My Dream Gig

I look around the room where I keep my music collection and think that the local FM community radio station should just set up a microphone and whatever audio equipment is needed and let me broadcast from here. I could put together a couple hours of music each week and keep it fresh. Mix some Rock, Blues, Folk and Jazz. A little Zydeco and Bluegrass. Play some old favorites and also obscure stuff rarely heard anywhere. Even talk about some of the songs played. It might not be near as interesting as Bob Dylan or Little Steven Van Zandt playing their favorite tunes but I might have a record or two that even Dylan hasn't heard of. And it would be just as inspired and sincere.

Glass Half Empty Attitude

Entering another hotter than the freaking bowels of hades spell here. Why is it that some people actually claim to like the heat? Pure insanity. You step outside and for the first five or six steps it doesn't seem so bad. Tolerable even. But then it hits you like a brick. Apparently it just needed a few misleading seconds to take hold. And then your mind reminds you that it's not even August yet. And you remember that September isn't no sure thing when it comes to cooler temperatures and October seems so far away. Just the word October spoken in July sounds remotely distant.

Been working on a new and improved me at work lately. Where I'm not so quick to get upset with mistakes and misunderstandings. Don't think that I'll mention it over on facebook though. I might get a dozen, "Really?" type of comments. Like they couldn't see the differfence.

I can't recall with certainty. I've always been more of an album person. Why get two songs (with the B-side) when you could get ten or more was my attitude. Tommy James and the Shondells, Crystal Blue Persuasion is the first thing that comes to mind. Though that may have been in album form. Maybe, Hey Jude by The Beatles? Or maybe I'm just recalling hearing that at a friends house? Just a couple wild guesses there with no basis in actual accurate memory. Maybe I just listened to my sisters 45's and never purchased any of my own? For me, the LP was always where it was at. I've certainly spent a lot of money in that quest. I also have a vague memory of the price of 45's being eighty-nine cents.

Shaking Up My World

Last night I slept on the other side of the bed. The side that I never sleep on. I don't know why. A subconcious whim perhaps? I didn't start out there. I just scootched on over there at some point during the night. And on a pillow that I had previously rejected. The world didn't end nor was there a bedroom rocking earthquake that I'm aware of. There were no bizarre dreams to jostle my position. Surprisingly I didn't fall over the edge. How did I know when to stop scootching over? And I gotta admit that I felt more refreshed than usual upon awakening.

You see, I'm not one who's huge on a great deal of change in my world. So this is like a major life transition/statement for me. There's too many unknowns with change. (Though things usually work out.)

Great Mystery Possibly Solved!!

And I've long wanted to discover the answer to this question. It seems that someone has finally come up with a way. Probably came to them as they were drifting off to sleep. (Reference to previous post.) Reminding me of my alltime favorite comic strip, The Far Side.

How I wish that I lived in a town with more record stores and more bookstores. Great gathering places for a community. Great draws for a downtown core and a place to discover what's going on. Communities need more of that. Means of bringing people together and building atmosphere and culture.

I'm convinced that growing up staring into their cell phones has resulted in a generation of kids who don't know how to listen. I experience it all the time at work when giving directions to a younger person is frequently followed with a response of: "What?" or "Huh?" And I'm reasonably sure that I'm not mumbling yet at this point in life.

Weather Report

We complain about it during the Winter but love it when it occurs in the middle of July ...... sprinkles and drizzle. It was such a nice change from the dog days of summer. It makes it much easier for us oldsters to get out and about. And it wasn't just me. Seemed to be quite a few people about downtown and wishing each other to, "enjoy the rain."

Then I saw this which seems to happen to me quite often. I've spent many a moment after just awakening, knowing that near brilliance had visited my approaching sleep daze hours earlier but having no clue what was in the message. If only we could pause and rewind life and revisit those revelations ..... Wait!! Maybe that was the idea that was presented? A way to accomplish such.

Statistical Insanity Baseball Style

Baseball more than any other sport, has a statistic for every possible situation. A new one that I heard today ..... " In his last nine starts with a series sweep of his team on the line, he has an 0 and 7 record with a 7.49 earned run average." (Ummmmmm OK, was my reaction upon hearing.) As much of a statistics geek as I am, I would have never wondered about that one on my own. I guess you can update that after today to 0 and 8 in his last ten starts in that situation and an even higher ERA as the pitcher in question got roughed up and wasn't in the game for long.

Just glad that it wasn't a Yankee pitcher. Who thinks up these things and how tedious must that have been to research? Hopefully there's a super computer somewhere where a super statistical nerd type can plug in a situation that no one else would have ever thought of and it gives you the numbers in less than five seconds. I'd hate to think that it's just one guy going through a pile of newspapers and boxscores.

Other notes .....

