OK.
So, I’ve complained about the romance being gone when I’m looking for music.
It’s easy to romanticize looking in bins for cheap vinyl.
It’s harder to do the same thing when I’m clicking a mouse at the computer.
But….how would I find people like this?
The happy accident is a lot easier to have when I’m using the internet.
It’s easy to find stuff.
What an excellent guitarist!
It’s fun to discover people like Jon Gomm.
When Denise Matthews……a lady who used to sing under the name Vanity….died….and I heard about it that morning….I sent a video of one of her old songs to my friend….but I didn’t send him one of these videos to go with it.
We used to sing that old song….back in the day.
It was kind of nasty.
It was kind of funny to us, I guess…..
This is an interesting story….an interesting testimony.
You don’t hear a whole lot about Vanity after her conversion.
Denise wasn’t as interesting to the world as “Vanity”.
I guess that this interview is from around 1993 or so…..maybe 1994.
Talking about seeds planted 10 years earlier….remembering earlier conversations about the need to know God….good to hear.
Denise Matthews was formerly known as “Vanity”.
People change.
Maybe it’s not quite as romantic as I thought to live in a van….and be completely mobile.
Maybe I should just stay put and not pack up Jenny and the kids and make them all live in a little van?
That might be a crummy experience for them.
That might be really crummy.
Who said, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself”?
It was something like that.
Last night, an ice storm began.
Freezing on the roads….freezing on the driveway….ice on the bushes.
It must have rained a bunch while we were sleeping, though, because this morning nothing’s slick anymore.
Even the car windshield is clear.
Nice.
That makes it so much less nerve-wracking for me when the roads aren’t covered in black ice.
But….there’s a two-hour delay for both of the schools my kids go to…..so I have to ask myself, even though the roads are full of traction:
Maybe nothing….but, now….all I have to fear is….fear.
Fear of the unknown.
Fear of the thing that somebody else warned me about.
Better safe than sorry, though, right?
Better to be nervous about the bad thing that might happen than to be blissfully unaware and mellow about the day.
I do know that it feels different than I thought it would.
More comfortable.
Oh….here’s a quick thought before I go…..
Why is it that in cartoons, the mailman is always a cranky son-of-a-gun?
That has no relation to reality.
What mailman have you ever known that seemed to be a cranky son-of-a…..?
What’s that about?
Easy day…..easy hard day after the holiday.
Now I’ve just got to figure out what all the fuss is about…..before I slide off the mountain after hitting that hidden patch of BLACK ICE.
Stand fast…..steady….steady.
When our first daughter (first daughter!! That sounds so powerful!!) was in kindergarten, she came home after one of the first chilly days of Fall and excitedly told us that “IT WAS WARM IN EVERY ROOM!!”
Warm in every room…..
We heated only with wood for many years….and, until we got a propane wall heater with a thermostat, it was often pretty cold in the house when we got up.
Usually, we’d have it comfortable by the time we went to bed in the evening.
By the time the day was over and we were ready to burrow under a quilt, the house was comfortable.
Then it would cool off overnight and we’d start the whole thing over the next day.
When you’re working hard to keep the house warm, you really appreciate comfort.
It was funny that it made such an impact on Zoe to be in a place where every room was warm, though.
Where we live is really pretty mild.
It’s easy to live in the Carolinas.
But….easy is really kind of relative.
When it gets down into the 20’s, it’s cold.
Whether you live in Alaska or in the Carolinas…..it’s cold when it’s cold outside.
“20’s” would be a warm spell for Alaska, probably.
It might snow here today….they called off school, so somebody thinks that something might happen.
That’s relative, too, I guess.
A little snow or a lot of snow….if things get slippery, it gets weird.
I need to put another log on the fire….get it as close to “warm in every room” as I can…..
How’s this? Perfect song for a cold day…..
I worry about people when they buttdial me and then I can’t get back in touch with them.
That’s a liability of caller ID….you can tell who didn’t want to talk to you….but it doesn’t tell you “why”.
You couldn’t buttdial with the old rotary phones.
That was impossible.
Oh, man!!
You know a phone that you really couldn’t buttdial with?
One of the old rotary pay phones!!
(I may be making that up.)
Maybe they were all touch tone by the time I started using pay phones.
I don’t remember.
Anyway….unless you were some kind of spasmodic giant, you weren’t going to get close enough to the phone (with your behind) to be able to buttdial.
That’s not really what I was thinking, anyway.
I can’t get distracted thinking about frenetic giants buttdialing on antiquated telephone equipment.
Stay the course….no matter how crazy your tracks look in the snow when you stop for a rest and look behind you…..stay the course.
What I was thinking…..the synopsis of my coffeeless thesis….is that I worry about folks.
I worry when I think they were trying to get in touch with me….and for some reason, the trying was truncated.
I worry about them.
I worry if I know them.
What am I missing?
Who am I missing?
What……
There….that’s better.
You have to pay attention to stuff like Valentines Day.
How else are they going to know…..THAT YOU LOVE THEM?!!
Oh, man.
The computer is still down….or at least not acting quite “right” still….but it may as well be broken.
It’s all a matter of subtle tweaks….getting it back to operating at “full steam”….but I don’t know how to do it yet….and until I can get online to research it, I can’t fix it.
That’s a conundrum….I can’t really get online until I fix it….and I can’t the info I need to get online….until I fix it.
YARGHHHHHH.
But….what the heck?!!
What’s important?
Nate bought a rocket at the thrift store today….and wanted me to play with him…and the computer distracted me and we didn’t have the fun together that the moment deserved.
That’s pretty poor behavior.
So…again….what’s the important stuff?
I drop the ball again and again….and….after the fact….figure out what the really important stuff was….figure out where my “treasure” really could be found.
This computer is a little weird and a little broken.
The screen turned blue and the world fell apart.
What a twisted sense of proportion.
The world is passing me by while I’m distracted by this meaningless stuff.
That …is ….goofy.
Goofy…and….really….kind of sad.
Freaking computer.
Freaking….
Man…..the screen turned blue and everything shut down.
Who saw that one coming?
That’s happened a couple of times before….and I figure out the problem and fix it….whether it’s a power supply or a hard drive or something else….it gets fixed.
It’s a freak out when it happens, though….when everything that’s trapped in the box goes away or gets hard to retrieve.
I was thinking about that today, and I came to the conclusion that it’s really kind of sad that computers hold so much of my focus.
Why should it be a freak out if the computer crashes?
I don’t freak out when the toaster breaks.
There are better things in the world than a really funny cat video.
There’s more to life than what’s behind the screen.
Goofy.
Maybe we’d be better off if I let it all stay broken?
Gnnnnnnnnnnn.
Blue screens with a lot of words on them make me sick to my stomach.
Sick.
I don’t even have a baseball bat handy.
Oh…..welllllllllllllllllll.
Here’s some folks who “just did it”.
I don’t think that they even had any connection to Nike.
They gathered materials….little by little….and built a cabin without spending a lot of money.
(Check out the dryer drum for an outdoor fireplace! I’d never seen that before….but it looks like a smart rig….)
For a quick solution to a temporary housing need, this looks like some pretty good work.
I guess that the thing about getting things done is to just begin.
Good for you, guys.