E-mail Mexxx
Enter here for my blog site.
It's almost the Night Before Christmas.. . . We just got our tree a few days ago. I thought I'd share its assembly.
Nathan starts with the basics
Linda's mom gives me a hand
Kim and Linda in a Mission Accomplished embrace
Presents magically appear. Happy holidays everyone!
This is the chicken that capped my Saturday. For the full story and recipe, click here.
I took a couple days off to see Kim, and how did we spend it? Being silly. This out by the back patio.
This is where Nathan wanted to have his birthday supper. Note that it's 6:15 p.m. For text see my blog.
I'm looking pretty solemn. Maybe it's because I don't have any food. Leigh looks lovely as always .
We were all taking pictures. Evidence: Me taking a picture of my mother taking a picture of Leigh's mother.
Kim took this one of herself. Don't blame me for the angle.
This really is an example of our society. Kim is taking a picture of me taking of pictures of my mother taking a picture of somebody. Whatever happened to the Kodak moment?
Oh yes, here's Nathan and his girlfriend/partner , Danielle. The birthday guy!
This is Nathan and my mom. Notice that he is looking at one camera and she is looking at another ! Brad Pitt would be jealous.
Kim with lilies in front of the weeping cherry
Kim on the patio looking too serious. See blog for more.
What intrigues me about flowers is their fleeting power. When they're in full bloom they are all-powerful, bursting outward with color and grace. But it only lasts a short time. I caught this lily a couple days late. It's beginning to lose its brightness and boisterous feel. I still love the lines, subtle colors and shadows
This is Jackie's Cafe where Leigh and I ate coming home from Frostburg. For the story, click here for my blog. June 26, 2007 It's been sunny, hot and great for taking pictures of the garden residents who are now in their full, colorful glory.
These lilies and proud and boisterous.
A small, happy section of one of the back yard gardens. June 20, 2007
I really like the motion of the flowers and how they dance in front of the mosiac pattern of the newly done chimney behind them.
One of the reasons I love nature is this. Where else do you find the delicacy of a wildflower, the fluidity of a pool and the eon hardness of a boulder all in one quiet, dignified composition? I chased this busy Monarch all over the "magic mile" trying to get one shot of him sucking nectar. Flowers, butterflies, so beautiful and fleeting. . . . June 15, 2007
This is me in the Compton Science Center at Frostburg State University before my presentation. To read about my adventures before the conference, click here or on Enter Here at the top of the page. June 9, 2007 Okay, it has been way too long since I've posted here. I think I'm starting to get back into the swing of things. I've been pretty regular on my blog site, but I see it's been almost three months since I've been here. The gardens are planted, flowers are in bloom and mour "magic mile" is lush and green. And our chimney is falling apart. I'm constantly reminded that nothing in this world is permanent. Some things have a longer life span than others. Our chimney was at the end of its days. Fortunately my youngest brother Chip is a chimney cleaner and mason who has an excellent reputation. So, after checking his references (just kidding) we hired him for some extensive repair.
Well, he had a beautiful day to mud up the chimney. Thanks, Chip. The check is in the mail. More photos soon from my walk through the "magic mile."
March 24, 2007 The last post included photos from the Hershey Hotel. If you remember, that was the trip where I did two conferences at once. The American Education Services sent me a cd with photos of the live teleconference, so I'll share some of those to give you an idea of what a cool experience it was.
. First part of rehearsal. I'm trying to look like I might have a thought. Does it work?
Ten minutes before the real thing. Makeup. I was starting to get nervous.
A few minutes before the show, I'm talking with Kathryn the AES coordinator and a wonderful person. My exterior appears much more relaxed than what's going on inside.
I appear to be looking for a way out. There is none.
I think the director is instructing me not to faint during the show.
When all the folks involved with the production came together for a photo after it was over, I realized how large this event was. I left with a feeling of profound relief and happy that I was able to be a part of it. Whew. . . . March 13, 2007 I love the Hershey Hotel. I've been going there for more than 25 years. The first few years I was just overwhelmed. Now, it feels like home but I appreciate its grandeur just as much as I did the first year. Finally, (yes, it took awhile), I took some pictures to share.
The Hotel Hershey
This is the indoor fountain lobby. Cool, eh?
This is the lobby where you wait for the elevator. The photo is of Milton Hershey and his wife.
February 17, 2007 Major snow storm on Valentine's Day. About 16 inches of snow and high winds. Leigh and I spent about eight hours shoveling. The dogs, on the other hand, had a ball. Despite his forlorn expression, Tristan loves the snow.
The Gang of Three.
January 28, 2007
This is the photo of the suite I stayed in last week. It's the outside that's the real story. Click here.
January 20, 2007 I think I'll start every post here by saying I can't believe how fast time flies. It's been nearly two weeks since I've been here. In conjunction with my blog, I'm posting some new shots of Tristan, known around the house as The Devil Dog. He's growing pretty fast.
He's trying to look sweet here and he's succeeding.
I've title this "Dreams of Being A Big Dog."
Tired dogs come in all sizes.
January 7, 2007 My first post of the new year! Remember the last post I talked about my magic mile and how there's magic all around us? I was doing Saturday shopping duties yesterday at Consumer Square in Horseheads. It was a gray, windy day with scattered rain. Not the prettiest of days. I came out of The Dollar Store and just happened to look up to the north and seemingly out of nowhere was one of the most well-defined rainbows I've ever seen. I just happened to have my camera.
A moment later there was a second one.
I looked around to see if anyone else noticed them. A few seconds later a man walked by pointing to it and exclaimed to a young boy I assumed was his grandson, "Look! A rainbow!" They both stopped and stared at it. My moment was complete. I had someone to share it with in real time, and now with you in cyber space.
December 31, 2006 I want to give you a guided tour of my magic mile.
When we're at the bottom, we walk through tall, dead grass (it's December 31), through a thicket of thorns and then over an area of rocks and stones that are deposited there from spring flooding.
December 27, 2006 Whew! Christmas is over and my nervous system is slowly working its way back to normal. The best parts of Christmas for me was having Kim back for two weeks, Tristan, my energetic blue heeler puppy who's growing up way too fast, and seeing four of my five brothers. (I talked to the fifth one on the phone). Anyway, I've never shared a picture of my mother, Lorraine. I didn't tell her I was going to post this but I imagine she suspected it. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!
And here's a shot of Kim and Mom having too much fun.
December 16, 2006 Too many blogs, websites, etc. to keep up with. I've barely started my Christmas shopping and judging by the traffic jams at the mall today I'm not the only one. Kim surprised us by flying in from Alaska a week early. She worked it out with Nathan who picked her up. They both kept it a secret from Leigh and me. Nathan sneaked her into the house and put her in a box. When Leigh opened it she got her daughter. They all kept it secret from me. Leigh called and asked if I wanted to go out to supper, not an unusual request. So, at TGI Fridays, Kim appeared from the bar and after a moment of total shock and major hugs, we were off and running. The next Christmas surprise came the next morning when Leigh said she had an early present. Kim and Nathan were downstairs waiting by what is now called "the magic box." This guy was inside.
Pretty cute, eh? We're working on a name. I'm holding out for Tristan. What does everyone else think? November 25, 2006 I've haven't been around here to much but I have a lot of new blog posts. Click at the top or here.
This stork posed for me on the patio by the Hilton Disney pool. After he left, I poked around the bushes for babies but didn't find any. Must have been a sterile stork. Check my blog for my latest post.
While I was at the Hilton there was an Arthur Murray Dance Studio competition. There were groups from all over the country in every kind of outfit from sequins to motorcycle outfits. Look at the concentration of the group in the foreground. This was, by the way, at 8 a.m. For my latest blogs, click here. November 3, 2006 Okay, today we have a lesson in appropriate dress and behavior. Please look at the photo below that I took at the Disney Hilton while on a business trip (for background, click here). What's wrong with this picture? Look at it.