• While at work, a young and pretty girl smiles at me several times and I forget for a few moments how old I am. Then the realization hits ..... Old enough to be her Grandfather. It would be nice to be young again and still believe in things like love.
• Was that restraunt serious? I would have had to have a parallel universe version of me and two or three clones sitting there at the table to have been able to finish off that breakfast portion that they served up this morning.
• Then there's this ....... 
  

Perfect Timing

Talk about the inner clock and self fulfilling prophecy meter working to perfection .... I wake up, put on my glasses, turn on the TV, just in time to literally see Ivan Nova starting his wind-up for the Yankees game opening pitch. That's how all sports programming should be. Then in the bottom of the first inning, with a runner on base and Mark Teixeira standing in the batters box, I'm calculating to myself: "If he hits a home run here, he'll have 24 homers and 65 RBI's" ..... then on the very next pitch he homers!!

So what else can I time to perfection while I'm on a roll here? How about: If my doorbell rings and a stranger hands me a million dollars, I'll have X amount of dollars in my bank account? OK, it didn't happen instantly but I'll give that one five minutes and still call it good.

Yankee Notes

• Sometimes I think it's as if Stephen Drew has a bet going with Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances to see if he can get the digits of his batting average lower than the digits of their earned run averages.
• Wow that was some great audition that they gave Rob Refsnyder. Thirteen plate appearances to show what he could do and sent back to Triple-A. As I recall, Robinson Cano started slowly as well when he was called up a decade ago. But they stuck with him and he figured it out eventually. Why Refsnyder doesn't get the same treatment especially when whatever he could provide is likely to be far superior to the current options. I thought the idea was to improve their chances of winning games.
• Chase Headley seems to be stuck daily in a 1-4 groove. His batting average fluctuating wildly between .250 and .255 over the past two months. He could be quietly threratening Joe DiMaggios fifty-six game hitting streak and no one would know. 

Art Fair Notes

Thoughts and observations from a (hot) day strolling around the Salem Art Fair.

• Stood in awe before a beautiful old violin on a table at the Salem Symphony Orchestra's booth. The instrument itself, a work of art!! It's presence, I think a ploy to get people to stop and vote on their new logo ideas. Hate to say that I was tempted to grab the violin and run. If only I were younger and full of spunk, daring and stamina. It's a good thing that I'm basically an honest person. Many years ago, Catholic school put the fear of consequeces for my actions into me.
• I enter with no plan of action and searching for nothing specifically. Just to wander open mindedly until coming across items that speak to me.
• Stunned by one artists work with bronze. Stunned by the prices also. Quality and originality obviously don't come inexpensively.
• I can't help but notice where all the artists come from. From all over the western states. Two years ago there was a lady from either North Carolina or Georgia. That sounds like quite the summer life ... to pack up all your art and travel from festival to festival. The last three or four years, I've attempted to make it worthwhile to at least one artist. 
• Walking around, can't help but wonder where the inspirations and ideas come from. It's almost like you can feel them floating in the air and with so many creative people present, unspoken and invisible ideas crossing and mixing with other ideas, just waiting to be realized.
• Overheard one artist greet a potential buyer with, "Welcome to the inner workings of my mind." 
• Comparing the festival weekend setting full of artists and vendors booths to what it will look like tomorrow (Monday) evening with just the trees and paths, it seems like two completely different places. Each possessing its own atmospheres and attractions. 

A New Type of Dream

Dream about a co-worker, someone I don't know very well but someone that I've never had conflict with, breaking into my home and stealing from me. And each time that I drifted back to sleep or was in that half awake, half asleep state, I'd slip back into a continuation of the dream or some dizzying thought process related to it. Finally just had to get up in an attempt to end all the drama. It was like: "Why can't I snap out of this exhausting maze?" And why can't this process take place with the pleasant dreams?

Heat Wave

Nothing like an extended heat wave to get you to appreciate the arrival of cooler temperatures. This morning it felt so much like a seasonal change to Autumn that I had to remind myself that it's only early July and there's likely more heat ahead. But I truly am thankful for the change. The heat still gets to me. I'm not to the point yet in my aging process where I'm one of those oldsters that you occasionally see, walking around in 95 degree temps, wearing a coat.

Had to chuckle at the Weather Channel graphics the other day. It said that it was currently 91 degrees in my area .... but that it "feels like" 90. Well at least it didn't feel like 92 at that moment. Though a short while later I noted to myself that it "felt like" 122.

The Strange Dream World Again

A dream generated during a mid-afternoon nap, where I go to work and discover that a couple grade school classmates and middle school basketball teammates, Kent Quesnel and Dan Lutz, are driving lift truck for me. Kent's on Facebook and I've seen him around a few times over the years but I can't recall if I've seen Dan since high school. It's just strange how people for no apparent reason, will pop into my dream world. And then playing roles in activities that I would never have imagined of them.

I'm still waiting for the dream where I get into a confrontation with Superman and Batman ..... and I prevail!!! Gotta be one of those just floating around in the air out there.