee with mayo... singing happy birthday to strangers... calisthenics in the pouring rain... ring around the rosie in Wal-Mart... the list could go on and on :-) We're not sure if the video evidence has been destroyed yet, but our agents are working on clearing the record :-P
Tuesday 7/22 - A slightly less great day of work, but I can't complain, and it was my fault anyway. The Allisons have been in town since Sunday night, so we all congregated at my house for dinner with the fam. Then off to GROW, which was great. I ran across Hebrews 10:32 and on, which really hit home with where our discussion group was at from John Piper's book. Quite remarkable. Then we watched Newsies at the Quinlisks -- a time expenditure which I 70% regret -- and Justin and I repaired to the Harvey abode for sleep.
Let's just say I woke up this morning feeling as tired as you would feel at 3am after an exhausting day of work and a long busy evening. I think that means I'm exactly 1 day behind on sleep, but I can't think of a day I'm willing to give up, and the schedule marches on like a banshee, so on I go. I'm honestly not sure how this will come out, but so far I haven't gotten sick, and I'm doing well at work, so we'll see. Tonight I am fervently hoping that, in the moment, I don't disregard my plans to leave promptly from worship practice and go home and sleep. Which brings up that tonight we're setting up the NEW SOUND BOARD (which is why I'm going), and I'm stoked for it!
This is a monster post, and I'm so hungry my intestines are digesting themselves, but HA! I have finished it, it is done, and I shall call it my squishy, and it shall be my squishy. Time to make like a hungry boy and fly to Chick-Fil-A!
--JPB
Monday 7/7 - The first full day that Mom, Dad, Daniel and Daisy were home from Kentucky. I was supposed to help clean up the house that night, but I found a SWEET guitar on craigslist in the afternoon, so I drove out to Mt. Oliver and bought it before dinner. After cleaning up for several hours that night, Daniel and I headed to the Harvey's for Justin's general-purpose birthday gathering. Whereat we spent the night. Great times with this summers' group of people: Daniel, Justin, Tim, Betsy, Katie & Rebekah C, Rebekah B, Jess, DK, Quinlisks, Chelsea, Schuchs, and others I'm sure. We also had some Allisons there, and Janelle McCombie from Indiana, which was sweet.
Tuesday 7/8 - GROW! It was Nick's birthday, so several of us gathered at the snow cone stand before GROW, and Betsy brought a cake. Then after the meeting we congregated at the Schuch's house for a late night pizza party for Nick. I had to peel myself away around midnight to go home and sleep.
Wednesday 7/9 - Domenica had free tickets to the Pirates-Astros game, so I headed to PNC Park after a brief stop at home and met Nate, Sarah, Anna B, Domenica and the Graham Brothers at the Clemente statue. It was a PERFECT night, and though the Bucs let themselves loose, it was fun to sit and talk and enjoy the sights.
Thursday 7/10 - The hits just kept coming. Thursday I drove straight to the Rutmans' after work for dinner and a trip to Monroeville with Nate Dogg to check out a guitar. We also hit up the Guitar Center out there, and hit some traffic on the way back. Then back to my house where I soldered up a busted speaker while Daniel and Justin put together a 2-person cow suit and Tim Whitbeck watched in amusement. Good man-times after that, sitting around in the back yard talking and enjoying the benefits of our age.
Friday 7/11 - Friday morning I packed for the next 4 days or so, and headed out. I went to Chick-fil-A for lunch and got free food because of the cow shirt I made the night before (Did I mention Friday was Dress Like A Cow Day?). Work finished up splendidly (thank you Lord, and friends for praying), and I headed to the Harveys. Some hecticity, ending up at C-F-A for dinner (more free food!) with great GROW folks, and back to the Harvey's for the dub feat -- double feature movie night. I loved Luther, but wasn't feeling Amazing Grace, so I crashed on the floor at about 11pm. One of the best decisions of the weekend.
Saturday 7/12 - Up at 7:30 and drove to Akron. Hung around, helped the Tumino's set up for Chad and Abbey's grad party, made a Dr.P run :-), grad partied, frisbeed, grad party tear-downed, showered at the T's, and went to Dave Potter's for his graduation/21st birthday party. I finally crashed in the Tumino's living room at about 1:30 as everybody sat around and watched Looney Tunes. Looking back, Saturday felt more like 4 days, not 1. Four good days.
Sunday 7/13 - Church (hooray for Jason Reyes and the Stewarts!), Chipotle take-out to the Allisons, and then the rest of the afternoon there hanging out with a big group of Akronites. I ended up in a group around the piano, playing and singing worship songs for something like 3 hours. Eventually we left there and hung around at the Tuminos for a few more hours eating dinner and playing grand rounds of knock-out. Departure: ~9pm. Harveys: 12:15am. Whereat I spent the night.
Monday 7/14 - I actually just came home after work Monday. Grandma Sweetie and Aunt Diane were spending the night on their way home from visiting Kristin, so we all ate dinner out on the patio and went to Handel's to satisfy Grandma's insatiable love of ice-cream. I was dead tired, but Mom had to drag me away from the synth at 10:30. I had discovered that everything I'd played around with till then was just side "A" out of TWO banks of presets!
