When we started there wasn’t much. Hand-me-downs and used furniture were better than the nothing we had. So many odds and ends and things we didn’t really need But it was “Good Enough”.
Nothing went smooth, some pretty rough. Cars breaking down on the way to work and no money to get it fixed. Opportunities we missed cause I couldn’t afford enough gas. But we did “Good Enough”.
Slowly we could save for simple stuff. Little things here and there for a smile – something delicious or pretty. The children got something even when there was nothing to give. And we felt “Good Enough”.
The next decade wasn’t so tough. Most things happened so fast even now I can’t remember it all. Friends come and go while family is always too far away I hope its “Good Enough”.
And in an instant it became insanely clear; Our plans and efforts weren’t Good Enough. At the time when the end of the road is near It turns out nothing we did was “Good Enough”.
When we started there wasn’t much. Hand-me-downs and used furniture were better than the nothing we had. So many odds and ends and things we didn’t really need But it was “Good Enough”.
And in an instant it became insanely clear; Our plans and efforts weren’t Good Enough. At the time when the end of the road is near It turns out nothing we did was “Good Enough”.
The path to Peanut Butter Hill in Lindner Park covered in snow 2021
This is a song I co-wrote with a friend of mine from Xenia, Ohio. I sent him the basic tracks via the Internet and he uploaded to his home studio. Scott Hadley from “The Little Hippies” then sang the vocals and helped with arrangement to make this song click. Then he added keyboard parts and harmony tracks and sent individual tracks back to me……
To help me with this song I asked a friend and The Merchants of Death band-mate Mike Wheeler to play bass guitar. He is in Dayton and got the tracks back to me faster than I could have driven there and back! He has a way of finding grooves within the melody of a song that ties it all together.
I wrote “Peanut Butter Hill” on 1-21-2021 as I was walking through the woods near our home. I take walks in the same park almost daily now that I am retired. We spent a lot of time here when our kids were growing up. Walking past a steep hill in the park next to a creek I thought I should write a song about this park. (Well, what about?) As I walked I started thinking that this song is not about me but about the kids that tried climbing the bare-mud side of the hill. A fence stood at the top where the real path was and at the bottom of the hill was a creek that remained mostly dry. Soon the melody hit me and I knew this was a song about peanut butter hill.
Decades ago I challenged my kids and all the neighborhood friends to climb up the hill – but they could not use their hands! When they failed and said it could not be done, I put my hands in my pockets and climbed to the top. So did my daughter TK. The hill is not what it was back then, but I think we were the only ones to meet the challenge, but everyone had fun trying!
This a song about Peanut Butter Hill So in a way it might be about you. It’s about neighborhood kids that go out to play But the special ones that wait for a rainy day.
Others would play in the sun and grass Or throw stuff at the fish in the pond. We would wait for the clouds to get grey Promising that rain is on its way.
Soon the dry creek would rise above our shoes We all cheered loudly to spread the good news. Our favorite hill melted into a wall of brown Too slippery to easily climb up or down.
You keep your hands in your pockets To get to the top of Peanut Butter Hill. Most of us slid half way back each time And laughed so hard on Peanut Butter Hill.
This a song about Peanut Butter Hill So in a way it might be about you. Enormous leaning trees embraced imagination A play house or needed fortress for generations.
Today the trees have all but fallen down The hillsides have eroded and barely left a clue. Of the adventures we all remember still And the fun we had on Peanut Butter Hill.
You keep your hands in your pockets To get to the top of Peanut Butter Hill. Most of us slid half way back each time And laughed so hard on Peanut Butter Hill.
I often mention my talented wife and children sprinkled within posts over the years. When the girls were very young we made Christmas and the holidays a creative fest whenever possible. From pumpkin carving parties with over 200 pumpkins, costumes and haunted houses, we put our own flair into everything. We avoided the commercial and traditional.
Each year we would send our many friends a hand-made original Christmas ‘Card’. We would start two months before Christmas to imagine, design and create a unique holiday greeting from our entire family. Many are still hung up or placed on mantels to this day. It is hard to describe so you can get an idea of the projects. One time we made small cloth trees decorated in style with a hook on them so you could hang them as an ornament. Another year we took clear glass ornamental globes and other shaped bobbles and poured paint inside making them sparkle with bright colors and/or glitter on the inside of the glass.
