Messages From The Heartland

[David In Indy]

Well, I guess I'll just retreat into my blog and talk to myself again!   

Dad has raccoons and other assorted animals at his house too. I will go downstairs and see if there is any animal activity out in his backyard. They might not want to venture too far away from their homes and nests though with the impending ice storm. They will have to slip and slide all the way back!

I'm watching Fox News (I really DO watch it sometimes) and it's a bit sad tonight because Alan Colmes is retiring from the show. Sean Hannity looks like he is about to cry. It's actually very sweet. Alan's very last words on FN was "And here's Greta Van Susteren for On The Record"

And they just announced Patrick Swayze has been hospitalized for pneumonia.

He has cancer. He's one of my favorite actors. I loved him in Ghost. He told AP a couple of days ago he didn't think he'd live more than 2 more years. That really made me sad when I read it.

[injest]

My Dad's house has central heat in it except for one room - the family room. It used to be a porch, but was glassed in many years ago and it is now just another regular room in his house. But because it used to be a porch, it is not connected to the main furnace. It has electric heat. There are little registers along the floor on three sides of the room.

I was helping Dad up out of his chair tonight and I noticed something weird. I had just shut off the lights out there in the family room and I noticed a strange orange glow coming from inside one of the registers. I helped Dad up the stairs and got him to his bedroom and then I went back down to investigate. I took off the register covering and there was a little wire in there glowing bright orange. And it was just fractions of an inch from touching the carpeting. And it was very VERY hot. I ended up shutting off the heat in that room (there is a heat control dial on the wall) and I called the heating company. They said they would come out tomorrow to fix it. Anyway, that could have EASILY started a fire and burned down the entire house! The carpeting was fairly hot too, just below the glowing wire. I wonder how that happened? It looks like the wire was melted and came apart into two pieces. Scary.

The register with the hot wire was extremely hot, but the register just next to it is ice cold.

I don't understand it.

So anyway, I was planning to drive back over to Speedway tonight, but I will wait until tomorrow after the heating people leave.

thank goodness you noticed it, David!! good for you!

[injest]

did you see the interview Patrick Swayze did the other day? it was sad too...

[David In Indy]

Fiona got me to thinking about music. I've been thinking a lot about it for the past hour. I don't know about other types of music (although I suppose it is true in those cases too) but at least with Baroque and Classical music, the music really tells a story. I think most people who love Classical music would agree with me. But it's not a story with words. It's not even really a story meant for the mind. It's a story meant for the heart. Through music, the composer tells us a story. But if we try to interpret the story in our minds, our brains don't quite get it. But our hearts do. So we listen to the music with our ears, our ears hand the music off to our brain, our brain appreciates and enjoys the music and then passes it to our heart. And it is in our heart that we understand and enjoy the musical story.

When I play music, I often feel like I am cheating, because I get to tell the story even though I didn't write it. For some, this is an honored position I suppose, but I always like to remind everyone who actually created the tale in the first place. I am simply telling the story through my instrument. 

[David In Indy]

thank goodness you noticed it, David!! good for you!

It was really scary when I saw it Jess! I don't think Dad would have ever noticed it with his failing eye sight.

[David In Indy]

did you see the interview Patrick Swayze did the other day? it was sad too...

I didn't see it Jess. I read about it on AOL and they had a video, but since I'm on dial-up I couldn't watch it. Maybe it is better I didn't watch it. My heart goes out to him. And he's so brave about it too!

[injest]

Fiona got me to thinking about music. I've been thinking a lot about it for the past hour. I don't know about other types of music (although I suppose it is true in those cases too) but at least with Baroque and Classical music, the music really tells a story. I think most people who love Classical music would agree with me. But it's not a story with words. It's not even really a story meant for the mind. It's a story meant for the heart. Through music, the composer tells us a story. But if we try to interpret the story in our minds, our brains don't quite get it. But our hearts do. So we listen to the music with our ears, our ears hand the music off to our brain, our brain appreciates and enjoys the music and then passes it to our heart. And it is in our heart that we understand and enjoy the musical story.

When I play music, I often feel like I am cheating, because I get to tell the story even though I didn't write it. For some, this is an honored position I suppose, but I always like to remind everyone who actually created the tale in the first place. I am simply telling the story through my instrument. 

I told Andrew that listening to popular music compared to classical music is like the difference between seeing a vase of flowers and walking thru a huge garden...wandering the paths and finding new things around each turn...

[injest]

It was really scary when I saw it Jess! I don't think Dad would have ever noticed it with his failing eye sight.

no and he might not have been able to help himself if it HAD caught fire!

[injest]

I didn't see it Jess. I read about it on AOL and they had a video, but since I'm on dial-up I couldn't watch it. Maybe it is better I didn't watch it. My heart goes out to him. And he's so brave about it too!

yes. it was very heart wrenching..

[David In Indy]

I told Andrew that listening to popular music compared to classical music is like the difference between seeing a vase of flowers and walking thru a huge garden...wandering the paths and finding new things around each turn...

That is a very beautiful description Jess! And it's very accurate! I didn't realize you love classical music! Now we have even ANOTHER thing in common!