Tuesday 7/15 - Another GROW day. Justin, Daniel, Betsy and I congregated at the snow cone stand beforehand, and I got a steak & egg hoagie from a sweet local place near our property. We did sword drills for a starter game, and I got to stop and pick out prizes at the dollar store on the way :-D Slept out on the deck again after taking the garbage out. Haven't slept in or on my own bed in... a month? Something like that.
Wednesday 7/16 - Don't remember! Other than the money I made, this day is lost to me. I do know that during this whole week, work was excellent. Something clicked (i.e. God worked), and I was able to simultaneously understand and take ownership of much more of what's going on.
Thursday 7/17 - When it was my turn to answer my own question around the fire Thursday night, I had a tough time picking a highlight for the day. They took me out to lunch for my birthday, and Olive Garden was REALLY good... but that wasn't the highlight. Being really hot and sweaty and getting a guava snow cone from Nick's stand was wonderful... but not the highlight. Daniel and Justin bought a bunch of deluxe food and we cooked dinner at the property as we sipped ice cold Dr.P's and IBC root beers, and then a bunch of people came at 8:30 and we talked and I played some of my songs... and ultimately maybe that was the true highlight. But the one that had me wiggin' out with excitement and disbelief was tucked in the middle. I saw some guitar effects listed on craigslist, did some brief research, and immediately called the number listed. He'd had all kinds of people calling about them, but if I could meet him soon, he'd give me all 4 I wanted, for the price of two! So I freaked out, finished up a bunch of work stuff, and headed down 51 to meet him at the Goodwill store. He had the reverb, EQ, chorus and Scholz Rockman, all for $150, and they looked SWEET. But the highlight was talking after the sale-- he has a studio in Carnegie, and buys and sells all kinds of instruments, and invited me to come hang out anytime. I haven't had a free evening yet to take him up on that, but I 100% plan on doing so. My first Pittsburgh music connection had me trippin' along as I drove off towards the snow cone stand. We'll see what comes of it!
Friday 7/18 - I'm 24! Earl was gone, so I ran the hot end for the day. It was about the same as the days at youth camp-- running around, tending to this and that-- which was sweet. Care group that night, and a followup bonfire at the Quinlisk's with leftovers from Thursday. Fell asleep wrapped in a groundcloth, and got all bit up by some bugs.
Saturday 7/19 - Slept in till 11, and hung out in the living room playing my synth while Mom cooked. Breakfast plans got scrapped, but we had lunch after Dad got back from mowing at the property, and not long afterward we all headed out (in one car! Together!) to the Calvetti's for Rochelle's surprise birthday party. Good times hanging out with the kids. That night I recorded some jams with my synth, but of course, since I was recording, and not jamming, it didn't relaly flow, and most of it sucked. Funny how that little red "R" button kills all inspiration, eh? :-/ Nick slept over that night.
Sunday 7/20 - Went to church at 10, and sat with the Caprios and Wes. The Stewarts were in from Akron, and Randy's sermon was great. After some hecticity, 9 of us ended up meeting at Wendy's, grabbing some lunch, and heading to the Youghiogheny River Outfitters to canoe down the river. Abbey was in town for the day! We got rained out right before heading out, and after playing frisbee in the downpour for an hour, we packed it up, Abbey headed for Maryland, and we headed back. Sad maybe, but we still had fun :-P That afternoon was SWEET! Instead of buying some overpriced undergood-tasting food at some restaurant, our group headed to the Caprios, where we all made dinner. Betsy and I did some shopping and got materials for chicken terriyaki and stir fry. I directed the operation (and cleaned under the leaking garbage disposal :-/ ), and we ended up sitting out on the back deck eating some pretty good food, talking, and feeling pretty cool :-) That evening we walked to a little field nearby and played frisbee for hours. A perfect summer day I will not soon forget.
Monday 7/21 - The GROW girls made dinner for all the guys... and then sent us out as 3 teams on a **video scavenger hunt**!! Coffee with mayo... singing happy birthday to strangers... calisthenics in the pouring rain... ring around the rosie in Wal-Mart... the list could go on and on :-) We're not sure if the video evidence has been destroyed yet, but our agents are working on clearing the record :-P
Tuesday 7/22 - A slightly less great day of work, but I can't complain, and it was my fault anyway. The Allisons have been in town since Sunday night, so we all congregated at my house for dinner with the fam. Then off to GROW, which was great. I ran across Hebrews 10:32 and on, which really hit home with where our discussion group was at from John Piper's book. Quite remarkable. Then we watched Newsies at the Quinlisks -- a time expenditure which I 70% regret -- and Justin and I repaired to the Harvey abode for sleep.
Let's just say I woke up this morning feeling as tired as you would feel at 3am after an exhausting day of work and a long busy evening. I think that means I'm exactly 1 day behind on sleep, but I can't think of a day I'm willing to give up, and the schedule marches on like a banshee, so on I go. I'm honestly not sure how this will come out, but so far I haven't gotten sick, and I'm doing well at work, so we'll see. Tonight I am fervently hoping that, in the moment, I don't disregard my plans to leave promptly from worship practice and go home and sleep. Which brings up that tonight we're setting up the NEW SOUND BOARD (which is why I'm going), and I'm stoked for it!