As a musician I built up a small home recording studio over the years. In the lyrics we reference “7 tracks and SMPTE”. I had a digital recorder back then but advanced as it was at the time it only had eight tracks, and one of them you used to record a clock signal so it would sync with the MIDI instruments I had controlled by a hardware sequencer (RECORDING WAS A LOT HARDER IN THOSE DAYS!!!). Every few years I managed to work in a family musical project. Here are two audio recordings we sent as that year’s ‘card’.
This tradition really became a thing and people looked forward to getting their next card, knowing it would be unlike any other they would receive that year, or ever again.
Here is my family recording two Christmas carols for our annual card project. One is a traditional cover of a song you are familiar with. The other is our version of a classic. Even if you aren’t ‘all about Christmas’ and everything, I think you will find this cute and maybe hilarious at the same time.
I wish you all well and hope we can keep lost loved ones close to our hearts and friends and family in our thoughts.
When my wife and I purchased our first, and only home about thirty years ago, the adjacent property included irregular strips, pieces, an access road and a very old overgrown field. Over the years we cleared some of the vacant land next to our house. We built fire pits further and further out in the ‘wilderness’. It was mostly brush , grapevine and honeysuckle.
We didn’t use any equipment other than hand tools more sophisticated than pick ax and shovel. Each year we cleared more land to the side of our house of the brush and undergrowth. We had been doing this for a couple of years and noticed a huge tree we had not even seen before. It had towered over everything but through past decades the brush and small trees had provided a path for the insidious grapevine. As it does to anything above ground, the grapevine climbs anything it can and then covers it with a blanket of leaves. Each year the plants and trees try to grow new sprouts and shoots but are caught in a strangle-hold by the vines. Eventually the trees can’t bend down enough and break into pieces and soon die looking like a rounded skeleton. The smaller trees were already dead or damaged beyond hope. We managed to save more than we thought possible and we were determined to save the huge cotton-wood tree that was already entangled in vines spreading through the lower branches.
The neighbors thought we were nuts. Then a company came and bought the land we had cleared of debris and undergrowth and the rest of the surrounding wooded area. Years and years went by and they did nothing with the land. We spoke with the owners and told them that if they ever sell the land we would like to be the first offer. We also mentioned our clearing and using of the property and they were fine with that. We continued.
Over the course of our time here we have purchased all the pieces of what used to be abandoned property. Not much total, but a jig-saw of ‘odds and ends’ surrounding the neighborhood we made it our home! My posts often refer to feeding wildlife animals and birds in our tiny sanctuary. A number of neighbors share in the maintenance and care of this land now.
We have owned all the property pieces for a few years and have been trying to get it surveyed. It took them two years after signing the contract but finally the surveyors came out and tagged all the properties including our original house and land. When I came home from work there were orange flags everywhere along our side of the street and throughout the woods. We even discovered one neighbor’s fence was actually in our yard.
I was so thrilled and for the first time I walked every inch of land knowing what was our property. With that lengthy introduction I want to share a poem I wrote after that walk. Thanks again for your visits, and I hope this will be a great New Year for all!
“The Border” (C) MSK 1-22-2020
Orange flags everywhere but only where We are They disappear through the ages and few Return
Moving, shifting, season upon season upon Buried No concerns no doubting they never change Waiting
I’ve just walked every inch of our border Cut or cured, with muscle and bone We laughed loud and worked harder But we didn’t have to do it alone
Standing for generations before we embraced it Mighty Ruins become playgrounds, wilderness a haven Our home
I’ve just walked every inch of our border Cut or cured, with muscle and bone We laughed loud and worked harder But we didn’t have to do it alone
What’s yours is yours thanks for giving back what Is mine Fires burned, pumpkins were carved by many Good night
Moving, shifting, season upon season upon Buried No concerns no doubting they never change Waiting
My recent post was about a tree in my neighbor’s yard that has been dead for a while and a large part of it fell into my garage.
It looks worse from the inside!
Our daughter lives a few houses away. A different neighbor’s tree fell and landed on her car and took out the steps to her deck. We are lucky no one was hurt. It was a perfect time for a bad thing to happen!
