Meanderings

My muse Jamaicia Pond

I guess that it is time for an update.

We are in the middle of the annual mid winter melt. I have been waiting for this for a few weeks. It usually happens in late January but it isn’t unusual for it to take place in February. It is generally about a week of unseasonably warm weather in the middle of the winter deep freez. This one has been relatively mild, with temps getting into the 50’s but it has been long lived the results being that the majority of the snow has melted. The 2 and 3 foot high snow banks along the sidewalks have vanished in a matter of a couple of days, and features in the yard, unseen for months have reappeared. Of course with the melt come the downside, not to be negative here, but what remains after al the snow melts is not a pretty sight especially after a cold and snowy winter like we have had. Like long gone glaciers, the receding snow banks leave a layer of dirt, sand and other debris in their wake. I don’t know which is worst to look at the dirt blackened snow banks or the layer of dirt and trash on the sidewalks and street. I am happy to see the snow gone though, and the slightly warmer weather in a relief as well. Now the furnace doesn’t run nearly constantly, waking me in the middle of the night each time it turns on. The cold and snow will most likely be back but for now I am not complaining. Spring is just a few weeks away. Ok more like 5 weeks, but it is light when I leave work in the evenings these days, that too is a good sign.

For the most part we have just sort of been hunkered down and getting thru the winter for the last couple weeks. The boy of course seems to take most of our attention and energy. Being 13 as he is, there is sort of a constant level of ‘tude that he gives us. He is doing pretty well in school, although it seems like he can’t quite keep up his grades in all subjects at once. Generally he is a B student; that seems to be as much work, as he wants to put into his studies in spite of our chiding and coaxing. At the same time inevitably on subject will get lost in the shuffle and his grades will drop for a while. We push in that and something else then falls behind. As it is we have added more guitar lessons for him. A neighbor is jazz and rock musician and teaches on the side. The boy has been saying that he is bored with playing classical guitar, and he is in jazz band which has opened up other styles and elements of playing for him, so adding this lesson seemed like the thing to do. It is only $20 for an hour lesson, and after the first one last Sunday the boy came away saying that his fingers hurt, but he had learned some good stuff. You would think that we were trying to turn him into a musician or something.

Both Mrs. and the boy are big Sci-Fi fans; I am too, but not quite to the degree that they are. We have all 10 seasons of Stargate on DVD, and a few seasons of Stargate Atlantis as well. The latest acquisition is the first couple of seasons of Babylon 5 a series that was on the air in the mid 90’s. I was never that fond of that particular series, the writing is stilted and the acting is wooden, or is it the other way around? The only interesting characters and decent actors are the ones who play the aliens. They have a tendency to over act, but that is more interesting than watching the stage timber that play the earthlings. Anyway, mother and the boy have been devouring the episodes. Fortunately or not, they don’t play well in the DVD player connected to the TV, so they have been playing them on their respective laptops. That last few nights as I have sat down at my desk in the evening I can hear the audio tracks from both of their computers as they play the DVD’s. I just turn up the iTunes on my own computer to drown them out, while they bliss out on Babylon.

I have been thinking lately about starting another blog about music, or just start blogging here. Like I barely have time to write here, huh? Since I was a lad of 10 or 11 and got my first crystal radio, I have been listening to and collecting music. My tastes are definitely not mainstream, and might best be described as eclectic. There are any number of artists and performers who interest me, and It might be interesting to write about what draws me to them and sharing that. I have been exploring how to share music through the blog. We will see how that develops..

The latest progress on the construction.

Holiday Spirits

The Christmas photo 2008

I must say that we had a hard time generating the holiday spirit around here this year. If it weren’t for having the boy we might have tried to avid it all together. But try as we might the Christmas spirit finally did arrive a few days before the actually day. The hot buttered rums and a couple extra days off from work may have helped. Until the last few days the Mrs. and I were still asking each other what we wanted for Christmas. For the boy it was another thing all together. He had a pretty extensive Christmas list and we did our best to if not follow it at least spoil him, with toys, trinkets and clothes. Virtually every gift under the tree was for the boy. The one gift that didn’t fit under the tree was a new guitar that we bought him. An IbanezAES20, he had seen in about a year and a half ago when we were shopping for a full size classical guitar, it is an electric/acoustic in black with a distinctive diamond shaped sound hole. We ordered it online, and it arrived via Fed Ex encased in 3 boxes. To make it more playful for him, I wrapped all three boxes and enclosed them, as they were when it was shipped to us.

We went to Fanueil Hall and downtown crossing on Christmas Eve to do a little final shopping see if we could catch some good sale prices. The weather was nasty; cold and snowy but it was very Christmassy. Mrs. found a nice pair of slippers for me, (the only thing on my list) and we picked up a few other items for family and friends, and the boy got to visit his favorite store, Newbury Commix, a purveyor of music, video, Comics, action figures and all things tasteful for teens. He had some Christmas money to blow, we suggested that he might spend some of it on gifts for family and friends, but he chose to purchase an action figure of the 5th DR. Who. Ah the priorities of 13 year-old boys! While passing thru Downtown Crossing, we saw one of the more notable local affects of the ‘Economic Down-turn’ at the site of the former Filenes. Macy’s had bought the store a while back, and big plans were made to refurbish the store, (A historic site) and convert it into new retail space which was to include a hotel and at the same time put a little polish in Downtown Crossing. Unfortunately funding dried up and now instead of a thriving department store with it’s legendary bargin site ‘Filene’s Basement’, the city is left with a large hole in the ground for the foreseeable future.

Filene's Basement

Christmas Day dawned sunny and surprisingly warm with temps in the 40s. The boy let us sleep a reasonable amount of time and we were able to get some coffee in us before he dragged us to the tree. As I mentioned, he made out like a bandit and was surprised thrilled with the guitar. The wrapping entertained him, and kept the suspense going for all of us. I don’t suppose that a 13 year-old boy needs to own 3 guitars, but he shows a real interest in the instrument, and wants to break out from the classical training that he has been getting, so this will give him another tool to work with. The rest of the day was quiet, as the usually are these days, having no family close-by. I did track down my family in Seattle who were all gathering at a brothers house for dinner, and spent at least an hour chatting with most of them on the phone. I miss those family free-for-all gatherings on the holidays, coming from a large family, with a large extended family, those busy loud holiday were just a fact of life, As much as anything, I wish for the boy to be able to share in some of the that experience. I guess if I want that we are just going to have to travel out west one of these Christmases.

The days following Christmas have been spent keeping the boy as busy as possible. We did a little post Christmas shopping, and spent an afternoon at the Museum of Fine Arts, and have watched a lot of movies on DVD. Mrs. had to go into work at the first of the week, but was also suffering forma holiday cold, so she took a sick day off. The weather has been the usual variety. It warmed up after Christmas with one day reaching over 60°F, which melted all the snow. But as I with this on New Years day it is barely 20° out and we have an additional 6” of snow on the ground. The temp dropped yesterday and a storm blew in mid-day, which scuttled our plans for New Years Eve. Instead we spent it huddled on the sofa under blankets watching the Star Wars movies.

The streets are now clear, and we are about to head off to participate in one in a new years day tradition, bowling with a couple of friends! None of us are any good, but it gets us out of the house. When done we will return home to a pot of split pea soup that is cooking in a crock-pot.