Christmas Day 2017

     2017 has turned out to be a very special Christmas, indeed. It started out with my son, who hasn't been home in about a year and a half, showing up at the house on the 22nd. He'd just returned to his home in Reno, NV from a two month stint in Puerto Rico. He'd been on the island helping with the clean-up and restoration of the cell phone service which was disrupted by Hurricane Erma. Ben's flying east and arriving in time for Christmas was a pleasant surprise for his mom and me, and our extended family.
     On the 23rd, there was a family Holiday gathering at my eldest daughter's home. For the first time in 11+ years we were able to take photos of all 4 of my children together. This is a picture we'll cherish forever. The party was congenial and fun for everyone. Only my grandson, Dylan, was unable to attend. Sadly, he had to work.. We all missed him very much.
     On the twenty-fourth, my wife's sister and her partner showed up for Holiday cheer and a grand old gab-fest. Jayne and John are such a pleasure to be around, with their interesting life on a farm in rural Upstate NY. Of course, it was an excellent time to compare the lives we all lead, and how widely varied they are within the same family. We have full time farmers, students, business owners, civil servants, engineers, and most puzzling to some of us, the Mennonite/Amish contingent.
     It's heartwarming to all of us that we all get along so well, and understand each other's choices. Even though we're from different societies, religious and political beliefs, we all love one another equally.
     This is notable to me because I hear the stories people tell about family gatherings and Holiday meals that are uncomfortable and often contentious. I realize that this happens, but I'm glad that our lives have room for everyone to have their differences and still be loved. I credit our ancestors' child rearing abilities, and our ability to carry on those ways, so that they have trickled down to our children. Hopefully, with lessons learned from us, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will grow to be tolerant and loving of their families ad infinitum.
     Now, it's Christmas Day. It's a small gathering consisting of Meg, myself and our 2 progeny. Ben and Ashley are here for presents, dinner, and companionship. Ashley's boyfriend, Bob has joined us, and it's nice to welcome him into the fold.
     Having chronicled this Holiday Season, so far, it's time for me to shut the computer off and get a seat in the family circle.
     Merry Christmas to all, and to all a truly warm and wonderful Christmas experience. 

No Blue Screen

     I just got my computer back from the nerd. Yea! Right. Here's the story 'cause I need to vent.
     A couple of weeks ago my computer started to need me to hit F1 to light it up every time I turned it on. The message was something like this. "You're screwed pal. Your hard drive is crashing and there's nothing you can do about it."
     Well, I've had many computers head south over the years, and I was happy to have advance warning that it was packing it's bags. Being right on the ball, I headed for the local computer toy shop and picked up an external HD with twice the space of my PC's existing one. Oh yeah. Hot stuff!
     I then dutifully moved all of my files from the PC to the external drive. I'm on a roll, man! After that was done, I called my favorite geek and made an appointment to get the repairs done. He told me, "order the 1TB HD in the url I'm sending you. When it comes in, call me and I'll have you bring the machine up."
     Glory! Things are really moving now. It's all good, and I'm well on my way back to computer paradise. Well...maybe not so much.
     The new HD arrives. I text my friendly geek and get an appointment.
     This may be a good time to mention that I'd been using my crappy laptop PC for about a week by then. I'd been unable to record my weekly hour-long show for about three weeks, and struggling to do the daily half-hour show on the damn laptop. The 30 minute shows are mostly done on the broadcast program, not on my computer, so not so bad. Did I say my fat fingers don't do well on a laptop's smaller, flat keyboard? I keep scraping the totally useless touch pad. Oh yeah. Frequently, when I complete a long paragraph my hand grazes the touch pad and all is lost. That's about seven out of ten times. The longer the paragraph, the more likely I'm going to lose it.
     Long story short, the computer whiz gets my PC, new HD, data laden external drive, and all. A few hours later he calls me with fantastic news. "Don, your old HD is so bad I can't get an image of your content or operating system. I know you have Win 10 on there, but I can only install Win 7 because you have the Win 10 that they gave everyone free when they did the big changeover. I don't have the code numbers for it, buddy."
     Another day passes. No computer yet. Then, there's more good news. "Hey, Don. I was able to get Win 10 on your new HD, but none of the data. I can show you how to load that when you pick your machine up."
     "You can't do it there?" I inquire.
     "Well, yes. But, it takes hours, and I'd have to charge you a lot more."
     "Yeah, show me when I come get it."
     Another long story shortened considerably. He told me all about how to do the file transfer starting with taking a fresh "image" of my Operating System (Win10). By the time I left, I knew I was on my own. Seriously, I was up shit creek without a paddle, in a leaky canoe.
     I don't know how, but I got enough stuff loaded into this PC so that I'm using it to write this blog entry. I still have to install all of my programs, one by one. The best news for now is that all of my archived programs, pics, logos, interviews, music, and information is available on my external hard drive.
     I'm hoping to one day get smart enough to put all of that stuff on the internal HD of this machine where it'll be a lot more convenient to access.
     The moral of this tale is when the slightest problem arises on your computer, call the nerd immediately. Don't wait a minute. Take that damn computer and drop it in the geek's lap. You'll be glad you did.
     So long for now, and happy computing. Maybe I'll go clean up my old typewriter.

