My Music Journal 2025: May 30, 2025

 

Friday, May 30, 2025

 

Time: 7:42 PM

Song: The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead

Artist: Crash Test Dummies

Mode of Consumption: Listening to the soundtrack for Dumb & Dumber

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/1NM2ME1gnJpVJjd09XSSrh?si=2f936619ca9949df

 

I went to three garage sales at lunch. The first advertised a lot of toys from the 90s. I was interested, just to take a trip down memory lane. 

 

I arrived and walked around, and didn’t see much of any toys. As I left, I talked to a man in the driveway.

 

“Were you looking for toys?” 

 

“Oh, I was just looking really,” I told him.

 

“Well, before we opened yesterday, we had ten people waiting outside the door. We had eight tables of toys, and after a half hour, pretty much all of it was gone.” 

 

I guess I should be flipping toys rather than records. 

 

The second sale I just followed a sign to, and it didn’t have too much that interested me. 

 

The third sale had listed CDs and DVDs in their newspaper ad, so I was hoping for something of interest. 

 

I bought three CDs.  The first being “The Dumb and Dumber” soundtrack. For a few minutes, I had to think about if I had this. I was pretty sure I didn’t, but I had some lingering memories of being familiar with it. I am pretty sure a friend of mine had it when we were kids. 

 

The other two selections were The Cranberries’ album “No Need to Argue,” and Patsy Cline’s “12 Greatest Hits.” The Cranberries album has “Zombie” on it, which I want to include in my MP3 collection, and hopefully there are other hidden gems on it. 

 

I have several Patsy Cline records, but no CDs, so this will get her in my MP3 shuffle too. 

My Music Journal 2025: May 29, 2025

 

Thursday, May 29, 2025

Time: 5:16 PM
Song: Catch the Wind
Artist: Donovan
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on shuffle on the way home from work.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/505Pd7CPHoewIE3Io2EpWd?si=440e9bf213d54f54

Just before COVID, Jodi and I decided we should find things to get involved with. I started going to Write On, and she volunteered once a month at a special needs facility. The other thing we did was volunteer to help with projects at the Carroll County fairgrounds.

Both of us had attended the fair since our youth, and we have participated yearly as exhibitors. This was a way for us to contribute.

So, on Thursdays in the summer leading up to the fair in the first week of August, we spend an hour or two at the fairgrounds performing various manual labor tasks. Our desire is to show up and help. We don’t really want any more responsibility than that.

One of our yearly tasks is to rake leaves out of the livestock buildings. Each building is open at the end and along the sides, and the grounds have dozens of old, tall trees.

Tonight, we cleaned the front end of the poultry building. The cages used for the fair are always folded and lined along the wall. A perfect place for piles of blowing leaves to gather.

I wonder who the first person was to decide that they needed to remove dead leaves out of the way? Was it an early planter, wanting to expose the soil below before planting? Was it a caveman, looking to start a fire, but not wanting to smoke his family out?

They probably started using their feet and hands, clawing away the dried remains. How many years did it take before they found an old stick that could move more away at quicker pace? Sometime down the road, steel was forged, and a blacksmith had the bright idea for a rake.

Now we do it every year, and probably will until our bodies give up, or somebody plops other duties on us.

My Music Journal 2025: May 28, 2025

 

Wednesday, May 28, 2025

 

Time: 5:23 PM

Song: Get Off

Artist: The Dandy Warhols

Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on shuffle on the way home from work.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/3vNuiCB9OirYFeO79MNQqZ?si=c4bf33b75b104485

 

I am a guy that simply fails to accomplish things that other guys do without a second thought. Maybe fail is too strong a word. I struggle to accomplish simple mechanical things. I might eventually find success, but it usually takes a few tries, some extra thinking, probably some swearing. 

The latest example of this is taking the blades off our riding lawn mower. The last two nights I have lifted the front end of our John Deere x590 off the ground using a pulley we have installed in our shed. 

