Powered Down and Holding...

This is the ol’ I’m having trouble getting back to my blog whine.  Wah.  Okay, I’m done with that post, now on to bigger and better things.  (Quickest ever, huh?)

This is our first weekend por las casa with absolutely no plans.  A friend came in to see us, but basically, we’ve done not one thing but visit, and eat.  And visit, and eat.  And the guys have played guitars, and I’ve taken some pictures.  We’ve gone to the dog park.  ThatManILove’s about to put a burn on some salmon a la grill, our boys should make an appearance sometime this afternoon, and play some of their songs for our friend,  and then....we’re gonna eat. 

It’s been a restful, fun weekend.  Powered down, fun, quiet times. 

So good.

How about you?

Sponge

I’m like a sponge.  No, I am a sponge. I think I’m absorbing the feelings of everyone around me.   I’m up, and I’m down.  I’m down, and I’m up.  I don’t know what’s going on with me, but tonight, I’m gonna have to go hunting.  For me.  And writing is part of that, so you get to go along with me!

You see, I’ve lost my smile.  Just today, I noticed it was gone.  And for no obvious reason.  Oh, lots of peripheral things are going on...

ThatManILove is reviewing his business books and though he knew it already, he’s seeing exactly how we dumped way too much into a project that just sucked up dinero like a vaccuum with no return.  So, he’s plowing through the black and white of it all.  I’m encouraging him, and...loss carry forward on your taxes is a good thing, right?!

One of my best friends is wending her way this week through the halls of M.D. Anderson, trying to find out answers to the pre-diagnosis of a brain tumor.  I wish I could be with she and her husband right now, to help, and to just be there.

Two weeks ago tonight, four of Younger Son’s friends and fellow ensemble musicians suffered a horrible auto accident - one is dead, one lost her arm (and she’s a mandolin player), one’s in a coma, and one suffered many broken bones, but is healing.  Younger Son was supposed to be with them...but was tired, and opted out of the late movie date.  We’re so very thankful Younger Son’s alive and intact.  Watching him deal with the grief, the heart issues and the mental part of the accident aftermath is one of the hardest things we’ve ever done.  Watershed moments in a young man’s life...

Thanks for listening....

I’m gonna get quiet now, and get back to myself.  Yeah, I am.  Y'all better be ready.

But for now...Peace.  Be still.

It's About Time...

It's late tonight - we've had a full day. And ThatManILove and Younger Son are flying to Dallas tomorrow for a day trip.

I walk into our TV/music room and find them both playing guitars. And finally, Younger Son plays a couple of his songs and sings for us. We've heard him play, but this is a first, him singing for us.

His voice? Beautiful. His lyrics? Awesome.

I'm blown away. I've waited for this for a long time - I knew the apple didn't fall far from the tree - ThatManILove has a tremendous gift in writing and singing. It's sweet to see the manifestation of heritage in Younger Son.

It's a precious, precious thing I'm seeing tonight, and I'm so very grateful to the Lord for his giftings to the men of my house.

Random Things...Again

So much for my great promise to "write".

Random stuff of late:

*We spent the weekend in San Antonio, celebrating the 21st birthday of Younger Son. Vodka Mom would have been proud of the amount of liquor imbibed.

*I remained the designated walker.

*It is HOT in San Antonio. And yes, I whined. A lot. It didn't help at all.

*When we gather all our chicks plus their friends, the walkway on The Riverwalk isn't wide enough for all of us to walk abreast.

*We had enough rooms at the Westin Riverwalk to get a group discount. Did they give us one? Not on your best day.

*The waitstaff at Dick's Last Resort can be (pardon me for this) dicks. (And, due to the atmosphere, they think they have the right to be - I disagree, and I'm NO prude, as y'all well know.) They were rude, crude and lewd. And our waiter actually pulled Emily's hair when she asked a question. I was thankful none of the men in my group saw it go down - Elder Son might have opened a can of whup-a** on them. I won't go back.

* We trekked out of San Antonio Sunday night and flew to Albuquerque to visit friends. We had a huge time.

*We arrived home at 11 p.m. Monday night to a clean house, our dogs bedded down, and wonder of wonders, someone had mulched the flowerbeds. They look beautiful. If I think about it, I'll post pix.

*I have to go. The alarm belonging to ThatManILove is going off and obviously, he's oblivious. It's time to get ready for work.

Sync'd - the Alternative Punk'd

Nobody told me that there would have to be a synchronization period before ThatManILove and I would be back to our “oneness”. I think I've been punk'd. Where the hell is Ashton?