This is a monster post, and I'm so hungry my intestines are digesting themselves, but HA! I have finished it, it is done, and I shall call it my squishy, and it shall be my squishy. Time to make like a hungry boy and fly to Chick-Fil-A!
--JPB
Saturday, May 17, 2008
The Summer Rises
***This post was written a good while back at the beginning of summer. I don't think I actually finished it, which is why it wasn't posted, but I'll put it up here. The language seems a little over the top at points, but it's pretty much what it felt like, and still feels like occasionally.***
Sunlight rises over the hills of winter, creeps in from the corners of spring, and people start driving around with their windows open and short sleeves on. In my life, key people like Daniel, Justin and Betsy come back home to stay for a few months, and the world is once again as it should be. My text messaging has increased dramatically as I try to coordinate with a bunch of fun people looking to spend time. My "want to do" list is longer than ever before: Go out in the woods, camp, jam with Steve Gole, jam with Justin and Daniel, record the soundtrack for Nathaniel Taylor's movie, record some songs with Pure Boss, record my own songs, go to Akron several times, go to Washington DC, play lots of basketball, keep lifting weights, maybe get a digital SLR and take some cool pictures, go to Pirates games, play frisbee after church every week, and pretty much do anything outside of the self-imposed confines of my stupid little life.
My "want to do" list is long. My "have to do" list is short. And powerful. Like a mad rip 5-foot UFC fighter. Go to work every weekday (not too bad), be alert and energetic at work (the killer), and the trump card: plan and execute youth camp. I'm currently gasping for air under the torrent of youth camp stuff that needs to be done. So the WTD list will mostly have to wait until after June 22nd-25th.
Aside from that, I'm still straddling both worlds, trying to be a bona fide engineer and employee during the day, and hanging out with carefree people 4+ years younger than me afterwards. I'm in tension between the demands of and engineering career and the cries of the undercurrent of music that keeps wanting to suck my feet out from under me. I straddle the line between saved and unsaved, boiling over sin constantly in myself, but continuing to seek God in different ways, when I can, and going to church and doing church stuff. I stand on a windblown peak, with two faces of a cliff at my feet. One is an engineering job, which has stability and money for a wife and family down at the bottom. The other is a wild ride that lives in the moment, ventures out into new things, walks down unknown paths, makes the most of these priceless years of youth, leaves me some stories to tell, but doesn't guarantee anything 10 years later at the bottom. I've been climbing for the engineering suburbanite cliff all my life, but I can't get the siren call of the other road out of my head or my gut. I'm ready to fight my laziness, kick my craving for stability and sameness in the gut, and throw myself into the big wide world and see what I can do. But I have no direction, no certainty, no peace, and no real prospects in that direction. It's the idle dreams of a lame kid sitting on his bed whining about his life but not doing anything about it. But the engineering path is kicking me in the stomach as well, as I meet baffling resistance within and without to "clicking" here, drinking it in, pushing through the difficulty of learning, and excelling like I did in college.
Mom had a picture that sums it up well: I'm surrounded by goads. Sharp points at every turn. Every direction I try to go jabs me and sends me right back. I'm at an impasse, and the only way out is up. Nice cliched ending to the analogy, right? Well I'm still waiting to see if that actually happens. I try occasionally, I have brief moments of positive feelings towards God, briefer moments of fragmentary hope, but mostly I'm sitting here looking at sharp spikes staring me in the face from every direction, hating where I'm at, where I'm headed, and myself, the creator of all these goads. I've heard stories all my life about people who excelled, who accomplished, who performed, who did things. I have the bug for that, but I can't seem to carry it out, and I'm wondering if there's any place, any mercy, for someone who sees greatness, has the kernel for it, but lets it slip through his unwilling hands. I'm to blame, but I feel helpless at the same time. I can't just shrug my shoulders and make my deepest motivations change in the twinkle of an eye! I'm to blame, but I feel like a prisoner all the same. I'm despicable, I want to be pitied, and I hate myself for wanting to be pitied.
Will this ever change? I know full well that the only true solution to this impasse IS up. God. Surrender of my "pride of life," desire to make something of myself, be impressive, be impressed with myself. SEEING that I am hell-bound and needing mercy, and therefore sincerely clinging to Jesus Christ, crucified for my sins and risen again, throwing the doors open to Him and following His voice with childlike submission, faith, and sweet gratefulness, love and joy.
Sunlight rises over the hills of winter, creeps in from the corners of spring, and people start driving around with their windows open and short sleeves on. In my life, key people like Daniel, Justin and Betsy come back home to stay for a few months, and the world is once again as it should be. My text messaging has increased dramatically as I try to coordinate with a bunch of fun people looking to spend time. My "want to do" list is longer than ever before: Go out in the woods, camp, jam with Steve Gole, jam with Justin and Daniel, record the soundtrack for Nathaniel Taylor's movie, record some songs with Pure Boss, record my own songs, go to Akron several times, go to Washington DC, play lots of basketball, keep lifting weights, maybe get a digital SLR and take some cool pictures, go to Pirates games, play frisbee after church every week, and pretty much do anything outside of the self-imposed confines of my stupid little life.
