"Some Food For Thought..."

I just had to take a picture of last night's dinner...I never use any sense of a recipe, just throw stuff in, but take my word for it: it was as tasty as it was colorful! Bought a wok at Wally World a few weeks ago to do more stirfry...the only mildly time consuming thing is cutting everything up...but it really is quick and easy. Between this and steaming veggies, it's an effort to create healthier eating habits, which are rent assunder with my wacked work hours.


What's fun is you can always mix it up (OK, pun intended) and create different combinations and flavors. Last night I started with a mixture of olive oil, low-sodium soy sauce, lemon juice and a heap o' freshly ground ginger...what a wonderful additive, ginger...let it simmer together (the aromas!) and then added some chicken. I like two things about a wok...how fast it heats up and cooks things (you don't want to overcook it, anyway), and the fact that you clean up with only water (otherwise you mess up the wok's seasoning).

Sweet red peppers... carrots... celery... brocolli... sugar peas... a little cabbage for good measure... and once I put it on the plate, I layered fresh spinach leaves over the pile to steam it lightly... to coin a familial phrase shared between my mom and her sister, it was "goodie de shtuffy"!!! And there are so many other things you can add and use in different combinations like water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, snow peas, bok choy, not to mention the variety of spices.

It's amazing, too, how long the jumbo bags of veggies have lasted...one trip to Costco or Sam's Club and you're set for a long haul. Organic is even better. Word of caution: better clean out your refrigerator to make room for all the bags!

Fresh veggies. In this world of chemical this and processed that, do your body a favor and give it a regular dose of Nature's bounty, cooked just enough to where it still has it's fresh crunch. Your body will thank you for it...and will thank you more if you don't put a piece of key lime pie on top of it!

And what is on tomorrow's menu? I do believe it's time for my weekly "Travelogue" blog entry...and tomorrow's destination will be...

The North Unit of Roosevelt National Park
The Badlands of North Dakota.

" A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum..."

OK, it wasn't a forum, but yesterday it was yet another "proof in the pudding" of one of my life's operatives:

There are no coincidences.

There is another saying, too:

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

There is no doubt our overall attitudes and our thoughts/intentions play a major part in how our day to day lives happen. Positive attitudes can even help heal immune systems. If someone feels they are always a "victim" in situations, that very belief structure will keep them in that role ad nauseum. The Universe has one answer to any thing we believe in: Yes. If you say say you never have enough money, you will never have enough money...it's as simple as that.

If any of us want to truly change something in our own self or life, we have to begin by changing our root belief system, deep down within. If you don't, all else is a band-aid with temporary adhesive. As they say...

If you don't go within, you go without...

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Nine days ago I made a careful purchase to bolster my flute-making safety and efficiency. After last year's dangerous encounters with my inexpensive table saw, and talking with some of the nation's leading flute makers, a serious bandsaw was the way to go. Keep in mind I have no garage or shop from which I work; my tools are kept in a large combination worktable/storage unit I built on the back deck. I have to pull tools out to use them, weather permitting, which is far from ideal, but I make it work. This saw can't "live" outside...it's about 300 pounds and 6' tall...so in planning all of this out, the best place for it was the living room, which is a room that has been basically a storage/staging area for when I go vend at festivals, anyway. Not a long-term solution, but to forego the saw and wait a year or two was out of the question. I knew I could make it work, and I have...or at least I thought I had.

Never really thought about the math involved. 1.5 horsepower motor. 14.7 amps drawn. Once I had it assembled (took a large part of a day!), it was time for the critical "flutter" test for the 3/4" blade I was going to use. Cut on the switch...if you don't know, band saws are actually pretty quiet tools...the whir of the motor began slowly revving up to operational speed...and about halfway in the revving you could hear it rev back down...it tripped the breaker.

That fun part is the breaker box is outside on the back of the house...wheee...so I reset the breaker and turned off anything on the room circuit...same thing. Ran a honker of a 10-gauge extension cord to another room's outlet...same thing. Reminded me of another saying:

Definition of "insanity": when you do things the same way every time but expect a different result.

Nothing worked. It was like having a Ferrari in the driveway with no gas in the tank. And since I just typed Ferrari off the top of my head, I immediately thought of "not with my job in 50 years!" and then thought of this cute and totally unrelated joke:

Joe: "I wish I had enough money to buy an elephant."
Bill: "Why do you want an elephant?"
Joe: "I don't, I just want the money..."

