I made a decision this week concerning the Quick Word radio show I broadcast every week.  It has been in reruns for several months, and I have been undecided what to do with it as it has not had the level of response for which I had hoped.  However, as of last night I have determined to keep the show going.  I will be starting a new subject next weekend (it is too late to have it on this week) based on the Faith and Gaming book, which I will have to start recording.

For those who do not know, A Quick Word comes on in two segments of one hundred fifty seconds each, on Sunday afternoon between five thirty and six o’clock on Lift FM, which you can hear locally in Bridgeton and Hopewell at 98.5 FM, and on a different frequency I do not remember out at the New Jersey shore southern regions such as Cape May and Wildwood, and over the Internet from their web site at www.LiftFM.com.  It is in a half hour block of music by local artists sandwiched between two local preachers.  I strongly suspect that my dearth of response is because I am in that broadcasting ghetto–I know others who advertise on the station who have gotten good response, but their ads fall during the week when it’s almost all music.

That means I have to write and record a few scripts based on the first chapters of that book, but at least I have an outline of what I plan to do for most of the next year.

I have just sat down with dinner after frantically racing about attempting to set up equipment for a Collision rehearsal which is not going to happen.  It seems that Brittany pinched a nerve trying to lift something and can’t stand, and Baxter couldn’t call me because he is out of minutes on his cell phone but managed to let Brittany know that he was sick.  Adam is, I believe, here, but exhausted.  His girlfriend had minor surgury yesterday, and he spent the night at her grandparents’ house caring for her, came home to shower and change and asked if he could go back, then fell asleep.  I will probably wake him in a bit, insist that he eat some dinner, go over a part or two with him that I think are important, and then let him go back to caring for his girlfriend.  She is important to him, and that makes her important to us, too.

Of course, I have more equipment in the living room than I’ve had yet, and the fact that we did not wind up rehearsing makes it less justifiable–but I will finish setting up what I have, and make certain it is all functional, and that will be good for something.  I am distressed that I cannot find the nice pair of self-powered monitors which I have long known were probably the one solid piece of the sound system on which I could depend.  I have searched the attic (where I put some things) and the basement (where the people who helped my wife clean her kitchen and living room put more things) and am rather concerned that I don’t know where they went.  I might have to give Tyler a shout, to see whether I left them at his place at some point, but I’m pretty certain I didn’t.

Anyway, it gives me more time to work on stuff here, so I’d better use it wisely.

–M. J. Young

I did manage to squeeze in a bit of practice here and there over the last few days.

For one thing, when I am on long lonely drives I have a CD with the instrumental parts for all the Collision songs–actually, I have several of these, with the songs in different orders–so I can practice my vocal parts while driving.  Sometimes this is not such a good idea, particularly in those cases where I also want to practice my instrumental parts and I find the fingers of one hand playing air guitar, or air bass, or air keyboards, and my concentration divided a bit; but when the road is empty I don’t really need that much concentration for my driving anyway, as long as I don’t miss my exits.  Thus the time spent driving everywhere yesterday was not entirely wasted, although it was not entirely productive, either.  I don’t really need that much work on the vocals, except in those cases in which the work is needed to mesh the vocals and the instrumental work, a division of concentration which can be tricky if you don’t know both cold.

I also had a brief opportunity to do a bit of playing with Baxter.  He had taken off with some of my sons for some barbecue somewhere, and when he returned he had left his guitar and amp here and we went over a couple of things including the song on which I need the most guitar work–largely because I’ve agreed to pick up what were going to be bass riffs, and I’ve got to integrate playing the lead riffs (some of them Allman Brothers-style double leads) with the singing.  Then last night, when I found myself alone for a bit with laundry to push, I did a few songs on the keyboard.  I left it set up in the living room, but this has not garnered the usual complaints because at least two of my sons tinker on it quite impressively every day, so it is being used.

I should mention that I am anticipating traveling north Saturday night.  One of my sons will be attending school this summer and staying with family in the area.  I anticipate having dinner with said family while I am up there, and hopefully meeting with a friend on the way back, depending on how schedules mesh.  My mother is an early person and my friend works late, so it’s not certain that this plan won’t have me sitting on my hands fruitlessly for an extended time.  However, we will see what develops.

