I Blew It

So, big auto mechanic weekend for me.  I decided to install my new trailer hitch on Saturday, and to replace my cruise control on Sunday.

So Saturday I got the hitch installed ok.   So far, so good.  And I knew I should get an early start on the cruise control on Sunday.

So I went out as soon as the rain stopped on Sunday morning.  It was cloudy and cool.   Ish.  For this time of year.

Took the windshield trim off of the base of the windshield and the drain cover off of the passenger side so I could get to where the wiring would go down into the passenger compartment.   The new cruise control has bigger connectors to fit through the hole, so I needed a bigger hole.

On the previous install, we drilled the hole high up on the drain slope.  I wanted to use the old wires to pull the new ones through, but I couldn't enlarge the hole with a drill bit without tearing the wires up and losing that possibility, so I thought to myself ... hey....  I'd like that hole higher up off the drain slope so it will be less likely to leak, and it's just a couple inches.  I could grab the wires through that new, bigger hole. And pull 'em through anyway.

Now I know that there's stuff back there behind the firewall, and I know that there's air conditioner stuff back there.   I looked at where the line from the drier went in about 6" down.  So I FIGURED .... that I had enough room especially if I was careful.

So I started drilling the hole.  And I could see I was getting close to punching through and stopped the drill right as it punched through.  But it was a half second too late.

High pressure R134 spewed into the air.  Yes.  I cursed.

More than once.

Because I knew that was an $800 to $1000 job to fix (with labor, which I'm not about to try).

Well after I got my wits back together, I took option 2 and took the old wires out and expanded the old hole (the hell of it is, even if I had successfully done the new hole without doing any damage, I wouldn't have been able to use it.  Evaporator was too close.)   I pulled the wire through, then went back under the hood to figure out where to mount the new control and how to secure the cable end by the throttle.   Which took me pretty much the rest of the day.

I was hot.  I was soaked with sweat.   I hadn't eaten since breakfast.   So I left it unwired on the inside, cleaned my car out so that the mechanics would have lots of room and none of my crap (glovebox, etc) to deal with.   And then I went in.

Called the garage this morning.  They are backed up until next monday.  So no AC in the car this week, and that includes a trip to KC on Friday night Saturday.   And worse, the trip back on Sunday.

Right in the middle of the two hottest, most humid weeks so far this summer.  And a $900 car bill to boot.

And I STILL have to wire the new cruise control.   But as long as that's done before the Colorado trip.....

Summer Float 2010

Last weekend Ryan, Kristie, John, Ali, Kevin, Marken, Brian, Kristin, and Vicki and I (nice size group!) headed down to Alley Spring and the Jack's Fork River for the traditional summer float trip.

It was a bit disjointed, schedule-wise this time.  Kristie couldn't get off until 2:00 on friday.  Kevin and Marken couldn't leave St. Louis until about that time either.  Ryan and John went down early, and Kristin, Vicki and I were going to head down in Brian and Kristin's Cherokee around noon after Kristin got off work and we packed the jeep.

Brian was going to go with Kristie and Ali (heh, "Kristie Ali") around 2:15.   Turned out Brian could go with us at noon after all... well ... 1:00.    Kristin got off a little early and we loaded up the grammy bags (with tent/camping/float equipment) on the luggage rack and tied it down, and got the rest of the equipment, clothes, and coolers in the Jeep.

And the skies openend up and drenched everything.  Seriously, I'll bet we got over 1.5" in 40 minutes.  Fortunately, we put any bedding in the grammy bags inside dry bags... well almost everything.  Brian and Kristin's big pillow wasn't. 

The rain continued all the way to Rolla, but we saw little or none past there.  The optimistic GPS had estimated a 2.5 hour drive... it ended up being more like 3:20 ... which is about what we're used to.   Part of that was because we got behind a horse trailer as soon as we turned onto 19, which went all the way to Eminence.  Apparently they were not familiar with that country driver courtesy of pulling over and letting people by occasionally when you're driving so slowly, and 19 is a windey, windey road.

Got to Alley Spring Campground site 411 (a very nice double-site) and Ryan and John, who had gotten there about 2:30 -- had the Williams popup set up and John and Ali's tent.   The awning was out and the party lights were up.  Vicki had wanted this new Coleman Instant Tent she saw at Sams Club and she bought it, and we brought our old tent for Kevin and Marken.  Between the six of us we had all three set up quickly.  Then Kristie arrived.  Ali was hungry so the Williams and the Sowers stayed back and ate.  The rest of us were hot so we went down to the swimming hole and talked and had a few brewskis and watched kids jump off the rocks into the deep pool below.

