July Brain dump

The strongest argument I’ve ever known for doing home church is to avoid that half-hour of tension and argument and meltdown just before your family walks out the door for Church on Sunday morning.

I’ve been trying to fight it, but as I get older my choice of music is definitely getting mellower.

I realized yesterday that the reason I can’t keep my yard looking as nice as it did with the previous owners is mostly because I’m not retired with kids who are grown and gone. The previous owners had all the time in the world. I have 17 minutes every other Saturday.

Lesson learned: Don’t try to paint your ceiling with a roller over nice furniture and uncovered carpet.

Yesterday at the nursing home I work for, I suggested to the administrator that we put ice cream truck music on the van we take residents to their doctor appointments in. That way we'd be more memorable than the other two nursing homes in the county. I was joking, but he's calling corporate to pass on my suggestion. He wants the van to play banjo and dulcimer music. You heard it here first. It will be a fad to sweep the country soon: nursing home vans broadcasting bluegrass down Main Street.

On the way home yesterday I was listening to an old tape my Mom gave me of me and Danny Whittington playing and singing at Conrad's Coffee Shop in Boone. I started thinking how I'd like to play music in a restaurant sometime - a lifelong mini-goal of mine since I was thirteen and saw my guitar teacher entertain the masses at the Palomino Restaurant. I was driving along thinking, "Yeah, I'd really like a restaurant gig". When I got home I checked my e-mail and someone local who I've never met said he had seen my YouTube videos (of me playing guitar and singing). He said he's putting together entertainment to play at a Mexican restaurant downtown and wants me to do a set. This could be my big break. I've been discovered on YouTube. Only problem is I don't know any Mariachi band songs.