Answers Needed (to obvious questions)

     Sunday, November 5, 2017. Another mass murder in the US. This time in Sutherland, Texas, and 26 are killed at their Baptist church. Eight members of one family are no longer with us, and roughly a score of wounded are recovering in area medical centers. Some of them may not survive.
Like Charlotte, Las Vegas, and in Connecticut a gun was used to do the slaughter. Again, it was a man with an ax to grind and the stupidity or insanity to grind it with mass mayhem.
     I don't have the answers to stopping, or even slowing down this horrible spate of human destruction, but I'm hoping that wiser heads will.
     I believe that feeling sorrow for the victims and families effected by the killings, and praying doesn't hurt. It may serve to comfort them. I agree that we need to sympathize and do everything we can to help those who are torn apart by these terrorist acts to recover as best they can. Our humanity binds us to do whatever we can to make their suffering less painful, if that's even possible.
     Hand wringing and praying will not solve the problem. Saying "we stand with the victims and their families" offers no real assistance. Blaming these tragic outcomes on the possible mental illness of the perpetrator is useless small talk.
     We must call upon the political leaders of our states and The United States, to find solutions. It's an epidemic. If it were a disease, nothing would be spared to find a cure. Let's cajole, beseech, beg, and even bully them to get a grip on gun violence in OUR America, and find the cure. 

Dream of Life

Dream of Life

(c) 2017 - D. J. Winfield

With hungry eyes afire

The Dream swells in his heart

The young man grows impatient

To quickly take his part

Strong and quick at twenty-one

His life has yet no past

He teases each moment and pushes

As though it were the last

Seasons flow together

The Dream will have to wait

At forty he knows reality

Wipes his brow and lengthens his gait

Where did they go so quickly?

Those ideals so real and alive

They're missing now, but not the pain

For the man at sixty-five

Sunset's fingers touch a weathered face

No friends to ring the phone

The Dream alive for ninety years

Now dies with him, alone

Something NEW! Podcasts....

Hi there!
     To my followers, accidental viewers, and even my few "Somewhat North of Disorder" blog friends, some nearly inconsequential news. Not to me, however. To me, it's very consequential.
      As of today, I'm introducing a new facet to my career as an internet radio entertainer, Trop Rock music aficionado, and freestyle blogger.
     Starting today, I'll be publishing podcasts of what I contend are interesting and/or entertaining musical programs. Some will be the regular weekly radio broadcasts I do for www.ShoreLifeRadio.com. Mostly, however, they'll be specially packaged shows to honor and celebrate specific musicians.
     To kick it all off, I'm introducing an artist with musical creds stretching back a few decades but who's new to the Trop genre.
     Go to the link below, and get to know Dayglo Red, and his new concept, "American Reggae". You'll hear all the tracks from his new "American Reggae" CD, introduced by the artist himself. You'll love Dayglo Red and his stories.

Enjoy!

https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/johnparrothead/episodes/2017-03-24T07_28_55-07_00

Sunday Morning at "Roadkill Cafe"

     Sunrise, as seen through the window of the Roadkill Breakfast & Lunch Cafe in the East tower of the Wormgear Mall, is a splendorous sight. I'm at the RBLC having a heart-healthy breakfast of goose eggs, over easy with garlic & onion home fries, unnamed meat sausage, & veggie juice made with a blend of home grown cabbage, dandelions, & beets. 

     The gossip from the kitchen this morning is all about fence sitting international diplomacy in the Middle East, chef Earl's pregnant goat, & the "huge immigrant problem" in Sweden. Bertha Wright just came in and said that VP Pence tracked the Bowling Green Massacre terrorists to Sweden, and they've blown Stockholm up before doing themselves in.