About the time we were done (7:00pm) we left for the campsite and crossed paths with the rest of our crew coming down to swim.  A bit out of synch -- but considering the different arrival schedules not totally unexpected.   We went back and had our brats and chips and by the time we were done it was getting dark and the rest of the crew came back.  A little camp fire time, s'mores, a little pickin' on the git-tar in the background behind the conversation.  And people started to turn in.

Because Windys was coming to pick us up at 8:00 am!  It was the latest pickup they could do for Bay Creek that wasn't TOO late (like very late morning).

We had forgotten to take the (hanging) trash bag to the dumpster, and of course the ever-present opportunist raccoons showed up as soon as everyone had turned in.  They came out of the switch grass (I didn't know we had that in Missouri but apparently we do) and rooted around for anything that might have food in it.  The coolers were bungied, but one was able to reach the trash bag.  I got up and stared it down with the flashlight, then grabbed the bag and picked up the trash and walked it through the dense fog out of the loop to the bin.

It was a pleasant night, all things considered -- very humid, but actually a little cool by morning.  Unusual on the Summer float, and in stark contrast to last year.  I had the fan on (battery operated) just to circulate the air in the tent because it was so damp, and the typically warm-blooded Vicki was getting a little snuggly by morning. She was actually a bit chilly!

Had breakfast -- eggs, and yogurt and fruit for us, breakfast buritos, I think, for the Sowers... and I can't remember what the Williams had but I don't think it was pancakes this time.  And they have that nice stove!  Windy's showed up and loaded us up and 30 minutes later we were putting in at Bay Creek.

It was a pleasant day on the river.  Sunny.  Very warm but not too hot.  Nice breeze, cold water, lush green vegetation.  Ryan and Kristie were in their kayaks and the rest of us rented canoes from Windys.

And as usual we spent the day riding chutes on the noodles, and swimming in holes.  We had sandwiches, fruit, and chips, and cookies for lunch -- the sandwiches had gotten soggy in the cooler.  Apparently the wraps weren't water-tight.  Ziplocks next time.   Dry ice would rock.  Wish they had dry ice in Eminence.  We had used it for the trip down since it takes up less room and ... of course ... doesn't  melt wet.  Handy.  It lasts about as long as regular ice.  Which means about all day, keeping things fairly cold for 12-18 hours.

The river was about as low as you'd want it for a float - relatively normal for this time of year.  A lot of people wouldn't like it because there was SOME dragging in shallow spots, and in a couple of spots we actually had to get out and push.  But we do this part of the river because it is less crowded and there are lots of nice swimming holes.  It's really more of a swim trip than a float trip.

The last stop we made there was a bit of a non-obvious backwater on the far side of the gravel bar where there was an eddy in the current.  We got in, and it was kind of convenient for me as I was floating in my noodle ring.  I could easily stay near the rest of the group where they were standing and sitting in the water -- I would let the back-current take me upstream a little ways, then paddle out just a little ways into the main current -- which would carry me back down stream, and I just floated in a little oval.  But after about a half hour I noticed what looked like a piece of debris on my right foot.  I went to brush it off and it not only didn't come off, it wiggled.  It was a small leech.   I knocked it off, and the water cleared like someone spotted a Snickers bar in a pool.   I was a little surprised but not shocked when I thought about where we'd stopped and the slow current by the shore and the relative abundance of organic material.  Don't stop in anything like a backwater.  That's where you'll tend to find these things, apparently even if it's just an eddy in the river.  Note to self...

We pulled out around 3:30.  The various showers and naps took place and we started a fire to cook our poor boy packs on.  We also needed ice, and Kristin wanted to phone home (which you pretty much have to go to Eminence to do, on the lookout on a hill about a mile north of town).  So Kristin and I took off to get it.

But apparently I had put Brian's nice Gerber camp axe on the bumper of the Cherokee, and it was unsurprisingly NOT there when we got back.   Brian and Kristin made a trip back to go hunt it down, but I imagine it fell off before we even got out of the loop and somebody said "hey, sweet hatchet!"

The clouds got dark and the wind kicked up.  We felt a few tiny raindrops and heard a rumble of distant thunder.  We quickly set up Marken's canopy -- but we lucked out.  The storm passed to the north and west, and all we got was the gust front and some nice cool outflow air.

People started turning in around 9:30, me just after 10:00, but Kevin, Brian, and John stayed up around the fire until after midnight.  And this time, the trash had been moved.  But... apparently the Oreos had gotten soggy and someone didn't know not to dump them in the campsite.  They will next time!  They were dumped at the edge of the woods next to Kevin and Marken's tent, and they got to hear the raccoon feast all night.  I'm sure those were some happy racoons!