 

Last night I spent a fair amount of time scrapping gunk (that’s the technical term) off the bottom of the mower deck before even trying to remove the blades.

 

There are three blades on the bottom of the yellow deck. Each blade is attached by a bolt. Simple enough, you say. Get the socket set out, find the correct socket, and then turn. 

 

Well, maybe not. The blades spin when you do that. So, the only thing to do is grab the blades. This just feels wrong. Maybe in the back of my mind I worry that some alien comet will soar above the earth at that very moment just as it did in “Maximum Overdrive” and the mower will come to life on its own, the blades blurring at full speed, cutting my hands off at the wrist. Sometimes it’s bad to have an imagination. 

 

Maybe I’m just not strong enough. Possible, especially laying on the ground, reaching under the deck, and trying to get enough torque to loosen the bolt. But have I grown this week in my middle age? 

 

Well, I’ve also tried attaching sockets to two drills (one battery, one plug in), but that hasn’t yielded any results. If nothing else, it has increased my fear that the blades are going to whirl out of control and maim me. 

 

I remember my father-in-law using an impact wrench on it. Do I need that? What would my father do? I bet he just used a socket or a wrench. 

 

I’ve watched a video or two, one guy didn’t even jack up the front or back ends. Somehow, he reached under with the mower sitting level on the ground. I have to assume he has some sort of shrinking superpower. 

 

Will I eventually get the blades off? Probably. Then it will be a matter of sharpening them, and then probably fighting to get them back on.

 

Again, I realize that somebody reading this will just be like, “What a dingus!” 

 

I accept that. 

My Music Journal 2025: May 27, 2025

Tuesday, May 27, 2025

 

Time: 8:38 PM

Song: Real American

Artist: Rick Derringer

Mode of Consumption: Listening on Spotify.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/1KKFrs4CkKQvqP1DWHwJ9y?si=a5a29eb46774462c

 

I saw earlier today that Rick Derringer died on Monday. With Monday being a holiday, I hadn’t spent much time following the news or checking social media. So I was a little late to game on this one.

 

Somethings about Derringer: 

 

He got his start with the McCoys in the 1960s. Their biggest hit was “Hang On, Sloopy.” I remember this song being on a compilation album that my parents had and I played it often on my Fischer Price turntable

 

He then went solo, hitting it big with “Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo.” That’s probably the song where I learned his name, as it continues to get consistent play on classic rock stations. 

 

I didn’t know he also played with Edgar and Johnny Winter, playing lead guitar on their hits “Frankenstein” and “Free Ride.” 

 

He collaborated with many others including Steely Dan, Cyndi Lauper, and Weird Al Yankovic. 

 

All that said, the song I know I’ve heard more than any other from Derringer is “Real American.” 

 

I was probably six or seven when I first heard it as the theme music for Hulk Hogan of the World Wrestling Federation. I was a wrestling addict at that point of my life, and you could count me as a “Hulkamaniac.” 

 

Pretty much every video tape that the WWF (now known as WWE) distributed concluded with Hogan posing to this song after vanquishing another villainous foe. It was schtick that worked, and worked well to the tune of millions and millions of dollars for Hogan, Vince McMahon, and I assume probably Derringer, too. 

 

It’s since been used often by politicians including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Newt Gingrich and Donald Trump. 

 

I have at least one Derringer album down in my boxes of vinyl to listen to, so I’ll have to check what other bangers he crafted. 

 

  

My Music Journal 2025: May 26, 2025

 

Monday, May 26, 2025

 

Time: 1 PM

Song: Going Up to Country

Artist: Canned Heat

Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on shuffle on the way to Paw Paw, IL. 

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/1c6tN2sFiq2e0dKINVaF88?si=7629090e574b4488

 

We are pointed east on Route 30, cutting across flat, sandy farm land of Lee County. The sun is out, and it’s Memorial Day. Our destination is an alpaca farm near a little town called Paw Paw. It’s about an hour trip one way. 

