Some Personal Updates

After work I met Diane and Judy for dinner, and planned to get some riding in tonight. But since it is raining out (for the 12th day straight), now might be a good time to post some personal updates for those far-away friends who only know what I've been up to from reading my online blabberings...

The garden is doing fairly well, except for the spinach, and the peas are a bit of a disappointment. But we've been picking Romaine lettuce. The radishes, carrots, broccoli, mixed lettuce, beets, tomatoes, peppers, green beans, wax beans, and cucumbers seem to be on schedule. I am also trying a little experiment with the old Iroquois "three sisters" method, which combines plantings of corn, beans and squash. The idea is that the corn provides a pole for the beans to climb, the beans provide nitrogen for the corn and squash and help stabilize the stalks, and the squash vines keep weeds down and moisture in the ground. The corn is tall enough now for me to plant the beans and squash.

The band is doing well. Juke House is progressing nicely. One of major changes we have made is to lower our volume, which allows Joe to sing more and yell less. Mike's guitar tone is consistently great, and he has been taking lessons, which is making his already-impressive playing that much better (I sometimes get distracted when we are playing because I'm listening to what he's doing). Scott and I have been developing into a pretty solid rhythm section -- Scott practices more, now that he has a set of electronic drums for practicing without waking the neighbors, and I have been working on learning and applying more theory. I can't overplay in this band, but I am looking to add little bits of flavoring here and there.

Juke House is my only band right now, as my responsibilities in life weren't allowing me to give 100% to Triple Seven. It was a tough decision, but I wasn't able to prepare well enough and I don't like performing below optimum levels. Hopefully, I'll get to see them play live soon.

We had hoped to play live with Juke House once a month and that's about the pace we are keeping right now. We played May 23 and June 7, and have performances coming up on June 27, July 26, August 1, August 28, and September 19. We'll probably take a break then, as Autumn is a super-busy time of year for Mike and Scott.

We have official Juke House T-shirts now, available at: http://www.zazzle.com/juke+house+gifts. They are high quality -- I have tested them personally onstage, on the motorcycle, and napping on my recliner.

Among the biggest supporters of Juke House lately have been Dave Drew, Karl "Big Daddy" Reamer, and my friend Gail Roach.

I have several writing projects going on right now...

1. I am in the process of tearing apart and slashing the Wobbles manuscript to reassemble in shorter form. I need to get from about 2500 words or so down to around 1000 for the book I want to do. Figuring out where in Wob's life to start this book is the tough part. I will probably start with his first lighthouse adventure. If there is a demand in the future, I can do a prequel about his early days. I'd like this book to be out in 2012.

2. I am working with one of my brothers on a history book about the Studebaker car company. I need to get a query out to the publisher within the next couple of weeks. This book should be out in 2010.

3. I am working on a piece of historical fiction with a woman whose father was a lighthouse keeper. The story won't be totally about life at the lighthouse. The story line actually is based upon some other major historical happenings. This historical fiction book will tie world history, regional history, human interest, and a bit of a "coming of age" thing. I was surprised to be chosen by her over a bunch of people, including English professors and other people with advanced degrees. She thought my historic research and preservation background, writing style, and interest in the human side of history fit the story she wants to tell. We have set two years for the writing, then we have a big marketing thing ahead of us. I am in research mode right now, trying to understand the region and the history being made at the time. I would expect this book to be out around 2012-2014.

4. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I am going to write a book about my sister's life and how her mental retardation has affected her, me, and the world around us. I have asked my mother to assemble as many old photos of Judy as possible, and I have begun asking her questions about Judy's childhood. Since Mom is now 90, there's a limit to how long I can gather information from her -- thankfully, her mind is still sharp and she remembers lots of stuff. I don't expect to publish this book for years, though. I'd prefer to wait until Judy has passed away and have it be a memorial to her (and keep her from any unwanted attention), but she's in great health at 66 and there's a fair chance she could outlive me, so I have decided to step it up a bit.

5. I have the cemetery research on a bit of a backburner right now, since I have more pressing book projects. I may look to do an article about the subject sometime this year, though.

This year has thus far not been great for motorcycling. The weather has been sub par, and my health was a concern through the winter and pretty much up until early May. I have been getting out on the Ducati here and there, and we have a ride planned for tomorrow morning -- if the weather holds up. The Honda needs some carburetor work. I have ordered the parts and hope to get that done by the end of the month. I also bought a new helmet (which should be here Monday). It is an HJC FS-10. It has a second visor inside the helmet, so you can have a clear visor on the outside, wear glasses (which I do now), and just slide down the inner smoked visor if the sun is out. I got it in plain silver (like the old Simpson that saved my life twice) and will personalize it with some decals.

I've been at my building inspector job for almost a year now, and that is going well. Plus I am still working Thursday nights and Saturdays designing and selling kitchens and baths. The economy has made that job a bit tougher, but the company is hanging in there.

I made two major New Year's resolutions this year, and feel -- at the halfway point -- that I am doing well with them. Resolution 1: Stay home more. I have a tendency not to sit still, and it keeps me from spending enough time at home. I have trimmed my extracurricular schedule, have reclaimed my vegetable garden, and have even been cooking some meals from scratch. This resolution has also allowed me to make progress on my other resolution. Resolution 2: Become smarter. I wanted to end 2009 appreciably smarter than I started it. I have concentrated on my critical thinking skills, recent developments in science, and the workings of the brain/mind. Reading about the workings of the brain has been especially helpful. The brain is the tool that we use to guide our journey through spacetime and, like any tool, knowing more about it helps one to use it better. Overall, my level of study has been higher, and the result has been that I see things much more clearly. I have also stepped up my old religious studies a bit, partly because of conversations about such things with one of my friends. So far so good with the 2009 resolutions.

I think that covers much of what has been going on lately. It's not terribly exciting, but it keeps me out of trouble.