Andy Mckee - Drifting

I found this guy on You Tube today. I nearly started to weep after just one minute of watching and listening to him.

Has anyone heard of him before?

I immediately oredered his CD from his website.

He makes me want to take more lessons.

red eye reduction

( a photograph of my left eye )

The Christmas break is a great time to accomplish many things at the same time. You kind of feel like Superman, able to leap tall buildings with a single bound. The family also spends an inordinate amount of time together accomplishing tasks which, during the regular routine, would take weeks to accomplish.

Today, all six of us drove into the city and had eye examinations. I have recently been invited into the privileged group of the insured. There are all sorts of wonderful things awaiting the members at a mere 20% of the price offered to mortals.

After all the Christmas feasting has subsided, I think I'll need a reduction of some other kind.

crazy jane

It's not every year that I come up with a great gift giving idea. Most of the time I don't even know what I've gotten for the kids until Christmas morning when all the gifts have been opened. Joyce usually has that all wrapped up somewhere by the end of lambing season.

I've been noticing for the last few years that I have a budding artist in the family in my daughter Jane. I decided that one of the best gifts I could give her this year would be motivation and recognition. Joyce keeps telling me that what she really wants the most from me is approval. Well, Jane...I approve and here's your own avenue of inspiration.

I wish you a long and colourful life filled with rich hues, multi-mediums, and warm textures.

Merry Christmas, Jane.

the most wonderful time of the year

The wonderful thing about this day, the last day of classes before the winter break, is the excitement of my wife on my arrival home from work.

Normally, on any other given day, she usually has a frown for me if I stand in the kitchen and open a can of suds before all the daycare kids have gone. I'll sometimes stand around for an hour and finish off a couple before all the little darlings (aka: snot-encrusted beggers) have gone.

This day, the long-awaited holy day, after seeing my approach on the driveway, Joyce bounds to the refrigerater, and with one gigantic leap, crosses the ten metres from the fridge to the back entrance, and places an exceptionally frosted one in my deserving hand. I say deserving only because it is a hand that is ready to share.

Before I am ready to actually grasp the drink, I must first put down a familiar load. Joyce is well-aquainted with this burden. It's the anticipated weight of the season.

Joyce removes the yoke, and bears my yuletide burden yet again. Gratefully I sigh, and receive her offer of liquid refreshment...nourishment.

As I sit back and renew my strength, Joyce is busy attacking the burden which has so plagued me this day. By the time my anxiety has all but vanished, she has disassembled, evaluated, and categorized my lot into a fairly managable sum.

And it always adds up the same: White + Dark + Milk + With Nuts = Fat Ass

tired

(My Micah looking like he'd rather be at home)

I would really like to post something especially nice about my children's Sunday School Christmas program. I really would. But I don't know if I can.

No, it's not that I don't think that the performances were poor, the lighting was bad, or there was loud feedback right when it was Jane's turn to sing a solo. I think it's quite a bit deeper than that. And by deeper, I don't mean that I am thinking on a higher level of intelligence than anyone else. What I am saying is that, just like the tired concept of groups calling door to door or on the phone to collect for local charities, the insistance on the subjecting an entire group of 100 hot, itchy and sleepy children to sit through and present an hour long program at Christmas time, is tired. Notice I didn't say stupid, or rediculous, or idiotic. I said tired. The concept of going to the community to ask for help by contributing food and clothes is a great idea, but have you noticed how tired people have become of the same old thing every giving season? The collection hampers are less full than they ever have been and the ones doing the collecting have to come up with newer ideas to stimulate giving every year.

Most of the kids are bored and completely tired of these programs, except the ones who are prominantly featured. The writers of these productions do their best to keep to the original text and yet bring the story home with a relevant focus. Like how the baby Jesus would like a lame soccer player as much as a star. Or how the angels had just as much personality as the wise men or shepherds. Or making Myrrh as important as Gold.

I'm not really sure what my point is. I'm ranting...you're right. When people are tired, they rant.

at least I'm still a man

I wasn't looking forward to checking my personal profile this morning. I really liked the look of that 39 on the age line. But if that is the only change I'm going to have to deal with today, I think I'm going to be just fine.

lordy, lordy

Like the above rinkside bench in the empty lot in my back yard, my blog has been quite vacant lately. I think I'm quite possibly experiencing the I'm-about-to-turn-forty syndrom. My birthday is on Saturday and I've tried to be quite grown up about it but, try as I might, I believe that I'm a little more conscious of it than I would have hoped.

My mind is telling the body that a little more effort is required to maintain that youthful appearance. The financial advisor is advising more financial responsibility if I ever hope to achieve Arizona status. The literacy team suggests greater compliance with the new incentives so that we can have more accurate records to store away in files so that we can say that we have files stored away. And the church, well...there's always the church.

I've never been the kind of person to put much stock into making New Year's resolutions. But I feel the need to make some sort of commitment as I pass from the third to the fourth decade of my life. It's a bit of an itch that needs attention. If I scratch too hard...

Have you ever had this rash?