I had been walking around my back yard and noticed I could not see any goldfish swimming in the pond.
The next day I looked out the window and wondered again why I could not see them. I apologize for the poor quality of the video below but it was shot through my kitchen door.
I am not surprised anymore by the unusual things I see in my yard and adjacent city park. I thought this was pretty cool until my wife said he is probbly eating the fish in the pond. I still think it is pretty cool!
I think I startled him and interrupted dinner!
I can’t find all of the fish but was happy to see quite a number finally come out of their hiding spots.
I wanted to share and experience I had earlier this week. As you know I am almost 70 years old. I regularly take my older sister to her dialysis appointments and to other doctor visits and hospital stays she has required for the last few years. She lives about an hour outside of town, but all of her doctors are near the city where I live. She does not drive and does not own a car, so when she has a medical appointment I drive about an hour to pick her up, drive an hour to the appointment which is close to my house and then drive her back home, stopping for medicine and usually lunch on the way. Then finally head back home. Lately she will get a ride to the appointment, and that way I only drive the round trip once.
She called hours before the appointment one morning because her scheduled driver did not show up. She scrambled and could get an appointment later the same day IF I could come and get her now. So I went to pick her up and take her to the appointment and then to pick up dialysis supplies she needs. We stopped for lunch around the mall area when we saw the Taste of Belgium was open as she had never been there before.
We ate our lunch and asked for the check as well as we needed to leave soon for the second appointment. Nothing special, there were a few other customers being served, we had a great meal and a good time. I was not upset or bummed that I had to drive both ways, and I have a great time visiting with my sister whenever I get a chance. Unfortunately, the appointment runs have become the only time we really see each other these days.
But as usual, I digress. When the waitress did not come back right away to get our check paid, I offered to go get the car so my sister didn’t have to walk across the parking lot. When I picked her up outside she told me she went to pay the check and the cashier said the two women that just left before us had already paid our bill! I was totally floored!
I can only guess why they decided to give us a very special gift. I would probably be wrong. Whatever the real reason, the effect was restoring my faith in humanity, at a time when it is desperately needed by so many.
I try to do similar things for others but I am inspired now, again.
A common topic shared on this platform as I reach 70 years old.
Another friend of mine has died unexpectedly. He was ten years younger than me. My posts have bragged about the people I have met over the years, and he is one of the special ones. Jay Aronoff truly loved music…. in all it’s forms, but he made it his own. Life had it’s struggles but he always had time for good friends.
Son of former Ohio Senator Stan Aronoff but he chose his own path. I met him when I worked at a local music store chain. I managed the store and he was a guitar instructor. Even when he was not in a lesson, the guitar was strapped around his shoulder and he encouraged impromptu renditions of our favorite prog-rock songs. He was easy to love.
Jay was stunned I had never had a cup of coffee. He persisted until I had my first and only cup of coffee with him. It wasn’t that bad but not as good as the smell of fresh ground coffee in the old grocery stores so I decided to stick with tea!
I did a video of Jay’s band Mara performing live. My wife Ellen and I did all the camera work on two separate nights, and I did the post production video and timing by ear. In memory of Jay Aronoff, here are links to that video filmed in 1988:
I also have some lyrics to share with all who knew Jay, and those who know me:
This is all Unpredictable The end to a terrible day. A phone call from another friend; This would be the last day with Jay.
He was a very special soul Who bound so many together. I thought he’d be the one To remember us forever.
Jay had his demons to face I’m sure he faced many alone. None of that matters today Because from now on, Jay is gone.
This is all UnPredictable The cruelty cannot be more clear This would be the last day with Jay. So I raised another glass of beer.
This is all UnPredictable The cruelty cannot be more clear This would be the last day with Jay. So I raised a glass of beer.
I mentioned before that one of the more painful things about getting old is inheriting stuff from your friends that are either no longer able to access older technology or loved ones that checked out of life before you do.
Recently, many wonderful musical things of no real value have found a home in my house. Some make noise, some record noise, some avoid noise, but all have been turned into music by friends of mine for decades. The memories and cave-man-level responses to sounds from the past hits me hard. You probably grew up hearing these sounds, but you might have been in the womb or soon after to this world when hearing them. These toys literally created most of the pop – rock and country music you grew up to. The list is too long for TV and commercial applications.
Anyway, unless you know what this stuff is (and things weren’t small in those days) and how to make it work it might as well be a pyramid that becomes nothing a storage problem. As usual, I digress.
Recently, I was given half a ton of old 45 rpm vinyl records.
But not the ones you buy at a store. To avoid another really interesting connected tangent, I will simply say that these came from a company where my wife worked. It was one company and then absorbed then another company and Clear Channel picked them up when their critical mass became too big to ignore. I apologize for the brevity, as most people won’t be interested, but they conducted surveys for radio stations across the US.
They condensed the song – ALL of the songs you would likely hear on commercial radio decades ago – to a 5 or 10 second “hook“. Whatever it was that identified the song to listeners was the hook. They conducted thousands of live – in – person paid surveys across the country to get listener’s opinions of the NEW artist or POTENTIAL new hit. These are not for sale and not available at the stores. My people know I can still use vinyl and other technologies but more importantly I can take care of them.
