Thursday, May 31, 2012

What I Really Wanted to Say About Music Snobs

I am a music snob.  I have all the symptoms.  I like to follow the notes when I sing...most of the time. (If a seventh or a second sounds nicer in harmony than the boring DO they have written for the alto, I'll go for it.) I like when other people follow the notes, too. Because I really, really dislike missing an important chord in the sequence of chords, even if it is just one important note. And that is because I NEED to hear the pretty music that is meant to be heard here. I can get upset when they WILL NOT hit the right note. See? I got it bad.  I don't let you know that on the outside of course, because my mom taught me to be polite and kind.  But I long to have the song sung correctly to the point of losing interest entirely in the lyrics. This is a bad thing. I find myself hoping that in heaven, finally, they will sing it right! If there is bad or ugly music going; I really want to shut if off, now! Even if it is yours. It is very hard to be polite and bear it.

On the other hand, it doesn't go over my head when the congregation is singing a song they love and it is going well and everybody is tuned to the lyrics even if they aren't hitting the right chord.  I can lay it down and go for the song as a whole and enjoy it.  So there is hope for me.

Here is something good about us music snobs.  When we hear good music done well, we are supremely happy. All of our enjoyment gauges are just as far right now as they were left when it was sung wrongly.

There are two kinds of music snobs, however.  There are the music lover snobs who like to have it right. Then there are the folks who get so frustrated at us snobs and accuse us of all kinds of pride and things what we have never ever thought of.  I contend that you are a snob, too, when you make my likes and dislikes look so...snobbish, I guess. Nobody is perfect.


But please, I wouldn't want anybody to feel offended by my opinions/feelings about music. I work on not letting it bother me when the music is hard to bear. God gave you some likes and dislikes I do not understand, too.

Finally, I am confident that when we get to heaven and it gets to be singing time that nobody is going to mind either way about the notes or chords or instrumentation.  Whatever they've got there for choir and instruments is going to be the best. Out of this world wonderful, literally.





Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Traveling

We put around 3000 miles in last weekend.  All the way to Bonners Ferry and back.  We took the interstate to Missoula where we caught The Goat Trail (Rt 200) all the way to Three Mile at the top of Bonners Ferry.


Traveling west is a little up hill and into the wind most of the way even though the scenery is sorta same-ish, at least until you get to Billings, Montana where the Rockies begin to come into view.  The first time I saw those mountains was from a town up in Canada...Calgary, I think. And I remember being awed.  Our children aren't awed.  I was a little disappointed in that, not sure why.  


But they were certainly quiet and well behaved, oh yes.  They had their earphones and music and audio books and games.  That's the biggest difference between little children and adult children.  All that individual entertainment.  I am still trying to figure out if it's okay. :)


Nobody had potty issues, nobody cried for miles and miles because he or she was sick of the carseat, and nobody drove us crazy asking us if we were there yet.   I didn't worry that someone was going to get nabbed or lost when we did stop. (I pity anybody trying to nab one of our kids now.) 


On the way home we struck out across the Rockies on Route 2. 2 is a two-lane highway from Bonners all the way to Williston, ND. At Williston it grudgingly turns into a four lane highway till you hit the Minnesota border or so and then you're back to two lanes. Minnesota 2 is loooong and very boring.  I almost forgave Minnesota though when the home lights of Duluth and Superior showed up. 


But back to Montana and Glacier Park.  We didn't take The Road To The Sun because I was driving and route 2 is hair-raising enough in a snowstorm just driving beside Glacier Park. Again the children were not awed. They were passed out from a long hard weekend of play with the cousins. Besides it's hard to be awed sitting in a safe little van when you've swung out over the Kooteni valley on a cable yesterday! That's a different story and you don't want to hear it from me anyway. I tend to kill the thrill of such things...at least I hope to in the future.  Here's the new rule about that swing: Thou shalt not ride on the suicide swing in Bonners Ferry unless thou art firmly strapped on with the halter that thou didst not bother looking for last time.  If the halter is missing thou shalt not swing.  Okay, that was a serious bunny trail.  BUT, an important one.