Yes. The man is wearing dress pants, a shirt and a tie! There is absolutely no excuse for this. I don't care how free this country is or how much he paid for his room, he should, under no circumstances be allowed at pool side wearing a shirt and tie. Disney Hilton Security should have seen this, awakened the napping intruder and escorted him back to his conference. Notice the woman down from him, dressed totally appropiately in not much at all. This is how one should look at a pool. I, for one, thinks she looks very good. Okay, you might argue that the middle-aged suit napper has a right to be there. Let's turn the tables. Let's say this man is in his conference meeting, along with 50 other men and women in formal conference suits. Let's say the same woman in the picture waltzes in wearing just her bikini and sits down to listen to the presenter. Maybe she even takes notes. How appropriate is that? How many men are going to be listening to the presentation? None of the heterosexual ones, I guarantee it. That woman's image is going into every testosterone soaked brain and put through as many different fantasies as there are brains. 35 men? At least 32 fantasies. The women aren't going to be listening either. Some of them are going to be looking at the lady with anger that she shifted all the attention to herself. Others are going to be internally writhing in envy of a body that looks good in a bikini. As we all know, good bodies are in short supply. Most people have too much body and should be outlawed from shorts and swimsuits. Anyway, I saw the scene and thought I would share it. If you ever see somebody by a pool wearing a tie, kindly inform him of his inappropriate attire. If he doesn't listen, throw the bastard into the water. Then he'll understand.
October 29, 2006 Okay. I haven't been here in awhile. Life is rushed and full of discoveries, new ideas and exciting new directions. I just returned from a three day conference in Orlando in which I was a guest speaker. I'll talk more about the adventure in my blog. I stayed at two four-star hotels which are an experience in themselves. I have a few more fun shots that I'll post in the next couple days. Meanwhile, click here for my rambles on jet-setting, how to kill a hotel room card key and visiting Disney Town.
This is the Disney Hilton where I stayed two nights
And this would be the Buena Vista where I stayed the first night. Not bad, eh? October 10, 2006 I had some time to spend at the creek with the dogs this weekend and took a few photos to share.
This reminds me of a scene at a mountain pass in New Mexico we travelled to a few years ago. It's actually a six inch length of moss and a small stone. I took it by the creek from ground level.
I caught this about 3 p.m. on a cloudless, beautiful day. I just like the way the sun backlits the leaves. Want beauty? Walk in nature. Want God? Walk in nature.
October 8, 2006 I've had a couple really busy weekends with special events at the university. When I'm gone all weekend, that means the week nights are busy catching up. Not much news here but I have posted several blogs . The Perfect Song site is now attracting about 1500 page views a week from the U.S., Canada and Europe, so thanks for all the support and keep spreading the word about The Perfect Song. And if you can contribute money to The Perfect Song Scholarship, I'd be grateful. The scholarship will give future writers the support they need to succeed. Send contributions to The Perfect Song Scholarship, Mansfield University Foundation, Alumni House, Mansfield University, Mansfield PA 16933. Thanks and check out my latest blogs. Feel free to send comments.
September 17, 2006 Beautiful summer day. Took thedogs to the creek and played. Will have some pictures later. Meanwhile, check out my latest blog, a commentary on Dole spinach and Popeye's career.
Driftwood after a summer flood at the creek
September 9, 2006 So I was talking with my daughter Kim in Alaska today and she said I hadn't been posting very much lately. "I checked your news page and you haven't added anything since August," she said. "No! I post something new every week!" "I don't know. It said August." I checked. She was right. The header said "August News," even though below it was a Sept. 2 posting. Good lesson for me. Check the heading. Second, everyone, including myself, is in a rush so she, and maybe others, didn't look below to see a September entry. I'll pay more attention from now on. Also, she didn't know about my blog site. If you haven't seen it yet, click here. There are a lot of postings as well as The Perfect Song audio book. Which brings me to my last point. If you see anything wrong here, or have questions or suggestions, please email me at theperfectsong@gmail.com September 2, 2006 Okay, it's done. The last chapter of The Perfect Song audio edition is posted. I have given my "child" to the world three times. First with the standard print edition, then the cyber edition on this site, and the audio. I played with it as much as any creator could. Now, I'm on to other projects. The western novel is one. Going back to look at influences and other thoughts behind TPS (okay, maybe I'm not through playing with it), and hauling out some short stories and poetry that I've written over the years. It's 4:17 p.m. on a Saturday. It's been raining since last night. The creeks are nearly in flood stage. Tropical Storm Ernesto split as it moved north. We're right in the middle, getting the gentlest part of the storm. The dogs are stretched out in a mixture of boredom and laziness, and I'm looking at my laptop and my production computer wondering which project to work on next. Give me feedback on the book and please spread the word to friends about this site, my blog site and, of course, The Perfect Song.
August 27, 2006 Sunday afternoon. It’s been raining all day. The dogs are sleeping on a new bed of straw that I scattered for them in their kennel. I stand out on the third story deck looking down the valley through openings in the trees and watch the creek now swollen muddy brown rushing with a watery roar down toward Big Flats. Got a lot done today. Produced a radio commercial, posted new material to The Perfect Song site, did some writing for an introduction to a reprint of an 1890 address by Simon B. Elliott, one of the founders of Mansfield Classical Seminary, now Mansfield University. Watched some clips of old Johnny Carson shows with Leigh’s mom who loves anything funny. Meditated. I'm trying some new healing meditation techniques for reasons I'll mention in future posts. Played with the dogs in the rain. Grabbed a meatball out of the spaghetti in the refrigerator, heated it up in the microwave and ate it without silverware. Picked some tomatoes from the garden. I’m thinking tonight about watching The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, a classic western. Which brings me to yet another announcement in my next posting
August 26, 2006 Just posted chapter 19 of the audio book which you can reach by clicking here. I'm feeling a little shaky and sad, as I mentioned before. The text version is done. You can read the complete book on this site. Next week the final chapter of the audio version will be posted. Send me your comments. And make a contribution to The Perfect Song Scholarship Fund, Mansfield University Foundation, Mansfield, PA 16933. Thanks!
August 20, 2006 Nathan took these pictures of Sam recently, thinking he is the embodiment of Mendel. I agree. This is exactly the way I pictured Mendel in the beach scenes.
August 18, 2006 Okay, we're coming to the end. Chapter 18 of the audio version of The Perfect Song is posted. Click here. Two more weeks and The Perfect Song is complete. I do have some other projects, but I am going to miss Poul and the gang. Please spread the word to your friends through email, myspace, or any other cyber social groups your part of. It really does help. I'm averaging over 1,000 page views a week! Thanks for all your support.
August 11, 2006 Chapter 17 of the audio book is posted. I'm feeling a little scared now. Only three more chapters to go and it's done. It's like letting another child go, knowing my work is done as I watch her float, fly and soar into the world as I stand here waving, sad, proud, wishing her well.
August 8, 2006 A week or so ago I asked you to spread the word about this site to your friends. I don't know how many of you did, but someone did because I had a spike Monday that blew me away. I usually have about 100 page views a day. That varies, of course. But Monday I had 616 page views! So, thanks, all of you loyal readers, and please, keep spreading the word about The Perfect Song and this website and the blog site. I've had a lot of really nice and sincere feedback about the site. I plan to continue adding to it. As long as there is a new day, there's always new material. What else is there but life, love, thoughts and adventure? Thanks again and keep spreading the word to your friends about The Perfect Song and the site. If you have a myspace or facebook page, tell your friends to visit the site and add it to their list!