 

Jodi saw a posting on Facebook for three gelding alpacas, and as part of our goal of finding some sort of grazing livestock for our small pasture, we decided to go check them out. 

 

Paw Paw is a tiny town on the southeastern edge of Lee County. When I first started working at the paper back in the mid-2000s, I remembered that they had a basketball coach who would report their scores. We delivered papers there, although I can’t imagine too many people actually subscribed to the paper in Dixon, nearly forty minutes away. 

 

To my knowledge, we never actually covered any of their games. If we did, it had to be some rare appearance against one of our other small school teams in our coverage area. Perhaps at a winter basketball tournament, or something. The school has dozens of students in it. 

 

I’ve never been to two Paws (as we always like to call it), and I didn’t actually go there today. We saw a sign saying that Paw Paw was another six miles east as we traversed the rural roads to the farm. We did go to Compton, another tiny village, not the area made famous by N.W.A. 

 

We toured the farm, met the alpacas, which actually you have to approach with hands down so they can sniff your face. Whether or not we get them is up to Jodi, but realistically we are not setup for them, so it would mean a pretty healthy fence installation. A couple cattle seem more likely. 

My Music Journal 2025: May 25, 2025

 

Sunday, May 25, 2025

 

Time: 9:45 PM

Song: Insider

Artist: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Mode of Consumption: Watching a DVD of Tom Petty’s Music Videos from 1979-1993

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/6I9mM7Q3YXKYSppopUuCQN?si=7416647bdf6c4ac6

 

It was a holiday weekend so we were staying up a bit later than we usually do on Sunday nights. We watched an episode of “Mad Men.” We are in the second season, having bought pretty much the entire series at garage sales. When it finishes, we don’t have the energy to watch a second episode or watch a half-hour sitcom. We do establish that we both want to eat a small snack of fruit before bed (grapes for me, strawberries for Jodi). 

 

“Well, we’ll watch a couple music videos while we eat.” I pluck the Tom Petty DVD from next to the TV and put it in. We had bought this DVD a week or two before for a buck at a garage sale. 

 

The first video is for “Here Comes My Girl.” It was made in 1979 and it is basically the band playing the song (or probably pretending to play the song). Nothing fancy. 

 

“So, 1979 is before MTV, where would these have been shown?” Jodi asks. 

 

“I’m not sure,” I answer. I don’t really know. “I suspect maybe there was some sort of late-night show that played music videos. Maybe on Saturday night or something.” 

 

Jodi thinks I mean like after midnight and mentions that most channels used to just go off the air at some point in the night. I was thinking more like at 10:30 PM, after the news or something on a night when the late-night shows like Carson weren’t on. 

 

I don’t really know. I am just thinking about how young Tom Petty looks here. I still get a little sad thinking that he’s gone. He was such a mainstay on radio stations when I was growing, and he was also a regular on MTV countdowns because many of his videos are eccentric. 

My Music Blog 2025: May 24, 2025

 

Saturday, May 24, 2025

 

Time: 6:33 PM

Song: Rock n’ Roll is a Vicious Game

Artist: April Wine

Mode of Consumption: Listening to the vinyl album “First Glance” by April Wine.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/76F3ohBe5qt8QuTqspRpiD?si=dfa3e855b75f42bc

 

The cover of this record has five men from the waist up against a gray background with the band name in red and the album title in black surrounded by yellow above them. All five guys have longish hair, three of them have beards, all are white, and they look exactly like you would expect a rock band from the 1970s to look like. 

 

Four of the members are gazing straight ahead, the one in the middle is wearing sunglasses with big rims and looking off to the side. It’s a rock and roll statement, I suppose, but also probably something the photographer suggested to add a little variety and depth to the shot. 

 

“You think the guy in the middle is the singer?” I asked. I know nothing about April Wine. 

 

“Probably.” Jodi said. “Did we decide what April Wine’s big song was?

 

“I don’t remember.” 