We left the Rockies behind at 4000 feet above sea level and so it stayed snowing, if you know what I mean, well into Montana.  We didn't get very far that first day traveling home, because Elv was sick and I don't drive very fast in snowy mountainous conditions. 



The next day we traveled through North Dakota's Oil Fields ( the current gold rush). I will be a lot more impressed if whatever those brand spanking new yellow and green pumps are pumping actually brings our gas prices down someday.  For now, though, I wouldn't recommend moving to North Dakota unless you don't mind cookie cutter housing in cramped places, and tons of tankers dragging oil field mud, out onto all the highways and spraying all over your car, and everywhere else, too.  It's a money-hungry-man's world out there.  ND is not the same anymore. The beautiful, prairie crop land is being taken over by oil wells, big trucks, ugly housing, and mud or dust depending on the weather. Here is a newsarticle.


We didn't once find a spot in all those 3000 miles as beautiful as our own Northern Wisconsin. Truly!

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Just a List For Now

Well!  We had a wonderful time with family in Idaho. Here’s a list of things to blog as I get time.
1. Traveling with teenagers and twenty-agers compared to traveling with babies.
2. Grey haired siblings! How did we get here, already!
3. Dad and Mom at 50 years of marriage and how the story reads to me now.( I don’t know if I have anything important to say about this, but I hope so.)
4. Lawns and Gardens and Houses of our family.
5. Great décor by my Idaho sisters and in-laws.
6. Traveling through the North Dakota “gold rush”.
7. What I think.  About “music snobs” and other creatures who enjoy song, too.
                             2012-05-26 17.51.42

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Evening Table

                         2-DSC00065
We were supposed to get rain today, but all those grey clouds had only a few spatters of rain in them. The patio was wet only momentarily.

The strawberries are loaded/white with blossoms this year. I talked with Elv on the phone while I watered them this morning. He has something big in his world to work through just now and while I was listening a ruby throated hummingbird hovered over the strawberry bed and enjoyed the shower.  It seems to me that if God can take care of that little sparkling bird; He can certainly take care of our troubles, too.

The boss fired up the third laser machine for me today. I was more than keeping up with two of them. This is a good thing. I worked on three different kits today: the purple butterfly, a picture frame, and a giraffe.

We are actually going out to Idaho to help my folks celebrate their 50th anniversary next week.  After working through the whole gamut of sorrows because we couldn’t go; the tide suddenly turned so that now we ARE going after all. Everybody is excited to say the least. Actually for as much prayer as we had into the Idaho project we shouldn’t be so surprised, right? Both our bosses were super good about us going on short notice. Let’s just say that everything fell into place without any nudging whatsoever.

Two more thoughts. 1. Why is it that we think if someone doesn’t do right we don’t have to love them? When Jesus died for us while we were yet sinners! I’m guilty. And hopefully repentant. 2. My current pet peeve is when you read this blog and then go over to FB and make your comment there. Please comment here, okay?

   
                                     1-DSC00068

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Thank You! To My Indulging Children

This year I wanted only one thing!
Real bicycles are back.  You know the kind that you can sit up straight and tall and survey the passing scenery with the wind in your face and peddle up the hills and coast them down. Love biking! Bikes are back, baskets, pretty paint, real leather covered seats that sit comfortably, buddy bar in back and honest, really-there fenders! Woohoo!
So I coveted one. Of course, I didn't have to make as much noise as I did (they would have caught on with a lot less hoopla from me), but I am SO impressed. And when I am impressed about something, I wear out everyone's patience saying so at every opportunity, or non opportunity.
They came home with roses and the bike on Saturday evening. It rides beautifully just as I thought it would. Now, to get a bike for Elv and each of the children.
1-DSC000732-DSC00070   
3-DSC00069

Friday, May 11, 2012

What’s Happening At Home

2-DSC00063

The paper whites frame the old stone house just now. I don’t remember when we planted these flowers as bulbs, in fact, I nearly tilled them out one day several years ago. Maybe they needed to have the soil disturbed, because each spring since then they’ve given us quite a show.