I guess 3 1/2 months is a long time to be apart.

After Christmas Day with our Littles (as in Big Brothers Big Sisters), we took Zack and Zanna to the dog park. Then, we decided to go to the late late movie – the four of us. It was fun. Until we got home and ThatManILove and Younger Son decided to have a “discussion,” eventually drawing us all in. Nothing like a little conflict on Christmas Night. Elder Son intervened and brought some clarity to the situation. Finally, everybody kissed and made up.

Since then, our house has been the setting for a comedy of errors.

This morning, I decided to let MLH sleep in. So, I got up with the dogs at 5:45 a.m.. They did their “business” and I begged them for a few more hours of sleep. They complied, until about 9:45 a.m., when they told me they were “Starving, Mom! Just starving! You never feed us! Where’s the number to PETA?”

(What. What? Your dogs don’t talk, I take it? Well, B.S. You have to channel your inner Dog Whisperer. Mine is called Cesarina. She’s a short Hispanic chica who does some mean rollerblading. She has zero problema being the pack leader, if you get my drift.)

Back to this other crap.

I decided to let ThatManILove catch up on some ZZZZ’s ‘cause that’s how I roll. When he woke up, we ran the dogs for a bit, and then decided on flights back to the PA. I started some laundry, threw a roast in the oven for supper, and decided I needed to take a break…

Just about the time ThatManILove decided we needed to be 100% packed at 2 in the afternoon so we would be ready to roll to Dallas at 9 a.m. tomorrow. I mean, he was getting all antsy about it!

MLH: I think we need to pack, really, Jane.(he only calls me that when he’s mad.)

Jane: Dude. I can so pack in twenty minutes. I’m getting good at it since you’ve been gone.
(for you newer readers, he usually packs for me - and he's damn good at it!)

MLH: Since all my stuff is still in the PA, we’ll both pack in the same bag.

Janie: Let’s see. I have to take 6 days worth of clothes, and makeup, and all that entails, and we’re going to pack in the same bag. Guess it’s going to be pretty warm up in the PA. Think shorts and T-shirts should do it?

MLH: Jane.

Janie: I’m really needing a nap. I haven’t had any down time in forever. Are you good with that?

MLH: I want us to get packed.

Right.

Later, I’m folding clothes and I hear him talking. I realize that he’s talking…to me. From three rooms away. I go into the bedroom, where he’s watching TV.

Janie: Hey, Babe, are you talking to me?

MLH: Yes. Do you know where my socks are? I can’t find any! Y'all have to quit putting my laundry where I can't find it.

Janie: They’re in this drawer, this drawer, and this drawer.

MLH: I’ve got to get all this cleaned up and organized.

Janie: Nothing’s changed since you left for the PA. Nobody's worn your laundry, honey.

Then, supper.

MLH: Do you know where the wine corkscrew is?

Janie: No. That's another coincidence - there’s been no wine consumed here since you left, so it would be pretty safe to say you had it last.

MLH tears into every drawer looking for the corkscrew, griping the entire time. Finally he finds it, in the implement drawer. Later, at the table…

MLH: You know, I’m really not feeling a “welcome home.”

Janie: Are you kidding me? (And that’s all I’m going to say about that conversation.)

Later on, I’m counting the 18 Robert Earl Keen tickets to the concert we’re going to miss, trying to decide to mail them to the attendees, or to give them to John and Suzan for distribution, or split them up between Mike and Pam and John and Suzan for further distribution between all the people that are going without us to the concert, or go by Bass Performance Hall and put them at WillCall, or what. I have tickets all over rows D and E, and trying to figure out who gets what.

MLH: Girl. How many times are you going to count those tickets?

Janie: I’m just trying to figure it all out since I don’t quite have a fix on who’s taking who.

MLH: You need to go pack, seriously, Jane.

I finish with the tickets, and go into the bedroom to start packing, and…

He sleeps. And he looks so dang cute when he’s curled up like that, with his head resting on his hands. Arrrrrrrrgh!

We gotta get sync’d up before we head to the PA – or that ride home will be the longest in the history of rock and roll.

Christmas, Revisited

It’s late Christmas night.

ThatManILove and our sons are at here at home. All is well with my world. Zack and Zanna the Wonderdogs are asleep on their pillows at my feet. Thanks so much for all your love, comments and support. I know full well y’all helped me on a daily basis - and I appreciate each and every one of you.