The Willams & Sowers had eaten easier food than we did.  The packets (potato, onion, peppers, and brats/hamburger meat + butter) take about an hour too cook, and these took longer because the fire wasn't really ready when we started.  But they were quite tasty.

Everyone broke down the next morning by 8:00, and we were on our way to Alley Spring to take the traditional Mill shot ... then to Eminence to Ruby's Sarah's Ruby's T&T (fantastic place for breakfast in Eminence.  Good buffet food.)  We knew it had been sold, but apparently it was sold to Ruby's daughter Sarah.  We mentioned that it was now "Sarah's" to the waitress, and she said it would be Ruby's again in early July.  Ruby's buying it back.  Eh.  It's all in the family.  So we asked about the T&T, and they said originally another couple -- a Tammy & Tim, I believe, had owned it.  They still live in town but they own other businesses.

Drove back to Columbia, put the tents in the driveway to dry thoroughly, and napped.  Had to run out and drag them in around 5:00 when a thunderstorm blew in.

We're still tired.  It went too fast, as usual.  But it was good summer fun!

Zintkala Maniyan

Walking Bird.  I decided that's gonna be my Indian name.  

Why did I decide I wanted an Indian name?  'Cause I want one.  That's why.  So I'll have an alter-ego when I'm playing my Native American flute.  (Yeah, I know they're really not "Indians".  So just stop right there.)

See, I like to hike way up high ... and birds go high, but I, of course, can't fly.  So I walk everywhere.  I soar like an eagle with my feet on the ground.

And stuff.

Now I just need a primitive-style hyroglyphic drawing of a bird walking.  One foot in front of the other-like.

Hi .... Bop!

Scotty was right.  Trenton is starting to get a vocabulary, and it's happening fast.  It's very cool to watch him learn to communicate verbally.  Plus it gives you a glimpse into just how much he's been absorbing.

It looks like he's settled on "Bop" for my name for now. It's short for "Papa" ... kind of like "Pop!". I love it. He's been calling me that for several weeks now.

He says "nyyyyeeew" for "No" ... I think he got that from Mama. And of course Mama and Dada have their names. And [great] Grandma Jean is "Jean".

He's saying several of his colors. And "Park". And "slide". "Up" and "Down" are big ones.  "This" and "These" for general things he wants or wants us to look at.  A couple of weeks ago, we went to Jazz for Kevin's birthday dinner with everyone, and I took him outside while everyone finished eating.  We were near a car wash he has been to and we drive by it a lot as it is on the way between our house and theirs.  He started saying "pssssshhh ww-sssshhhhh!!!" ... and I thought, is he doing what I think he's doing?   ... yup.   We watched a guy wash his car and went back into the restaurant.  Where he told Nana all about it.  "Nana!   Ahh... pssssshhh ww-sssshhhhh!!!"

Vicki had him for the afternoon the other day and she called me at work and put him on the phone.

"Bop! Ahhn.... HOME!"

Which reminds me, he says " 'mon" for "C'mon". "'mon, Bop! 'mon, Nana". The other night Mama and Dada showed up to take him home and he was ready to go. Dad was dragging his feet and talking, so he was all "'mon, Dada. 'mon-'mon!"

Oh, and at the park yesterday he met an older woman. 4 years old! Eva. They had lots of fun playing on the slide/jungle gym at the park. And then her mom said it was time to go and they went to leave. They got about 15 yards away and Trenton was saying "Bye-bye! Bye-Bye" and waving... and all the sudden he said ... "aaahnn .... HUG!"

The girl's mom said "hugs are always good" and he ran after her and they hugged and he gave her a "mwah!"

Danged cute.  There's lots more, and new words every day.

Tonight was our last swim "lesson" with Kristin at the MAC.  I'll have fun with him in our pool and we'll continue our swimming skills this summer, I'm sure.

Went to Table Rock Lake with Ryan and Kristie last weekend. We used their new popup, which was handy since it rained ... a lot. I think we got 6.5" here over the weekend. We "camped" right near the lake, but card games and conversation was the order of the day while the rain fell. Saturday we dodged rain off and on all day ... quite heavy at times, and with hail and high winds -- in Eureka Springs.

Listened to a musician on the balcony bar of the Basin Spring Hotel. Jeff Lee. Nice warm voice and an amplified acoustic guitar -- playing some nice classic rock and blues covers along with some of his own compositions. About the time the sky opened up for the 8th time that day he broke into "Rain", by the Beatles. Which I appreciated. You don't hear that one much. Had to "learn" it when I got home. Bought a couple of CDs from him and we finished our drinks and moved on.

