more normal than not

Here’s an Asheville jazz band called the Digs that I’ve been hearing on the radio some.

Good stuff.

Live music…..that’s what some people go to listen to when we’re asleep.

I don’t know if I could stay up for a concert anymore.

I guess that maybe I should finish my milk toast and get on under the covers?

Nah….my days of staying up aren’t completely behind me.

I could take a nap and then get out and see somebody play some funky licks.

I could do that.

This is a good band….one of many we’re blessed to have in this area.

Live music?

Imagine that!

I asked our two-year-old what she thought of Donald Trump, and she said, “I think he’s creepy”.

That was kind of funny….to me.

Had a good day out on the route….saw a couple of very young raccoons who didn’t know enough to get out of the long dirt road.

Sat and watched them watch me for a while….and when I started to creep forward, they sauntered off into the ditch.

That’s the thing about this route….I can be off by myself….deep in the country to deliver to a couple of mailboxes that are a couple of miles up the mountain….and….somehow….it’s still work.

I get paid!

I like being out in the country.

Again….don’t tell anyone.

And….I’m thinking about running again.

I put it on hold while I was trying to learn the new route….but it feels like it might be time to give it another go.

I’m tired of feeling stiff like an old man.

At least when I’m running, I feel like I have a little spring in my step.

I’ve got to get this browser problem fixed, too.

It’s driving me crazy to have the browsers misbehaving like this.

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.