Notes from the Road

Vegas to Reno, Reno to Vegas, I've been driving this road my entire life. My first Vegas road trip was in high school for the State Tennis Championships. I didn't win, but I did get a glimpse into my future.

This summer I drove solo to Tahoe and finished a book on tape on the trip north, but on the trip home, I listened to my God Journey podcasts and enjoyed it enough to take notes. I'm trying to find my desk at the bottom of all the papers I have stacked up and I almost tossed my notes page out. Now it's hard to take notes while driving 70 miles per hour, but I didn't want to loose them.

- Fear and insecurity cause you to clutch
- Castles in the Dirt
- We all want mercy for me and our friends, but what about(insert your own)
- Don't let (insert situation, institution) define who you are
- Live in the gifts of God, not the needs of Gregg
- When you get sifted like wheat, Gregg gets to end of Gregg
- The personal management of your soul seems daunting, when you first leave institutionalized religion
- Sin is when you think the world revolves around you
- "You know you've created God in your own image, when He hates all the same people you do." Anne Lamontt

Bird By Bird

My precious bride Heidi loves birds. We feed them, look at them and laugh at them. There seems to be a renaissance for the love of birds. They are everywhere. Even on my HP printer test page.

MOM holding Scott 1957

It will be 20 years ago tomorrow (Nov. 5th 1989) that my mom died. I still miss her. I wish she could have met Caitlin and Bronwyn. I saw this photo and she had that twinkle in her eye, I like to remember her like that. She is holding my brother Scott and she looks so beautiful. So here is to you Nancye Margaret Stokes, forever in my memory.

Good TV, Bad TV

It started innocently enough, it always does. An email from Joost recommended a television show to watch. It was called Jericho. It was a show I never saw, so I watched show one, season one. And I was hooked. I burned through every episode they had posted and really enjoyed the story, the cast and the plot. Problem was they did not have all the episodes up on Joost, so I went a looking. I found some streaming media sites the filled in the gaps and my online-media journey began. Now, let me tell you, I don't just stop everything to watch TV on my computer screen. I'm a expert multi-tasker. I work my aps and have a little 640x480 screen open on my desktop and as the media runs, I work. It's like having the radio on...really, really good radio, with pictures. If the story is compelling enough, I glance down and catch the gist of the scene, if it's really good, I pause and give it a look. If it rocks my world, I may stop typing and become awash in the moment.

I recently heard on NPR that employers are finding that the new generation of workers are extremely adapt at multitasking. As long as performance is strong they can twitter, Facebook and stream media to their work PCs. One article I read calls it passive distractions, another says it's a sign of depression. Only time will tell with me.

There are actually only a couple of shows that I record in HD to watch at my leisure, whatever that is. Those are LOST, Heroes, Sarah Connor Chronicles and 30 Rock...everything else I'll stream what I get to it. That being said, here is a list of TV series that I have watched in the past 12 months, every episode; Jericho, LOST, Greys Anatomy, Heroes, Life, Fringe, 24, 30 Rock, The Office, Sarah Connor Chronicles, Rescue Me, Desperate Housewives, American Idol, Entourage, Six Feet Under, The Shield, Flight of the Concords, Arrested Development, 30 Days, Web Therapy, Green Wing, Dexter, Nurse Jackie, Warehouse 13, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report and Firefly; Glee; Flash Forward; Community, Fringe, Sons of Anarchy.

David Garrett - Czardas (Live 2006)
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Violinist Super Model

Heard an interview with this German violinist David Garrett on NPR today. He trained with Isaac Perlman and went to Julliard. He supported himself at Julliard by modeling....go figure.

The Wedding of the Quarter Century

Before this day is lost in the memories of work, orchestra, ballet, bug bites and neck pains, I would like to take a moment to ponder the significance of being married for twenty five years.

First, it has gone by in the blink of an eye. It seems like just yesterday that I was sporting the mustache and dancing on the boards. Our children were babies and our concerns were simple.

Twenty five years of life together creates memories and familiarity that cannot be measured by blogs or tweets. Life rolls on like the endless waves that crash upon the beaches of our being. We merely pass through and leave a trail of love that is washed away.

I have a vivid memory about getting married. I remember that I once told Heidi that we could both walk on the same path and see totally different things and that's what I loved about her. She would tell me what she saw and I'd listen and I'd tell her what I saw and she would listen. No judgment, just the beautiful ability to expand our own vision of what we know.

So we keep walking through this crazy, wonderful life together. Not perfect by any means, but together. A four-eyed married mess making small steps together.

On our silver anniversary...we're going for the gold.

Dogs

Dogs they just listen and see what they see,
Look at the wall, look at the tree.
Look at the bird, look at the plane,
This old dogs life, stays always the same.

Sniff at the ground, turn and lay down,
With the cock of the head, you're ready for bed.
Too bored to stand, amazed at it all,
The pressures too great, to stare at the wall.

My eyes start to close, my head bobbs a little,
But my ears are awake, half way up to the middle.
I think I'll rest now, but I'll always be on guard,
For to some it's for naught, but I'm king of my yard!

_____________________


While doing a bit of cleaning in the garage, I found my old yellow notebook with this poem scribbled down. I read it to my girls who told me I should put it up on the old blog. Now, my marginal poetry is immortal. It did remind me that we did at one time have a couple of great dogs.