So over the past few days I've mulled over what I needed to do to solve the problem, amidst the 20 other irons I have in the fire at any given moment. I didn't know any electricians, off-hand...I could ask neighbors...I knew that this person has to be certified...but I also knew I bet I could get the best price not from a large electrical contracting firm but from someone posting an ad for their services to make some extra bucks on the side, where they're not splitting fees with a company, etc. But where?

Myriad options, that I know...another key to the introductory beliefs I talked about is learning to truly understand your own intuitive nudges and hunches...takes time and intended effort, but it works...and a couple of days after my first strong nudge, it hit me again with clarity, so I followed it... I went to Craigslist.com. For me it has been a very effective selling tool for items, and it is used by faaaaar more people than you might imagine.

But you don't just sell or buy items...people list services they provide or need, people that want to barter for things, and much more. Of course, you have to proceed with caution, as with anything on-line...but I went to into the specialized labor category and, voila, found "Electrical contractor for hire!" Sent the email response, which initially is anonymous for everyone's protection. "Joe" responded within 4 hours Sunday afternoon. I like that...fast, professional answer. Said he'd be happy to come look and figure out how I can solve that and a couple of other electrical issues. Gave me his phone number to call to set a time yesterday, Monday, to come take a peek.

Once I got done with my main weather shift yesterday morning, I called him from work. My email had only "Bob" on it. The caller ID most likely came in with "News14" on it.

Joe: "Hello, this is Joe."
Me: "Hi, this is Bob, calling to set up an appointment this morning..."
Joe: "Are you the weather guy?"
Me: "Well, yeah, for News 14 Carolina in the..."
Joe: "No, I mean from Asheville and WLOS years ago...you went on the Weather Channel for a while, right?"
Me: "Uh, yeah, that's me...gosh, that's been almost 6 years now..."
Joe: "I just moved from there 2 years ago and used to watch you all the time...saw you at Bele Chere Festival one year I think...we've actually met..."

...and from there on went the conversation. Knew me just from my voice, in that short moment of one introductory sentence. Especially with the Asheville connection, that kind of thing happens from time to time even to this very day. It is indeed a small world. Super-nice fellow...will be here to day to fix me up good to go with the saw and beef up another breaker that needs a bigger breaker.

No coincidences.

As you go about your days, be watchful and open to what all you feel in your gut and see going on around you. Be attentive. Do I expect to have this happen all the time? Only in the sense that the magic in Life happens when you don't set "expectations" of people doing or saying certain things. Go with the flow. Drop your expectations of others. Be attentive and Aware. And sit back and enjoy the wonderful Journey...

"Got to wondering the other day..."

Things are never the way they used to be. Change is inevitable, and change should be embraced. I go along with that, whole-heartedly. But the "stuff" that is out there in society and the news today seems almost foreign in some respects...

Setting: Clubview Elementary School, Columbus, Georgia...the latter half of the 60s...we ALL ate Ritz crackers with peanut butter in the middle. Nobody died. Nobody I knew had an allergy to it. Where did this widespread crisis come from? Oh, it's a serious issue today, I know that...but how has it evolved? In today's elementary classrooms a kid can't have ANYthing with peanut butter in it in the room, period. Forbidden. Banned. That includes the cafeteria. Can't touch campus with it.

(Gee, at least we do a better job at keeping peanut butter out of schools than we do guns and other weapons...)

Many of our environmental sensitivities seem to be at an all-time high...and it leaves us wondering just what all the air and water pollutants...all the pesticides and herbicides...all the chemical additives in foods and drinks...all the modified molecules we have and continue to ingest in our bodies...what REALLY is the impact of it all?....

Way more than we know? Nothing at all? Hard to accept the latter. It's as if we as a society have to wait for a catastrophe to develop and happen before we can "see" anything and take action. It's an uphill battle for us as a whole to become a proactive society and get away from our tendency/history to be a reactive one. There just has to be a better way, and the only thing I know to do is to take personal responsibility for gaining as much knowledge as we can about issues.

Ignorance isn't bliss - it's stupidity.

People that even to this day put a cigarette in their mouths and light up, you are making a choice to potentially kill yourself...no one else is putting it to your lips for you. Not that we know or will ever know the dark side of tobacco economics and business...I imagine the truth is overwhelmingly ugly how they've infused additives and such...and, what, wasn't it just recently there was news of the new "Camel #9"
that is emblazoned with pink letters/graphics to entice more women to buy it and smoke? (link is to a NY Times article worth reading...)