My "want to do" list is long. My "have to do" list is short. And powerful. Like a mad rip 5-foot UFC fighter. Go to work every weekday (not too bad), be alert and energetic at work (the killer), and the trump card: plan and execute youth camp. I'm currently gasping for air under the torrent of youth camp stuff that needs to be done. So the WTD list will mostly have to wait until after June 22nd-25th.
Aside from that, I'm still straddling both worlds, trying to be a bona fide engineer and employee during the day, and hanging out with carefree people 4+ years younger than me afterwards. I'm in tension between the demands of and engineering career and the cries of the undercurrent of music that keeps wanting to suck my feet out from under me. I straddle the line between saved and unsaved, boiling over sin constantly in myself, but continuing to seek God in different ways, when I can, and going to church and doing church stuff. I stand on a windblown peak, with two faces of a cliff at my feet. One is an engineering job, which has stability and money for a wife and family down at the bottom. The other is a wild ride that lives in the moment, ventures out into new things, walks down unknown paths, makes the most of these priceless years of youth, leaves me some stories to tell, but doesn't guarantee anything 10 years later at the bottom. I've been climbing for the engineering suburbanite cliff all my life, but I can't get the siren call of the other road out of my head or my gut. I'm ready to fight my laziness, kick my craving for stability and sameness in the gut, and throw myself into the big wide world and see what I can do. But I have no direction, no certainty, no peace, and no real prospects in that direction. It's the idle dreams of a lame kid sitting on his bed whining about his life but not doing anything about it. But the engineering path is kicking me in the stomach as well, as I meet baffling resistance within and without to "clicking" here, drinking it in, pushing through the difficulty of learning, and excelling like I did in college.
Mom had a picture that sums it up well: I'm surrounded by goads. Sharp points at every turn. Every direction I try to go jabs me and sends me right back. I'm at an impasse, and the only way out is up. Nice cliched ending to the analogy, right? Well I'm still waiting to see if that actually happens. I try occasionally, I have brief moments of positive feelings towards God, briefer moments of fragmentary hope, but mostly I'm sitting here looking at sharp spikes staring me in the face from every direction, hating where I'm at, where I'm headed, and myself, the creator of all these goads. I've heard stories all my life about people who excelled, who accomplished, who performed, who did things. I have the bug for that, but I can't seem to carry it out, and I'm wondering if there's any place, any mercy, for someone who sees greatness, has the kernel for it, but lets it slip through his unwilling hands. I'm to blame, but I feel helpless at the same time. I can't just shrug my shoulders and make my deepest motivations change in the twinkle of an eye! I'm to blame, but I feel like a prisoner all the same. I'm despicable, I want to be pitied, and I hate myself for wanting to be pitied.
Will this ever change? I know full well that the only true solution to this impasse IS up. God. Surrender of my "pride of life," desire to make something of myself, be impressive, be impressed with myself. SEEING that I am hell-bound and needing mercy, and therefore sincerely clinging to Jesus Christ, crucified for my sins and risen again, throwing the doors open to Him and following His voice with childlike submission, faith, and sweet gratefulness, love and joy.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Like the Good Old Days
This past weekend I went on a great trip to Akron. Kinda just happened when plans for Philly fell through, and seemed to have the ring of God's blessing about it. Here's the low-down:
Left work Friday. Made good time up 51 and through downtown.
Steve still at work, so I walk into "La Puente" and crash the Refine dinner :-)
Meet Joel Putnam, who turns out to be an amazingly cool guy.
Abandoned mall with Nick, Brian and Jenica.
Iron Man. We are entertained.
"The engineer in me cries out!"
Joy! Steve is still up when I get home, and there's stuff for burritos!
Hanging around the kitchen like the old days. Long time talking and praying out on the front porch.
Sleep till 2 with a break to play with Lizabeff.
Steve back. Taco Bell, Guitar Center, and Walmart for the afternoon.
Enchilada Cheetos!
$1200 Rhodes. I WANT IT. Holy smokes.
No show for the CoG Academy drama. Instead, really good time hanging out with Mike.
Walked down to the Duchess and bought pop and chips, just like the old days! *sniff*
Seriously.
Brian, Nick and Dave Potter come over and we burn wood from the old stage.
Talking about eating Kosher for hours.
Truly good time with those guys!
3:30? Hmm.
Church *mostly* on time.
Baja fresh with Jess and Jen.
That would be Jess Arlia and Jenica. Hah! Gotcha, eh? *poke poke*
Met Solomon. Hah! Someone else is awkward!
Say what? Some party event thingey for Will Paradis and some Rutkowski? Sure, I'll go!
Seems to be lame for a brief period, then I get in on a basketball game, and 7 hours later it's like, man, this was an awesome day!
Sorta kept up with a college-level bballer (who was also a really nice girl)
Experienced Mr. Paradis's home-made audiophile speaker system. My life is changed.
Not joking at all.
It's one of the best-sounding systems in the world.
