• goodbadi

    Excuses

    October 12, 2012

    Whether or not you’ve noticed, my commuter biking miles haven’t increased much for a while. Lay blame where you will–Lance Armstrong, laziness, our now having two vehicles–but I claim pure industry.

    At last, after a summer filled with overwhelming kitchen work, I’ve turned my attention to other matters: promoting my band’s new album, mowing our field, cutting brush out of our fence line, cutting and splitting firewood, putting on new guitar strings, and the like. Our little world is being put in order and readied for the oncoming hibernatory introspection that only wintertime in all its predicted ardor can promise; preparing seems the most natural thing ever.

    And so that’s what I’ve been doing. Cheers!

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    Google Google

    September 14, 2012

    Not long before Godaddy got hacked and taken down for a few hours the other day, I noticed that my band’s website domain wasn’t working quite right. Even after the company had fully recovered, I just couldn’t get things fixed. I fiddled with relevant settings throughout much of the day, and finally, after I should have been in bed for the night, I called Godaddy’s support line.

    The nice man put me on hold while he investigated the situation, but then only had this to say: “I see nothing wrong here. I think the problem might be on Google’s end of things, since your domain is registered through Blogger,” he said. “It looks like you’ll have to call Google to see if they can help, since everything checks out fine on this end of things.”

    “Call Google?” I said. “Umm, how can I call Google? Do you have a phone number?”

    “I don’t,” he said. “I guess you’ll have to, uh”–and here his voice shaped an ironic smile–”Google that.”

    (Epilogue: In my search for assistance, I came across a notice stating that the issue I was calling about was known. It was, in fact, a Google problem, and is still being worked on.)

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    Culmination

    September 10, 2012

    Sometimes things just seem to come together all at once in a really dragged-out sort of way.

    Over the last month we’ve moved into our new kitchen (although a few details remain to be polished off), we have a new (our own!) water line from the spring (although a few details remain to be polished off), and our band’s new CD is at press (and but a few related details remain to be polished off).

    Our little coffee maker now commands from a permanent spot on our new kitchen counter. In the absence of having to take it down from our old kitchen’s begrudging shelf and cluttering the old, limited counter space, I’m making coffee nearly every morning (and refrigerating some for lunchtime, too). It’s quite luxurious, the new kitchen–even if I do have to empty the mouse traps before I can truly enjoy its ample perks.

    The water pressure from our new system is spectacular, too, though I take credit only for stressing about how long the plumber took–rather, is taking–to finish the job. This weekend I smoothed out the gravel in our parking area, and gathered stones to fill in a mis-dug hole near the spring, and otherwise tried to put things on the return path to normalcy. I’ll need to wait until the man comes back early this week (supposedly) to move some of the pressure tank gadgetry so that we can put our drier back in place, but in the meantime, at least passé is my impatient bath-time wondering if the water trickle that fed our upstairs bathtub faucet would be able to muster the courage and fortitude necessary for keeping afloat all the way up to and out of the shower head, to unsatisfactorily drip over my scruffy head. Our shower now demands reckoning.

    And finally, the CD: We’re in love with it, even if it isn’t a professional product, and we can’t wait for other people to hear it. My nightmare of last night–that every song sounded terrible–was but a dream; I happily confess that in real life and I very much enjoy the album.

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  • goodbadi

    Reader

    August 30, 2012

    She pretty much always has known how to handle a book, and so of course so has her little sister:

    But last weekend she took the whole idea to a new level, to the tune of 70+ pages:

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  • goodbadi

    Acts 8:26-40

    August 19, 2012

    CHARACTERS:
    God’s Angel, always flapping his wings
    Philip, talking on his cell phone
    Ethiopian official reading in a chariot riding along the road
    A pond, standing beside the road, with a cup of water


    GOD’S ANGEL, flapping his wings: Hey Phil!


    PHILIP scared: Ahhh! What do you want?! (Into his cell phone) Honey, I’ve got to go…something’s come up.