 

As I type this, I’ve searched Spotify to find that the song that appears to be April Wine’s hit is “Just Between You and Me.” 

 

This album came from a bulk lot that I bought from a man in Winslow, IL. On the back of the album cover, someone has put their name in cursive in black ink. He didn’t want to lose this album, or he just wanted people to make sure that they knew it was his.

 

There were three April Wine albums in this lot, so he dug what they were sending. That’s the interesting part of buying a bulk lot of records from someone. You get a tiny glimpse into the music that they liked. I can’t imagine there were a lot of people in northern Illinois with three April Wine records in their collections, they just were never that big of a band in the states. That’s a serious investment. 

 

I wonder what it was about them that caught his attention. Was he waiting for them to hit it really big so that he could tell others that he knew them before they were big? Did he consider “Just Between You and Me,” a sellout song when it arrived in 1981?

My Music Journal 2025: May 23, 2025

 

Friday, May 23, 2025

Time: 7:44 AM
Song: Here Today
Artist: Paul McCartney
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on shuffle on the way to work.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/2Csod6aF2VJ2Kzf3GMPAaG?si=ac0a81eed7a04cd3

This is a live version of the song from 2009. Whether I ever knew or that I simply forgot, this song was originally recorded for the “Tug of War” album in 1982.

As I was listening, I wondered who McCartney was thinking about with this song.

With the Beatles, my mind always assumes it’s the other Beatles. I think more than any other band, the individuals frequently referenced or alluded to their other band mates in their solo projects. Initially, in the 1970s, they each took sometimes veiled and at other times direct shots at one another.

After Lennon’s death, the tone became more nostalgic. That includes this song, which after I looked it up, I found out was written as conversation between Lennon and McCartney.

I do still wonder though by 2009, how many people went through McCartney’s head as he sang the vocals. His own vocal range being a little diminished by time and use.

Sure, I imagine it’s still Lennon. But, George Harrison was also gone by then. Half the Beatles gone. He’s certainly probably thinking about the business and petty personal issues that wedged between him and his bandmates. Both Harrison and Lennon were accusatory toward McCartney in the years after the breakup.

It would also be understandable if Paul spends part of the song thinking about his wife, Linda. The two spent decades together before she passed from cancer.

I can see why McCartney has said he has a hard time getting through this one.

My Music Journal 2025: May 22, 2025

 

Thursday, May 22, 2025

Time: 5:17
Song: The Finer Things
Artist: Steve Winwood
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on shuffle on way home from work.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/0qrOEuhMXqAyMMyfOCZ2yC?si=b29384a82edf4d07

I am in love.

Maybe you read that and want to congratulate me. Maybe you read that and think, well you’ve been married since June of 2008, seems like that should be a given.

Well, it’s not a person that’s captured my heart.

It’s the chorizo breakfast wrap from Mom’s Diner in Dixon. We order breakfast at ASE every Thursday from there, and a month or so ago, I discovered the breakfast wraps on the backside of the menu where the lunch items are listed. Eureka!

Perfection is found in simplicity.

All you need is chorizo. Scrambled eggs. Cheese. Green Peppers. Onions. A tortilla shell.

That’s it.

I don’t know why, but the damn thing is just about one of my favorite things right now. I don’t order it every week, there’s plenty of other good selections on the menu, but it’s probably once a month. The chorizo has a little kick. The eggs ground it. The tortilla holds it all together.

I don’t need much, but a good meal is always at the top of my list as one of the finest things in life.

My Music Journal 2025: May 21, 2025

 

Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Time: 4:28
Song: May It Last
Artist: The Avett Brothers
Mode of Consumption: Listening to Liked Songs playlist on Spotify.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/1knajY3pmDF9hDtkXQpnAk?si=831c0061273e4bdb

 Our second writing exercise at Write On last night was a character development sheet. Below is how I answered the questions. It’s a nice tool to use if you are writing a short story or novel and need to take time to consider the qualities of major and minor characters. I continued the desert theme for this one.\

1. Write a simple sentence that introduces a character and includes an action.

 My sentence: Amanda drove to the desert.

