Christmas Time

Somehow it's just not the same as it was even a few short years ago.

Rudolph and Santa Looking Suspicious

More Good Music

I did some more checking and came up with another two videos to share. I only have two wishes on these. The first being that the focus were better, the second that it just be Evan playing these pieces...he can certainly carry them with no help.

Have A Listen

A super client and a pleasure to work for (this is not his home piano)!

A Visit to My Boulder

Today I took 'A' on a ride to Annisquam to show her my boulder.  I parked on the main road and we walked up the big hill to see it.  When I took the original photo, I hadn't the time to really look around.  'A' and I walked the area just around my boulder and as we turned to leave, this stunning view greeted us.

Annisquam Lighthouse

Someone picked a good boulder for me!

There is a huge area of trails that eventually lead down to Ipswich Bay.  When we have more time than we did today, and on another good weather day, we plan on doing more exploring.

Well, I Don't See Your Name On It!

Everyone should be given the gift of something that's nearly everlasting.  I found my gift yesterday.  It's real name is Squam Rock, but someone, sometime, decided that I should 'own' it.

Click to enlarge to see my name on it

Yep, folks, my name is on it.

Christmas Elegance

Despite the excessively cold weather 'A' and I decided to go for a walk this afternoon.  One of our favorite classy houses on Pleasant Street is tastefully adorned for Christmas.

Five and a half hours later and I'm still chilled.  I must say, add in the wind chill factor and brrrrrrrrr...

Nostalgia in Black, White, and a Gray House

My dad was an electrical engineer and that really showed at Christmas time.  This house is the first I lived in...for my first 3 years.  Dad's Christmas light display won him a plaque award in a decorating contest organized by the Haverhill newspaper.  In addition to all the multicolored lights and the two story foil Christmas tree, Rudolph's nose blinked red and Santa waved at passersby.  Well, Santa continually waved...even at nobody.  In those days the house was painted white.  With the old fashioned BIG bulb strings of lights, it was all brightly lit.  This was the first of many more Christmas displays of future years.

Coolidge Avenue, Haverhill, MA  1957

We moved to the neighboring town of Groveland and the tradition continued.  For several more Christmases, Santa, the reindeer, and the life-sized, three dimensional sleigh filled with foil wrapped gifts adorned our lawn.  After that was the life-sized barn, with all the participants...from Baby Jesus to the Wise Men...also large as life.  Our cat liked to sleep in the hay with Baby Jesus.  I don't think he minded...Jesus that is...the cat just assumed it was her territory.  There was the giant Christmas 'card' that filled the arch of the breezeway and Santa going down the chimney.  Santa in the chimney was a short lived display...only one year.  Dad liked a roaring fire!

Coolidge Avenue, Haverhill, MA 2010

So, that first house in Haverhill is still there and every once in a while we take a drive by.  Things change.  It's been vinyl sided in gray and the garage has been enlarged, driveway widened.  The bones of my folks first house are still there though, kept nice and neat.

It's Beginning to Feel Alot Like Winter

It looks a lot like it, too...minus snow...so far.

Mill Pond Without Ducks

Mill Pond has iced over and, by the foot prints and shoe slide marks, it looks like daring children temporarily replaced our duck friends.  I wonder if they will be skating there this weekend?  There are a dozen or so ducks left in the mostly unfrozen little pond in the meadow. That little pond is a bulge in the overflow stream from Mill Pond as it flows through the meadow toward the ocean.

Sometimes the harsh cold gray of winter weather can make everything want to lose color.

A Little This, A Little That

Because so much is going on all at the same time that I can't think of just one thing to write about.  With the arrival of THE holiday season, key work diminishes...although there is still some...and tuning work increases.  This year seems heavier in that regard.  The only problem is that I seem to be getting the dregs of tuning jobs, that quite possibly, the semi-retiring(?) other island tech doesn't want.  Maybe, maybe not.  And not all of it is lousy.  It's just that the ratio seems tipped that way this month.

I've started reading a new old book.  It's been in this family for 60 years, give or take a few.  I've just never read it.  The title you wonder?  Queen of the Flat Tops, written in 1942 by Stanley Johnston, a journalist aboard the USS Lexington from her exit from Pearl Harbor just days prior to the attack, to her sinking on May 8, 1942 in the Coral Sea Battle.  My dad served aboard the 'Lex'.  His battle station was sky forward.  He was one of the last of her crew to jump into the Coral Sea.  But that's a story for another time.

It's gotten quite cold here and our Rockport ponds are starting to ice over.  'A' and I continue to walk, several times each week, to Mill Pond to feed the multitude of ducks.  Our feeding trip a couple days ago was quite humorous.  Ducks don't ice skate very well!

Ducks on Ice

I'm still involved in trying to straighten out the matter mentioned (or rather not mentioned) several days ago.  Things have settled for a couple weeks.  Long term solutions haven't been addressed or decided or even deemed doable.  It'll take time to work through it all.

So for now I'm working through each day with a list of 'have to do today'.  If I finish the list each day, I feel good.  If I've accomplished a bit more than was even on the list, I'm happy.  I'm trying to set aside at least an hour each day that I can label as fun. 

Sometimes that's as easy as Ducks On Ice.

A Little Something...Different

Here But Mostly Distracted

I'm giving no explanation at the present time.  Some things have happened, family things a long way from here.  But they have come to rest at my feet.  Not really.  They have generated enough serious concern that I feel I must try to make things right.  The way someone would have intended things to be.  I'm hoping for a good solution.  It will never be a happy ending so it would be foolish to hope for that.  Anyway, it is taking a good deal of my time, but be assured that I still stop by and check in on every one of you.

And I'll still write here.  It might be brief stuff or just some pictures.  All depends.