Like, whaaaat? {:-0
Also got to know Adam Hanes and his sweet sweet outdoor job.
Finally met Amanda Rutkowski!
Good times with more people. Jon Fleck, John Roberts, Brian came by, played catch with Jenica, basketball with Justin Work & others, caught up with Rick Matzek, met the whole Paradis family.
It was a good day. I shot well.
Awkwardly standing there through the tearful goodbyes of the Rutkowskis and Digneys, who are like Will's family. (He was going off to the Air Force the next day. Turns out this was a send-off party for him and Rick Rutkowski.)
Home with Steve-O. Jon Lavery is there!
Freaking genius.
SECOND 2-liter bottle of Diet Dr.Pepper.
"Hey Jon, is this your week to not sleep?"
". . . yeah . ."
GAH it's 12:53am and I'm in Akron!
And of course I didn't remember till 10 o'clock, AT the Paradises, that tomorrow I get up extra early to do extra hard work.
Prayer, Vault, and some rockin' music get me home no problem. It was a good drive.
It was a good weekend.
Like, really good.
My efforts to be more friendly and outward-, people-focused were blessed! Kinda leaves me standing in the dust saying "Did that just happen? Duuude!"
Left work Friday. Made good time up 51 and through downtown.
Steve still at work, so I walk into "La Puente" and crash the Refine dinner :-)
Meet Joel Putnam, who turns out to be an amazingly cool guy.
Abandoned mall with Nick, Brian and Jenica.
Iron Man. We are entertained.
"The engineer in me cries out!"
Joy! Steve is still up when I get home, and there's stuff for burritos!
Hanging around the kitchen like the old days. Long time talking and praying out on the front porch.
Sleep till 2 with a break to play with Lizabeff.
Steve back. Taco Bell, Guitar Center, and Walmart for the afternoon.
Enchilada Cheetos!
$1200 Rhodes. I WANT IT. Holy smokes.
No show for the CoG Academy drama. Instead, really good time hanging out with Mike.
Walked down to the Duchess and bought pop and chips, just like the old days! *sniff*
Seriously.
Brian, Nick and Dave Potter come over and we burn wood from the old stage.
Talking about eating Kosher for hours.
Truly good time with those guys!
3:30? Hmm.
Church *mostly* on time.
Baja fresh with Jess and Jen.
That would be Jess Arlia and Jenica. Hah! Gotcha, eh? *poke poke*
Met Solomon. Hah! Someone else is awkward!
Say what? Some party event thingey for Will Paradis and some Rutkowski? Sure, I'll go!
Seems to be lame for a brief period, then I get in on a basketball game, and 7 hours later it's like, man, this was an awesome day!
Sorta kept up with a college-level bballer (who was also a really nice girl)
Experienced Mr. Paradis's home-made audiophile speaker system. My life is changed.
Not joking at all.
It's one of the best-sounding systems in the world.
Like, whaaaat? {:-0
Also got to know Adam Hanes and his sweet sweet outdoor job.
Finally met Amanda Rutkowski!
Good times with more people. Jon Fleck, John Roberts, Brian came by, played catch with Jenica, basketball with Justin Work & others, caught up with Rick Matzek, met the whole Paradis family.
It was a good day. I shot well.
Awkwardly standing there through the tearful goodbyes of the Rutkowskis and Digneys, who are like Will's family. (He was going off to the Air Force the next day. Turns out this was a send-off party for him and Rick Rutkowski.)
Home with Steve-O. Jon Lavery is there!
Freaking genius.
SECOND 2-liter bottle of Diet Dr.Pepper.
"Hey Jon, is this your week to not sleep?"
". . . yeah . ."
GAH it's 12:53am and I'm in Akron!
And of course I didn't remember till 10 o'clock, AT the Paradises, that tomorrow I get up extra early to do extra hard work.
Prayer, Vault, and some rockin' music get me home no problem. It was a good drive.
It was a good weekend.
Like, really good.
My efforts to be more friendly and outward-, people-focused were blessed! Kinda leaves me standing in the dust saying "Did that just happen? Duuude!"
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
I'd better document last week, 'cause if I don't remember it, then it was of almost no value. Even though I *did* a lot (meeting one of my current personal goals), it was of a consumptive, rather than productive nature, leaving nothing for me to show but a few souvenirs and less money.
But it was not ill-spent.
Except Tuesday. I worked, and stayed up late watching TV because it was easy. Hateful.
Wednesday, after some internal debate, I agreed to go with Steve Gole to Cleveland to see his friends' band State Fair play. They didn't even start till 10pm, so it was a late night. But Steve drove so I could sleep, and musically it was worth the trip. State Fair crosses the line from "good band.. for friends of mine" to "good band. Period", and even got into "I don't care about the band, I'm immersed in a highly enjoyable sea of sound at the moment." Really something for some guys playing in "The Grog Shop!"
Thursday Steve, his friend Rachel, and myself met up at the Strip District, grabbed some dinner, and went to see Eisely play at Club Stratus. We ate at this cool "island cuisine" place. Shwanky. Not cheap. But delicious, and I felt cool being there :-) The concert was small, personal, good sound quality, and yieldinous of a new band. "The Myriad" was opening when we got there, and they grabbed our attention even before we got into the building. Bought a CD, talked to their bass player, and rocked it out in the car on the way home. Great stuff. Cool "night on the town."