ThatManILove finally arrived at 6 p.m. last night, after all sorts of weather delays. Younger Son and I went to the airport to pick him up. I stayed outside with the vehicle, and Younger Son went in to meet his dad at baggage claim. They hadn’t seen each other in almost 5 months. It was a sweet, sweet reunion - both came out the door with huge smiles on their faces.

Elder Son arrived around 8 p.m.. He was in the house about 3 minutes before all the guitars came out (shout out to Tricia - you would have loved it!). Mom-in-Love and her husband came and joined us for supper and presents.

We have a tradition we share with our sons. Every Christmas, we give them each hand made knives. This year, we introduced them to another knife-maker’s wares - Tippy Knives, made by Jason Tippy from Monahans, Texas. Jason is a youth pastor, and makes the most wonderful knives. Early in 2008 we asked him to make knives for our sons. He not only did so, he numbered them 1 & 2, and we get to name the series. This will happen every year. A new tradition within a tradition! The boys flipped a coin to determine who would get gift #1, then opened the respective gifts. They flipped out. Next year, whoever got #1 will get #2, and vice versa. After the knives were admired and shown around the room, it was time for the other gifts. Our sons were surprised last year by tickets to the James Taylor concert in Lenox, Massachusetts.

This year? I’ll let the pictures do the talking. (When Mamarazzi's around with her camera, they always think they have to make faces.)

Yup. New Mac Books. Oh, yeah...and Booth? Now you can talk to Elder Son about his gifts! Love ya, man!

We’ve had a great time, late breakfast this morning, spaghetti tonight, and now we’re heading to the movies.

Merry Christmas to each and every one of you.

En Route To La Casa!

ThatManILove is driving right now (12:36 p.m. CST) from Clearview, PA to Pittsburgh, PA. A storm is right behind him, and they're shutting down roads right and left. The Highway Department just detoured him to Clarion, PA., which is only 70 miles from Pittsburgh. He's driving 40-45 mph, and weather is setting in.

Hopefully, he'll get to the airport in time to catch his 7:50 EST flight to....(wait for it!)...HOME! Woohoo!!! A Christmas Eve flight!

We're all praying and anxiously waiting! I think our sons are going to force Christmas for tomorrow night, they're so excited to see The Man. Surely they'll let him take a nap first! They're sleeping at our house, too, so weather willing, we'll all be together for the first time in ages. It will be fun, and I'm sure all the guitars will be pulled out of cases and plugged into amps.

Then, the plan will be to go to Dallas after Christmas, take Zanna the Wonder Pup to her trainer, and board a plane back to the PA. We'll go get the truck and all of MLH's stuff, and drive back home. It's our anniversary on the 28th, but at least we'll be together.

On another note, Zanna barked at Elder Son when he came over earlier in the week. I thought I was rocking the casbah getting her socialized...but I guess I forgot the "men" part of that exercise! Oh, well, I did as well as I could! Hope she doesn't bark at ThatManILove when he walks through the door - or tries to get into "her" bed!

Thanks for bearing with me these last 3 1/2 months, listening to all my whining and gritching. I promise to be better...and soon! ;)

Merry, blessed Christmas and Happy New Year to each and every one of you!

What, Us? Run Late? To the James Taylor Concert?

These are shots enroute to the concert. We left Providence about an hour too late, and ended smack up in the middle of this. Somehow, I don't think James Taylor's going to wait on us.



Horrible traffic. Saw a cart path, but nah...been there, done that - and not even a week ago! After we parked, we had to trek about 1 1/2 miles to the concert. But we didn't get the tickets wet!





The James Taylor concert was phenomenal.

Here’s a review from one of the websites: "Five stars. This was a fabulous concert--great mix of songs, including ones from album recently recorded and due out in Sept. The backup band included extraordinary talent in the musicians. James Taylor performed longer than I would have imagined, with multiple encores. Really seemed to enjoy being "home" at Tanglewood. So too did the crowd enjoy seeing him. Worth every penny to get to hear it.”

I’ll have more pictures of that later, I forgot my transfer cable to my new Canon. (All these pix are from my little handheld camera.)

Since I seem to be into views this trip, this was our view this morning as we awakened in West Springfield, Massachusetts.


And our view when we got to our room at the Boston Marriott Cambridge.Now we’re heading out and about for more adventure!

That barge out in the middle of the Charles River is the fireworks barge. Tonight, fireworks will go off, synchronized to the William Tell Overture, played by the Boston Symphony Orchestra - less than one block from our hotel. It will be beautiful! And we will be crammed somewhere in 800,000 people. (What was I thinking?)

It's beautiful. It's raining. We're going exploring, more later!