this post has no title

Posted on by January 3, 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZzNu40n3XA

If you build big, you build big because you have some stuff that needs a place to land.

(Either that….or you really need a monument to achievement….some marker to say, “SEE!! The neighborhood!! The view!! The TAXES!! …..AND, maybe, the amenities!! Look at what we did!!”)

Not always, but…sometimes….. it’s a monument to achievement.

You need a shell that says, “I’m OK.”

(But….on the other hand….it would be kind of bizarre and cool to live in a mansion or a castle….big spaces….little bells to ring if I needed the servants to bring another pop-tart or something….motes…it might be kind of cool. I guess it’s really sort of hard to say, though…)

If you build big, and you don’t already have a bunch of stuff, when you look into the wide empty space that your house is….you realize that you better get shopping….and quick.

You better get some serious shopping done so that you can fill up these giant spaces with stuff.

Big inside spaces need stuff to fill them.

Of course, outside spaces are a different deal.

You can’t have enough stuff to fill up some outside spaces….

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Maybe the solution really is to only have the stuff that you need to live….and a little house that limits what you choose to decide is “enough to live” might be the only way (for me, at least) to set a limit on the stuff we have in our lives.

A tiny house….and a really big storage space for the rest of your crap.

If we can push our piles of stuff onto someone else’s space, we should be able to live small….with a small pile of the stuff that we decide we can’t get rid of….that we selectively fill our tiny space with.

It’s easier to be selective if the other stuff is safely stored out of our line of sight.

Either rent a storage facility….or just leave all your crap at your parent’s house.

That’s crummy…don’t pawn it off on your parents.

That’s crummy.

I have a lot of stuff….books….too many books….musical stuff….clothes….

I’d have to do some heavy duty paring down to move into a tiny place.

If you have a space that’s too big to be called a “tiny house”…..but too small to be considered a house that a family can comfortably live in….for some reason, you don’t consider (radically) paring down as much with a “mid-range house”….you think about getting a space big enough for all the stuff to fit into.

The “in-between” house isn’t hip enough to make you define what you hold onto….or big enough to let you avoid deciding what to hold onto.

I don’t have the power to define my space just by being in it.

Why do I let my spaces define me?

Why do I think out loud?

It’s hard enough when I keep my thoughts to myself.

Tiny thoughts in a mid-range house.

 

sometimes….the good guy wins

Posted on by January 2, 2015

James Taylor posted this video on his page sometime late last year.

James Taylor is one of my friends….or maybe I just “like” him.

I don’t remember how all this Facebook stuff went down….all I know is that from time to time, he contacts me with little bits of information.

Some of it, like all Facebook stuff, is kind of self-absorbed.

Some of it is really interesting.

This video, about the fellow who built many of his guitars, was one of the interesting bits.

The vision of a master craftsman talking about a new guitar order with a client while scrubbing out toilets in the ladies’ room will stay with me.

Mr. Olson is a cool dude…and a great guitar builder.

There are a lot of great people doing interesting things in the world.

There’s a lot of people quietly excelling at something they love to do.

James Olson is one of them.

Here’s a “different James” video where he talks about some of his guitars a bit….and one of his Olson guitars.

It’s good to see one of the good guys “win”.

I’ll do.

Posted on by January 1, 2015

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The easiest thing in the world ….the very easiest, no sweat, accomplishable task….that I can think of is to talk about what I plan to do.

How cool is it that January 1st is kind of a traditional day for big promises and dreams?

I’m making plans to start planning something fresh and interesting….life changing and invigorating….as we speak.

As I speak.

As I type.

My resolution is to plan something that will knock my socks off.

Flat off my feet.

Plan something.

But what?

I have a lot of irons in the fire….I have a lot of stuff to do.

I have a lot of things to try and hold together….and here I am, wanting to put a veneer of excitement on something and start the New Year off doing something different than what I’ve been doing the previous year and make our lives more VITAL somehow….or more effervescent….or just a wee bit FRESHER…. somehow.

OK, here’s a resolution….I’m going to try and bloom where I’m planted this year…and if I need to change something, I’m going to make what I do already a little more sophisticated and refined…..make what we have already a little more beautiful….get my stuff together, in other words.

No need to upset the apple cart….maybe just clean it up and make a bunch of pies with the apples I already have.

I don’t know, though…..the “big plans” sound so much more important.

“This is the year of the walkabout, the South American joy ride, rebuilding the VW bus and taking off for the wild and free….no, I’d describe it best as the ‘vintage VW bus’…..building the business that rockets and sustains, being more than anyone ever expected….AND having the number one viral video on YouTube….a video about something really cool and unusual….a video that will make us RICH….R…I…C….H.”

Or…..

“Find a way to end world hunger and educate the masses.”

I think the selfish thing sounds more fun.

What’s fun, though?