Went to Silver Dollar City on Sunday -- it was dry until we went to leave around 3... we left just in time.  Rode all of the roller coasters.  I haven't ridden a roller coaster in many, many, many years.   Vicki had been concerned about them since she lost one of her balance nerves before we got married.  She loves roller coasters.  She did fine.  Me ... I had fun, but I could take 'em or leave 'em.  Roller coasters, that is.

Lots of traveling lately. Fort Wayne and back twice last month ... St. Louis one weekend to see Kevin and Marken.... Eureka Springs/Branson last weekend ... and we're looking at another pair of Fort Wayne trips here coming up.

And I want to go to Colorado this summer, too.

I am "a-Pa"

Well, the "Papa" from last Thanksgiving only came out once. After that it was back to Trenton naming everybody around him, "Mama", "Dada", "Nana", "Uncle" ... but when they asked him  who I was he would just smile and look away. My guess is that it was too hard and he didn't want to mess it up.

But last week it went up to "Pa", and now it's "a-Pa".  "Papa" can't be far behind!

A couple of swimming lessons ago, there's a large pool cleaning machine that was sitting in a corner over at the Mac.

Trenton does NOT like vacuum cleaners.  And this machine looks like the vacuum cleaner from hell.  

He kept a wary eye on it the whole lesson, becoming more and more uncomfortable.  Finally, after about 20 minutes, he let his thoughts be known.

"BYE!" he said loudly.

So he got to get out and dried off by Nana and then we left.  Took him and Kristin out to dinner at Rio Grande.

Yesterday, Kristin said he didn't even want to come to the pool.  I hoped that the pool cleaner would be gone, but it was still in the same place.  I took him over to it and beat my hand on the tank.   He touched it himself, but was still more interested in getting away from it.  So he got in the pool with mama, and I draped my towel over the machine as much as I could.

He still kept looking over there, but got more and more comfortable as time went on, and he had a pretty good time this time.

Oh, and I also got a Thomas the Train DVD to supplement Bob the Builder.  Mostly for us adults.  You know, a little variety never killed anyone.

Ghost of Work Past

Eight years ago today, I apparently rewrote a popular song so that it would apply to a fairly complex process I scripted to move people's mailboxes from one site to another with the University system (Columbia, Kansas City, St. Louis, Rolla, and between faculty/staff and student domains, or "sites").

It was a perl script that used an oracle table and tweaked a couple of others to integrate it withs some other scheduled stored procedures someone else had written, while running command-line programs to export mail, copy it elsewhere, and import it from there when the new id got created .... it was a piece of work.  Maybe one of my best.  But it was not without it's frustrations.

Margie was digging through old emails and found it and forwarded it to me.

Site Moves
Words and Music by Rob Spleger

It was a little too small
Could've used a few bytes
Got my mailbox moved to another site
It was a flashy new server with big hard drives
With quotas all its own way up firm and high
Way up firm and high
Got a new ID, then AD got heavy
Another email alias, well I have a bevy
Workin' on mysteries without any clues
Workin' on our site moves
Tryin' to make some email movin' news
Workin' on our site moves
In the winter time
In the cold winter time

It wasn't movin' fast, oh no far from it
My record got stuck, in the queue dad-gum it
There's a duplicate in another domain
It's such a pain
And we'd poll AD every chance we could
Hopin' it'd go away, if it ever would
I had two ids
But neither one cared
Both just sittin' there
Workin' on our site moves
Tryin' to lose those records stuck in queues
Workin' on our site moves
And it was summertime

And oh, can you relate
We saw the delete
And we waited on the create
Waited on the create

I awoke last night to the sound of thunder
Had the queue dislodged I sat and wondered
My mail's been sittin' there since 1962
Ain't it funny how the site moves
When you just don't seem to have email to use
Strange how the site moves
With MSX-2K closing in
Maybe I should try again....

Happy Earthquake Day!

Every year on February 9, I remember one particular February 9th, 1971 in the San Fernando Valley, in what has apparently been called the Sylmar Quake.

So I tip my hat to my brothers and cousins and all who were there that hair raising day.  I remember ... I was asleep.  I think it was just after 6:00am.  My bed was shaking and bouncing, much like it sometimes did in my nightmares.   So I tried to wake up.  I kept trying to open my eyes But it was soon clear that I was awake, and they were open.  Dad yelled from the bathroom, where he was shaving... "GET OUT OF THE HOUSE!!!!!!".   There were six of us boys.  Dad scooped a couple of us up.  I remember running out the door, down the steps, and down the walkway toward the street. 