[This is all I can remember. I didn't finish this post, and now I have forgotten that which I sought to preserve :-( This illustrates the reason I want to write in this blog. Somewhat of a negative motivation, but so are a lot of things in life.]
But it was not ill-spent.
Except Tuesday. I worked, and stayed up late watching TV because it was easy. Hateful.
Wednesday, after some internal debate, I agreed to go with Steve Gole to Cleveland to see his friends' band State Fair play. They didn't even start till 10pm, so it was a late night. But Steve drove so I could sleep, and musically it was worth the trip. State Fair crosses the line from "good band.. for friends of mine" to "good band. Period", and even got into "I don't care about the band, I'm immersed in a highly enjoyable sea of sound at the moment." Really something for some guys playing in "The Grog Shop!"
Thursday Steve, his friend Rachel, and myself met up at the Strip District, grabbed some dinner, and went to see Eisely play at Club Stratus. We ate at this cool "island cuisine" place. Shwanky. Not cheap. But delicious, and I felt cool being there :-) The concert was small, personal, good sound quality, and yieldinous of a new band. "The Myriad" was opening when we got there, and they grabbed our attention even before we got into the building. Bought a CD, talked to their bass player, and rocked it out in the car on the way home. Great stuff. Cool "night on the town."
[This is all I can remember. I didn't finish this post, and now I have forgotten that which I sought to preserve :-( This illustrates the reason I want to write in this blog. Somewhat of a negative motivation, but so are a lot of things in life.]
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Caution: Discouragement below
Today I met one of those people who makes me feel like the most unaccomplished, wasted, insignificant and lowly person walking this globe. I saw a Behringer headphone amp on craigslist, emailed the seller, and ended up driving out to Greentree to pick it up at his office this afternoon. Garry had long enough hair to be a tried and true music guy, but short and neat enough to be very professional. He had mentioned his studio on the phone, so I asked him about it as we stood in the stark lunchroom (straight out of The Office!) and he hooked up the unit so I could test it. Turns out he ran a studio all the way from a four track tape rig in the 80's to a full-blown 32-channel board with all kinds of gear and people working there... while playing in bands himself and working as a software engineer. He's finally knocking the studio down to a home rig since the crazy amount of work and time and lack of sleep was getting to be too much. I use Cakewalk Sonar 2.0 as my recording software. Turns out he was on the beta testing team for Cakewalk for years, and he wrote some of the code that they use in Sonar. He spoke about mics and boards and gear and bands and musicians with the ease of immense familiarity.
I drove away from the gleaming office building despising my pitiful, introverted, connection-less, lackadaisical, unfocused, unmotivated, unproductive little suburban life. Hearing about Ken's accomplishments in Africa hasn't helped either. Leading tours, hanging out with a multimillionaire client, setting records in Ethiopia, working on writing a field guide, posting 100% professional-looking pictures of vistas that make me almost wet my pants, planning and working to break the North American record for the most bird species seen in 1 day (which he's got sponsors to pay for, by the way)...
While here I sit in my colossally tiny world of church friends (Whom I love, don't get me wrong! You guys are.. far better than most of the world even knows can be), a few work friends (with whom I have no connection outside of work), and... what is it 1? maybe 2 friends from college? I roll through this life safe in my car, paying for everything I do and everywhere I go, talking pleasantly with strangers behind counters whom I'll never see again, and holding unrelentingly onto my time and activities. I find myself waiting to end conversations with people! Just because.. it's less effort to not talk! The thought of making my life, my evenings, my hours, my meals, my time, my effort, part of something other than church, work and the occasional trip to Akron or elsewhere is inconceivable.
That is the functional reality I am faced with in those moments when I crave being accomplished in real-life, professional-level fields. I am so far from real music people, people running studios, the actual livings and breathings of professional musicians and studios that it makes me snort a despising laugh at myself. And the thing that kills is that I can't kid myself that I'll start making those kind of connections. My life isn't going to change that drastically! If it was, it would have by now! I have never done my recording at the level of fierce seriousness that gets you moving up and into professional (or even just freakin' serious hobby) circles. And though I hurt inside for the lack of accomplishment, I know that that is not the same as a motivation that will begin to generate that kind of productivity.
So I sit in our kitchen with a knot in my stomach, hatred for myself, and thick chains of laziness, personality and years past and gone locking me down. There is no one to blame but myself.
You may protest - oh! You go to Akron! You travel around! You're a better guitar player than me! You have a studio in your basement and you've made two albums and like 70 songs!
All that is is a pitifully small pond in which I might look like a big fish. Any kind of respectable, real-world pond leaves me a bacteria floating in the water, worth nothing to anyone.
When (please Lord) God saves and changes me, I think I will look back on this post as the wretched misery of a person trying to live for himself and being resisted in his pride. I can't just snap my finger and make that change, though. And right now, I'm in the valley of despair--at least in the moments like today when I look at my life and compare it to lives of actual accomplishment in the world.
