Wade McNutt's Piano Meditation

I have a friend, Elaine McNutt, who has a son, Wade. Elaine is very active in our LifeTeen ministry at church. She was always looking for soft, contemplative, instrumental music to use as a soundtrack for the kids' meditations.

Enter her son. My husband was kind enough to go to Wade's launch party today and pick up Wade's first CD. Although only one song on it is Wade's original composition, his talent and God's love shine through all.

As previously stated, the CD is instrumentals. The only clip I could find, though, is this. Enjoy.

And then go, please, to Wade's website and order some for yourself. Of course, if you are a close friend of mine, you can just wait till you get it for Christmas!

Thank you, Mr. Formby

I would like to use this space to remember what has been, and will no longer be, an important part of my day. From October 1955, when I was 1 year and 7 months old, until the day before his death on July 31, 2010, Clint Formby was a friendly voice over the airwaves. I only had the pleasure of listening to him for the last 20 years or so.

I am blessed to live in a town with it's own radio station, KPAN radio. When I am out tooling around running errands and such, this is the station to which I listen. They cover the local news and the local sports. They cover the local churches and the local schools. They feature the "Good neighbor of the day" and are everything that I think a small town station should be.

One of their radio features was the "Day-by-Day Philosopher". This program was initiated in October of 1955 by Clint Formby and continued 6 days every week until July 30,2010 for a total of 17,160 consecutive broadcasts. Mr. Formby even broadcast from his hospital room when he was ill. It was broadcast at 7:45 a.m. and thus became an important part of my morning, as well as that of my grandson.

When Moose was little, he stayed with us. I am not much for clocks and tend to run my time by what's on the TV and/or the radio. To this day, I get ready to leave the house after the Top Ten is over on my favorite (or at least less irritating) nighttime show.

Moose and I would leave the house in the morning after our local ABC news affiliate finished with their mid-hour update. This made it 7:24a.m. Moose ate better in the car so I would hand him some food, grab his backpack and off we would go. We would stop and get coffee and a paper and would drive to the school parking lot where we would break fast and visit a bit before school started. In the background, always, was the "Day-by-Day Philosopher". More often than not, something he said would catch either my ear or the Moose's. We discussed a variety of subjects that I probably would not have thought to bring up.

It was a great comfort to me to know, without a doubt, that my grandson would not be hearing anything that needed explaining. Mr. Formby's broadcast was always, at the outside, PG-13 but most often G rated. It was never mean-spirited or spiteful but inspiring, friendly, and gracious.

Some of my best morning memories involve my grandson, a cup of coffee, the paper, a semi-deserted parking lot and the congenial voice of a very philosophical man. Thank you, Mr. Formby.

Fun Monday - Shoes Redux

Mariposa, bless her heart, is resurrecting Fun Monday. Her topic this week is shoes. I went back to the files and found this entry from when Pensieve (great minds think alike) had the same idea. Since I am at work and have on ugly work shoes, I present my previous effort.

I have no pictures of my baby shoes. I can tell you that I spent the first 8 years of school in the lovely white oxfords that went with the also lovely maroon and grey plaid uniform. Ah yes, nothing quite like the smell of wet wool in the wintertime. I will say, though, that the clamp on roller skates worked really well with these shoes.

Then I progressed to these beautiful navy and white saddle shoes to go with the navy plaid uniform for the next 4 years. I also progressed from the smelly wool sweater to the lovely polyester blazer with crest and padded shoulders. Wow.

I got married right out of high school - who really needed that 4 year scholarship, right? Anyway, shoe of choice back in the day was this beauty. Oh so practical for a young wife and mother pushing a baby stroller, don't you know.

I was widowed and had to go to work. My first job was at a police department as a Community Service Officer. These are the heels that I wore to work then.

There followed a succession of poor choices - in men and in shoes. Here are some of the shoes:

I now wear snow boots in the winter and sneaks the rest of the year. I do have one drop-dead gorgeous pair of red heels that I wear on special occasions. But my favorite pair of shoes now are these:

Dog Days?

About once a year Holly decides to see if she is the queen of the hill yet. She is 8 and Duck is 12 and 1/2. This year we had the Monday night fights. Everyone had been fed and watered and been outside and was back inside. The girls were in our bedroom and, with absolutely no outward provocation, Holly went after Duck.Duck does not take kindly to this. She never does. They are both strong dogs. They are both stubborn dogs. They are both dogs who are normally very well-behaved and who listen to me. They did not even hear me. They fought from our room through the hallway and into the kitchen. Shorty and I got them separated, one dog to each person. I took Duck and slung her back into the bedroom. I let go of her and my hand came away covered with blood. It was not hers. It was Holly's.
Duck, once again, reigns supreme. She is stiff and sore today and took her children's Motrin off a teaspoon just like a good little girl. Holly is still tense, pacing and circling and not quite in her own mind yet. None of the wounds needed stitches so we are counting ourselves lucky.

Until next year...

My house is a very fine house

Three years and a couple of months ago, we moved our house. Three years and a couple of months ago, my husband and I were both very busy with work and grandkids and work and sleeping and all that other crap. Our house became the house you did not want to live next to.

Over the past two weeks, with the help of our friend Chris and his boss Ted, miracles have been accomplished. The pipe fence in the back yard has been welded and plans are in place to fix the front, also. The toilet was hooked up to the septic. The skirting (we used fence panels and it looks just terrific) has been affixed to the house and plans are in place to repaint. Next up? The roof.

I cannot begin to tell you how pleased I am. I can now go home and flush the toilet after three years and a couple of months of using a chemical toilet. It was effective, it was sanitary, it was a semi-permanent solution to what was supposed to be a temporary situation.

Two of my four dogs were unfamiliar with the swirling, swooshing, fascinating rush of water into a toilet bowl. They still run to the bathroom to watch in awe as the bowl refills. I am also in awe.

Thanks, hon.

Sharing - Not

Normally, we buy one of these a year for the dogs (disclaimer: that is not one of my dogs). They like getting wet and tracking their muddy feet through my house.This year, we decided to get one of these instead. My thinking is that we can cover it at night, at least until the wind blows the lid away. Shorty picked it up today.
I woke up to the sound of Duck just having a wall-eyed fit. I looked out the window and laughed so hard I almost fell out of bed. Duck was in the water-filled turtle. Goose wanted to share the water-filled turtle. Now, Duck shares her house, her bed, her parents, her space and some of her toys. Duck has evidently decided that she will NOT share her turtle.

Goose was running around the perimeter of the turtle, trying to get in. Duck was pivoting, barking ferociously, using her big girl voice. She was spinning so hard, waves were forming. Goose finally just decided to do the demon-dog run around the yard.

Duck got tired, finally, and went to lay on the porch. Goose got to play in the pool, too, and all was right in the kingdom of the animals.

Wordless Wednesday