Thursday, April 13, 2006

Friends


HM is one of my best friends - he invited me over for coffee (see "Introductions") and we spent a while talking about our lives, God, my wife and his ex-wife. Conversation was great and the coffee wasn't too bad either. . .

A Lesson from the Bricks

My wife's cousin built a decorative wall out of bricks from our old high school that was razed last year. He wanted not only two or three bricks for keepsakes but a whole load to build the rock garden and bordering wall along the front and sides of his property. What someone might have hauled away to the dumpster he made into something beautiful and imaginative. Sort of the thing God does with us - when others are ready to toss us on the scrap heap of uselessness and rejection he takes us, rebuilds and rebirths us in His image.

I'm glad God's creative. . . aren't you?

A Walk In the Greening Neighborhood

Time for a walk in the greening neighborhood - I'm going to take along the discman and listen to my Horst Jankowski LPs that I transferred from vinyl to CD two years ago. His big instrumental hit of the 1960s was "A Walk in The Black Forest." He never had a hit after that, but made a half dozen or more albums, anyway. Nothing like trying, is there?

Assorted Thoughts and Introduction

I feel trendy and one with the world of technology and communication today. I have created a blog.

The newspaper gig I was doing for a number of years appears to be over and I'm moving on to other things. That could include this blog where I share with cyberspace the accumulation of what's occupying my gray matter at a given point in time. It typically changes often and I can be moderately peaceful one day and on a soapbox the next. True to my form, however, the paper will call and want me to pursue some project. If that happens, I will let you know. The silence from their end of the computer is deafening. A jangle of the telephone from them would be welcome. As Barbara Streisand sang in 1970, "I Don't Know Where I Stand."

Life is good at this point. I've accumulated the recorded output of the Doors on CD (all of their stuff!) on those retro looking reissues that have the original cover art, label face likenesses on the discs, and even the inner sleeve that came with the vinyl, analog recording. I can now die happy.

The Beatles have released their eight (and likely more to come) original Capitol LPs on CD, in both mono (or high fidelity as we used to call it) and stereo. The accompanying booklets with both reissues contains "rare photos," (I'm getting sick and tired of that term) and some unvital statistics to create needless filler. But, it's all part of the package and I'm not complaining at all.

I'm a music person, like to watch trains pass by (and I photograph them), and I love to meet people. Having stuff around is OK, private ownership is part of the blessing of a good job, but having someone over for coffee is even better. You can share moments of music with them, offer them some flavored creamer for their coffee, or let them see your "rare photos" from the Beatles reissues.

Trains, good music, coffee with friends. . . doesn't get much better than that.

Hmmmm. . . .one complaint/observation. . .why is it I can buy a latte and Krispy Kreme original glazed from a convenience store for $2.00 yet have to pay almost twice that at the airport for just the latte????