2. Write six physical traits about this character.

•  19
• Tall
• Short-dark hair
• Green eyes
• Pale-skinned
• Slender (I admit I couldn’t think of a sixth quickly and threw this on at the last moment).

3. Write one thing this character cares about.

 Amanda cares about her brother, Rusty.

4. This character has this flaw:

 Amanda jumps into action without considering consequences.

 5. Write three sentences about this character that incorporates the above traits, including action of the first sentence:

Around Amanda the desert was burnt orange with a sporadic blanket of withering green brush. The car was dead, her having pushed it too hard to get back to the Midwest to save her brother, Rusty. Now, she was stranded with no water, no sun-tan lotion for her nearly translucent skin, and no hat to cover her thin-black hair.

My Music Journal 2025: May 20, 2025

 

Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Time: 9:10 PM
Song: A Horse With No Name
Artist: America
Mode of Consumption: Playing on Radio when I returned home from Write On Meeting. 

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/54eZmuggBFJbV7k248bTTt?si=a487d692cab248eb

We completed two writing exercises as part of our “Writing Workout” meeting for Write On Tuesday.

The first was to attempt a Kimo poem. A Kimo poem is an Israeli variant of the haiku. There is no rhyme scheme. There are ten syllables in the first line, seven in the second and six the third line. They are usually focused on a single image.

The image I used was of a road going through the desert in Arizona. It reminded me of a story about Jodi walking back to her hotel in Palm Springs last year during a work trip.

I wrote three versions of the same poem. I’ll share all three here to show how it changed with each version.

She walks the desert highway, sun ahead
Straddles the broken mid-line
Avoids the burning sand.

She braves the desert highway, sun ahead
Follows the broken mid-line
Avoids the burning sand.

She braves the desert highway, sun lays how
Heels on broken centerline
Avoids the sand and brush.

My Music Journal 2025: May 19, 2025

 

Monday, May 19, 2025

 

Time: 7:45 AM

Song: If You Could Only See

Artist: Tonic

Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on shuffle on the way to work.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/4KoNBTm9a55KgLMtEaf3n6?si=0caccbc05b9a4ef1

 

I have some of my best performances in my Jeep Renegade on the way to or back from work. A good, sappy song from the 90s usually gets me in the mood to sing along. 

 

I sometimes wonder if I had actual musical talent, would I have learned the guitar in high school when a song like this was popular. Would I have sat in a hallway during lunchtime, or maybe out on the steps after school, strumming away and singing. 

 

The real me would never have done that. While in certain situations I could be outgoing and perhaps even gregarious, usually at school I was quiet, and speaking in front of a class made me nervous, much less singing and playing an instrument. Although reading aloud didn’t bother me, but if I was delivering my own words, I got pretty nervous. 

 

It’s not so bad now. But, I do tend to have a shake in my hands. I don’t know why. Even if I don’t feel nervous, the old hands shake in front of people. If it’s bad, I then will get nervous. 

 

When I read my winning story for the Iron Pen Contest a few months ago in front of a room of attentive listeners, my hands started to shake. I hadn’t been nervous, but holding the shaking papers bothered me. 

 

Then I started thinking about my hands more than my words. I worried about turning the pages when needed. 

 

If I had been at my seat or a desk and reading that way, probably no issue. 

 

I don’t know. It’s just something in my makeup, I guess. Probably means I’ll never be a rock star, or a Uke star, since that’s the instrument I’ve learned a little. 

 

I like the idea of it. It’s sounds great as I drive to work. But it’s not me.

My Music Journal 2025: May 18, 2025

 

Sunday, May 18, 2025

 

Time: 7:05 PM

Song: Total Eclipse of the Heart

Artist: Bonnie Tyler

Mode of Consumption: Listening 94.7 FM while finishing our supper. 