It was an odd sensation, running while the ground was moving... bouncing, swaying.   He stuck us all out in the Mustang out on the curb.  We all fit -- the kids anyway. Four in the back, two in the front.  I guess to protect us from falling things.  The shaking lasted for about two minutes in reality, but it seemed much longer.  (The picture above is that same house some 37 or 38 years later.  There are the steps I ran down and the walk I walked out of.  Brother Jeff was out there recently for some training or a conference and swung by and took this photo.)

I had no idea what was going on, but I learned quickly.  "This is an earthquake".  Well, there was nothing subtle about it.  Even a 7 year old could get it.

That morning the Summers' next door came to eat breakfast at our house because their kitchen cabinets faced the opposite way ours did and they lost all of their dinnerware.  School was cancelled. 

Occasional aftershocks scared the living crud out of us kids.  They taipered off over the next several weeks from what I recall.  I poured over (the pictures) in magazine articles.   I could read some, I know... but over the years I read more and more about it.  I think that was the beginning of my fascination with Geology.

When I googled the quake because I couldn't remember that "Sylmar" bit, I ran across this interesting bit of trivia on a blog called Vinyl Mysteries. 

This guy is clearly more of a vinyl junkie than I was, and I thought I was bad.  I still have about 1,000 vinyl ablums.  I'd love to have this album ripped to MP3, just for a keepsake.

New Toy

Lookie what Vicki got me for my birthday.

A 500mm mirror lens.  And a rifle-butt stock camera holder to hold it steady.

Haven't had time or opportunity to really play with it yet, though.

Gotta Bookmark This Site (paracord braiding)

Very cool.  You can wear your paracord, and BAM!  In an emergency, you've got about 12 feet of cord you can use.

On your wrist.

Phil's Top Christmas Albums

I really can't rank these.  These are just my favorites, and they are for various reasons.

I mentioned before I like classic jazz Christmas music, and for a Classic Jazz Christmas album, you cannot beat Columbia Records' "Jingle Bell Jazz".   I bought this album on vinyl years ago and I NEVER get tired of it.  The CD version dropped one track, but it was the track I liked the least, so I wasn't too bothered by that.  Dexter Gordon's "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is quite possibly my favorite version of this song, and Duke Ellington's "Jingle Bells" is hands down my favorite version of what is honestly at it's core a pretty dull song. But not when the Duke took it on. That cat layed that tune out and decked the hall for all time with it, and it kicks!  Plus Bob Dorough's "Merry X-Mas to Whom It May Concern" (w Miles Davis) is a "modern" classic. Gotta say I prefer the original vinyl cover art, though.

Vince Guaraldi's "A Charlie Brown Christmas".  This is consistently a top Christmas album every year.  It's classic jazz, and it has some songs that at least at first were not the same carols you hear over and over and over again -- but many have since been recorded and re-recorded and have become classics on their own -- most notably, "Christmastime is Here".  Even the standards have an off-kiltered innocence to them.  This is one reason I like Jazz Christmas music.  It's the same song ... but it's not!  Plus, this album is the source of the original song most associated with Peanuts, "Linus and Lucy".

Doris Day's "Personal Christmas Collection".  I just discovered this a few years ago after hearing "Old Saint Nicholas" on another great classic Christmas collection (a series of releases called "Ultra Lounge Christmas Cocktails") and I sought her album out.  This is a solid Christmas album.  There's a reason Doris Day was a popular singer - she had a great voice and knew how to use it!  It is easily one of my favorite Christmas albums.

The Ultra Lounge Christmas Cocktails Series.  Not so much an album but a series of albums.  Several original classic versions of classic Christmas songs.  Peggy Lee, Kay Starr, Dean Martin, Julie London, Nat Cole, June Christy, Les Brown, Stan Kenton, Johnny Mercer, Lena Horn  ... I mean ... what are you waiting for?

The Roches "We Three Kings".  I first saw a Roches ablum when I worked at Whizz Records back in my College days.  The self-titled "The Roches".  It was intriguing.  But then one night I saw them on Johnny Carson.  Quirky, irreverent, great harmonies (and they can also sing badly on purpose, which is harder than you think when you are good)... when they came out with a Christmas album I was torn.  I loved the group, but I don't like irreverent Christmas Music for the most part.  I thought this is either going to be really really good, or really really bad.  It is great.  Apparently also released with an alternate album cover.



Rhino Records' "Blue Yule".  Of my three Blues Christmas CD's, this was my first and still the best, album cover art notwithstanding.  Louis Jordan, Lightnin' Hopkins, Canned Heat, John Lee Hooker ...  My other two are the Alligator Records Christmas Collection, and Blues, Mistletoe, and Santa's Little Helper.