August 7, 2006 It's late. I've had a couple drinks, and I'm feeling a little sad. I just uploaded chapter 18 of The Perfect Song, text version. Go to books. There are only two more chapters to load and it will be complete. You'll have the whole text. I have a few more audio chapters and that will be done. I will have published the book (yes! Don't forget that there is a soft cover book available through amazon.com, iuniverse.com or through me at theperfectsong@gmail.com). I have shared it on my website, and I've made the audio version available. Yes, I want you to read it, to love it, and tell friends about it. I want to spread The Perfect Song around the world. As I've mentioned before, all profits from the sale of the book, or contributions, go to The Perfect Song Scholarship at Mansfield University. The Perfect Song is all about the need to create and the necessity of sharing. When The Perfect Song was published, I felt that joy of birth (as much as a man can do that). Now that nearly all the chapters are uploaded, I feel the sadness of the end. At the same time, I have some other things in mind to share with you, so stay with me. (Yes, if you read The Perfect Song you know there is no end, only creation, over and over). I think you'll enjoy and be intrigued with what's coming. Life's a wonderful mystery-adventure. You just never know where that next step is taking you. It just might be. . . .
August 5, 2006 Chapter 16 of the audio book is posted. Click here or the Blog category in the left column.
August 1, 2006 New Link Some of you have discovered my blog site which is on Word Press. During our geek meeting last week, Jedi Jared suggested making the blog a category to the left of the site. With one swipe of his mighty HTML light sword he created it, so check it out. My blog is a combination of audio chapters of The Perfect Song, and snippets and thoughts from the daily life that we experience. I have fun with it and think you will too. Thanks, Jared. May the force of The Perfect Song be with you.
Near Death at the Gas Pump You know what I don’t like about getting gas? I don’t like the trauma. First, the pumps at every station are different. You slide your credit card in face out or face in. The regular gas is usually on the left but at one place it was on the right and I filled the tank with their highest grade instead of the lowest. Finding the right button to push to activate it has led to embarrassingly long searches during which time I’m imagining the clerk inside is watching and shaking her head at the pump-impaired fool with the white Taurus. I also do not like the picture of the huge black state trooper pointing his finger at me and saying, “If you steal gas, you go to jail!” First, it’s offensive and secondly, it’s foolish. Anybody who steals gas probably can’t read anyway.
Today I found something new. I’m standing the pump, pushing really expensive gas into my tank and I see a circle with a line through it. The message is, “Turn your cell phone off, sparks may ignite and cause and explosion leading to injury or death.” I realize my cell phone is in my shirt pocket. My body freezes and I feel like I’m in a scene from Mission Impossible where somebody’s cutting wires on a bomb. Is it the red one or the green one? Snip. I’ve never seen my cell phone emit sparks. Where the hell are the sparks coming from and am I going to wind up in a thousand little bits pasted all over Pump n Pantry and Rt. 15 and any fools who happened to be standing around when an ignorant guy pumped gas in his car with his cell phone on? I can just hear the police questions. Officer Smith: “What happened?” Larry Berjenski, Pump N Pantry regular: “Pumpin’ gas with his cell phone on,” he says while picking pieces of Miller off his shirt. “Big sign on the pump says to turn your phone off.” Officer Smith nods, making notes. “Never seem to learn, do they?” Berjinski: “Nope. Sign bigger’n hell saying a spark can blow ya up. He coulda just turned it off.” Officer Smith: “Was he in the act of pumping gas?” Berjinski: “Yeah. Just hit the $22 mark.” Officer Smith, making a note, then thinking: “Probably didn’t turn it off because he was afraid of creating a spark.” Berjinski: “Well, it backfired on him.” Shakes his head. “I hate to say it but I don’t have no sympathy for these guys.” He pushes more pieces of me away with his foot. “Big signs saying don’t steal gas and turn off your cell phone. Couldn’t be more clear.” Officer Smith: “I suppose not.” Officer shrugs. “You’ve been through a lot Larry. Buy you a donut.. . .”
I cannot describe how relieved I was to finally shut off the pump. I very carefully removed the nozzle and quickly hung it back on the pump. I twisted the cap back on the tank, jumped in the car and sped out as fast as I could from this near death experience. And I still have no idea where sparks come from on an active cell phone.
July 29, 2006 Chapter 15 of the audio book is posted on my blog site. Click here. I've also uploaded chapter 16 of the print version in "The Novel" section of this site. Enjoy. . .and write to me. July 28, 2006 I just made an announcement on my blog site so check it out. Also, if everything goes okay, I'll upload chapter 15 of the audio book and a new chapter of the print version. If you're enjoying the book and the website, please consider sending a donation to The Perfect Song Scholarship Fund, Mansfield Foundation, Mansfield University, Mansfield, PA 16933. More soon.
July 22, 2006
Chapter 14, part two of the audio version of The Perfect Song is up. Click here. Leigh's mom came back from California with her. They were exhausted. They had to get up at 3:30 for a 6 a.m. flight. Things went pretty smoothly until they hit Philadelphia again. Philly is where Leigh was held up for eight hours on the way out. I went over to the airport at 9:30 p.m. only to hear the announcement that the flight was delayed. A moment later Leigh called. "Our plane had to wait in line so long it ran low on fuel so the pilot had to drive back to miles, refuel, drive back and get back in line." US Airways gets a 1 star and that's for being able to keep the plane in the air. Otherwise they haven't done anything right. I picked Leigh and her mom up at 12:30 p.m. By the time we fell into bed it was 2:30. Leigh had been up 23 hours.
July 18, 2006 Couple new audio chapters of The Perfect Song posted. Click here. Dealing with record high temperatures just like everyone else in the East and Midwest. Here's a shot I took the other day. Again, I was struck by the different textures and the fleetingness of the flowers and the spider web against the stone wall.
July 16, 2006 Over 100 degrees today and muggy. Not the best time to mow the lawn and weed whack but it had to be done. Took the dogs to the creek where they could splash around and cool off. But by the time we trekked back up the hill we were as hot as before we started. Here's the latest in my flower series. It was taken in the garden overlooking the woods and valley.
July 15, 2006 The weeks are flying by. Leigh is back in California after an airline trip from Hell. I'm a bachelor with two dogs again. I'll be uploading the next chapters of both the print and audio version of the book tonight and tomorrow. I spent a lot of years not stopping to "smell the flowers," but now with digital everything I am taking time to appreciate the delicate beauty of these beings that brighten our lives and are gone too soon. I really like the colors, textures and composition of this one.
July 8, 2006 Chapter 13 of the audio version of The Perfect Song is posted. This is one of the key chapters in which Mendel meets Mara, the love of his life. I hope you like the music and sound effects.
July 7, 2006 Chapter 15 of the print version of TPS is up. Just go to The Novel and start reading, or continue reading. If you would like to make a donation, please send it to The Perfect Song Scholarship Fund, Mansfield University Foundation, Mansfield, PA 16933. Not much else to report. Doing a lot of work around the house to repair the damages that were done during last year's disasterous summer. I also bought some meditation CDs and I'm experimenting with them to see if I can get my mind to slow down or speed up and open up new areas of the mind, which has always been my personal frontier. June 30, 2006 Chapter 12 of the audio recording of The Perfect Song is posted. Go to http://www.perfectsong.net/wordpress/ and continue the saga of Mendel, Poul and Beasely.
June 28, 2006 During the three actual days of vacation we had recently, we traveled the side roads of the Rockies and dipped into Utah.
Model: Kim. Location: I cannot remember. The sign to her right tells, but I can't read it.
