more normal than not

Nate was almost “Jorma”.

I don’t know if being adventurous with your children’s names is always a good thing.

But, anyway…he was almost “Jorma”.

Here’s a concert that Jorma Kaukonen did a while back.

Funny how a name defines you.

Nate suits Nate….and Jorma suits Jorma.

I couldn’t imagine Nate by a different name now if I tried.

Not even a cool name….like “Jorma”.

Not even that….

What is it that’s in us that lets us find so much joy in music?

The world could have been a glom of grey sameness….but, instead we have all this color and sound….and a big part of it is music.

That’s pretty amazing….and I love to hear all these guys who cut their teeth playing gospel!

There’s a spirit to and in everything….maybe I should say a “Spirit”….and I love to hear it come out in music.

Good vibes.

Sparrow sleeps in her own little bed in our room….and, usually, ends up in the middle of our bed at some point in the night.

Today, Nate turned seven.

Now, when the littlest one is waking up, we wake up, and sleep is a good thing to get enough of.

When we wake up, it’s hard to sleep.

That’s pretty obvious, I suppose.

My oldest daughter called the middle of our big bed the “special middle” when she was little.

Now she’s studying engineering.

These little ones grow up.

I will have time to sleep later.

I won’t always have someone enjoying being with us in the “special middle”.

I should relish that.

Nate turned seven, and we went to Chuck E Cheese and had some pizza….and played some games….and then drove straight home after purchasing some gumballs for his new gumball machine.

He was pretty jacked to check out what it felt like to have access to unlimited and self-administered gumballs.

That’s maturity….when you can eat as many gumballs as you want…before Mom notices you eating all the gumballs you want and puts a stop to the whole operation.

Happy Birthday, Nate!

Long live the “special middle”….even if, at some point in the future, it’s only a figurative thing.

Long live…the special middle.

The remodeling project turned into something bigger….like it always does….and it’s a royal pain in the ….rear end.

Gads.

And….the computer is messing up to the point where I’m just going to format and start over.

What a pain.

But….Jenny brought me some ice cream….and when I finish that, I’m going to go take a shower and get all the sweat and sawdust washed off….and, maybe, I’ll feel better about things.

Nothing is all that big a deal….but, I still curse at the computer when it pops over to a new window in the middle of some inane thing I’m trying to type.

I need some rest….and a computer that doesn’t only do what it wants.

I go to work tomorrow after a couple of days off.

Maybe I’ll get some rest driving the mail around?

Talking last night with Jenny about driving through the Palouse region out west.

It’s a little south of some property in Idaho where my father spent some of his growing up years.

Talk about something that’s so breathtakingly beautiful that it….takes your breath away.

Takes your breath away…..

It really is a drugless hallucination to be out there and surrounded by all that rolling green.

I don’t think that I’ve ever seen anything like it.

That’s the thing about traveling, though: you take what you see with you, and years later you can call up that memory to help yourself feel like you felt when you where there.

That’s a good thing.

Here’s a song that I heard the other day that I thought was pretty good.

It’s not peaceful like the Palouse’s, but it’s kind of funny…to me….at least…

“burn the honeysuckle” The Gourds