ARE WE SIMPLY INSANE???? Do you know how many women die from lung cancer each year in the U.S.? A 150% increase in two decades...lung cancer is THE leading source of cancer death among U.S. women, not breast or ovarian cancers. One organization says that this year alone 68,510 women in the US will die from lung cancer...that number is more than breast AND ovarian cancers combined. Lung cancer deaths in women exceeded breast cancer deaths back in 1987. Good idea, tobacco companies...let's keep giving 'em newly packaged bullets with which to shoot themselves...

The flip side is as I said earlier: it IS a personal choice to smoke or not, though I hear it can be a terrible addiction to break. Thankfully, I never smoked, so I don't know. But I know it's a choice, however impossible it seems to avoid for some.

When I write, I'm not sure what will come forth. I write for my own Truth, and whether someone disagrees or not is immaterial to me. I do sense a widespread "dumbing of America" and it is of no one's doing but our own. We've got to make the daily personal choice to be informed, to understand health and nutrition, to understand sticky political issues, to realize that we are ALL related and not separate from any issue 'out there'. Homelessness. Domestic violence. Desensitization of youth through media. You name it. We are all owners of the problems...but...more importantly...we are all owners of the solutions, as well.

Peace, y'all.

This picture pretty much says it all....


Here in the wee hours of Friday morning, it has become apparent that my usual "reaching into my blogger hat to pull out a blogger rabbit" just ain't gonna happen, at least for now.

This week has had some entertaining and humorous posts, so if you haven't read back a few days you might like to. All pictures from He Wakinyan Hohpi in the Black Hills of South Dakota should now enlarge, if you had tried that day and couldn't get them to do so. What I'd give to be escaping there now!

Too, I'm thinking that one day a week I'll post such a travelogue for your viewing pleasure, though I don't plan on it being one particular day. Will the next one be from the Badlands? Roosevelt National Park? Slim Buttes? Toadstool Geologic Park? The Wyoming Bighorns? Stay tuned!

Have a good weekend...time for me to turn my attention to weather concerns...Sunday's storm system may not be so raucus in the Triad, but the overall system may well be making news headlines with snow and ice well to the north and likely severe storms to well to the south...hmmm...

On that note, I leave you with my exit pic I nabbed earlier this week of a very good Friend of mine...

"No Wonder People Have Trouble With English..."

Just some chuckles for you to today...feel like stickin' to the humor mode; besides, laughter is a wonderful medicine for what ails ya! Enjoy these 'perceptions'...

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A bicycle can't stand alone; it's two tired.

A will is a dead giveaway.

Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

In a democracy it's your vote that counts;
in feudalism, it's your Count that votes.

A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.

If you don't pay your exorcist you can get repossessed.

When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.

The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine was fully recovered.

A calendar's days are numbered.

A lot of money is tainted:
'Taint yours, and 'taint mine.

A boiled egg is hard to beat.

The short fortuneteller who escaped from prison:
a small medium at large.

Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end.

When she saw her first strands of gray hair, she thought she'd dye.

Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead to know basis.

Santa's helpers are subordinate clauses.

Morticians will be the last ones to let you down.

Acupuncture: a jab well done.

" I Got Dem Winter Weathuh Bluuuues..."

This is like a fruit cake blog post...you know, how you get a fruit cake, smile and force saying, "Gee, uh...thanks...it's...it's really, uh...thoughtful...!" And then you find another home for it ASAP.

Okay, so this isn't really a fruit cake, but it was recently passed along to me and I found it hilarious and well worth passing along...a gift that keeps on giving, just like door stop...er, I mean, fruit cakes.

As you read this, start tapping your right foot in a slow rhythm and do a little head tic thing to the left on the downbeats...

"HOW TO BE A PROFESSIONAL BLUES MUSICIAN AND SONGWRITER"

1. Most Blues begin “Woke up this mornin'...”

2. “I got a good woman” is a bad way to begin the Blues, unless you stick something nasty in right away: I got a good woman—with the meanest face in town.

3. Blues are simple. After you have the first line right, repeat it. Then find something that rhymes. Sort of.
"I got a good woman—with the meanest face in town.
I got a good woman—with the meanest face in town.
She got teeth like Margaret Thatcher and she weigh 500 pound..."