Here again is a poem I wrote awhile ago and posted. It gives a bit of emotion to the content of the paragraphs above:
Your wings have feathers and here you sit
Watching them folded at your side
You didn't know which way to fly
And so you never tried
You write the songs but never make a sound
You'll spend the rest of your life on the ground
A couple things I'm happy with:
- Basketball. I'm exercising myself, hitting shots, and getting outside.
- Jamming with Steve Gole. So much fun, and some pretty cool music!
- This post. At least I was non-lazy enough to exercise the creative energy necessary to type this up and work it over.
- My music collection. It's huge, I know almost all of it, and it's recently been expanded by another 7 CD's.
I don't know what that's worth. Documenting this period, I suppose. Pretty dinky stuff I guess, but at least it's not depressing, and I enjoy those things. I don't want to be ungrateful or unreasonable.
--JPB
I drove away from the gleaming office building despising my pitiful, introverted, connection-less, lackadaisical, unfocused, unmotivated, unproductive little suburban life. Hearing about Ken's accomplishments in Africa hasn't helped either. Leading tours, hanging out with a multimillionaire client, setting records in Ethiopia, working on writing a field guide, posting 100% professional-looking pictures of vistas that make me almost wet my pants, planning and working to break the North American record for the most bird species seen in 1 day (which he's got sponsors to pay for, by the way)...
While here I sit in my colossally tiny world of church friends (Whom I love, don't get me wrong! You guys are.. far better than most of the world even knows can be), a few work friends (with whom I have no connection outside of work), and... what is it 1? maybe 2 friends from college? I roll through this life safe in my car, paying for everything I do and everywhere I go, talking pleasantly with strangers behind counters whom I'll never see again, and holding unrelentingly onto my time and activities. I find myself waiting to end conversations with people! Just because.. it's less effort to not talk! The thought of making my life, my evenings, my hours, my meals, my time, my effort, part of something other than church, work and the occasional trip to Akron or elsewhere is inconceivable.
That is the functional reality I am faced with in those moments when I crave being accomplished in real-life, professional-level fields. I am so far from real music people, people running studios, the actual livings and breathings of professional musicians and studios that it makes me snort a despising laugh at myself. And the thing that kills is that I can't kid myself that I'll start making those kind of connections. My life isn't going to change that drastically! If it was, it would have by now! I have never done my recording at the level of fierce seriousness that gets you moving up and into professional (or even just freakin' serious hobby) circles. And though I hurt inside for the lack of accomplishment, I know that that is not the same as a motivation that will begin to generate that kind of productivity.
So I sit in our kitchen with a knot in my stomach, hatred for myself, and thick chains of laziness, personality and years past and gone locking me down. There is no one to blame but myself.
You may protest - oh! You go to Akron! You travel around! You're a better guitar player than me! You have a studio in your basement and you've made two albums and like 70 songs!
All that is is a pitifully small pond in which I might look like a big fish. Any kind of respectable, real-world pond leaves me a bacteria floating in the water, worth nothing to anyone.
When (please Lord) God saves and changes me, I think I will look back on this post as the wretched misery of a person trying to live for himself and being resisted in his pride. I can't just snap my finger and make that change, though. And right now, I'm in the valley of despair--at least in the moments like today when I look at my life and compare it to lives of actual accomplishment in the world.
Here again is a poem I wrote awhile ago and posted. It gives a bit of emotion to the content of the paragraphs above:
Your wings have feathers and here you sit
Watching them folded at your side
You didn't know which way to fly
And so you never tried
You write the songs but never make a sound
You'll spend the rest of your life on the ground
A couple things I'm happy with:
- Basketball. I'm exercising myself, hitting shots, and getting outside.
- Jamming with Steve Gole. So much fun, and some pretty cool music!
- This post. At least I was non-lazy enough to exercise the creative energy necessary to type this up and work it over.
- My music collection. It's huge, I know almost all of it, and it's recently been expanded by another 7 CD's.
I don't know what that's worth. Documenting this period, I suppose. Pretty dinky stuff I guess, but at least it's not depressing, and I enjoy those things. I don't want to be ungrateful or unreasonable.
--JPB
Monday, April 14, 2008
Killing some time at work
I'm sitting at work icing my ankle, with a few minutes to kill, so I have the luxury of writing whatever I want in here! I'm ignoring the burden of past experiences that I haven't yet documented.
My left ankle is pressed up against a stiff ice pack that's pressed up against my man boot that's pressed up against my desk. I'm hunched over to reach the keyboard, backing up every minute or two to fork off another piece of enchilada, or take a sip of the SoBe Essential juice+energy Berry Pomegranate flavored energy juice drink. Nobody else is around, so I'm playing The Strokes comfortably loud through my desktop speakers. Since mowing the lawn last week, I've gotten to like them a good bit. More British stuff from Craig.