A resolution.

A revolution.

I think that this year I hope to stay off Kim Jong-Un’s radar.

I don’t know how to do that….maybe never mention him in a blog? I really don’t know…..but it’s a reachable goal and probably kind of smart.

Any of these plans sound OK….

Anyway, I’ve read that “if I’m not planning, I’m already planning to fail” ….or something like that.

No….I remember! “Failing to plan is planning to fail”. That’s the one I couldn’t remember.

I don’t plan to fail.

I just don’t always know what I’m planning to do.

Big plans sound cool, though.

Today is the day! I’ve got to put some kind of plan together.

That’s a good enough resolution for me.

“part of the plan” Dan Fogelberg

another year

Posted on by December 31, 2014

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OK….here’s the plan.

I’ll get up early….by about an hour….earlier than usual…”4″ instead of “5”….get a little bit of a jump start on the day…..and then when the ball drops later tonight….when the year is tripping over into tomorrow….I’ll be alert and will have all my ducks in a row and I’ll be able to ring in the New Year right (!!).

How’s that for a plan?

I know it’s not going to work like that….no matter how much coffee I drink this morning, I think that I’m going to fall asleep on the couch if I don’t struggle today to STAY ALERT!!

Maybe that’s a good and reachable resolution?! To “STAY ALERT” in the coming year?

I listened to this song for the first time in about 30 years this morning.

I hadn’t heard it for a long time.

“another year” Leo Sayer

Let’s see….he’s singing about ’76….so I guess that album came out in 1975? Let’s see….

sayer

I”m right! The album came out in 1975!!

Let’s see (again)….I never bought albums “new”….or rarely….so I probably was 16….maybe 17 when I was listening to this.

Sitting on my bed with headphones on….listening to Leo Sayer.

That was a while ago.

Hmmmmmm…..how did that happen?

I guess that sometimes music is my marker….music and cars that I’ve owned….now, it’s children who are making good markers for the passing time.

What the heck? I have a good repertoire of “markers” for the passing time. Time is passing and I’m gathering all these “markers”….and there’s a whole lot more than the ones I’m listing here….

But to think of me sitting on my bed, listening to all this melodramatic stuff….what was I thinking?

Life’s too short to let something like someone else’s melodrama get me stirred up.

Anyway….you can’t move forward looking back….unless you have some of those glasses that let you see behind you….the ones with the little mirror on the side.

The ones that you wear when you’re trying to be safe and zipping around on your bicycle.

I never see any bicyclists riding backwards, though.

Most of the time, they must be using the mirror to see what’s trying to catch them.

Maybe that’s the key? Only look back when something’s trying to catch you?

The only thing chasing me is the ticking clock….and who needs to see that?

I’m going to keep my eyes open this year.

Beyond that, I really don’t have any resolutions.

Maybe just “Stay Awake”….and to take care of my family.

Here’s another song from that album that I used to listen to in my room…..

“i will not stop fighting” Leo Sayer

The happiest of New Years to you.

 

 

 

checking the things that are already fixed

Posted on by December 30, 2014

You can drive a car when everything’s not right with it.

It’s a big “system”….there’s a lot going on….a lot of minor details that, when things are working right, will make it more pleasant….or less noisy….or safer…but the car will “go” with things kind of wrong with it.

Sometimes, when you hear a noise and wonder what that is….wonder what that “dry” sound is and where it’s coming from….wonder what that slight grinding or knocking or ticking or squealing or dripping or sloshing or….or any of the strange sounds that I’ve grown to obsess over as I’ve made my way through the world driving cheap cars….anyway….sometimes you start your search at the last place you should look.

You discount the thing that’s already been fixed because….well, because it’s already been fixed.

Why would the new be bad and old so soon?

So….you don’t check the parts that failed too early ….and you waste a lot of time poring over the things that “might be wrong” instead.

My front axle u-joints are fragged again.

I was checking something else over Christmas break….trying to figure things out….and noticed some weird looseness….and when I traced the problem, found that my new recent u-joints are worse than they were when I had them replaced.

I never would have checked them.

In my head, I think that I thought that the new part would be good forever or something.

Surely, the new part wouldn’t be bad….right?

That wasn’t something to concern myself with.

So….I need to pull the hubs and then pull the axles and repair those joints.

Half of the journey….maybe more….is just figuring out what the problem is.

I can’t fix what I don’t know is wrong.

And something that is supposed to be “right”….something fairly new and shiny with a veneer of goodness to it….something recently fixed and supposedly correct….is going to fly under my radar every time.

I can drive my car with a lot wrong with it.

I can get down the road with a vehicle that is an encyclopedia of squeaks and rattles that maybe only I can really hear.

I can drive it and never worry about some things if I think that they should be OK….because they’ve already been fixed once.

Already fixed…..

Hmmmmm.

