When it gets to the point where you’re adding worrying about not getting to sleep to your list of worries, I think that things have gone a little too far.
It’s a shame when you have a night like that.
When I got up this morning, it was still pretty cool….so I started a fire in the woodstove and watched it catch, sitting back on my feet…crouched…tired.
It hit me that it was a real kindness that I could see that something as simple as lighting a fire could give us so much comfort.
I worry about stuff.
I want things to be “right”…but worry just gums up the works.
Worry doesn’t do anything good for me
I know that….but I still worry.
Something about the septic system has got me pretty….bothered.
I think that we need a new one.
That’s kind of an expensive item to have done.
So, to have something as simple as successfully lighting a fire in the woodstove provide a temporary distraction from my worries….is a good thing.
There are simple things that distract in a good and positive way.
That’s the life, really.
The worry is the dream…the ghost….the thing that waits in the closet but doesn’t really exist.
All we really have are the things that actually come to light in our world.
All that really matters are the actions we take.
I will worry….that’s my way….but I need to spend more time attacking the things that I can make good in our lives.
I don’t know that we clapped all that much at our church.
The Scandinavians at the Lutheran church were more laid-back.
And…laid-back is still my style.
But….this enthusiasm is pretty great.
Now, we’ve visited some churches that were “coliseum rock” style….big sound systems and jumping up and down….and when the music hurts my ears, I get kind of uncomfortable.
Peace in the Valley doesn’t co-exist with the big show…for me, at least.
When it becomes a show that I’m an audience member at, I’m not sure how much I get out of the worship experience.
But….it is a show.
Watch this video and look at the two bassists behind this guy….the ones sitting down.
I don’t know that I’d want to play after him.
He’s pretty good.
There would have to be a large number of patient and benevolent Christians in this congregation to let me get up and play after this guy.
I think that if I got up to play, the energy level might drop for a couple of minutes.
That’s what they call a “non sequitur”.
But….what the heck? It’s not a contest….maybe I could get up and play somewhere….someday.
Remember this scene from the movie “Crossroads”? (Not the one with Britney Spears….the one with Ralph Macchio.)
The movie is about a young classical guitarist who wants to learn the blues….and this is the final scene where he battles the devil’s guitarist to win back the soul of his friend…and reluctant mentor, Willie Brown… who he’s been traveling with.
Here’s the final scene. Guess who wins?
I’m glad church isn’t like this.
No matter how many bassists are sitting behind you, waiting to get a chance to play, church is never like this.
That would be a hard thing to be playing for your soul every week.
The defrost cycle in the freezer comes on, melts any ice that might have formed on the coils at the back of the freezer, the water drips down into the tray below the defroster….and then, hopefully, flows down into the collection tray at the bottom of the refrigerator….where it evaporates.
Cool.
What actually happens is that the water in the tray in the freezer compartment doesn’t drip down completely….and, over time, re-freezes and clogs the drain hole.
When the drain hole is clogged….and the water can’t go where it needs to go…..the refrigerator compartment gets a lot of dripping water coming in….and you curse the crappy refrigerator that you used to be so proud of.
Anything new and shiny gets old…and when it doesn’t work right, you notice that it’s getting old even more….and you start thinking about spending MO’ MONEY!!!
So…I am going to fix our refrigerator tomorrow with this trick.
It makes sense…..if the ice is forming, bring the heat to it and let it go away like it’s supposed to.
That’s the beautiful thing about non-invasive, cheap fixes….if it doesn’t work, all you’re out is your time.
I hope it works.
I’ll just keep adding copper wire until it works.
We’ll have to move the peas over a little by the time I’m done putting 20 lbs of copper wire into the freezer compartment.
I’m not going to let this freezer beat me.
I’ll melt that stuff yet…..
4/16 Here’s an update…just finished the job….and ….then did some more research. From a repair site called Dave’s Repair, I found out that what you should do to avoid damaging the heater element is not to wrap the wire around it like in the video, but to take a 6″ piece of 14 awg wire and make a hook on one end, hang it over the element, and then let it hang down into the hole. Hang it loosely….he says …otherwise you might damage the coil. Oh, well….live and learn (hopefully). I’ll update how it worked out for our repair.
4/16….a little later. Man….that wasn’t even the video I meant to post. The video I meant to post had the wire wrapped around the element. This way is so much easier….just a hook over the element. Simple. We’ll see if the “hard way” that I tried works….but a hook would have been so easy and so fast.
Here’s the bassist from yesterday’s video, Michael League, and his band, Snarky Puppy, from Brooklyn, NY.
This video is from a performance at the Asheville Music Hall….from 2013.
The video is from the same YouTube channel I mentioned yesterday….Barry2theB !!
What a great collection of films!
I don’t know if you can call them films anymore…..maybe you have to call them SD Card archives?….digital snapshots?….cloud ….something?
“Film” sounds so much more substantial, though.
These are nice films.
You might be able to see these guys for under 20 dollars.
It costs, like, 200 dollars to see Madonna….maybe a million….I haven’t checked lately.
I’d rather see Snarky Puppy than Madonna any day.
I take back what I said about being nostalgic for digging through pawn shop bins for vinyl being the best way to discover music…..YouTube is pretty amazing.
Snarky Puppy! Michael League! BASS!!
I need to get my bass out again….this looks pretty fun.
OK….here’s the deal: looking up “Asheville musicians”, I came upon this video.
This lady isn’t from Asheville.
This video is from a live performance that took place in Asheville, NC back in 2014 at the Asheville Music Hall.
She’s from New York…..via Norway….or….is it the other way around? She was born in Norway….but lives in New York now.