–M. J. Young

There was a disruption in my Tuesday night that might have been overlooked:  one of the female friends of one of my sons (not a girlfriend) called around three in the morning because she was maybe a mile away and her truck was making horrible noises and screaming that it was low on oil.  Since I was not certain where she was, and I was still doing forums, I rather unchivalrously let her walk to me (it’s not a bad area, and she’s a pretty tough girl), and then drove back with her to add oil from our supply into her crankcase.  It was not, I think, so bad as she feared, but she blew an engine once, apparently, by ignoring the warning lights, so she was wise to avoid the risk.  I returned home with enough time to finish my work before dealing with the morning schoolboys, and then got a bit of sleep before working on Wednesday, which was late most of the day, as mentioned.

Today I knew I was committed to an early afternoon errand, and when I returned from that I recognized the need to get dinner made, which was served just in time for Brittany to arrive for the Collision rehearsal.  Baxter did not make it; his little sister was involved as a store clerk in an armed robbery this afternoon, and he had just gotten her home from the police station when we called to find out where he was.  Adam arrived, although he was a bit late.  It was, however, a good rehearsal overall, as we spent time trying to learn the second tier songs.

I got dinner myself after that, and have been trying to get through the day from the delayed beginning since then.

–M. J. Young

I’m not entirely happy at the moment, but here I am.

On the less than completely bright side, where I was less than completely bright, I did almost everything I intended last night–took the girlfriend home, dropped off the son, visited my friend, and finished the forum posts.  I even got the opinion of my experienced drummer friend on a couple pieces of the new drum set, which he said was surprisingly good quality for a beginner’s set.  The one thing I did not do, as I rushed out the door trying to remember everything, was take copies of the books with me, so I found myself describing the Faith and Gaming and Game Ideas Unlimited books to him without examples in hand.  So I feel a bit stupid, particularly since I’m not at all certain when next I will make that trip.

I returned home close enough to time to awaken people for school that I just stayed up and finished the postings.  Thus it was well into daylight by the time I said goodnight.

I’m also a bit perturbed because I was the only one to show for tonight’s Collision rehearsal.  No one called; no one showed.  I really don’t want to be the driving force in a band of people who are not interested or committed, and I’m worried that this is starting to move that direction.  I’m not, however, certain what to do about that.  Everyone can complain that someone else is less committed to this, less ready to play, than he is; that doesn’t get us anywhere, particularly since no one is really ready to play.

I practiced a bit myself, but finally decided my time would be better spent getting this work done.

–M. J. Young

I had finished the regular work last night, and was working on proofreading the Faith and Gaming collection (which I finished earlier this afternoon), when a call came from a young lady, a dear friend of one of our sons who has found herself living in our living room (odd that it should fall to that purpose) before.  She had been evicted from her apartment, an hour away in Philadelphia, and needed to move herself and her things immediately.

I agreed to get her.  I called my wife, who was finishing up at work, to let her know my intentions, and she said to wait until she called me back.

Oddly, while I was awaiting that call, I came upon the old article, Faith and Gaming:  Friends.  I say it is odd, because the piece recounts another night, years ago, when it was my wife who was taking the truck to go help a friend in need in the middle of the night, and I who was accommodating her.  The article speaks of unbalanced ledgers, and how it is not the point of friendship to look for balance, that what we gain does not always equal what we pay.  It was an interesting and indeed timely reminder.

My wife insisted I take the boy along who is most closely her friend, and he agreed that he should go despite the fact that this would mean being crowded in the unheated cab of the truck.  We at the time did not know how crowded, nor how complicated, this would be, as in addition to the girl we also picked up a cat in a carrier and a ferret on a leash, and there was no place to park along Tenth Street south of Mifflin in Philadelphia even at one thirty in the morning when we arrived, so I was sitting by a fire hydrant with the back end of the vehicle extending into an intersection for most of an hour while they first carried boxes and packages to the truck and then attempted to coax a ferret out from under a neighbor’s balcony so he would not be left behind.  We also had to feed the young lady on the ride home, at almost three in the morning when all we could find was a McDonald’s Drive-thru, even in so busy a place as the Deptford Mall area.