The Sixteen, "Christmas Music from Medieval and Renaissance Europe".  For when you need to remember the reason for the season, the real meaning of Christmas.  The later in the Christmas season, the more traditional I like my Christmas music until by Christmas I'm practially listening to Church Music, and I mean renaissance Catholic Cathedral music.  It doesn't get any more traditional than this, and "Quem Pastores Laudavere" still makes the hair on the back of my head stand on end.

King's College Choir, "Christmas at Kings".   Can't beat King's College for Choir Music.  This IS Christmas Music.  Real Christmas Music.  (Not Beethoven Christmas music - Lucy Van Pelt) ;-)   Wow, knock your socks off Christmas Music.  Yeah. 

Dean Shostak, "Crystal Carols".  Ever see anybody play the glass bowls - you know, like Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality?  Wet fingers, and glasses and glass bowls filled with varying levels of water?  Well, this is way better.  Benjamin Franklin invented an instrument called a Glass Armonica which was basically a spindle with different sizes of glass bowls on it that you spun and "played" with your fingers.  It makes one of the most ethereal sounds you'll ever hear, and it lends itself very well to Christmas Music.  Dean Shostak has obliged us.  I have a friend, though, who is looking for "Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring" on Glass Armonica.  If you know of a version, drop me a line.


Rita Ford, "A Music Box Christmas".  Nothing says 19th Century Christmas like music boxes.  There's just something magical about them.  Simple and complex at the same time.  Details.  Precision.  And the stupid electronic music boxes of today are an insult to their memory.   I love this collection.


I discovered this one this year, Westminster Concert Bell Choir - "Christmas at Westminster".  Like music boxes, there's just something about the clear, ringing tones of metal, and these folks are real pro's.  A little organ music splashed in, but definitely in the background ... accompaniment to the bells, not out in front.  I'd like to find one that's JUST bells sometime, but this is good stuff!

Christmas With the Chicago Chamber Brass. I was at my brother's house over Christmas back in the early to mid 1980's and he had KWMU public radio on.  I was recording Christmas music on my tape recorder.  Later, when I listened to the tape, there was an incredible sequence of tunes all from this album, tracks 19 through 25 and it built and built and finished with a bang.  I looked for this album for years.  I mean like 10 or more years. Finally had a guy at a local independent record store order it for me.  2 weeks after it came in, the guy closed his doors for good.  Now you can order it easily on the net.  Great brass Christmas album, and nothing says Christmas like Brass!

Christmas Guitar, instrumental acoustic guitar ... is some of my favorite Christmas music. The warm sound of the wood resonator evokes a crackling fire in the fireplace and soft light of a Christmas tree on a winter's evening.  I bought a Christmas Guitar album back when I was in the Musical Heritage Society record club by Stephen Siktberg called "Christmas Guitar".  I can't find it anywhere on line, but it's my go-to guitar Christmas Album.

Doug Smith put out a beautiful guitar Christmas album.  John Fahey put out three or four, and one of my favorites is the instruction CD of Steve Kauffman that came with his Mel Bay Christmas Guitar book.  So I need to sort this one out, but an acoustic guitar Christmas album would about wrap this up.

This is by no means an exhaustive list.  But it's a pretty well balanced one.  There are other great ones like the Manhattan Transfer's Christmas Album, jazzy and lush, alternately and sometimes at the same time.  The Phil Spector (later-in-life murdering aside) Christmas Album, David Lanz's "Solstice", and the first "Merry Axemas" cd for rock guitar (Eric Johnson's "The First Nowell" alone is worth buying this album).  But.... that's all we're doing this year.

Merry Christmas!

Top Christmas Album Covers

That I own.

Obviously ... this comes from my love for classic pinup art ;-)

Coming it at #3, it's Diana Krall's "Christmas Songs" album, with her lavish green dress and just about perfectly shaped calves.  Plus, the music is mostly classic Krall -- piano trio jazz sound applied to Christmas music.  Good album.  Well done.

#2 is Blacktop Records' Blues, Mistletoe, and Santa's Little Helper.   Classic pinup pose with the feathery and red "Santa" suit.  For a while, at least, you could even get a poster of the album cover from them.  As a Bluesey Christmas album, it's pretty good.


And at #1, it's Blue Note Records' "Yule Struttin'", and we can all see why.  Any woman with a pair like that would have reason to strut.  The monochrome look compliments the classic jazz inside.  Again, good Christmas album as well.  I love Jazz Christmas music, especially early in the season.

However, this post is about album covers only.  Next post will be about my Top Christmas Albums -- musically speaking.