4. The Blues are not about limitless choice. You stuck in a ditch, you stuck in a ditch; ain't no way out.

5. Blues cars are Chevys, Cadillacs and broken-down trucks. Other acceptable Blues transportation modes include Greyhound buses and southbound trains. Walkin’ plays a major part in the Blues lifestyle. So does fixin’ to die. Blues don't travel in Volvos, BMWs, or SUVs. Jet aircraft and state-sponsored motor pools ain't even in the running.

6. Adults sing the Blues. Teenagers can’t sing the Blues. They ain't fixin' to die yet. In the Blues, "adulthood" means old enough to get the electric chair when you shoot that man in Memphis.

7. You can have the Blues in New York City, but not in Brooklyn or Queens. Hard times in Vermont, Tucson, or North Dakota are just depression. The best places to have the Blues are still Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City. You cannot have the Blues in any place that don't get rain.

8. A man with male pattern baldness ain't the Blues. A woman with male pattern baldness is. Breaking your leg while skiing is not the Blues. Breaking your leg when your broken-down pickup truck rolled over on it is.

9. The following colors do not belong in the Blues: violet, beige, mauve (unless you’re truly desperate for a rhyme).

9. You can’t have the Blues in an office or a shopping mall. The lighting is just plain wrong. Go outside to the back parking lot or sit by the dumpster.

10. Good places to have the Blues: the highway, a jailhouse, an empty bed, the bottom of a whiskey glass. Bad places to have the Blues: Galleria shopping centers, art gallery openings, weekends in the Hamptons, golf courses, Tiffany's, and Ivy League institutions.

11. No one will believe it’s the Blues if you wear a suit, unless you happen to be an old black man—and it’s an old black suit.

12. Do you have the right to sing the Blues?

Answer “Yes” if:
a. your first name is a southern state—like Georgia
b. you’re blind
c. you shot a man in Memphis.
d. you can’t be satisfied.
e. you're older than dirt

Answer “No” if:
a. you once were blind but now can see.
b. you’re deaf
c. the man in Memphis lived.
d. you have a trust fund or an IRA.
e. you have all your teeth
f. you were once blind but now can see

13. Blues is not about color, it's about bad luck. Tiger Woods cannot sing the Blues; Gary Coleman could. Ugly old white people got a leg up on the blues. Julio Iglesias and Barbra Streisand will never sing the Blues.

14. If you ask for water and baby gives you gasoline, it’s the Blues. Other acceptable Blues beverages are: wine, whiskey, muddy water, beer, black coffee. Blues beverages are NOT: mixed drinks, kosher wine, sparkling water, Snapple, Starbucks Frappuccino, or Slim Fast. Although Rubber Biscuits and the Wish Sandwich are famous blues snacks, better stick to common blues grub like Greasy Bar-B-Que, Fatback and beans, and government cheeze. Blues food is never a Club sandwich, Sushi, or Crème brule.

15. If it occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it’s a Blues death. Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is a Blues death. So is substance abuse, the electric chair, or being denied treatment in an emergency room. It is NOT a Blues death to die during liposuction or from tennis elbow.

16. Excellent names for female Blues singers: Sadie, Big Momma, Bessie, or Fat River Dumpling. Excellent names for male Blues singers: Willie, Joe, Little Willie, Lightning, or Big Willie. Singers with names like Muffy, Sierra, Auburn, Alexis, Gwenyth, Brittany or Rainbow are not permitted to sing the Blues, no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis.

17. The "Build-Your-Own-Blues-Singer-Name" Starter Kit:
a. Name of physical infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Lame, Asthmatic)
b. First name (from above lists) or name of fruit (Lemon, Lime, Kiwi)
c. Last name of a U. S. president (Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, etc.)
Examples: Blind Lime Jefferson, Cripple Kiwi Fillmore, etc. (Okay, maybe not "Kiwi"…)

18. I don't care how tragic your life is; if you own a computer, you cannot sing the Blues. You'd best destroy it. Fire, a spilled bottle of Mad Dog, or shotgun. Maybe your BIG woman just done sit on it. I don't care

19. Hey there, you can READ! This too be a big ol' problem. Most folks singin' the Blues ain't never had much a chance for education. In the Blues… the three R's stand for Railroads, Runnin' and Rehab.

20. It gots to be dark to sing the blues, preferably after midnight. Singin' da blues at noon is forbidden.

21. If none of the above works, try one last, pathetic stab at authenticity: name your guitar. Remember, Lucille is taken.

22. Epitaph on a blues musician's tombstone: "I didn't wake up this morning"

"Ain't nobody readin' this far no how...

Ain't nobody readin' this far no how...

best be makin' my weathuh maps now..."