I could spend my life taking photos of rocks and trees. I love the textures of the stone, the movement of trunks and branches and the sweep of the sky. The rocks speak of endurance, the trees of inspiring persistence, the sky, the huge western skies speak of the gods. (Commercial 1: With all the postings I sometimes forget that this site revolves around my novel, The Perfect Song. If you haven't read it, please check it out on Amazon.com. It will make you laugh, cry, think. See the other sections of my site). (Commercial 2: to check out my blog site, click here).
June 27, 2006 More photos from our trip. I decided to look for the shots that no one else takes. Check these out.
I love this sign in the window of a shop in Hatch, New Mexico, chili capital of the world. The store specializes in chili products ranging from chilis to chili wreaths, chili jelly, cookbooks, towels, dishes and of course chili sauce.
Bowlin's Contintental Divide is one of those long, hardwood floor gift shops selling everything from cereamic rattlesnakes to cowboy hats, jewelry and fireworks. While Leigh shopped I wandered outside in the 100 degree dust-filled dry wind, realizing that the yellow roof used to house gas pumps. To the left were two empty service-type stores. This place was barren. I pictured a modern day Clint Eastwood driving in with Mercedes and having a shoot out over the Indian pottery made in China.
Western humor. In the Volkswagon is a dummy with a skeleton head wearing a cowboy hat. Hey, they had nothing to do and neither did I. Now that I think of it, they probably created this sculpture for bored husbands whose wives are looking for take-home gifts for children and relatives. When you look at this picture think of vast desolate territory, hot wind and Indian pottery made in China.
June 26, 2006 Here are some photos from our uneven vacation. Like I said, Leigh, Kim and I had a couple days to spend exploring before the sad interruption of Donald's death.
I like the light and forms in this shot of Kim on a boulder overlooking a very long drop.
Leigh taking photos of petroglyphs at Dinosaur National Monument. Petroglyphs are simply proof that humans (and it had to be males) have the need to scribble on things. After petroglyphs there was a long dry spell until subway walls were invented.
Okay, I'm going for the composition again. I just loved the boulders, the natural "door" and the colors--and my daughter. This was halfway up the mountain at the McCogee Farm. (I know I've mutilated the name but am too lazy to look it up again. Just enjoy the photo).
June 25, 2006 At last! Two new posts of the audio chapters of The Perfect Song! Click here. If for some reason you can't get to it with the link, go to www.perfectsong.net/wordpress/. It took awhile but the chapter, broken into two parts, will be worth it. It's a key chapter to the whole novel. Let me know how you like it. Drop a note to me at the theperfectsong@gmail.com More tomorrow. I'll try to post some of our travel shots out west. June 22, 2006 I'm back! When we returned home, my laptop, which had been operating on wireless systems in motels across the country, wouldn't connect. Leigh finally had to call the service provider and redo all our computers. That's her area of expertise, for which I'm thankful. We arrived home Saturday afternoon. Spent Sunday catching up on work around the house and went to work Monday. It felt good to be back. I had checked my office email from the road so I didn't have to spend the day going through that. Tonight I finally got a haircut. I was starting to look like I did in the '70s. It was also good to get back to my home office where I'm sitting right now.
June 16, 2006 Okay, gang. Hang in there with me. I've made some postings on my blog site and was trying again tonight but it took me to some funky site. I'll continue to share our California-Hell odyssey later. Right now it's 11 p.m. in a Cleveland suburb Holiday Inn after 12 hours of driving. I've eaten almost nothing the last three days because of a jaw problem, but the upside is I've lost about three pounds and am down to a sleek 142 lbs! Actually I look like a mess. Haven't had a haircut in nearly a month. The tensions in Coronado and the long days on the road haven't done much for my complexion. But it has been an adventure.
June 1, 2006 Page views on my site are increasing daily. Keep coming and keep spreading the word about The Perfect Song , the Web site and the blog. My newest entry is here I think you'll enjoy it. May 27, 2006
Gray day but warm. Bought vegetable plants, cleaned the garden and planted them. All kinds of yard and landscape work to do. Tomorrow's supposed to be sunny and warm. Started last night watching the original Twilight Zone shows that I had taped a couple years back. Great writing, excellent acting. Ah for those types of shows again. I shouldn't complain. I consider Lost one of the best shows on TV. New audio chapter of TPS is posted. Click here.
May 12, 2006 New posting on my blog site. Part 2 of the Lowes Life. Click here. Tomorrow is commencement at Mansfield University. My student assistant, Dave Fetzer is graduating. I gave him my digital recorder and microphone and asked him to record his thoughts during the ceremony. It will become the first podcast of a person's own graduation. Leigh is leaving Sunday for San Diego to see her mother. She's driving to Denver where Kim is flying in from Anchorage. They'll go the rest of the way together. I'll be worried about her. We've made the trip a dozen times but we've always been together. This time she's doing it solo. After she takes off I'll run down and see my mother who spent the week in the hospital. She was taken by ambulance with a lot of pain in her right side. After several days they found she was suffering from gastritus and fluid behind the lungs. I called her daily. Now I've got to get down and see her. I mean, after all, it is Mother's Day. Since Leigh is leaving on Mother's Day, I drove her to Barnes & Noble and told her to pick out some books to take on her trip. She's a big fan of Dan Brown and Robert B. Parker. She found some books and I bought them. It wasn't real romantic but it was practical and something she'll use. May 9, 2006 New posting on my blog site. Click here. Over the past few months I've been making the text version of The Perfect Song available on the Novel page, and the audio version available on my blog site. I'm getting a lot of downloads, which is good because I want to share it with as many people as possible. If you would like to make a contribution to this effort, please send a check to The Perfect Song Scholarship Fund, Mansfield University Foundation, Alumni House, Mansfield University, Mansfield, PA 16933. All profits from the sale of the book and any contributions go to this scholarship fund for future MU students who want to be writers or poets. My goal is to have $10,000 in the fund to create an endowed scholarship. Your contribution is tax-deductible. If you'd like a signed copy, send $16 to Dennis Miller, Beecher House, Mansfield University, Mansfield PA 16933, and I'll get it right out to you. A lot of folks who have read the book buy copies as presents for friends and relatives. Do it today, and write to me. I love to hear from everyone!
May 6, 2006 Chapter 7, Part 2 of The Perfect Song audio book is up. Click here.
May 2, 2006 Think I'm approaching temporary burn-out. Tired. As usual, I've taken on too many things. A stye in my eye just adds to the feeling of exhaustion and need to pay attention to my body. As I write this, I'm wondering why I'm bothering you with it, but then I realize, for the millionth time, that in this life I live to write. I want to write the truth, but that's almost never possible. I want to write about the moment but the moment is always here and never here. So I don't think about it and I just write. Too many things. I'm doing a weekly podcast from home plus several podcasts at the university. I'm recording the audio version of The Perfect Song, a project I love to work on, bringing the book to life through the spoken word, music and sound effects. I'm working on several projects for the 150th anniversary of Mansfield University and Mansfield Borough. Writing grants, planning books, oral histories, events. . . . I haven't paid as much attention as I should to the Fabulous 1890s Weekend which is a big event in the region. It's good that spring is here, forcing me to work outside in the nature that I love. I'm crazy. In my passion for all kinds of things, I take on too much. I do the publicity for the Canyon Country Bluegrass series because they're good people and I believe in what they're doing. I'm doing the publicity for the Jim Glimm Memorial Concert. Jim was an English professor, and a friend who died of cancer in 2000. His musician friends put on a concert each year to raise money for the Jim Glimm scholarship fund. In addition to the publicity, this year I agreed to emcee it. I'm looking forward to it. I stopped doing my weekly radio show on WHGL. As much as I love the music and the listeners, I wasn't enjoying it anymolre. I'm loving everything I do right now. I'm just doing too much. And now I'm whining about being tired. What the hell, I'm human.