Hildegunn Gjedrum is her name.
Her bassist’s name is Michael League.
I need to start playing my bass again.
His playing is pretty darn inspiring.
That’s the thing about the internet…..you can find a performance by somebody great when you’re looking for something completely different.
I’ve heard so many different versions of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”….I guess that Jeff Buckley’s version is still the “gold standard” for me….but this one might come in a close second.
No matter how much money you have…..you want more money.
Mo’ money.
Funny how that goes.
Unless…..you figure out a way to not have anything and are able to just enjoy the breeze.
Who can do that, though?
Here’s a performance by a songwriter named Jackson Emmer at a bookstore in Aspen, CO.
You can’t live for free in Aspen.
You can’t live cheap in Aspen.
At least, I don’t think that you can live cheap in Aspen.
We hit the thrift stores again yesterday.
They have a huge clearance section filled with all the stuff they didn’t get rid of during the week.
This is stuff that other people jettisoned…..nice stuff….so that they’d have room to fill their lives with more stuff…..new stuff….fresh stuff.
You can live cheap…under the radar….in a 50 cent thrift store clearance rack shirt.
THERE IS SO MUCH STUFF COMPETING FOR OUR ATTENTION IN THIS WORLD!! EVEN THE USED STUFF HAS TO COMPETE!!
Pretty amazing.
You can really cram your life full of stuff if you’re willing to grab the stuff that floats downstream, though.
Maybe the only real wealth is to have just enough….and to be good enough at the editing process that the only things that you retain are the things that you really love?
Funny that when money gets a little less present, you want to climb up on the back of something just to get your head above water.
The bargain rack is about as good a place to stand as anyplace while the floodwaters rise, I guess.
Jackson Emmer lives up in Asheville now….I guess he moved on out from Colorado.
Awwww, what the heck? Here’s some more Jackson Emmer. There’s something wrong about a video as good as this only getting 40 YouTube views…..let’s make it 41, shall we? Check him out up in Asheville….or anywhere…..there’s an itinerary on his website.
This part that the video guy is working on is on the top part of a car.
Mine is on the bottom.
I worked at replacing the transmission mount yesterday….but when I got into it and noticed that one of the two bolts that attach the mount to the transmission was gone, and the other one was just spinning because the threads in the trans were messed up….and the new mount didn’t fit right because it wasn’t the same as the old one….and I’d gone to town to buy the missing bolt…..and it didn’t go together right….I just put the old one back on and bolted everything back together as well as I could.
It was a lot more frustrating than this horrible run-on sentence would indicate.
That’s the way it goes with car repair, though.
There are reasons that things vibrate in a bad way.
There are reasons that lube is leaking.
There are reasons that things stop working like they should.
And….it’s often not the thing that you think it is.
And….you usually break something unrelated trying to get to the thing that you need to fix.
(“Usually” is pretty pessimistic….”sometimes” is a better word for that situation.)
I’ll buy the right mount and take it to somebody to do for me.
I don’t relish the thought of trying to do this heli-coil thing laying on my back in the sharp gravel.
It would be good to have a working mount on the transmission.
I wonder why the guys that replaced the transmission with the used one I brought them didn’t fix it right the first time?
I guess that I’m more conscientious about my vehicle than they are.
Surprises like that are kind of a pain in the rear…..and….I wonder who finds all these parts that fall off of people’s cars?
I’ll bet that if you could collect enough of them, you could build something….at least a go-kart.
I looked at our credit card statements this morning so that I could pay “those guys”.
I think that it’s mostly a machine that I’m paying these days.
Unless I have an issue….and need to call the Philippines or something….I think that it’s all pretty automated.
Out in the cloud….floating around.
That’s strange.
So….I paid some on the cards….and wondered where all the money was going….and the minute I got off the credit card site, I got on…..
CRAIGSLIST!!!
That’s kind of nuts.
I’m really not even looking to buy anything is the weird part.
Maybe I’m looking to buy everything?
Maybe I want it all?
We don’t spend any crazy money, though…..but little coherent expenses pile up some….and looking at the statements stops being very fun….and …..THE MONEY!!! THE MONEY!!! THE MONNNNNNNNNNNAY…..
There’s a comfort in buying things…..it feeds the knowledge that you’re a good hunter and capable and….able….somehow.
That’s a comfort.
It’s a comfort to buy things….even when you don’t really need anything.
There’s a whole lot of things to buy, too.
Millions of things.
Millions of things that are competing for our attention….swaying us with a colorful and well-planned display that’s made to grab us and drag us over to the place where we trade something for a thing we can bring home and add to our already overflowing pile of STUFF.
It isfun to walk around looking at stuff.
I’d figure out a way to spend some money even if I wasn’t looking to do it, too.
Funny stuff, that money.
It’s strange to go from “what did I buy?” to “what can I buy?” so quickly.
That’s pretty darn goofy.
Anyway….enough about money. It’s a fascinating topic….a ghost….a mirage….a game, really, making it, that is….but…really kind of boring in a lot of ways.
It’s only what you do with the money that really means anything.
I saw a “charity” where you can buy a couple of goats for folks who could really use a goat and….. change their lives.
Man.
That would be a lot more fun than buying a bunch of Big Macs. (We don’t do that….unless….they’re on sale and the Happy Meal toy transforms or something…)
That would feel better than buying a pizza at Sam’s Club.
You couldbuy more coffee and drink it, sitting at a computer….too early in the morning.
There’s just about a million things that you could do with some money.
Maybe more….I didn’t count them all.
Anyway…I’ve got a lot more on my plate than thinking about money all….or, even, some… of the time.