Travelogue: "He Wakinyan Hohpi"

Trying something a little different today...

Put on your travelin' shoes, folks...from time to time I'll post a "Travelogue" of places I've been and photographed that you would find interesting and beautiful...and to give you something to sit and daydream over to avoid doing something you know you should be doing instead but just don't have the gumption to deal with it at the moment...!
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And you thought South Dakota was flat and boring...welcome to the Black Hills in the southwest corner near Rapid City.
(click pics to enlarge and explore...)

This is one of the more incredible locations there, as well as the highest point at 7242 feet...and one of the more sacred sites to the Lakota Nation. I refer to it by its rightful Lakota name, "He Wakinyan Hohpi" which roughly translates to "Nest of the Thunderbirds".

This is the place thought to be the birthplace of the sacred Thunderbirds, the center of the world...and also the focus of the famous 'vision' Oglala Sioux medicine man Black Elk experienced, well-documented in the epic "Black Elk Speaks". Today it is known as Harney Peak.

Though certainly below any sense of a timberline, this peak is mostly exposed rock, yielding phenomenal views in good weather...and as you can tell in the panorama shots, especially, the central portion of the Black Hills is especially full of large exposed rock formations (notwithstanding Mt. Rushmore only miles away...). Conversely, you can imagine how hostile this environment can be in storms or winter maelstroms.

There is a long-since abandoned fire lookout tower that sits atop the peak, easily identifiable from afar...as well as the gravesite of one Dr. Valentine McGillycuddy, who was the doctor that treated Crazy Horse at the time of his death. In the overwhelming sea of 'white man' deceit, theft, and murders of the native peoples, Dr. McGillycuddy took the controversial stand to back the rights and welfare of the tribal nations in the late 1800s. Even the (at first) untrusting Red Cloud came to refer to him as "a young man with an old man's head on his shoulders."

The Black Elk Wilderness area within the central Black Hills offers excellent opportunities for extended 'wilderness' trail experiences, should you find yourself out that way. As you might can tell by the pictures, it's not hiking for the faint of heart!

"Spread Those Wings And Fly, Fly, Fly..."

I don't know about you, but I'm glad there is a warm-up on the way this week. Good news!

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Well, after a busy weekend of flute activity with the Carolinas Flute Circle as well as the procurement and set-up of a new flute-making toy in the form of a 14-inch industrial bandsaw, I'm finally getting around to posting the finished "salvaged" flute update I'd spoken about earlier. The original flute body is made of Panga Panga, an African 'cousin' to Wenge, for those of you that know woods...dense and hefty for it's F# key, but a beautiful haunting voice as a result. I also discovered you could carve it to make it look like a log/tree...just never felt comfortable with a 'matched' block for it. Anyway, figured it was appropriate to take the pics at the scene of the crime and rebirth...(click on pics to enlarge)...


In that earlier post (click link for it) I told you how I got the idea to take some scrap Eastern Red Cedar from the recent destruction of some nearby woods...and create a block fetish for a flute I had already made, so that from the scene of the woods destruction I could create something positive in return, maybe a little much-needed healing.


The flute's original block just didn't "jive" with the unusual "Log Flute", and I knew that...but everytime I tried to create a more "appropriate" block, I didn't get far before I got stuck in inertia. Only when it hit me how to honor the torn-down woods did it all come together...to take some "salvaged" wood and create an interpretation of a Red-Tail Hawk that you've seen pictures galore of here in my past posts...the woods were their home...so the honor was most appropriate.


I do plan on doing more with the cedar I've collected...and with my new bandsaw can more safely and effectively try and even salvage some boards for flutes...I think that would be really neat to do. We shall see. I almost always keep my plate overflowing with ideas and "to-do" lists that I could never accomplish....but I can dream, can't I?

May all of us keep our dreams and hopes alive...it's the only way to fly, fly, fly...

"WARNING: Really Bad Humor Ahead..."

There I was Thursday evening, drawin' blanks for the blog...for whatever reason, just more tired than usual and, brain-wise, running on empty.

Lucky for me, my auto-default in life is humor. In no particular order and with no anticipated meaning or direction, I will aimlessly throw these random pictures with thoughts/comments that came to mind...and you only thought you knew how strangely my mind works...

For example, this picture, which could pass for how I feel at the moment...

TGIF!
(Thank God I'm Furry!)


Life is like a beaver - it's one dam thing after another...



This cartoon is dedicated to those in the upper Midwest for their bitter temperatures...