April 29, 2006 Absolutely gorgeous day today. We worked outside, focusing on the stone patio that was wrecked with a hard rain storm. Moving, setting, and leveling the stones is, as Bush would say, "hard work," but to look up and watch the trees quietly budding in the warm sunshine gleaming through a cloudless sky reminds me that the wonderful things in life are all around you. It was good to be doing physical labor after five days that ran around 14 hours per day. New blog posting and chapter 7 part 1 of the audio book are up. Round up the usual suspects and click here.
April 21, 2006 Chapter 6 of the audio version of TPS is up. Check it out.
April 20, 2006 Chapter 11 is now loaded. Just go to the Excerpts and continue the saga of The Perfect Song.
April 19, 2006 What a beautiful day in the northeast! I had meetings all day and didn't get a chance to take my noon walk with my iPod but still, it was gorgeous. New posting on my blog site. New chapter of the Perfect Song audio book coming soon.
April 15. 2006 I haven't made any text entries lately, mainly because I've been working on the audio version of The Perfect Song. It's a slow process. For example, the other night I was working on chapter 6 in which Mendel talks to some mysterious god who is beckoning him out of his body. I had spent a couple hours on the god's voice, lowering my recorded voice by a couple pitches and adding reverb. As I listened back to it, it just didn't sound right. Too much of a Star Wars sounding voice. So I re-recorded those lines, then went into the mix and deleted the god, sentence-by-sentence and added the new voice, which I left the same pitch and added different effects. The four short sentences took a little over two hours. But it feels right, now. I have to remember that a lot of different people read my website. My mother is one of them. "I was reading your journal," she said on the phone. "I didn't know you played at the Erie House!" It sounded like she was glad she didn't know at the time. Chapter 5 of the audio book is up, thanks again to Jared.
April 12, 2006 Okay. Chapter 4 of the audio version of The Perfect Song is up and working.
April 10, 2006 Brian Pitzer, a friend and colleague, just created a blog site dedicated to the teachings of Seth, a spirit who shared his knowledge through Jane Roberts of Elmira, NY. The Seth books are considered pioneering efforts in New Age knowledge. If you want to check it out go to http://sethspeaker.blogspot.com/ For my newest postings on my blog, click here. April 8, 20 Chapter 10 of the text version is now loaded on the Excerpts page. I hope to upload chapter 4 of the audio version tomorrow. Hope everyone is having a great weekend.
April 6, 2006 Check out my blog site for news and chapter 3 of the audio version of TPS, including music and sound effects.
April 2 , 2006 I'm about to upload Chapter 9 the Excerpts page. Today was beautiful in the Twin Tiers. Got up, set the clocks ahead (to me it's easier to lose an hour in the morning than at night). Leigh and I worked outside cleaning the yard, then took the dogs to the creek. Came back and did chicken and mushrooms on the grill. Read a couple articles in Wired Magazine and took a 20-minute nap, worn out from all the physical activity. It was a good kind of tired and a very good day. It felt good to be working in and with nature. Had dinner at Applebee's last and left vowing never to order any of their steak again. For the details go to my blog site.
March 26, 2006 You might recall (or might not) the raven picture I took in Utah last summer. Nathan talked me into entering it into a photo contest in Elmira, NY. I had it matted and framed. It took second place.
So, thanks, Nathan, for forcing me to enter the contest. And thanks, raven, for being there. You're on my screen saver. I see you everyday and ponder you as you ponder the world. It's a beautiful moment and I'm thankful we were together in that moment in time and space.
March 24, 2006 My cyber guru, Jared, and I met at McDonald's Tuesday night, ate, and headed to the office to begin the final step of my long awaited journey -- the first step in uploading the audio version of The Perfect Song. If you want to hear it -- and I'd like you to click here I also posted a new blog entitled Geeks & Grease
March 18, 2006 I'm in the middle of some big transitions and I'm not totally sure where they're taking me. I'm starting a blog site for faster communications and to more easily post daily thoughts. It will also enable me to post the audio edition of The Perfect Song. I have six chapters done so far and will begin posting this week. So check out The Perfect Song Blog . Add it to your Favorites, and we'll see what the future brings
March 11, 2006 Back from Hershey. I never get tired of the Hershey Hotel, huge, grand, with a friendly, gracious staff. Spent an hour Friday sitting on the huge patio overlooking Hershey and the surrounding hills. The strong wind didn't decrease my appreciation of the sunny, 70 degree weather and the huge flock of geese honking its way northward. Today I finished editing the audio version of The Perfect Song. It's been a long six month task and it feels great to have all the chapter edited. It's a slow process, listening to every sentence, every phrase, every word. In many cases I recorded two or three versions of a sentence, so then it's a matter of listening to each for diction, speed, phrasing and inflection. Choose one, delete the rest. If I had recorded this a couple of years ago, I would have been done, but since then the technology allows me to add music. I commissioned my son to write some musical beds. My next step is to begin adding these, along with a few found effects. I'm really looking forward to this part of the project. I'm in all new territory. I have a feeling it's going to be long, grueling and fascinating. I'll keep you posted.
Sorry. My software program was on the blink and I'm just getting it back up. Off to a conference tomorrow through the end of the week. It's a state conference of PR and publications folks. I'll be giving a presentation on podcasting. I'm on the final chapter ofthe editing process of the audio recording of The Perfect Song. My son, Nathan has created some music beds and that will be the next step. I'm really excited with this project. It's going to sound incredible! Music adds a whole new dimension to the work. More later. Have to pack. . . .
February News
Feb. 23, 2006 It's 7:30 p.m. on Thursday night. Put in a 14-hour day yesterday with an anthrax scare. A performer in a show last week collapsed after the show. A few days later doctors found he had anthrax in his system. Our university called us, the PR staff, the vice presidents, police chief and music department chairman. Got home at 10:30, had a couple drinks, said a quick prayer of thanks and went to bed. February 19, 2004 I missed my hair appointment which was last Saturday and called Karen to apologize. “When can you get me in?” “How about 3:30 today? “Thanks!” We usually exchange views about movies we’ve seen, as well as TV shows. She began telling me about a show in which two brothers search out ghosts and other spooky things. “The last episode was about these backwoods people who catch people, let them go in the woods, and hunt them. When they kill them they cut them up –“ She was interrupted by a woman suddenly standing beside her holding a baby. “—Ohhh, isn’t he the big boy!” She cooed. “How ya doin? Oh, he’s growing every day!” The woman holding the boy must have been his grandmother. She spoke to the baby, “Justin, go –“ and her tongue leaped rapidly in and out of her mouth to create a laba laba laba” sound that was pretty freaky coming from a woman of her age. At the same time I was tempted to do it. I hadn’t made a laba laba laba sound since I was, hmm, six months old. Justin was not tempted. He was too busy checking out a woman getting her hair blown dry, which, to a baby, must look like a massive undertaking. He was not about to break his attention for such trivia. Besides, everyone knows you have to be in the mood. You just don’t do a laba laba laba on command. You do it when you’re happy, have a lot of energy and haven’t learned to talk yet. The woman excused herself for interrupting and continued on her way. Karen turned back to my hair. “—yeah, cut them up and eat them, I guess, or bury the body parts maybe.” She finished her gruesome review as I sat thinking about the instant transition from grisly murders to the gentlest, maternal baby talk and back again to violence. She never missed a beat and never missed a hair. February 18, 2004 Chapter 4 of The Perfect Song is up for those of you following the serialization of the book. Check it out under Excerpts. More on how daily life is going tomorrow. February 16, 2006
Understand, I love everything I’m doing right now. Sometimes there’s too much of a good thing, but I love it. I go to bed exhausted but anxious to start a new day. But of everything that I’m doing, the place I feel most at home, most relaxed, and most intimate, is right here. I’m sitting in front of my laptop creating words that express my thoughts, my being, my aliveness, to share with you. And yes, I have a mental picture of you. Of the many people I’ve met since the publication of The Perfect Song, I have a picture of you in the place that we met and talked – a coffee house, a library, on the street with passing cars and trucks. And if I haven’t met you, I picture a soul with many of the same thoughts, dreams and goals that I have. That, after all, is why you’re reading this. You may be a person who emails me on occasion and I love the chance to hear about your life and respond. If you haven’t emailed, please do at theperfectsong@gmail.com If it ever gets to be too much, I’ll let you know. But you’re important to me so I don’t think that will happen. * * * So I got really excited with a new idea about recording one of the great poems of all time (I think, at least). I’m thinking about recording Poe’s The Raven. Then I want to set it to music. Maybe a haunting tune that would fit the mood. Then I want to put maybe a punk sounding tune behind it to completely change the mood, make it dark, violent and thrashing. Then maybe a new age sounding tune. The idea is to show people – especially young people – that a poem can be exciting, deep, and varied. Then I carried it a step further and thought I should ask my friend Verne Lapps, a retired communication professor with an excellent, deep voice, if he would record it. And I would do the same thing with music. Then I thought, wow, if he could persuade his friend James Earl Jones to record it, I would really be able to get young people to listen to it. And then I would invite others – actors, musicians, laymen –to record it, and all the while setting it to different types of music. I would call it “The Raven Project.” It would show the flexibility of a good poem. It would show how different voices give the same poem different tones, how different inflections give it a slightly different life, how different music can make it something quite different each time. Then I would find other poems, maybe Frost’s “Stopping By The Woods On A Snowy Evening,” or selections from Shakespeare. Or other Poe poems, or Emily Dickinson. The possibilities s are endless! When I told Leigh and my son, Nathan thought it over and said, “Dad, you really should stick to the projects you have right now and finish them.” I hate it when someone says something really perceptive and practical. Okay. I’ll get the audio version of The Perfect Song done first, along with the music beds and sound effects. (Shhh. This is a really low whisper. Between you and me, I might sneak a test recording of The Raven in between the other projects. I really want to hear it. What do you think?)