This brings me to another tangent I cannot avoid. So many of the treasures I have been given are no longer operable or salvageable. A little more thought in storage would have turned so many of these treasures into true gems. Rust, mold, misuse – no use, all take their toll. My stuff still works. From the time I was in high school forward. I bought good equipment and accessories and I took care of them because I knew I could not afford to replace them.
I finally get to the point to this post. I have hundreds of records. My wife worked for years watching literally thousands of bands and their best efforts to make it big. Yes, I heard many of those as well. Some were interesting, some were cool and most were painful. But the thing I am getting to after listening to each 45 record after the other is a simple but powerful message if you are trying to ‘get a deal’: Don’t spend all your energy creating the GREAT HOOK. I hear failure after failure after failure trying to be something you are not. Maybe you have to be cute or edgy to get noticed. Just make it your own edge.
ANY of these bands produced records and demo’s that are much better than my in-home singer/songwriter efforts. They have money and backers and investors looking for the next best thing. But the great hooks are organic and time-locked so you are chasing a dream. So much potential dedicated to making your band sound like someone or something else already out there. Tofit the cookie-cutter rather than make the cookie shape. It could be said I make the cookie shape and I am not famous. Mine is not a formula for success.
There are famous artists in this small collection so many do succeed, though I see so many failures because they are trying to find the magic lamp. Stop looking for it and create one for yourself. If it was that easy I would not be sitting here, lol. In the future I will share some of these records. They are not for sale, but I am not sure that means they are not for share.
Here is a record by Gipsy Kings I thought was pretty cool.
A small dedication to Ukraine and President Zelensky.
I can’t wait any longer for humanity to grow up. Life is obvious and so is love. Unrestricted power makes it complicated Never know what kings are thinking of.
Tyrants come and go but they leave so much destruction. Rulers often choose an Iron Glove. Their power comes from feeling no one’s pain Or false privileges from Above.
Empty people rule with an Iron Glove Energy to build used as energy to burn. I just can’t wait any longer For humanity to learn.
I understand the desire to leave this planet. Never was a fan of push and shove. Given the choices most people have It is obvious the best is none of the above.
Empty people rule with an Iron Glove Energy to build used as energy to burn. I just can’t wait any longer For humanity to learn.
It’s easy to feel helpless watching the world fall apart. Easier to be the hawk than the dove. There are no prayers that comfort the oppressed They would prefer the silence and ending thereof.
Today you managed Tomorrow you’ll fail Each loss another fragment forever pushed aside. The day after becomes A monotonous stream Each day is just like the last just a bit more purified.
Sometimes it’s easy Falling off a log Then all confidence disappears and your unable to move. I know I don’t know Is somebody watching? Surrounded by a quicksand of doubt and nothing to prove.
When everything disappears Even sacred memories hide underground. Lost, frozen in a searing panic Where Simple Things can’t be found.
This is the last time As much as the first Open or close your eyes but the vision is the same. It’s only in my head It’s only in my head I love you like a brother but won’t remember your name.
When everything disappears Even sacred memories hide underground. Lost, frozen in a searing panic Where Simple Things can’t be found.
I posted thoughts much earlier about Super Black Holes, and have waited for the launch of the James Webb telescope for a pretty long time. Hubble showed us amazing things. Many confirming Einstein’s theories. It forced us to see our universe is expanding rapidly, rather than slowing as expected, in all directions at the same time. Constellations, star clusters, galaxies and eventually suns and their planets will grow further and further apart. The stars and galaxies we see now will not be visible from Earth in just a few eons. (and they were so much closer eons ago) This will never end – speeding away – light constantly retreating. Our universe will get darker and darker, all matter – including black holes, will burn out or blow up, until there is no energy – anywhere.
But if my earlier theory has any merit, this might not be the end. In short, I suggested we are NOW in a black hole. With no proof whatsoever (#noproofwhatsoever) I suggested dark matter and dark energy are converted from regular matter when sucked inside a black hole. This is why our universe continues to expand. Literally everything we see or can detect is matter jettisoned through the Event Horizon with nothing to slow it down. One big sneeze from each black hole. Countless more black holes created as material is ejected – or pushed into a separate universe……?
I love science fiction and can recommend a few books almost as old as I am. I would love to write a novel on this subject but the next step is to think that OUR universe is expanding and will eventually die, but if intelligent life can manage to cross back through the Event Horizon, through the other side of a black hole, we may find a totally different universe that is quite stable or just plain weird. Who knows!
I suggest we can become that intelligent life.
PS I hope the new attempts to recreate the genius of “Dune” and “The Foundation” live up to the hype. These are treasured ideals for me, not just books on a shelf lol!
Thank you for listening.
My wife Ellen and I giving our grand kids a glow stick show in a dark roomCollision of Star Clusters of glow sticksglow stick Nebula
The pictures remind me of other visual games we would play and eventually showed our grandkids, but that is a different post.