Nothing is fixed forever.

The journey is all about replacing and repairing….paying attention to what’s broken and trying to fix it….moving on.

Maybe sometimes it’s just about learning what squeaks are serious and what you can live with?

Maybe it’s about paying attention?

Maybe it’s about learning what the “right things” to pay attention to are?

I’m not going to figure everything out….I just know now that I have to replace my u-joints.

That’s enough to know for now.

 

 

Little House in the Woods

Posted on by December 29, 2014

“Hey! This one’s in Asheville!” I thought.

I’m always interested in the local talent….it’s always good to see something pop up in my general neck of the woods.

It’s a cabin….but it’s small enough to be called a “tiny house”….so it gets a different kind of attention than some dude building a cabin on an inaccessible (by vehicle) lot would get.

That’s goofy.

When I first moved up to NC, I lived on the north side of a mountain in a great house that some friends had built in the middle of 50 acres.

It was on a steep piece of land, too….and, because it was on the north side and didn’t get a lot of intense winter sun, the driveway stayed icy most of the winter.

Because the driveway stayed snowed in and icy, it was very awkward to make it up the 800 ft road with my two-wheel drive truck for much of the winter.

Carrying all your groceries up a steep, icy driveway most of the winter loses its “romance” a couple of months into the experience.

So, now that I’m getting older and maybe a little smarter….maybe….the appeal of a place that I have to carry all my building materials to gets kind of limited.

A “once in a while” cabin….maybe.

My house….the one that I live in all the time, the one that I carry sleeping babies into after I pick them up out of their car seats in the minivan, the one that I carry a gallon of milk into?….nah.

Nah. I don’t think that sounds too interesting.

We looked at some goofy “houses” when we were first married.

They were built by people who didn’t have any money…..built in weird places because the land was cheap….and the selling price was low because they were weird little houses.

One that we looked at had about a mile walk on the railroad tracks to get to.

It was a little shack.

I don’t think that it was cool enough to be called a “tiny house”, though….and it was a while ago, so even if I’d “made the grade” (square footage wise), I don’t think it could have ever been in the “tiny house” category.

It would have been in the “little shack” category.

This is a nice little house, built from plans purchased from Jay Schafer….of Tumbleweed Tiny Houses.

It’s a beautiful little “tiny house” in the woods.

Much nicer….and cooler…and trendier…..than the “little shack” monstrosity that two dreamers found across the river and a mile walk in on the railroad tracks so many years ago.

I’m glad that we didn’t buy that house.

That would have been so crazy.

I like access.

I like room for a bunk bed that I can lay my sleeping child into.

I like a room to sit in ( and watch television! ) and not wake the kids up.

What did those bears say?

I like a house that’s “just right”.

Here’s a link to the homeowner’s blog….

 

“Come On Up To The House” Willie Nelson

three chords….and then some….and the truth.

Posted on by December 28, 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJHieH1HX5M

OK….here’s a YouTube progression….Chris Rosser….to David Wilcox….to Bruce Cockburn….to Michael Hedges…to….and this was a happy accident….just because my brother-in-law had never seen a harp guitar….to Muriel Anderson and a really pretty version of Don McLean’s “Vincent”.

It’s a beautiful, twisted web of great musicians if you’re willing to jump down the rabbit hole and listen to some stuff that you might have never had a chance to hear if you didn’t have access to the internet.

I get kind of bitchy about how commercial radio has fallen apart….tight playlists and a few artists with limited talent who seem to dominate that medium (radio)….never hearing anything really new because no one wants to take a chance and play something that doesn’t fit the current “mold”….but then I get on the internet and I can say, “Did you ever hear…(fill in the blank)….” and we’re off and running and getting a chance to see and hear some great artists like this.

It’s a renaissance….just in a different medium….and as much as we’re not willing to be manipulated by whatever the YouTube algorithm tries to subtly force feed us…..pretty self-directed and wonderful.

It’s not the “golden age of radio”….but it’s pretty darn cool in it’s own way.

What am I complaining about?

It’s a good time to be a music lover.

Anyway….check out Muriel Anderson on this harp guitar.

Pretty freaking cool.

Thanks, YouTube.

The thing that messes me up…

Posted on by December 27, 2014

The thing that messes me up with videos like this is that, when you find out what was spent, (and it could be a “Bob Vila” type situation where the cost is exaggerated in a favorable way….and things are said to be less expensive than they actually are)….anyway…when you find out that the land in Hawaii (island paradise? maybe….) was 8,000 dollars….and the home was built (without permits) for 11,000 dollars….well, it makes the remodeling that we plan on doing look like it should be a lot cheaper than it turns out being.

Of course, we can watch programs that show people remodeling their kitchens for 100’s of thousands of dollars.