February 12, 2006 Went to the Memories of Elvis show last night at the Clemens Center. Chris Macdonald as Elvis is great. I guess others think so, too. The house was full for the second year in a row. Each time "Elvis" passed out scarves, females from the age of 13 to 70 lined up, begging for a scarf. Elvis just keeps getting bigger and bigger each year.
February 9, 2006 If you're a regular reader, this will sound too familiar. I have never been busier in my life with everything I'm involved in. And I'm loving every minute of it. Went out last weekend with my iPod and mic to record live sounds and must have drop my microphone cord when I was packing up. I started to do an interview at school with a student and the cord was not in the bag. It was nowhere in the office or at home. Called my music dealer in Indianna and had him ship a new one overnight. Snowed lightly today but it was a slippery one. Coming down our driveway tonight the brakes locked and I thought I was going to slide right into our Explorer. I finally threw it in neutral and got stopped safely. Listened to a great interview with Neil Young on NPR's Fresh Air. I have a whole new appreciation for him as a man and an artist. Going to watch CSI, then work on The Perfect Song audio version. I'll write more about that. It's a laborious but fascinating process.
February 8, 2006 Leigh and I went out to supper last night. Super Bowl Sunday is a perfect time to go out to dinner. You have pretty much the choice of the house. I looked around to check out the other diners. A couple in their 70s walked in a stuttering, wobbling way to a table. I ordered a cheese steak. On the sound system The Doors were playing. Strange. They were the epitome of rebellious bands in the 70s-- sex, drugs and rock and roll. Jim Morrison was arrested on stage one night for exposing himself, proving that the culture has still not caught up to public genitals. (The only thing in America that's indecent are genitals, male and female. They all look pretty much the same but you can't look at them in public, or on a stage.) "Come on, come on, come on touch me babe. . ." Morrison sang. Rebellion as elevator music, background for cheese steak. I wonder if, 20 years from now rappers and hip hop music about "ho's" and shooting people will be background music for that generation.
February 5, 2006 A little colder today but still warm enough to take the dogs to the creek and record sounds for the audio version of TPS. I recorded various creek sounds. The creek itself is high and roaring. I found a couple smaller waterfalls where the melted snow is still draining from the higher parts of our mountain. And I recorded footsteps through the dry weeds, as well as some crows yelling at each other. I've also uploaded the next chapter of The Perfect Song under "Excerpts." One chapter a week.
February 3, 2006 Warm and rainy today. Strange for February but I don't hear anyone complaining. Continuing my grand experiment in doing an audio recording of The Perfect Song. I've edited seven chapters so far. I've created a blog which I'm working on. When it's available I'll let everyone know. There will be regular postings on news and updates of the recording, the music, etc. It's been taking up just about all of my time. My friend Sherry loaned me Wayne Dyers' The Path To Enlightnment lectures which I've been listening to while on the road. Nathan had his knee operated on last Thursday and hadn't been out of the house so I took him to Barnes & Nobel today. We had coffee and talked. The place was mobbed but it was pleasant to sit a one of the small tables and create our own small space in the midst of the hustle and bustle. Bought a couple of Dyers' books, and silently thanked Sherry for passing through my life at another perfect moment.
January News
Leigh took this today with my podcasting gear and Tyler. I was recording footsteps in different environments to be used on my audio book.
January 28, 2006 Okay, fellow Mendelites, there are some some changes in the wind. Somehow over the past two years I find myself with: 1. a website 2. four email addresses 3. a myspace site 4. Mansfield University podcast (much of which I do at home) 5. a project to do an audio recording of The Perfect Song 6. two dogs who need attention (and who I love to give attention to) 7. a weekly radio show on country music, which I haven’t been paying enough attention to because of the above. 8. I’m also thinking of doing my own podcast
Soooo, I’m making some changes. First, I’m going to begin uploading The Perfect Song. The whole thing. If you haven’t been able to afford to buy the book, or just haven’t gotten around to it, this will be your chance to read the whole thing in installments. I’m doing this: -to make it more widely available -hoping that even more people will read it, like it and spread the site to friends.
That’s the first thing. More on the others later. It is, by the way, sunny and about 60 degrees outside on this January 27 afternoon. I’m going out with Leigh and take the dogs down to the creek. Global warming or not, weather like this shouldn’t be wasted.
January 19, 2006 I spoke to the Thursday Study Club today and had a blast. Olynda Smith was excited because the group has 40 members and 32 of them came today. "They're curious about you," she said. They probably were. I'm a native Bradford County and knew a lot of the ladies from my school years, reporter years and musician years. The median age of the group was early 80s. The oldest member, Mildred Wright, is 101. (I've noticed that when a woman celebrates her hundredth birthday, she doesn't mind telling her age). Before my talk with had tea and cake. My high school English Teacher, Mary Smythe, sat at the table across from me and held up my book. "I read it! The whole thing!" She called out. "Did you like it?" I asked. "I'll talk to you later." I wondered what that meant. Once a student always a student, I guess. The meetings are held in the church in West Burlington. There's only one restroom, which I used before I spoke. After I was introduced I said, "Thank you for having me. I used the restroom a few minutes ago and left the seat up." That got a good laugh. "Actually, I didn't," I said. "I realized there are 32 women here and only one man so you'd know who the culprit was." During my talk I said Mary made me nervous because she said she wanted to talk to me later about The Perfect Song and I hoped she liked it. "I loved it," she said. We had a nice dialogue about the book while the others listened. After the talk, I pulled out my camera and asked Olynda to take a picture of Mary and me. "She gave me a good grade on my book. I'll put her on my website," I said. I had a blast and left feeling energized and again appreciative of being from such a great rural area.