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/1VrfLrBviw9A6JzRoo3t2C?si=1c958f75c7d246e5

 

“You know I think I heard that Jim Steinman wrote this,” I say. 

 

Jodi gives me a bit of a blank look, she knows the name but isn’t making the connection. 

 

“He’s the guy that wrote Meat Loaf’s songs. Once you know that, you can kind of tell. The dramatics of the songs are similar.” 

 

“Yeah, I think I read that Meat Loaf passed on this. What’s the name of the woman singing this?” Jodi throws out a name that’s not right, but escapes my mind now. 

 

Of course, I am sunsetting a bit, too. I spent the afternoon on our deck in the sun putting on water sealer. I followed that by walking the dog, and then took a bath to help an achy back from shuffling around on the hard deck boards all afternoon. 

 

“Oh, she’s Canadian. Does “It’s a Heartache,” too. … Bonnie Tyler.”

 

“Oh yeah,” Jodi says. 

 

We’ve shifted from out dining room table, finishing up the dishes. I know that I need to blog after this. Jodi wants to put some fertilizer on our hay field. She thinks she can handle it on her own. 

 

“You know, I bet there have been some great karaoke renditions of this song,” I say. “Get a few drinks in people, it probably gets pretty fun.”

 

Jodi agrees. We finish the dishes. She heads outside, and I go to the computer. 

My Music Journal 2025: May 17, 2025

 

Saturday, May 17, 2025

 

Time: 3:30 PM

Song: Do You Remember These?

Artist: The Statler Brothers

Mode of Consumption: Music playing at AJ’s Garden Tractor Jamboree

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/5chgh1VjeoIaL5qqwz3ZqK?si=77bb8ff973974cfc

 

 My brother-in-law, Andy, has hosted this gathering of Garden Tractor enthusiasts for fifteen years. Jodi and I have gone every year, helping in various capacities. Jodi snpas pictures, takes orders at the food stand, and anything else that pops up. I’ve worked the admission gate, held cards during poker runs, and helped with cleanup. We both have helped make rope. 

 

It’s been a show that’s seen about every type of weather. Flurries of snow. Torrents of rain. Cold. Heat. Sunshine. Clouds. This year, it was wind. Consistent gusts, probably thirty-miles-per hour. 

 

It’s a show that brings back memories of Andy and Jodi’s father, Lee. He was made for such events. A social person, Lee could strike up a conversation with anyone there whether he’d known them his entire life or just met them two-minutes earlier. 

 

The show was winding down today. A group of us sat around a table outside of Andy’s woodworking shop. The wind had eased a tad, and the sun was out. Not perfect, but pretty nice out compared to other years. 

 

Somehow, we got on a story of Lee trying to order strawberry ice cream at Culvers. See, Culvers will either give you strawberries mixed into the vanilla ice cream, or they will just put strawberries on top of the ice cream. He couldn’t understand what they were asking if he wanted them mixed in or on top. 

 

“I just want strawberry ice cream!” he exclaimed to the young lady behind the counter.

 

We like that story, it brings a smile to our faces, and wish he were still here to make more memories. But he’s never far from our minds on days like today. 

My Music Journal 2025: May 16, 2025

 

Friday, May 16, 2025

 

Time: 8:01 AM

Song: These Are Days

Artist: 10,000 Maniacs

Mode of Consumption: Listening to 93.7 radio station on way to scrapyard. 

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/786h4kDeZiX5nYvOwA3wtE?si=0c7d9b7743ac4b31

 

Most any other Friday during the year at 8:01 AM, I would be at my desk. Probably watching my computer boot-up, and thinking about the things I needed to get done before 5 PM and the weekend. 

 

Instead, Jodi and I were turning toward Galt, IL, the bed of the truck filled with scrap that had congregated in and around our shed. An old air-compressor. Various steel parts of various implements. A humidifier. 