---

Update - See also: Phil's Top Christmas Albums

Demons

The other night I was having a dream.

In the dream, I was in a bed.  The room wasn't bright, but it wasn't dark either.  My back was to the room, and I had a sheet over me, pulled tight up to my neck.

I sensed an evil presence behind me.  I didn't want to, but I knew I had to face it and deal with it.  No idea what it was or what I was going to do about it, but it was a situation that needed assessing.

I tried to turn over.  I couldn't.  My muscles would tense up, but my body wouldn't move... just tiny bits that didn't amount to anything.  I was trying to stay calm, but the more I tried and failed to turn over, the more panicked I got.  The panic finally woke me up.

Vicki was behind me, here in real life, I had my back to her.  She was struggling and starting to panic.  As I normally do when she's in this state, I tried to wake her up, but she kept panicking more and more until she let out a very loud, terrified animal scream, sounding almost like a moose trumpeting.

My hair stood out, straight, I'm sure.  I reassured her it was nothing, that everything was ok.

She asked if I had been leaning over her.  I said no, not really, I had kind of sat up on one elbow and had tried to nudge her awake, but that was it.

She said in her dream she was on an white iron bed somewhere, and a man had her pinned down and was going to kill her.  So my trying to wake her up probably played right into that dream.

Usually it's spiders or snakes.  Not this time.

Anyway, it started to creep me out that I had a dream that my back was to an evil presence I needed to deal with, and at the same time Vicki was having a dream right behind me about someone trying to kill her.  I got goosebumps.  The possibility that some evil presence had triggered the simultaneous dreams seemed pretty real to me at the time.

Vicki asked if the door downstairs was locked -- Kevin and Marken had been there and they take the dogs out that way.  They're usually pretty good about locking.

Well after all that I had to get up and check, or there'd be NO going back to sleep.

I grabbed a gun and made my way through the house, clearing rooms, down to the back door downstairs.

It wasn't locked.

I locked it, and finished clearing the basement and re-checked upstairs before returning to bed.  Took a couple of hours for me to get back to a solid sleep after that.

I am "Papa"

Yay!  Finally. 

We had Thanksgiving Saturday with the boys and their families.   Started with the traditional Strawberry Crepes in the morning.   Turkey and pie in the late afternoon and evening.  Vicki made some homemade cranberry sauce and got some really really good frozen corn that Trenton loved (and surprisingly he was a big fan of the cranberries as well).

Also, right after dinner he was coming around the table and pointed at me and with very soft "p's" said "Papa".  First time.  And only time, so far.  But he got it right.  He's bursting with almost words.

"Bob" ... or "Robert the Construction Worker" as I call him, he's got down, as well as Nana, Dada, and Mama.  I think he's got "dog" down pretty well, too, and he's trying lots of others.

Kevin and Marken brought a Wii and we played a bit with that.  Trenton actually got interested in the bowling game when he saw how the remote makes things happen on the screen.  If he'd learn to use the button at the same time, he could probably actually bowl himself.  He has the swinging motion down.

We lined up for our Christmas picture, and I got to use my new LightSphere that Megan recoomended to me (Thanks, Megan!). 

Sunday Kevin and Marken left for St. Louis -- Kevin had a small job he needed to get to.   I went out the same time Brian and Kristin did to get a tree.  Got a nice one.  $80!!!   Is it really that nice?  Well, it is pretty nice.  A beautiful Noble Fir.

Got the lights up on it last night.

Tonight's Rob and Kathy's party, and this weekend will be a whirlwind of tree decorating, babysitting, cookie baking, candy making ... let the Christmas Music roll!!!! (I hold out until about this time for the most part, sneaking a few in only here and there.)

Scrunch!

On the way to work this morning.... a little traffic backup.  This is what caused it.

I Am "Gah"!

Hear me roar.

Trenton is a little chatterbox. No words, yet, outside of Mama, Dada, Nana, and ... my name ... "Gah". /gäh/

We get to babysit regularly, and I'm still going to swimming "classes" with him, Mommy & Me classes that Kristin teaches at the F.I.T. Center.  So, in order to swim with Trenton, of course, I have to go as a Mommy, which is a little embarrassing, but at least I had to lose some weight to get into the little blue swim-dress.  I guess it makes the ladies at Females In Training (where the classes are held) more comfortable or something. 

And we won't talk about the surgery.  ;-)

But seriously, they do have a small men's locker room just for things like this, and thankfully, they're more focused on the babies than mommies, so right now in the class there's a dad, a nanny, and a "Gah" -- that would be me.  Kristin's trying to recruit more mommies.  And I actually get to wear regular trunks.  There's Trenton, Beckett, and his little baby sister Grier.  Mostly to get them used to being in the water and not be afraid of it. Learning to kick to move, and scoop their hands. And splash. And jump in. It's a lot of fun.