Hanging out with my high school English teacher, Mary Smythe
January 11, 2006 Ever just get worn down? I think I'm there. There has been so much going on here and at work that I'm slowing down with a lack of energy. Seems like the more I learn about podcasts, blogs and various instant messager services, the more there is to learn. So I find myself working awhile on the net, a little while here, then reading Wired Magazine, Harpers (which I'm finding tedious and not renewing my subscription) and a couple novels. One of them is The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. I'd read it a couple decades ago and wanted to back and re-experience Chandler's writing. Philip Marlowe is one of the great fictional detectives, and Chandler's skills at description and his eye for detail are wonderful. I'll get back into high gear soon. Meanwhile, I'll move in whatever direction my mind takes me and let the well start filling back up.
January 10, 2006 I'm talking to a group in Pennsylvania next week. Many of the folks in the group have heard my presentation so I'm not sure what I'm going to say. But that's the excitement of it, playing it by ear, as it were. I love talking with people -- about The Perfect Song, about art today, literature, pop culture. I feel like I'm swimming in several different worlds right now, sometimes going under for a bit. I've created a blog on myspace.com, a huge cyber community of young people who communicate with each other. I want to reach young people about TPS. I've also found some writers' blog sites and I need to begin interacting with them. I'm still working on recording The Perfect Song for an audio book that I'll make available on the web. And I'm thinking of creating a new podcast with a young guy who knows a lot about google. I'll do the straight stuff about writing and recording and he'll do updates on google. I'm having a great time and I'm spread so thin I feel like butter under constantly rising temperatures. To quote the Wicked Witch (in high screecy voice): "I'm melting! I'm melting!. . . . Thanks for reading, supporting and sticking with me. The quest is everything.
December News Dec. 29 Kim was here for a short, hectic week. We took one afternoon and headed to Ithaca and indulged in the happy chaos of Wegmen's two days before Christmas. Ithaca is a different sort of town. With Cornell and Ithaca College, it attracts all types of intellectuals, social misfits and people who couldn't exist anywhere else. I love the place. We followed a car with a bumper sticker that read, "Ithaca, 10 acres surrounded by reality." We also went to an Elmira Club where Nathan's band, Push Dawn, was playing. They attracted a good crowd. Unfortunately, Nathan stepped down from the stage while they were setting up and ripped a ligament in the knee that was already bad. He performed the whole evening in wrenching pain. I was impressed with the group. The songs, most of which Nathan wrote, have powerful lyrics that make you think, intricate chord patterns and rhythms. Nathan is on rhythm and lead guitar. Sam provides a rock solid bass. Brett is all over the place on drums, playing in and around the bass. The highlight is Laura on violin. She has a great, quiet stage presence, pulling all eyes -- male and female -- to her. She has a good sense of where she is all the time, backing the vocal without competing with it. When she takes the lead the violin becomes almost like a living force, sinuously winding around the other instruments, playing back and forth with them, and gradually expanding into an impressive all-encompassing force to which the other instruments are paying homage to it. If you ever get a chance to hear Push Dawn live, do it. No recording can capture the excitement their live sound creates.
Dec. 16 8:30 p.m. Woke up to eight inches of heavy snow. I started shoveling around 9. When Leigh came out I went in an woke Nathan. Shoveled awhile, then went in and did a 45-minute interview with a magazine editor about my podcast show at the university. It's starting to get some media attention -- and the attention of others. We're getting around 800 hits a day. Nathan and I went Christmas shopping for a couple hours. In Tops, we got in line behind a big, bald, slow moving white guy and his Asian wife. She had a coupon for nearly everything. I say nearly because when she found she didn't have a coupon for her cottage cheese, she told the clerk she didn't want it. She inspected each item as the clerk scanned it and put it in a plastic bag. The big bald white husband stared hard at the prices as they appeared on the register screen. The whole damned process took 20 minutes. "We jumped in the wrong line," I said. Nathan leaned on the counter. "Yeah, but fortunately we're two of the most patient guys in the world." I guess. I read the headlines asking what Jennifer is going to do. The weekly tabloid screamed that Angelina had a lesbian affair and that Brad is devastated. To the right was a picture of Dick Clark in a wheelchair following his stroke. Then I read the Altoids containers. Finally the world's most penny pinching couple were done. Finally it was our turn. We paid and left. Standing by the flower display the Asian woman was reading her receipt like an accountant. Her big bald white husband was probably in the car going through their checkbook to see what their balance was.
December 13 Said goodbye to one of my best friends today. John and I worked together at Mansfield University for 20 years. We went to many of the same meetings and had lunch once a week. I knew him better than my own brothers. In August he was diagnosed with lung cancer. I visited him a couple times in the hospital. His weight had dropped from 180 to 115. He had to use oxygen. The radiation had burned his esophagus so bad he couldn't eat. I talked to him last Monday night. I told him about the movie Walk The Line because we were both Johnny Cash fans. His voice was weak and distant. I didn't know that he knew the doctors had given up and told him he only had a short time to live. Friday morning his wife, Jane, sent me an email to say that John passed away peacefully early Thursday night. I talked to her on the phone and she said his breathing just kept getting shallower until he didn't breathe anymore. I spoke at the funeral today. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done. But it was important. Jane asked me to, and he was my best friend. I worked all weekend on the address. Good friends should get a thoughtful send off. He was 58.
December 9 I was looking through some of my old entries here and came across one from the spring where I was out working and hardening my "soft winter muscles." As I sit here at 12:30 I'm looking out my second story office window watching the wind swirl the snow in playful clouds around the trees and up the driveway. Winter is here again already. We spent two hours shoveling the driveway to clear it of the five inches of snow we got last night. Opened my email to find a note from Jane. One of my best friends, John Abplanalp, died last night. He had lung cancer. The doctors discovered it in August. After a lot of radiation and chemo, they removed the tumor but the radiation burned his esaphogas so bad that he couldn't eat. He went from 180 to less than 120 pounds. He had trouble breathing and had to use oxygen. I visited him a couple times and the hospital and talked by phone when he was home. I called him early this week. He sounded tired and depressed. Jane's email said he gave up peacefully last night. I thought I was prepared for it. I walked downstairs and told Leigh, and then cried. You're never prepared. When a friend dies you realize that all you have in life is people. Friends, loved ones, relatives, acquaintences. . . people. And when you lose someone there is a hole in some very deep part of your heart. It always gets back to the moment, doesn't it? And appreciating every moment for the gift that it is. John's moments in this dimension are gone. But the time we shared over the last 25 years were special, the good ones and the bad ones. We were friends at the beginning, and then we weren't. We fought bitterly. Then we became friends again and fought together for the betterment of the university where we worked. We had weekly lunch together and talked politics, campus news, and always music. John loved old country music, especially Hank Williams and George Jones. Enough. He's gone. His suffering here is finished. I will always remember our moments as I live out mine. I may write more about John. I may not. I don't know.
December 4 I still don't know what's going on! While trying to update the Muse section, I noticed that when you hit chapter 38, no further chapters are listed. I, for the most part, have fixed that. For some strange reason, though, when you're on chapters 48 and 49, they don't list chapters 50 and 51 at the bottom of the page. Chapters 50 and 51 are up. Go back to any of the other chapters and you'll see the full listing at the bottom of the page. Chapter 50 is the beginning of a new series of stories based on my experiences playing in the Erie House, a bar at the bottom of everything. Check it out while I see if I can fix these technical difficulties.
December 2 Okay. I don't know what's going on but chapters 50 and 51 are not showing up on certain pages. They are on the site. Go to either chapter one of Muse or to chapter 46 and they show all the chapters at the bottom. This software's going to drive me bananas!
