Music

When I was in High School and College, music was my It. I'm not musically inclined--I played clarinet in Band and took Piano lessons, but I was never a natural. And I've never been able to carry a tune well. But music was always playing in my head, even if there wasn't any actual music playing. My brother has a huge amount of natural talent. He had a garage band all through High School that was pretty popular among the teenyboppers in the area. I had this idea that they were going to make it big and I was going to be a roadie. Future planned. Life was good! Of course, they graduated and went their separate ways, and I was floundering in college. Somehow, I ended up married and had children and got too busy to keep up. But now that the kids are about grown up I find I have more time on my hands. I think I would like to find that artsy side of myself again, just not sure how. I've been listening to my Playlist all afternoon. I've been adding a song here and there for the last 6 months, but hadn't actually ever listened to it for more than a hand full of songs. It makes me feel young again!

Cold Fish

For the last several years we have had a water disaster at Christmas. Two years ago, even as the Tsunami hit Asia, the water pipe in the mud room burst. Last year, even though it was turned off, it burst again. This year, the roof leaked (and we have a fairly new roof!). We laughed--"ha, ha, we've had our water disaster for Christmas". Ha, ha. We didn't know that was only a preview. Christmas at Mom's didn't turn out quite as expected. My stepbrother from the Chicago area was sick so he and his wife didn't make it. Therefore, the party was small. And when we headed home, we found that the forecast for "flash floods" was spot on. I drive a Dodge Neon. Great car. No trouble with it and the gas mileage is great. But it is fairly low to the ground. I was driving through water that was up to the door and it was making me nervous. It didn't help that it was dark. I decided to take a shortcut across some gravel that turned out not to be gravel. The more I tried to get out of the mud, the deeper I got! I called my Stepdad and he came with his four-wheel drive and he was able to pull us out. And it was raining the whole time. By the time we got home, we were covered head to toe in mud! I don't imagine I have to even explain how my car looked--inside and out! (But, hey, it's a funny story I can tell my Grandkids some day!) So we laughed, "ha, ha, I guess that was the water disaster of 2008!" Only, today the cat spilled the aquarium water that I was using to water my plants, then the hose at the sink popped apart and squirted all over me. I'm a Pisces, so I'm taking this all as a good sign for 2009!