    GOD’S ANGEL, flapping his wings: At noon today, walk over to that one road going from Jerusalem to Gaza. Don’t wear your ear buds, and turn off that infernal cell phone, too.


    PHILIP scared: Ahhh! Okay! I’m going!


    Along the road, he meets the Ethiopian official, reading aloud from Isaiah.


    OFFICIAL:  As a sheep led to slaughter,
          and quiet as a lamb being sheared,
       He was silent, saying nothing.
          He was mocked and put down, never got a fair trial.
       But who now can count his kin
          since he’s been taken from the earth?

    GOD’S ANGEL, flapping his wings: Jump in that rig there, now!


    PHILIP: What? No way. I’m not chariot jacker!


    PHILIP runs along the official’s chariot.


    OFFICIAL: Ahh! Awkward! Awkward! Door locks! Doesn’t this thing have any door locks! Police! Police!


    PHILIP: Chill, dude. I just want to know what you’re reading. Do you understand it?


    OFFICIAL: Uh, no. I have no one to explain it to me, so of course I’m clueless. Here, help me out.


    PHILIP: Well….okay.


    OFFICIAL: Tell me, who is the prophet talking about: himself or some other?


    PHILIP: It’s about Martin Luther King, Jr.


    GOD’S ANGEL, flapping his wings: What! Hold on, Phil–MLK had kids, and he talked a lot!


    OFFICIAL: Who?


    PHILIP: I mean, uh, Jesus! It’s about Jesus! The guy who said to be poor, and to share, and to be meek and humble and generous, and to waste perfume.


    OFFICIAL: Hey, look–water! Why can’t I be baptized? 


    PHILIP: You can! You can!


    OFFICIAL: Stop the chariot! Stop the chariot!


    Philip grabs the cup of water from the pond and pours it over them both.


    God’s angel, flapping his wings, grabs Philip and takes him away. 


    OFFICIAL: Huh. Curious. But now I’m alone. I’M ALL ALONE! I don’t mind, though. I’m really happy! Yippee! (Continues down the road.)


    PHILIP, finding himself in Azotus: Wh…wh…what was that about?


    GOD’S ANGEL, flapping his wings: Go to Caesarea, Phil, and keep on preaching.


    PHILIP: Don’t you think that was a bit…abrupt? Where am I? 


    GOD’S ANGEL, flapping his wings: The city of Ahh’s–Azotus! 


    PHILIP: What? You’re kidding me! This is ridiculous. Oh well. (Sees a nameless passerby.) Hey, you! Have you been reading any good books lately?

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    True Transcription

    August 18, 2012

    At work I receive voice messages and texts using Google Voice, which records and transcribes messages. Here’s a transcript I got from N this week, followed by the recording:

    Hey screening time. I’m gonna get through and now Yeah your way spending time in and seeing if you are. When you say hey. 19. For Enron say. Sam, Connie junior. Hey Guys Hello. Hey Miles. Yeah miles an hour. Yeah, Rod. You are Frank, I need to have okay and I was gearing hang on a nice day.

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    Of Note

    August 6, 2012

    The derecho earlier this summer has left N quite anxious about any breeze or sign of weather or possibility of sign of weather, and our dog has been affected similarly.

    When thunder rumbles, she cowers and even worms her way inside if we open the door, despite our stern admonitions to stay outside. When she came in a couple days ago, I put down a sheet for her to rest on, and the girls quickly outfitted her like the Buddhist monk she’s always been meant to be:

    Last night we had a picnic on the kitchen floor, since everything was in disarray in anticipation of the kitchen move that was slated for after the girls went to bed.

    M and I worked until about one o’clock this morning to get things in pretty good shape. Not quite everything’s done, like trim and such, but at last we’re using our new kitchen. Here’s a silent tour:

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    4.5

    August 3, 2012

    “I see a cloud that looks like the keys of a piano, lower and higher to the ground.”

    “H and I are possible ears of corn. That means that we’re sweet and precious to our grandpas and grandmas and Grandmommy and Grandaddy.”

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