November News Nov. 27 I took my brother, my son and his girlfriend to see Walk The Line, the much touted movie about Johnny and June Carter Cash. I know the Johnny Cash story inside out. I interviewed him about 15 years ago for an article I was writing. I did months of research to write and produce a 3-hour radio documentary on his life. I found the movie riveting and painful. The movie did take some licenses but only to tighten and keep it moving. Joaquin Phoenix was incredible. He is Johnny Cash. It was painful because I knew about the tragedy that haunted him. I knew about the pills and how badly he screwed up, both in private and public. And yet Phoenix's acting was so powerful that I found myself in tears several times -- tears that come from experience something overwhelmingly beautiful and compelling. I'm working on the next chapter for Muse so keep watch. And remember, The Perfect Song is the perfect Christmas gift for mates, friends, relatives, or, heck, even strangers. For a signed copy email me at theperfectsong@gmail.com
Nov. 21 At 3:30 today, after walking across campus twice in the frigid wind, I sat working at my computer and I felt myself getting stuffed up. I thought it was allergies, but an hour later my nose was even more stuffed up. I was sneezing, and I thought, this is amazing! I don't think I ever remember knowing the exact moment a cold started! I can honestly say I felt a cold being born in my body at exactly 3:30 on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2005. It's the little things in life. . . . I have a new email address if you want to write or order signed copies of The Perfect Song (the perfect Christmas gift). It's theperfectsong@gmail.com I'd love to hear from you.
Nov. 13 Sunday night after a pleasant day of getting the snow plow and chains on the garden tractor, cleaning up the yard and playing with the dogs. Days flash by. I think I've said it before but I don't remember ever being so busy and so overwhelmed with everything going on. It's not just the activities but the technology. I've learned just enough about Dreamweaver upload information to my website, just enough about my digital camera to take basic pictures and just enough about Fireworks to manipulate the photos for the web. In between I'm continually studying Adobe Audition to do my recordings and continue what is turning into a year-or-more quest to do an audio recording of The Perfect Song. Once it's recorded (and I'm halfway there) I'll go back and begin the laborious editing process. And I'm learning how to use iPod and iRiver for the pod cast show I'm doing at the university. I toyed with the thought of doing a Perfect Song pod cast but have given that up. There just isn't time. And I'm trying to learn Spanish. I have kicked myself for years for not learning it. I took two years of it in high school but promptly forgot it. But I've always loved the language and now it's sa language throughout the U.S. I'm determined somehow to learn it. I go to bed exhausted and when I get up I feel like I'm jumping into a race car, popping the clutch and pushing the accelerator to the floor. In seconds I'm in fifth gear and we're off! I swear time is shifting, speeding up, or rather, that we're speeding it up. We are collectively speeding up time. Okay, I don't know what's going on with amazon.com but they're carrying The Perfect Song in a rather fitful way. One week they have copies available. The next week just the Adobe download version is available. Ah, the perils of the self-published. If you want a copy of The Perfect Song -- and I hope you do -- the most direct way is to order it from me. You can send me an email and use PayPal, or you can send a check. If you want to send a check, email me and I'll send you my postal address. The bonus feature of ordering it directly from me is that I'll be happy --honored!-- to autograph it. Keep in mind that The Perfect Song is the perfect holiday gift for someone you love. I love the fall. In this mountainous region the leaves remind me each year that in death there is a colorful glory. I go into this in more depth in a couple new Muse chapters I'll post soon. I've run out of gigs and promotions for The Perfect Song. If you have any ideas to further spread the word, please email me. Usually I'm overflowing with ideas and projects. Maybe it's because it's been an intense summer and fall and my brain has stationed itself on standby. More later. Chapter 49 is up. Enjoy.
October News October 26 New posting in the Books page.
October 23 I recently posted chapter 48, a nearly truthful account of attempting to poop the perfect S. Read it and let me know if you think I should follow up with Oprah again.
October 14
I took the camera so Leigh could get a shot of fellow Mansfield alumna and Perfect Song fan, Eleanor Kodish
One of the unexpected rewards of having a novel and doing readings is the new friends I make. Eleanor Kodish had written to me months ago and said she and Mary Eischeid had reviewed my novel in the local paper. Eleanor is a graduate of Mansfield University. She sent me a copy of the review. Later, I think through her, the Ross Library invited me to come down to Lock Haven and speak. So Leigh (with a horrible cold) and I made the 2 ½ drive down last night. It was foggy and raining but we made good time. A small energetic woman with a huge smile that comes from a lifetime of practice, appeared in the room. She held her hand out but I ignored that and gave her a big hug. Anyone who meets Eleanor, I’m sure, never forgets her. My talk was to a small, dedicated, and very widely-read audience of Eleanor, Mary, Loretta, June and Diane. After I made my presentation they asked some pretty penetrating questions, referencing everyone from James Joyce to Greek gods. It was a great evening, ladies. Thank you for your warmth, hospitality and your interest in The Perfect Song. Mary and Eleanor, thank you again for the review. Keep up your own writing. And Eleanor, an early happy birthday!
It's late Wednesday night. Watched Lost, which Leigh and I love for it's characters, creativi, constant risk-taking and surprises. I'm really psyched about tomorrow night's presentation in Lock Haven. The folks there seem really enthused and I can't wait to meet and interact with them. Life is about interaction with people and nature. Check out my new postings in the Muse and Books pages. I promise I'll get new stuff on the On Writing page. Too much going on, which seems to be a theme in my life. Saturday I went to homecoming at Mansfield University. Sunday I visited my friend John who's in the hospital with cancer. This weekend I want to to have my brother up. He's special and I haven't seen him in several months. He's a music freak and when he comes up we spend the weekend shopping for music.
I posted a new entry in Muse tonight, along with new material to the Books page.
September News September 16, 2005 I'll be giving a presentation at the Bradford County Library in West Burlington, PA Tuesday, Sept. 20. If you're in the area, stop by at noon. The 7,000 Mile Journey This is a running account of our trek across country to take my wife’s parents home to San Diego. They are in their 80s and though they drove here in May, as they have for 25 years, their frail health prevented them from driving themselves. So we took two cars. If you’re just joining, please start from the bottom up. There are numerous postings and rather than force regular readers to scroll continually further down each time, I’ll put the newest posting at the top each day.
September 9, 2005 It’s always strange to be back home after a trip. It seems like we’ve been gone forever and for a minute. Left Toledo at 9:30 and drove straight through with two gas stops and one rest stop stop. The lush green mountains of PA and New York State are beautiful and stately. While I always appreciate the stunning scenery around the U.S., I also appreciate the area we live in. The last few hours are the hardest. The speed limit is slower and you want to be home more with each mile you travel. The dogs were so excited they couldn’t stop barking and jumping. And that was fine with me. I wanted them to want us home as much as I wanted to be home. Nathan did a great job keeping things together. Okay, so a few lights were on and the remnants of parties were still around, but we were home and together. I fixed supper on the grill – steaks, mushrooms, onions and potatoes. We ate on the deck overlooking the stone patio we built on the edge of the steep bank of forest. It was a quiet, much appreciated feast. Talked to staff members on the road to make sure things were going well. I had dropped the ball on a couple things but they kept things moving. Tired. You maintain an energy on the road because you have to. Now, I’m crashing. It’s 11 p.m. Tired. Going to see John tomorrow. He’s 57 and has lung cancer. He’s in the hospital. I need to see him. He was my supervisor once and. Then we became very close friends. I need to see him. I need to tell him not to die. Dying is too easy. Living takes will, and love, and curiosity, and friends. I need to tell him in person that he’s my friend and he needs, somehow, to live. When you’re alive, living is all that counts. I know he’s not ready to die. |
|---|