She had just parked 15 minutes ago! The neighbor’s cat thought this was a great resting place.
Last week I returned home from a short visit with my daughter and her family.
Last month I turned 65 and quit my labor intensive
warehouse job.
Last year I enrolled in Medicare.
I am a procrastinator. I rationalize my symptoms. I laugh at me looking for a way to postpone trivial things all the time.
A lot of conditions are starting to be classified and quantified and turned into another annoying sound bite. Dyslexia, obsessive compulsion and attention deficit disorders, anxiety, being introverted and living with depression are just part of the long list. When I was growing up and entering grade school no one talked about these things. Few could diagnose and some treatments were still in the future. At least I now know what some of the things I have been dealing with all my life are called, lol.
Evidently there wasn’t anything extreme or I would be dead
or in a prison somewhere or in an alcoholic state of bliss. (I
– You – Them) Just enough to make IYT ‘odd’. Just enough so IYT know we are different. IYT literally see things differently than
the other school mates and friends. IYT understand things from a different
point of view. Where others find life
fun, IYT see nothing but challenges
and embarrassments.
It is funny growing older and learning of medical conditions over the years on the news and go, “OH! That’s what I have!” Of course, I procrastinate.
But back to rationalizations.
You have heard of Spring Cleaning. Every season you get everything out and dust it off. Some you decide to keep and some memorabilia is lucky to find another home. Even if it is only for the hope of being uncovered again in the future. Now think of that process in decades. Other than family and friends, what have you accumulated over all the years that is truly worth anything?
I have an old photo in a frame of my late sister and her husband. It needs a new home. For days it has been sitting on my desk. I see it every day. I procrastinate. I feel moods change whenever I look at the photo. I wait. I need to find the right place for it.
I recently made a trip to the Washington DC area to visit family. It is always fun, but this was a special trip. Among other things, I went to see my new grandson for the first time…… It is always amazing to hold someone that small and young. Such a thrill! The tiny hands and changing facial expressions are precious.
On this trip, I was also reminded of how amazing my other grandchildren are. They are getting a bit older now and it is amazing to watch them develop. When they are alone or together, they are sharp, funny, and intelligent. When they are together it is a thrill to watch them interact and feed off each other. It is a symphony of fun, wit, laughs and affection that makes it difficult to return home.
I think many of us grow up too self confident. We struggle to make new friends and learn new skills. Our attempts at “fitting in” can be awkward. We think we are alone and isolated way more than we actually are. It can take time to overcome some of these barriers until we get much older. Unfortunately, I still have not overcome many of them, LOL!
I just wish they knew how wonderful they are now and how much potential they have in their future! They are “the bomb, and I am so proud of them!
When I wrote the lyrics to This Moment, I had been thinking about my younger brother. He died from throat cancer a while back. He was the funniest and kindest person I have ever known. Even in the last few weeks of his battle you would never know he was losing. I spoke with his doctor and stated my brother was exhausted; no money or resources, no physical or emotional strength reserves, no medical options left. I was told others that were in a better state might be able to hold out longer. Soon my wife and I got a call and rushed to the hospital as we had a number of times before. He was in ICU this time and there was nothing to be done. The next expectation was the cancer would eat through the main artery in his neck. I will spare you the rest.
As he woke up and looked around, he was puzzled and almost excited at the same time. He could not talk, so he wrote something on a piece of paper and handed it to me. “Is this real?” was written at the top of the page. Between the medications and his state of mind, he was not sure if he was dreaming or not. He had been in hospital rooms many times, but he knew this was different. I told him that we are in the hospital. I confirmed he was dying and there was little time left. His artery would rupture soon. A moment difficult to prepare for.
The lyrics worked their way from my thoughts to the paper as I recalled that time in the hospital. How I felt: how he must have felt. My thoughts wandered to the many times I have talked and laughed with him over the years.
Your thoughts and comments were truly appreciated. I put the lyrics to music recently. This is not a perfect recording. This is as far as it goes for me. Please accept it as it is. For all of us that have lost loved ones and friends, sometimes we just need to share the loss. Maybe it makes it easier to turn the pain into great memories.
MidiMike 