Got to babysit a little while last night, too, which is also a lot of fun.  Are you picking up on the theme here?

Finally got some sunshine today after 4 days of rain. And it looks like we'll be going to the Mizzou football game using John & Pam's tickets. Weather looks nice for it. And after that it looks like headlong into the holiday season. My parents for Thanksgiving, then go get mother-in-law from Fort Wayne, have our Thanksgiving Dec 5 with our boys and their families, Rob and Cathy's annual Christmas shindig, Vicki's birthday on the 18th, Christmas a week later, then New Years ... then to my parents in early January for our Christmas thing ... and then my birthday in late January followed by our anniversary Feb 1. It's always a whirlwind.

We took Brian and Kristin out for dinner for Brian's birthday Sunday.  Went back to their house afteward for cake with Grandma Jean, who was babysitting.  And I got the priviledge of reading Trenton to sleep.  I love doing that.  It's my favorite thing.  We were reading "Where the Wild Things Are", and when I got to the growling part, I asked him if he could growl.

He could.

He sure knows what he wants.  Nana lets him play in the kitchen sink, and he loves water.   He needs to stand on a chair and do it, so first thing he's in the kitchen pushing one of the chairs over to the sink.   We try to distract him from that as much as possible.  Well, until after dinner anyway.

He'll probably be saying his first "real" words before Christmas.  My bet is on "hotdog".  It's his favorite food group.  Well I don't know.  Candy corn seems to be up there, too as far as food goes.   I did notice that he's saying something closer to "tick-tock" for "clock", as opposed to "eh-ah", and he wants to know what the name of everything is even if he can't say the words yet.

He knows blue, red, yellow, and green very well. 

I think it's going to be a fun Christmas.

Trenton's First Walkabout

Trenton came over for a few hours yesterday after work while his mom got some things done. Heh. Always happy to take him out of her hair.

Vicki was pooped -- they're running her ragged at work, so I came home to be the primary attention-giver for while (and you know how much I just hate that!). It was a warm, cloudy evening. Figured he'd want to go to the park just down the block from us. Of course as soon as he saw where we were going. He loves climbing the steps and then going down the slide. It's a dual slide and I sit next to him on the way down and sort of hold him ... to keep him from falling ... while we go down.

A college kid came by walking his almost-grown Siberian Husky, and Trenton immediately bolted to pet it. After which he wanted to walk on the little woodside trail.

The undergrowth in the woods was mostly bright yellow, contrasting with the darker greens and browns of the larger trees along the edges, and after we played at woods' edge for a while I noted that most of the underbrush plants had lost their leaves and you could see a deer trail leading down the steep hill to a flatter area in the middle of the yellow trees.

I decided it was time to take Trenton for a walk in the open woods to explore new things.

He's only 18 months old and not really steady on his feet on rough terrain or steep hills, so I carried him. I had put him down to stand for a second while I took a picture.... he took a step and sort of fell in slow motion... but I caught him and helped him back up and we continued downhill on the deer trail.

We sat on a fallen tree for a bit while he inspected the wood fungus, and he walked on the flater area in what turned out to be an even prettier fall scene than I'd expected ... I'd never actually ventured down here. And I noticed a mostly dry creek bed that of course we had to go explore, so I carried him down to it.

Some of my best childhood memories involve dry creek beds and just sitting in them and soaking up the scenery or exploring them.

We found some clear puddles that he splashed his hands in ... it was all I could do to keep him from walking into them but I didn't want him to get that wet.

We felt moss on rocks, and rough tree bark, and moss on tree bark. Pulled berries off of some weeds and dropped them on the ground, and climbed on rocks... but they were mossy and slippery so he had to hold on to my hands. Eventually, before he got too dirty or too wet, I hiked him out up the gully wall.

It was harder than I expected, carrying him in one arm while I navigated the steep, soft hill -- choosing my footing carefully so as not to fall with him. Falling by myself would be one thing, it was absolutely imperative that I did not fall with him.

I was huffing and puffing and sweating profusely by the time we reached the top. He didn't want to leave. He wanted to go back down. So we sat on a log for a bit at the edge of the woods, and then walked through some brush, and back up to the slides where we went down one more time. And he was ready to go. Made a bee line for the sidewalk, and after walking about 20 feet toward the house he decided he'd rather ride in my arm.

Short, 30 minute, mini-walkabout. No fire or hotdogs. That'll come later..

I think he will enjoy the outdoors.