March is for Music

Life List number something, accomplished! I got to see Elton John and Billy Joel in concert this month. Wow! Those old dudes my age still have the punch. Something about dueling pianos just takes me where I love to be. Billy Joel attacks the keyboard. And I've always been a sucker for a saxophone. Sometimes there were three saxophones at once, including one played by Crystal Taliaferro, a really rocking chick who lit up the stage. When the combined bands were on stage together, there was double everything. I think the count was 15 musicians.

I paid big time scalper prices for the upper back corner, but it was worth ten times the price. 35 numbers, 3 and 1/2 hours. Next time the tour comes, I am thinking of re-mortgaging the house to sit on the front row with Elton's good friend Lynn Wyatt.

Today I am slightly deafer and definitely younger. That describes my entire birthday month. Thank goodness for the passing of the January blues, which I cannot explain but got nevertheless, I'm enjoying lots of music this month. With the rodeo in town, I've been four times. Clay Walker was my favorite, a surprise since I have never even considered his music before. Clint Black was a little staid, but I found myself liking Keith Urban, aka Mr. Nicole Kidman. ZZ Top is still to come, and I might bring my earplugs this time.

AND my symphony buddy Mary and I went to see, er, make that hear, Bach vs Vivaldi one night, and some Rachmananoff another.

To top it off, I chose as my birthday present to see Les Miserables for the third time. It will be Carl's first. Can't wait. That's next week!

Practicing

It's important to practice driving and living in the RV. After all, summer is only two months away, that time when I become a full time RV blogger. My writing has definitely been slower when I am not on the road, so I am looking forward to getting back into both pastimes.

The photo is from an overnight chick trip to Buescher State Park, a tranquil little spot at the southern end of the Lost Pines near Bastrop. While in the park, my former co-leaders in scouting enjoyed the fine life of the RV. It was quite a bit bigger than any backpacking tent we ever shared, and even bigger than the hostels we frequented in Europe.

While in the park, we birded from three perspectives. Mz. Becker, who enrolled in a bird watching class on a lark, was spotting them with binoculars. Terry was photographing them. She has a more recent model of my camera with an 18 x zoom (I am jealous). And I was drawing them. I would post my drawings, but I let Mz. Becker take them to class for show and tell.

But drawing class is coming right along. Check this out, baby! I think everyone will want one for Christmas.

You say it's your birthday!

I have had so much birthday cake! I cannot remember the last time I had three different cakes. My friend, photo'd above (the one with the halo) made me dinner and cake. Then I had cake with a neighbor, and then another cake a week later with another neighbor.

This photo is taken a few days later at my birthday lunch. Except for the friend with the halo whose friendship dates back to the 80's (I know she doesn't look that old and neither do I), I know these ladies because we met at Luby's. It is amazing how much we have in common for such a chance event. We've been having lunch for several years now. Seredipity!

Not Eggs actly

Draw an egg, the teacher said. Use your good paper. Use your charcoals. And your blending tools. Choose a light source.

Oh my is this a challenge. The subtle shadows are completely non-intuitive. After I did so well at drawing a box in class, I thought that surely this would be a snap.

I'm enrolled in You Too Can Draw this spring, and we shall see about that. A lesson in humility. Carl said one of my eggs looks like a lemon. I had to agree. Perhaps next week there will be progress to report. I am happy to report that the first two and 1/2 hours flew by as I drew lines, held my pencil strangely, and drew cylinder men from a live model, aka the teacher standing on the desk.

However, there are no mixed feelings about the history of Afghanistan that I also enrolled in. The class flew by. Whoosh! Just ask me some facts. What is their export? Just opium. Life span? 44 years. Size? About like Texas. I cannot wait till next week.

Halcyon

 

Okay, I admit it. This is not really a purpose in life. But it does pop, you'd have to admit. Treasure from heavy trash days again.

So, I suppose I will have to pay attention to the little voice, becoming more like an audible conversation, that says I am ready to do something. It has been almost two years of sabbatical, after all.

More to come as I ponder the question.

Feelin kind of funky

Thank goodness January is over. Every January I start evaluating my life, wondering what I should be doing instead of whatever it is I am doing now. It's a chronic holdover from years of goal setting.

So, in order to distract myself, I finished last January's project, this little trash table I rescued from heavy trash week.

So, now when I am feeling purposeless I can just look out the window and say there, that's better. Look at that mosaic I just finished. Can't help but smile.

Centenarian

Caroline Lincoln is turning 100 tomorrow, January 4, 2009. Her driver's license expires tomorrow too. Not that she has driven the cherry little Camry that sits all polished and clean in her garage in several years. But she still motors around her own home with her walker on her 10 year old new hip, which she says is wearing out and she's glad is under warranty.

When I imagine her being 100 now, I realize that I have known her son for 30 years. Since he's going to be 70 this year, that means Granny was 70 when we met. Thus it follows that in the twinkling of an eye, Carl will be 100 too.

The other dude in the photo is Lawrence, Carl's oldest son. When I first met him, he was a skinny 19 year old kid with lots of curls who came to spend a summer with us. Now he's turning 47 with not much hair. In Granny's mind, he's still 19, since she seems to have forgotten that Carl and Larry dropped by a year or two ago, or that Larry stayed with her for a while after her hip surgery.

Where does a lifetime go? I looked across the room at myself in the mirror at Granny's today, and I was looking at a stranger. The stranger now has waddles under her chin. Where did those come from? This much I do know. I'm glad to know Carl's grown children, and I don't want to waste the next 30 years staying home and waiting for them to come see me like Granny has. I resolved today that as long as I can stay active, I'll do the traveling. We won't waste the years till our 100th birthdays.

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