 

The sun was out. A stiff wind was blowing from the south and west, and it was warm, already nearing 70. After emptying the truck at the scrapyard – a trip that netted us 37 dollars and more space in our buildings – we head to Sterling for garage sales. It’s the annual town-wide sales in the twin cities of Sterling and Rock Falls. 

 

We’ve decided to play hooky to find deals. 

 

We buy things for a dollar here and fifty-cents there. I get an old wood baseball bat with a White Sox logo and Burger King logo on it. It’ll be used in a baseball card table some time or another. I get a couple DVDS – one an unopened DVD filled with Tom Petty music videos. I buy the Eagles’ “Hell Freezes Over” songbook for fifty cents. Probably too sophisticated for my Uke skills, but heck it only costs fifty cents. 

 

We treat ourselves to pizza at Angelos for lunch, and after a quick stop for groceries, we head on home. We spend the afternoon on chores and other tasks. The wind prevents me from putting water sealer on the deck. 

 

Still, it’s a good day. One to remember. 

My Music Journal 2025: May 15, 2025

 

Thursday, May 15, 2025

 

Time: 5:18 PM

Song: Welcome to the Black Parade

Artist: My Chemical Romance

Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on shuffle on the way home from work.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/5wQnmLuC1W7ATsArWACrgW?si=77125755bdc24504

 

Ty and I exit the building and the humidity hits like a heavy fist. 

 

Ty looks to the sky.

 

“They said it could storm.” 

 

Above the office at ASE the skies are blue, the sun shining bright. I leave, heading south on Galena Ave. until I reach the Route 2 intersection. I turn west. Toward the horizon there is a tower of dark blue, purple, green, and hazy yellow. My road home is straight into it. 

 

It’s raining at home, I think. We could use it.

 

I get halfway home and nothing yet. In fact, the path ahead seems to be getting lighter. The darkest clouds veering toward the north. Maybe we won’t get anything at all. 

 

I turn off of Route 40, facing west again and go about a mile before I see the first hints of sprinkles. It’s darn-right sunny now. 

 

Another mile down the road and the wind gusts get noticeably stronger, hitting my jeep like waves on a beach. Fat drops of rain hit. Just a few at first, plopping and bursting on the glass. Then more and more. I turn the wipers up. 

 

I slow down. I am almost home and the heavens unleash a torrent of rain. The sun is completely out now. No clouds around, but it’s raining hard. 

 

I get to the top of the hill, pull into the garage, and make a mad dash to the house. Jodi’s mom is here, waiting for a break to get back to her truck. 

 

It rains harder. Keeps raining for another ten minutes. Then stops. The suns out. The wind keeps blowing. In an hour or two, it’ll be hard to tell it rained at all. 

My Music Journal 2025: May 14, 2025

 

Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Time: 7:45 AM
Song: Can You Feel the Love Tonight
Artist: Joseph Williams, Sall Dworsky, Nathan Lane, Ernie Sabella, Kristie Edwards
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on shuffle on the way to work.

 Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/5E8yddtSG3sH4hw2SfwcgW?si=14f6fc9283cd4172

One of the first big gifts that I remember buying Jodi was tickets to see the Lion King stage production in Milwaukee. I remember it being cold out, and that we ate somewhere downtown near the theatre.

The production I remember being stirring and spectacular. Actors dressed in elaborate animal costumes opened the show, coming down the aisles and from off stage. The chanting and the drums and the singing. Simba presented to the horde.

It’s amazing what can be accomplished in the theatre. One moment, we are sitting in a theatre surrounded by the frigid winter temperatures of the Midwestern United States, and the next we can feel like we are on the African savanna.

We can forget that the person singing is a person, our belief suspended. That really is a lion cub. Or baboon. Or warthog.

I don’t believe we can be transported the same way with films. It’s a different experience. You can almost reach out and touch these characters when they are on stage. You can feel it. The emotions. The excitement. The danger. The desire. The love.

I know we live in an era where you can stream pretty much any piece of entertainment from our living room couch, but there’s something to seeing something live.

