Daughter Denise drove in from Austin, TX yesterday. This morning early she and her mother drove out to the farmers market for some fresh vegetables, primarily tomatoes, garden fresh tomatoes that taste like tomatoes. Afterward they rested up a bit, then went shopping.

I goofed off this morning after enjoying a delightful breakfast. I talked on the phone with two of my brothers. After a great salad lunch, I took a short nap this afternoon in preparation for the evening. Daughter Serafina is preparing my favorite meal tonight and the family is getting together for a fabulous feed, Italian style. She is one good cook. 
After dinner the men in the family gathered out on the front porch, taking with them their musical instruments, for a bit of social time. In a few minutes the gals joined in.

My son has written some new music he plays on the guitar. He is joined by his son, Martino, who has recently taken up the banjo after blowing several other instruments. Tonight he accompanied the guitar with the banjo and the melodica. I joined in with the harmonica, getting a first chance to play some minor harmonica to some of the new music. It was a fun evening with the family band playing well after dark when we called it a day.

Today I turned 79 and my family made it something special.

Who Races Who Anymore

Somebody tell me about auto racing. Last time I followed racing A.J. Foyt was running. Now some racer don't run at Indy anymore. They belong to a different club or something. I noticed an article about Danica Patrick no longer running at Indy. What's going on in auto racing the last few years.
 
I used to know a local driver. He drove a midget. His nickname was Sleepy and he had a friend from over in New Mexico, one of the Unser boys who ran the locals and regional and pulled up into the big time. Knowing these guys spurred my liking for and knowledge of Auto racing in general back when.I always liked the dirt track.

Richard Petty was a NASCAR man but he also ran at Indy. When Richard left the scene I left auto racing. Now it seems there's two or three packs running and I don't know any of these new drivers. What has happened in the interim? I guess I haven't paid much attention since the love bug did some running and I got involved with beetles.

You Don't Have To Read This

I have been so frustrated. I spend a great deal of time on a computer. You'd think anyone spending as much time as I do surfing the web, reading the news, reading blogs, listening to music, you'd think by George and Johnny Mac Brown, I'd know something about the darn things. That I could, when some little problem popped up,  quickly fix what was wrong and go about my business in stride and not get upset. Permit me to explain.

My thirteen year old grandson told his daddy he'd like to record a song as follows: his daddy playing guitar, himself playing banjo, his pop playing harmonica. We payed it once the other night out on his porch. That is to say I joined in where it seemed appropriate because I didn't know the song.

The song is 'Heart of Gold' by Neil Young. I found it on iTunes Store and downloaded it, and listened to it. It even has a harp in the song, making it easy to know when to play and where to take the lead if that became a desirable thing to do. I decided to download the song from my desktop to my iPod so I could become intimately familiar with all aspects of the song.

I couldn't download it to my iPod. So I thought I'd buy another copy for my iPod and download to it. That didn't work and I turned my computer off and went to bed. This morning I turned on iTunes and I didn't have any songs or music. Gone. 345 tunes vanished. Into thin air. Or somewhere. After much deliberation with self and many clicks of the mouse, I discovered I now had iTunes1 instead of iTunes. I tunes-1 has no music but I was invited to download some from iTunes Store. I want my regular iTunes back. Where did it go? Why am I having these problems? I'm on a time schedule today. I don't have time for this nonsense. And how did it happen in he first place

How About Them Apples, Sports Fans

The Big 12 and SEC have announced a five-year agreement for their football champions to meet in a postseason bowl game following the 2014 season. The game will be played New Years Day. Is this a prelude to a national playoff? It seems so and has moved the conversation from a if we do to when we do. What do you think, sports fans?

Where's The Glory

The World's Highest Mountain, Mt Everest

Mount Everest, that peak everyone wants to scale. Back in the early 1920s several expeditions struck out to climb Mt. Everest, the most famous of these British and Swiss climbs is the Mallory and Irvine Expedition in 1924 and still the most talked about. Did they or did they not reach the summit 29 years before the first recorded scale of the summit on May 29, 1953 by Sir Edmund Hillary from New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, an Indian from Darjeeling.

Since then there have been many attempts to climb Mt. Everest, 1924 ascents have been made. As far back as I can remember I have heard and read of the daring do hardships, the endurance required and expended, the heroism displayed, the frozen feet and bodies of these heroic mountaineers and adventurers. I have learned and know now that a 96 year old man has climbed Everest, A woman has climbed the peak and I read somewhere that a thirteen year old boy has gone up the mountain.

To day I learned a 73 year old woman scaled this peak. There are harder mountains to climb. Nearby K2 mountain for one. People don't climb Mount Everest because it is not hard or because it is hard. They climb Mt. Everest because it is the highest, tallest mountain on earth and they want to stand at the top of the world.

We used to admire the rugged individuals, those adventurers of old, those boldest mountain climbers who took on the highest peak in the Himalayan range that stretched further up toward the heavens. Bold men risking death, and there have been many bodies left on that frigid mountain. Up until 1990 the fatality rate to climbers of Mt. Everest was 37 percent. Since 1990 the fatality rate has fallen to 10 percent.

What's wrong with this scenario? Where's the glory? George S. Patton, an American general asked that question while discussing war and his other lives he believed he had lived. It has been devalued. As the statistics on fatalities have fallen because more people are climbing Mount Everest, the shine of courage and achievement have diminished and the glory of the deed that once wrapped itself around us is no more. Women have climbed the mountain and reached that forbidden summit and they have gone to war in quickstep with equal ease and they have stolen our thunder.

Congressman Wants To Feed Americans Propaganda

Think you know what's going on in Government. You probably don't and anyway, it's none of your business. That's what they're trying to get ready to tell us.


http://www.buzzfeed.com/mhastings/congressmen-seek-to-lift-propaganda-ban

Someone somewhere this morning uttered the word muse, a word I had not given thought to in so many years. Why not and why now? I could say back when I considered my muse, its comings and goings, with its wildly erratic behavior, its brilliant performance when it was showing off, I could say I was young and foolish. Perhaps a better explanation is to show the muse in action at its best and demonstrated by the Englishwoman, Jenny Joseph, in her wonderful poem, Warning, for I myself have reached that certain age.

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple

With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.


And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves

And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.


I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired

And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells


And run my stick along the public railings


And make up for the sobriety of my youth.


I shall go out in my slippers in the rain

And pick flowers in other people's gardens

And learn to spit.



You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat


And eat three pounds of sausages at a go


Or only bread and pickle for a week


And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.



But now we must have clothes that keep us dry

And pay our rent and not swear in the street


And set a good example for the children.

We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.



But maybe I ought to practice a little now?

So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised


When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.