Elv has decided that our tree/hedge idea is a failure. I suppose as a hedge it IS a failure, but I am enjoying the bit of screen they do provide and the texture is interesting, too.

If any of you needs or desires to have hosta, please come over this fall and I’ll give you buckets of root systems. They’re indestructible and by next spring we won’t be able to tell from where you took yours. Besides yours will look like this within the first year!

The garden is planted, except for the tomato plants.  We used a seeder this year for everything but the flower seeds. In no time at all we had rows of peas and  beans and carrots, etc.

Dru’s flew away from our land today. Becky Peters took them to the airport this morning. It feels terribly sad for me.  Lisl told me yesterday that THEY were positively giddy about getting back on that plane Thailandward. Which is a good thing. Home is always best.

Mother’s Day is coming right up. My mom says she doesn’t like all the hullaballoo one bit!  And I love it! My mom certainly deserves hullaballoo if anyone does, though. So Happy Mother’s Day to you, Mom.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Are Photographs Important?

 

Here I am with loaded Picasa Web Albums. It has been our way of sharing our lives with those who would otherwise not be able to keep up.

But now that photo spot is filling up, so the time has come to actually purchase more space. I have been putting this off by posting “small” pictures, which I am already regretting, as well. I have most of these pictures backed up on to CDs here at home. There are a lot of old pictures stored on an external hard drive that wakes up only about half the time when I plug it in.  This panic to get years of files organized and safely stored began when my old Dell crashed for the last time last fall with several months of pictures that I had not “backed up” on it.

This collection of problems is becoming a mess/dilemma! I have been worrying this thing back and forth watching it get worse with growing alarm. Mostly I retreat from it and tell myself that one of these days I’ll have time to tackle it once and for all with an easy to use online program or filing system.

But now, it is so big that I have a whole new idea! Maybe pictures are not that important. Maybe 100 years from now the great-great-grandchildren will not care that much about old pictures. Surely Jesus will come soon and make everything moot! Maybe we are just too earthly minded and the wise alternative to pictures is to become more eternity minded and just enjoy the mess as it is. Let the grand children figure out how to retrieve files from obsolete CDs with their own modern equipment… supposing I  have actually written the files to CDs.

I’m looking for one, solid, practical answer. Please, comment and help me out.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

May

It really is May today so we can now have the real McCoy. We can have the real thing instead of the flash in the pan summer for two days in March and another week of it in April, but then sliding all the way back to a snow fall and an aborted greening in general.
But now!               1-DSC00073
Now we have leaves on the trees that grew enough in one day to start to flutter. I noticed this on the little cottonwood trees just outside the living room windows.
And Elv’s new job is an hour closer to home! This is cause for rather great rejoicing at our house.  Why we even had supper in the daylight outside at a regular supper hour and then had time for puttering around outside afterward!  The oil got changed on my Jeep, finally. I won’t even tell you how long it has been. Lance is washing his not very dirty pickup.  But it’s too nice to be indoors.
Frank’s dandelion honey turned out wonderfully. The recipe is in the Derstine Cookbook, if you want to know what she did. We got the idea from Lily.
And the garden is ready for planting. Ross came to borrow the tiller for his mom’s garden and diagnosed the gas leak to be minor and offered to fix it.  So now when we till our garden we won’t be sprinkling the soil with gas anymore. Duh! Thanks Ross.
Two days on the new job so far. I couldn’t ask for a nicer boss or nicer work. I am praising the Lord for this.
Spring is here for sure. It’s like being able to breathe again.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

First Day of Work

It was a good first day.  I tell the computerized laser machine what to cut, fold fabric pieces and foam boards into a kit and package it in shrink wrap. I did 178 of them today. The place is clean and quiet. I couldn’t ask for a nicer boss to please.
1-DSC00071-002
Three Tiny Tots With Lollipops who had no clue about posing. Nobody would sit still and Benny was sporting a sticker (no idea).

This blog has moved!

Please click here to see the latest from Stone House Scribblings.