I neglected to mention that our eldest and his wife, who missed Easter with us because of his work, managed finally to make it down, arriving minutes before the phone call which took me away.  They were still here when I returned; in fact, it was after four when I finally got to bed, and they were still here when I awoke shortly after five to get boys to buses.  Thus I did not see much of them, but my wife did, and that’s a reversal of the usual circumstance, so that’s good.

I probably did not get eight hours of sleep before I was folding laundry (another thing I tucked into that time) and trying to start my day, but I’m not slowing down yet.  I have a Collision rehearsal tonight, and it happens to be Baxter’s birthday, so I’ve asked our resident cook if he could make a cake just in case Baxter makes it.  Meanwhile, I’m hoping to get everything else out of the way sooner rather than later, so I’ve got time to do some other stuff at some point.

–M. J. Young

I don’t usually recognize these things.

Actually, that’s not true. Usually I notice them, and then forget to mention them when I’m writing the blog, and remember afterward that I was going to say something about it. Dates, events, anniversaries, all of that stuff slips by unmentioned because I don’t keep them in my head long enough to put them on the screen. However, I’ve seen this one coming, and I noticed it as I was getting ready to type, so this time it gets mentioned.

This is the six hundred sixty-sixth Blogless Lepolt post. The first five hundred eleven are now on the archived site, and we have been on this new location since Blogless Lepolt Continues, Entry five hundred twelve, on August nineteenth of last year.

So for those for whom the number six six six has significance, this is that entry. For those for whom it remains just another number, well, it’s interesting nonetheless.

Collision did rehearse last night, sans Baxter. Brittany said she saw him, and he was getting glasses and did not know how long that was going to take. I think there’s something wrong with his cell phone, unless he’s just been too tired to awaken when it rings lately. Anyway, I’m going to try to get hold of him before the next rehearsal, to make sure there’s no other problem. It was an encouraging rehearsal, although we still have a long way to go. My wife heard her son playing bass, and was so impressed she came out and, perhaps, gawked at him for a few minutes. He did very well. We are not quite ready to add the drums, and because of previously mentioned problems with Brittany’s mother are anticipating some setbacks, but hopefully we’ll be good by April.

I’ve been tapped for another pick-up. The girl who returned home on Monday wishes to return here tonight for another weekend visit. Building ties with a future daughter-in-law is important, so I’ll be headed that direction. Her beau now drives, but not so long nor so confidently that he would undertake a journey of this distance alone, so we’ll share the wheel. Also, this week he will wait until I have returned from church, so at least I won’t miss that.

It appears, finally, that I am not, at least yet, sick. My druidic ancestors would of course knock on wood for that, but the table here has been dead and dried long enough that even if there were a tree spirit to appease, it would be a pretty angry spirit. I’m hoping that I’ve managed to miss it this time around. Besides, despite the amount of time the diseased persons spent abed, it did not seem to me that they were getting anything like rest.

–M. J. Young

My thanks to those who have encouraged me to get some rest. I slept reasonably well last night and this morning, and although I am fighting occasional hints of queasiness I am not certain whether it is from the early stages of being sick, or merely from thinking about it.

I am considering cancelling tonight’s Collision rehearsal. I am loathe to do it, as Baxter missed last week, and Brittany’s mother will be going in the hospital mid-month which will put sufficient demands on Brittany that she will probably miss a few, and we are nowhere near as far along as drummer John would wish us to be. I think I will not cancel; but I will have a lot of work because of that. The man who loves to cook is fighting the illness, and last night was losing, so I have already started working on dinner in the expectation that he will not be able to manage it. I’ve already told Adam that I will want to practice with him even if no one else shows, as we are badly behind and he’s missed a few rehearsals himself.

I received an encouraging letter about the forthcoming book, Do You Trust Me? I had sent electronic copies to a few people in ministry I know (I had asked on a private list whether anyone was willing to give it a once-through and let me know if it was sound, and these people wrote to say yes, they would read it). One has responded, praising the work. I guess I should pressure my daughter-in-law to move forward on that cover art.

If I’m to accomplish everything, I must keep moving, so here I go.

–M. J. Young