If you get the chance, watch Lion King on the stage. If not, try any other show that might be near you.

My Music Journal 2025: May 13, 2025

 

Tuesday, May 13, 2025

 

Time: 5:20 PM

Song: All Revved Up With No Place To Go

Artist: Meat Loaf

Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on shuffle on the way home from work.

Link to Song: https://open.spotify.com/track/4vmh7eU8avZN1xnVcj5ewl?si=4f27af2755e049a3

 

I have had a light bulb in the back of my mind this week. No, not a brilliant idea. An actual light bulb. Truthfully, what I have been thinking about the location of the light bulb. 

 

It’s positioned above the pulpit of our church. No biggie right. Well, it’s actually positioned on the ceiling above the pulpit. About 25 feet from the church floor. 

 

The bulb was burned out during last Sunday’s service. I managed to get the old one out using an extension poll and a suction cup. Sadly, the same device isn’t going to work for putting a new one in. 

 

So, now the dilemma. I am the only physically fit enough in our tiny congregation to tackle such a task anymore. 

 

Part of me is like, this isn’t a big deal. I can borrow some scaffolding from my brother-in-law. I might need to recruit some more help to get two-to-three levels of such scaffolding up. All I’d have to do then is scurry up the scaffolding, screw the bulb in, and the problem is solved. Probably twenty minutes of carrying scaffolding and assembling for a thirty-second bulb installation. 

 

I think I can handle that. In fact, there was a point in my life, I probably would have done exactly that without a second thought. 

 

But those days have passed. As I have aged, heights have become an issue for me. It used to be only super heights. Like standing on a mountain bothered my head when I was in my teens. 

 

Then I fell from our hay mow in 2016. About ten to fifteen feet down, landing onto of a bale of hay and my knee and ankle against the side of the rack. I had injuries to my knee and foot, and sometimes I still don’t feel completely stable. 

 

So, I don’t know. I might get that scaffolding up, and then not be able to climb it to the top. Then what? 

 

I hate to pay someone to do it. 

 

That’s what has gone through the back of my mind whenever I have a break this week. 

My Music Journal 2025: May 12, 2025

 

Monday, May 12, 2025

Time: 9:10 AM
Song: Silvery Sometimes (Ghosts)
Artist: The Smashing Pumpkins
Mode of Consumption: Listening to Spotify while at work.

 Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/0oCEQA7gByJXUvXztuF0ys?si=6f82f7ed5f4a475a

“Is that The Smashing Pumpkins?” My co-worker, Ty, asked. He had slipped into my office to ask another question.

“Yep.”

 I almost said it was from their new album but realized that they had released albums after. Then my mind did a trick by registering that something that I perceive as new isn’t really new anymore.

 The song was released on their album “Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol 1” in 2018. As I look at the calendar on my door, I find that we are almost halfway through 2025. Seven years. Amazing.

 We saw The Smashing Pumpkins in Chicago when they touring after releasing this album. It was an awesome set at a small club that focused on the band’s 1990s hits, but did sprinkle in this song and a couple others from this album. In many ways, the album was a throwback to the 90s.

 I have fond memories of that concert, even though I probably lost several percentage points of my hearing that night.

 The strange thing is that my mind will still sometimes place certain music released as far back as the 90s as “new” music. The instant example is “Bridges to Babylon” by the Rolling Stones. That album was released in 1997, and I still think of it as “new” Stones. In two years, that album will turn 30 years old, as old (and even older) than the Stones’ classic 1960s and 1970s albums that I would have considered “old” Stones back then.

 I have similar ideas about 1990s Metallica albums. That’s “new” Metallica while albums like “Ride the Lightning” and “Master of Puppets” from the 1980s are “old” Metallica. I don’t even have a category for all the albums released by the band after 2000.

 Maybe someday my mind will adjust and think of some of these things as “early” period and “middle” period and “late,” but I still find my mind is stuck on new versus old.