Late night/early morning musings

I typically don't do much blogging at 1:30 in the morning, and there's good reason for that.  I'm not much of a night person. Other than the occasional late night band gig (which amounts to a personal test of endurance), I pretty much flake out after The Daily Show.  I'm much more of a morning person, to be honest.

Ah, but tonight I'm having to defy my instincts.  There's a batch of pretty bad storms making their way through our area, bringing some tornadoes southwest of us.  So the wife and I made the decision to go into full storm-prep mode.  The outside dogs are in the downstairs bathroom, the boys are sleeping on the living room couch.  Right now my wife is joining them there, and I've taken the first watch.

If nothing else this little bit of self-imposed sleep-deprivation gives me the chance to reflect on a number of things this week - something that, frankly, I don't get to do all that much.  If I'm not running from point A to point B and trying to cram C, D, E and F in there somewhere, I'm probably sleeping.  But I can't do that right now.  So I'm reflecting.  And here's what I'm thinking:

• I'm enjoying my week off this week.  I always try to do the typical seven-day respite following the pastoral rat race known as Holy Week and Easter.  It's a nice change of pace.  Even if I keep myself busy doing stuff, at least it's stuff I want to do.  In fact, there's something actually restful in that, isn't there?


• I'm hopeful about the latest installment of our garden.  Cautiouslly hopeful.  This will be the third year that our family has attempted to grow some of our own produce.  And I use the word "attempt" very intentionally.  Our first year wasn't too bad; we had a couple of items that came from it.  We figured that would lay the foundation for better things to come.  No produce at all.  Nada.   This year I'm a little more hopeful because of two things: first, we added mulch to help keep moisture in the dirt.  We should've done that the other two years.  And second, I installed a small chicken wire fence to keep out any little creatures who might want to help themselves to any of the bounty in there.  If all goes well, at various points in the spring and summer we'll get to enjoy some home-grown tomatoes, green/yellow/red peppers, green beans, cilantro, basil, okra, canteloupe, lettuce and onions.  I'll keep you posted.


• Man, the wind is really picking up now.  Perhaps my idea of sitting out on the screened-in porch is not a wise one.


• Something's wrong with my iPhone, and this really bugs me.  Last night it wouldn't charge no matter what I plugged it into.  My good friend and Apple know-it-all here in town tells me this is a classic sign of water damage.  So the phone spent the entire day today fully submerged in a bowl of rice (a common method used to dry out electronic gadgets). I don't think it worked, although the phone seems to charge in my Bose sound dock (ironic, since it's not an Apple product, and you know how Mr. Jobs is about his stuff....)  The plan is to get it up and running for tomorrow (well, today now) and then take it to the Apple store in town, where hopefully any bad news will be diverted.


• There's nothing like having your car deep-cleaned and waxed.  Even if you're the one who had to do it.  It's the biggest pain the world (just ask the Karate Kid - the original one, not Will Smith's son), but the darn thing is paid for in full so we've got to keep it in the best condition we can.  I also vaccummed the interior and wiped the 1/2 inch dust layer that had accumulated on the dash.  Looks pretty darn cool now.


• I don't care what political persuasion you are - contrary to what Mr. Trump may feel, it's a sad day in our country when our president is forced to share his long-form birth certificate to satisfy a few nutjobs who refused to believe the truth that was shared a long time ago.  I have a lot more I could say but I'll just leave it at that.


• Tomorrow will be a music day.  I have a radio interview with our local NPR station in the morning (seven hours, in fact).  After that I'll head to Doug's studio to lay down some Hammond & piano for the Mediocre Bad Guys tunes we're working on.  Then I go pick up the promo CDs for the new album that should be arriving via UPS.  They were supposed to arrive earlier, but the company botched the order and it took a few days to set it straight.


• It's starting to rain/thunder/lightning now, so I think it's time to head inside.