That’s kind of goofy…but if you buy crazy, fancy fixtures and use expensive contractors…..and don’t worry about spending the money, I guess that you could figure out a way to get rid of your money fast.

I guess that there is always a way to get rid of your money fast if you work at it.

That’s the thing that works for me…..a video like this helps me think that anything is possible….and that I might be able to afford it….before I actually get into the project and figure out that, hey, this is going to be more expensive than I thought.

Or….and this turns out to be true more often than not….a little bit of money spent to make our lives nicer really is money well spent. You can do a lot with a little….small tweaks can really get a place livable….or better, enjoyable…. cheaply.

But, usually….Ignorance is complete and total BLISS….until the bills come rolling in and I GET SCHOOLED!!

What’s to worry, anyway?

I don’t ever get anything good done if I’m always worried about the cost.

Spend some money!! Live!!

Live.

That’s the whole deal….just keep living.

Just keep on living….tiny house or big house…island paradise or mountain cabin….on land or on sea….just stay alive.

Keep breathing….and while you’re doing that….stay alive.

 

 

 

The Scenery’s Always Changing….

Posted on by December 26, 2014

I got a copy of Lloyd Kahn’s latest book , Tiny Homes on the Move, for Christmas.

tiny homes on the move

It’s a collection of pictures and profiles of people who live in vans and buses….gypsy wagons….boats….

Boats!!

That’s something I’ve never done.

I don’t live on a boat.

I have a feeling that it takes some money to get set up with a boat….but once you’ve got the vessel, it’s not so bad to try to afford sailing around.

This is another great book by Lloyd Kahn….one that inspires me to get out and have some adventures….or maybe just sit on the couch and watch a movie about someone else having an adventure.

Sitting on the couch isn’t very adventurous.

I sit on the couch too much.

But…I digress.

This isn’t about me sitting on the couch….it’s about another book that makes me think about alternatives.

Here’s a video about sailing….this was one of the people who was featured in Lloyd’s book.

It’s another video by Kirsten Dirksen, too….check her out on YouTube….she’s done a lot of great videos.

One thing that just hit me….and I digress again….is that “voluntary simplicity” is a lot more attractive if you’ve come from a place where it’s your choice to “volunteer”.

It’s a better way….to live simply….but if you’ve grown up without, then “without” might be a lot less appealing option to pursue.

Of course….I never grew up without….so what do I know?

If you make good choices, maybe you can afford this life?

Give up what’s extraneous….and put it all into the dream?

For now, I’ll just buy another book by Lloyd Kahn….with a bunch of pictures of people doing interesting things and living in unusual circumstances….and think about all the things my family and I could be doing.

Or….I could take a look around and just “get satisfied”….live every moment aware of the blessings all around me.

That might be a good thing to do….irregardless of whether I ever get to go out onto the ocean….or not.

You can buy Lloyd’s book directly from him at Shelter Publications …..or, of course, from Amazon.com.  ….and, before I completely forget to support all the local bookstores in the world….all the hip and friendly and knowledgeable and creative local bookstores….you can buy it from your local bookstore. That would be cool, too….

 

 

Crying Jesus

Posted on by December 25, 2014

P1030652This isn’t a picture of Jesus.

I don’t think you can get one of those….except maybe in your mind….maybe in your heart.

Photography wasn’t big back then.

Sparrow was up last night….goofing around.

She wasn’t crying unless we tried to get her to stop goofing around.

These babies….they have no respect for the sanctity of the idea of sleeping in until 6:00 on Christmas day.

They don’t respect exhaustion.

What was that first morning like for Mary?

You know that she was tired….it was probably a pretty stressful experience for her, what with those wise men poking their heads in and the Angels and everything.

That must have been kind of hard.

Divine….but hard.

And did Jesus cry out for her that first morning?

We don’t usually talk about that, I guess.

Maybe it’s a way of distancing ourselves from the whole thing a little….go heavy on the “miracle” part of it….the part that we can’t completely relate to (what do we really know about “miracles”, anyway?)….and go a little bit lighter on the human side of it.

If we understood the human side of the experience as well as we pretend to know the “divine side”, it might make us more….what’s a word? Culpable? Responsible? What’s a good word?

If the whole thing was “connectable”…if we let ourselves remember that Jesus was the bridge….a very human little baby laying in a rough manger after a hard night….laying near his very tired and blessed mother….well, then we’d have to relate a little deeper than when we could think of it all as just another mysterious and unreachable “God Thing”.

I think that Jesus probably cried some….in a nice way.

What a mysterious miracle this day was.

I guess that maybe what I’m wondering is this….if we understood what the experience really was for Mary…and Jesus….and Joseph….we’d have no excuse for not understanding completely….every day….how close this brought us to God.

No excuses. We’d have to understand. We’d have to relate.

Who wants to be left without excuses?

A giant neon plastic nativity set is easier to ignore.