XM47, "Lucy," plays at volume notch 1 in the speaker above me. It's just on so I can hear a page if one comes through. Gotta pause the iPod quick and try to catch the repeat. "JAWN BAREIN, WUN SEVINDY FOWR.. JON BARIN, WUNSEVINDYFOR PLEEZ." And since it's night turn, you never know when you might get a whoop in the background as they're hanging up the phone, or maybe some intentional clatter of the receiver, or best yet, a multi-syllabic mispronounciation of Frank Fronzaglio's name :-)
My hot end is in good order. Dale didn't show up, so I've been hauling cullet most of the night (which is why I'm icing my ankle), but I've got 7 truckloads, and we use about 9 per shift, so I'm close to even. The sand car is done unloading and I pushed it down the tracks to the other empties. The tin bath is running well and we've got two of the most experienced operators there right now. Frankie is learning the furnace from Josh, and they've got some hot & dusty cleaning yet to do. We may not get the debris cleaned out from under 3 port left and right... we'll see. Roy Hi-vac'd all 3 levels of the batch house, so I'm waiting awhile before I ask him to clean up the busted glass in the casting hall. QC tests show that the glass color is holding steady, and the last defect sampling didn't have any bottom tin pickup, so we seem to have licked that. There's not much I can do about the tab alumina or chromite, and the seeds & bubbles aren't bad enough to warrant action. Joe has been cleaning up around the tin bath, and that's one of the main things remaining for the last 3 hours of the night: cleaning up the place for all the daylight folks coming in in a few hours. I try to leave them as few things to complain about as possible.
It's been a very relaxed weekend, which is welcome after the HELLACIOUS day last Tuesday. I messed up, we went out of spec, lost a lot of glass, and didn't have a very good reason for it. Bleah. I learned my lesson, though.
Enough sitting around. I could do this all night, but I gotta always light a fire under my own rear and get out there, look around, think, take a step back mentally, scout around for anything left untended, anything that should be done, anything that somebody could give me a hard time for not doing or fixing or addressing or noticing. If somebody walked in right now and looked around, what would they see? What would they ask me about? Would I have a good answer? Could anybody look in on me right now and say I'm being lazy? Would they be right?
That's what these weeks as a supervisor-in-training have been like. On good days, I love it. On the bad days I want to bash my head into an I-beam.
There have been many more good days than bad.
Ahhhh. Good song just came on :-)
Hope this was somewhat profitable, or at least mildly entertaining to read!
--JPB
My left ankle is pressed up against a stiff ice pack that's pressed up against my man boot that's pressed up against my desk. I'm hunched over to reach the keyboard, backing up every minute or two to fork off another piece of enchilada, or take a sip of the SoBe Essential juice+energy Berry Pomegranate flavored energy juice drink. Nobody else is around, so I'm playing The Strokes comfortably loud through my desktop speakers. Since mowing the lawn last week, I've gotten to like them a good bit. More British stuff from Craig.
XM47, "Lucy," plays at volume notch 1 in the speaker above me. It's just on so I can hear a page if one comes through. Gotta pause the iPod quick and try to catch the repeat. "JAWN BAREIN, WUN SEVINDY FOWR.. JON BARIN, WUNSEVINDYFOR PLEEZ." And since it's night turn, you never know when you might get a whoop in the background as they're hanging up the phone, or maybe some intentional clatter of the receiver, or best yet, a multi-syllabic mispronounciation of Frank Fronzaglio's name :-)
My hot end is in good order. Dale didn't show up, so I've been hauling cullet most of the night (which is why I'm icing my ankle), but I've got 7 truckloads, and we use about 9 per shift, so I'm close to even. The sand car is done unloading and I pushed it down the tracks to the other empties. The tin bath is running well and we've got two of the most experienced operators there right now. Frankie is learning the furnace from Josh, and they've got some hot & dusty cleaning yet to do. We may not get the debris cleaned out from under 3 port left and right... we'll see. Roy Hi-vac'd all 3 levels of the batch house, so I'm waiting awhile before I ask him to clean up the busted glass in the casting hall. QC tests show that the glass color is holding steady, and the last defect sampling didn't have any bottom tin pickup, so we seem to have licked that. There's not much I can do about the tab alumina or chromite, and the seeds & bubbles aren't bad enough to warrant action. Joe has been cleaning up around the tin bath, and that's one of the main things remaining for the last 3 hours of the night: cleaning up the place for all the daylight folks coming in in a few hours. I try to leave them as few things to complain about as possible.
It's been a very relaxed weekend, which is welcome after the HELLACIOUS day last Tuesday. I messed up, we went out of spec, lost a lot of glass, and didn't have a very good reason for it. Bleah. I learned my lesson, though.
Enough sitting around. I could do this all night, but I gotta always light a fire under my own rear and get out there, look around, think, take a step back mentally, scout around for anything left untended, anything that should be done, anything that somebody could give me a hard time for not doing or fixing or addressing or noticing. If somebody walked in right now and looked around, what would they see? What would they ask me about? Would I have a good answer? Could anybody look in on me right now and say I'm being lazy? Would they be right?
That's what these weeks as a supervisor-in-training have been like. On good days, I love it. On the bad days I want to bash my head into an I-beam.
There have been many more good days than bad.
Ahhhh. Good song just came on :-)
Hope this was somewhat profitable, or at least mildly entertaining to read!
--JPB
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