"I'll take 'Places You Don't Want To Be' for $600, Alex..."


...gives new meaning to the "Cycle of Life"...


I'll gladly call hunting a 'sport' once animals can arm themselves and shoot back.




Hot dog, I've saved the best for last!

"Envelope, please...and the 'weiner' is..."

You'll 'relish' these puns...no 'buns' about it...

As far as I'm concerned, they 'cut the mustard'...(which is better than 'cut the cheese', I suppose)...

(...and you're already trying to play "ketchup"...)

Don't you love my 'frank' commentary?

Don't worry...I don't have anything 'furter' to add...

...I guess that's the long and short of it for now...

"A Tale Worth Remembering..."

I've always found a great deal of wisdom and power in this story...maybe you will, as well....

-------------------------------------------------


"The Wolves Within"

There was a Cherokee grandfather, whose young grandson often came in the evenings to sit at his knee and ask the many questions that children ask.

One day the grandson came to his grandfather with a look of anger and hurt on his face.

Grandfather said, "Come, sit, tell me what has happened today."

The child sat and leaned his chin on his Grandfather's knee. Looking up into the wrinkled face and the elder's kind dark eyes, the child's pain quickly turned to tears. Through his sobs, he began to tell his grandfather about his day at school...about the two bullies that cornered him on the playground who began calling him insulting names, pushing him around, saying all kinds of mean things about him and his family...even threatening to beat him up after school if they ever found him alone...

The Grandfather, with eyes that have seen so much, lifted his grandson's face so he could look deeply into the boy's eyes. Grandfather said, "let me tell you a story. I too, at times, have felt a great hate for those that have taken so much, with no sorrow for what they do.

But hate wears you down and does not hurt your enemy. It is like taking poison and wishing your enemy would die. I have struggled with these feelings many times.

It is as if there are two wolves inside me, two very different wolves. One is good and does not intentionally try to harm others or judge them. He lives in harmony with all around him and does not take offense when no offense was intended. He will only fight when it is right to do so, and in the right way.

The other wolf...ah, he is full of anger. The littlest thing will set him into a fit of temper. He fights everyone, all the time, for no reason. He cannot think because his anger and hate are so great. It is helpless anger, for his anger will change nothing, making him only more bitter and angry.

Sometimes it is hard to live with these two wolves inside me, for both of them fight to dominate my Spirit."

The boy, looked intently into his Grandfather's eyes, and asked "which one wins?"

The Grandfather, smiled and quietly said,
"The one I choose to feed."

"Getting To The Heart Of Matters..."

Ah, yes, Valentine's Day...

...where a dozen roses cost 4 times as much as they should...

...where everyone still trying to shed pounds from Christmas is gifted with boxes of chocolate and candy hearts with mostly indiscernable, if not senseless, words...

...where waaaaay overpriced greeting cards fly off the shelves to feed our modern courting rituals...


...where M&Ms change colors once again so they can be specifically marketed in the off-season February niche before switching over to pastels for Easter...

...and where Cupid is freezing his tush off in the upper Midwest. Fly, arrows, fly! You need SOMEthing to warm you up, there, and help melt the snow!!!


I still say we should live every day in our heart as if it were every celebration and every holiday wrapped up into one big soft, warm, buffalo robe. So here's wishing each of you a Happy Merry Memorial Easter President's Valentine Labor Day of Thanksgiving!

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For your listening pleasure, I have web links to 3 of my songs in MP3 format, listed below. They happen to be flute-only (no drums, rattles, other instruments, or environmental sounds), and run the gamut from slow and eerie, to high and meditative, to a fun uptempo song that has a humorous story...

I used to call the fast one "Prarie Runner"...unbeknownst to me at the time, a well-known recording artist had a CD title of the same name, so I've since switched it to "Bad Girl In The Badlands." Long story short, when I first went to the Badlands, Mercy saw her first herd of Mule Deer and helped herself out of the car window when I pulled over to look.

(3 Mulie does at attention Badlands, 2005)

There went my ball of fur off into the distance...knowing the deer were perfectly safe...and knowing that I was dead meat if a ranger happened by while I frantically tried to get her back...that's the short version, and I'd written that song to honor her moment of full-bore freedom...


Song links (MP3 format):
(NOTE: may require Quicktime)

1. "After Wounded Knee"
(original composition)

2. "Zuni Sunrise Prayer"
(my variation on a traditional melody)

3. "The Wedding"
(original composition)