     The diners seem split about the fake news we're watching on TV. Seventy percent of the munchers believe that an 18 wheeler ran over the bank on I-88 & flipped, 'cause they saw a video of it on the tube. Thirty percent say it didn't happen, 'cause they heard Jim Bob, a local 'possum trapper, say he "knows it never happened", 'cause he didn't see it.  He says the mayor assures him that there's never been a truck accident on the highway. "Safest road in the world," Mayor Billy Jim says. On another note, the word is there's no NASCAR from Daytona today. It was mentioned on the fake news, so we all know it's a lie.
     We just found out the sausage is venison. Fairly fresh meat, just scraped off the bumper of the truck that didn't hit it on the Interstate. The same big-rig that didn't swerve to miss it, and isn't hooked to the giant tow truck out in the Cafe's back parking lot. We know it's not out there because that damn lyin' blonde anchor on the morning news said it is. No need to check it out.
     Bon appetite!

2017 - Way Beyond My Wildest Dreams

New Year's Resolutions? At best, a load of crap!

Everyone...well, probably not everyone, but it's safe to say that a large number of Americans, and likely a lot of people around the world, make New Year's Resolutions. It's a ritual they perform at the start of every new calendar year. They're not cult followers, just dreamers.

New Year's Resolutions are destined, in fact are made, to be broken. They're usually lofty aspirations to: lose weight, gain weight, drink less, drink more, be nicer, be less nice, spend more time on a favorite past-time, spend more time with family, spend less time with family, finish a project, start a project, stop gambling, start gambling, remember a loved one's important milestones, run away to Key West and get lost, or even to clean out the clutter of your life whatever it might be.

99.9999999 % are destined to be broken.

It's guaranteed that you'll keep putting them off, forget about them, decide on January 2nd that they were foolish to begin with, or just say, "who gives a shit?" It's even possible that you'll have a stroke, someone you love will become more dependent upon you, or some catastrophic event will prohibit the fulfillment of your resolutions. Could happen! The positive benefit of these events is a diminished feeling of guilt for letting the resolutions go.

I am more than likely not going to clean out my garage and enjoy the added space for the whole year. I might toss enough junk to make it a little easier to get around my workbench. Sure, that's possible. Unlikely, but possible. I might even finish up one of the hundred projects I have in the works in one of many places. On a whim, I started to build a motorized Schwinn bike about five years ago. I could work on that. There's the electric grill for the deck that I repaired and needs to be put back together. That could happen sometime soon. There's the volume of short stories I've been meaning to get edited and published for several years. I'll probably keep adding stories, but the publishing thing... well... could happen in '17. Probably not. But it could.

Then there's the inside projects I've planned: start a podcast of music by musicians of my (and my followers/peers) era; put together a monthly show of substance, telling the stories of the most interesting artists in Trop music; clean out my studio so I can find a few of the songs I've written and work on them. There's those things and many more, that I'd love to accomplish this year. Hell, I'd like to accomplish them this week!

Reality check. If I were going to do these things, I wouldn't need a resolution. I'd need to get off my butt and get moving in a focused direction. I'd probably have to start with a major organization of my time. Instead of randomly charging here and there putting out fires, doing this or that on impulse, make a plan to spend a certain amount of time on each project, need, or desire, each day, week, or month, until one by one my dreams come true. My dreams of course, being to make some substantial headway on projects that I believe are important to me.

"Important to me." That's an ambiguous statement. What does it mean? What, I wonder, is really important to me? If something were that important, would I not have already focused enough attention on it to have accomplished it?

Maybe. But maybe not. Could it possibly be a matter of getting a grip on an over active mind which unfortunately ended up being trapped inside the body of a slug? That sounds like a fairly realistic answer to many of the situations I've mentioned here. I've come to realize that my ideas and wished for accomplishments, far outweigh my capacity to complete them. So, could it be that I've given up on the completion of many tasks, realizing that before any can be finished, my hyper-active brain will skip to another thing I'd "really like to do next?" 

It's the dawn of another new year... "New Year". I hope you'll all accomplish most of the things you wish to do in 2017. Travel to those places you've dreamt of. Visit old friends you haven't gotten around to seeing in years, maybe decades. Buy a red sports-car instead of a gray "cross-over" vehicle. Go to the ocean, lake, river, or even creek pond, and enjoy doing nothing for awhile. Drink too much at least once this year. Party, let your tight-assed self-control go, and see what happens. You might be pleasantly surprised at how rejuvenated you feel after you sober up.

Here's my New Year recommendation. Don't bother with a New Year's Resolution unless it's to resolve not to make any. Less guilt, more peace of mind. After all, you and I haven't altered our habits in decades. That should tell the wise individual that they're probably not going to change overnight, at the start of a new calendar or not. Start living today, in a way that you'll be able to look back on 2017 as a year that was "one hell-of-a ride!"

Happy New Year!