Those of you that have been to the SeaTac airport will have noticed the brass fish embedded into the floor. There are literally hundreds of these fish swimming along the walkways between boarding gates, they look like this:

This evening as I was walking along, this one caught my eye:

“Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of riding a bike.” ~ John F. Kennedy

I’d like to talk with you a little about bicycles. I’ve always had a little bit of a fascination with bicycles; the first time I got on a bicycle I rode it quite well – in a straight line. I had no idea how to turn around so I just kept going until I was so far away from home I was scared to go any further so I let myself crash into the grass on the side of the road. Later I had a bike with the raised handle bars and the cool banana seats – a great bike for doing “wheelies.” When I was twenty my primary mode of transportation as a missionary was a bicycle. As an adult I seem to gravitate to bicycle riding as my exercise of choice, not the off road variety, but the long, marathon type rides. I’ve done many century rides (100 miles) and have done the Seattle to Portland ride (200 miles) once. But I gained an even greater understanding of my feelings about bicycles when I read this quote from Bicycling Magazine:

“Faith, Love, Freedom? Is this too much to ascribe to a simple machine on which we are both engine and fuel (as well as passenger and pilot)? Can there be so much that’s so elemental in something most exquisitely designed to zoom down hills? The answer is right there, in your bike right now. Put a leg over one, and you can instantly see across that bridge from adult to child. There are about 1.1 billion bicycles making that trip right now. A billion people are pedaling with freedom and joy and innocence on the grandest, noblest toy in all the world.” – Bicycling Magazine, “The Noblest Invention”

A bicycle may be the noblest toy in all the world, but it is also so much more, it can bring so much freedom and joy; way more than it’s simple design would hint at.

As some of you know, a portion of our charitable contributions over the last couple of years has gone through See Your Impact; one of the projects we helped fund was to provide a bicycle for a young mother of two teanagers who are using their bicycle to get to the land they farm, the market and to school.  Because of my interest in bicycles, this year I am supporting another bicycle providing organization.

On June 30th I’m riding 100 miles from Redmond to Bellingham, Washington to raise funds and awareness for the global work of World Bicycle Relief and the community work of Cascade Bicycle Club Education Foundation; World Bicycle Relief is a nonprofit organization providing access to independence and livelihood through The Power of Bicycles across Africa. Cascade Bicycle Club Education Foundation engages more than 26,000 Seattle-area youth per year by teaching elementary school students to ride and helping families find safe routes to school.  I would appreciate it if you could contribute to the cause.  You can easily do so from here:

Craig’s Fundraising Page

Even if you can only contribute a small amount, every little bit helps.

Thank You!

It’s time for the annual Cottle Candy Bowl!!!

Click HERE for all the info!

And here’s the Gird:  Cottle Candy Bowl Grid

I have a younger brother who makes a living as an English Professor. Whenever I see him I ask for book recommendations and he always has some for me. Unfortunately, he often recommends material that he’s reading and what he reads is often a little over my head. But the last time I talked with him he said that he had just finished a book that he thought I would enjoy and that I should check it out for the nostalgic factor he was sure I would experience. It may be the best recommendation he’s given me.

Ready Player One is a simple, nostalgic story set in the year 2045. A tale set thirty years in the future, but a future that has become obsessed with 1980’s culture. It’s the first novel from Ernest Cline, who’s most known for writing the screenplay for the movie Fanboys.

There is quite a bit of discussion on the internet about this book being made into a movie; Warner Brothers has purchased the rights (even before the book was published) and recently hired someone other than Ernest to work on the screenplay. While there is some concern about the ability to make the movie and make it well, while reading the book I often found myself thinking “this will make a great movie” so I’m in the camp that is looking forward to it. It may be a little expensive (all those licensing fees) but would be fun, a lot like Scott Pilgrim, but with even more geek-dom.

One of the real pleasures of our household is the playing and singing that we often get from J’Neil.  So last night I got the recording gear out and had her play a couple of things, so that perhaps some of you outside of our house could enjoy it as well.  

So here they are:

Better Days

Love Remains the Same

She sounds pretty good, eh?

Yesterday I rode the Tour de Whatcom, a 105 mile bicycle ride around Whatcom County, WA.  You can check out my route on the route map here.   It was a great day for riding; here’s some of the good and the not so good:

Of course, I expected there to be great views, and there were.  Some of the best views are during the second half of the ride when we’re on the western part of the county and can look back to the east to Mt Baker. It is a great sight!

One of the unexpected pleasures came in the north eastern part of the ride, between Nooksack and Lyndon, when we passed several raspberry fields.  I love raspberries! It’s roughly harvest time and the smell of fresh raspberry was wonderful!

Staying with the smells theme:  we also passed a number of dairy farms. That was a not so good smell.  Whenever my dad and I came across that smell he would comment that “it smells like money!”  Smells like something else to me.

It may seem like a small thing – but getting a dry shirt from my wife at the 55 mile mark was very nice.  Nothing like a towel to dry off with, a dry bandanna for my head and a nice clean shirt.

I had never been down around the south end of Lake Whatcom, until riding it yesterday; it’s very nice.  Would love to have a cabin down there, or perhaps we’ll have to visit the Bed and Breakfast there.

This was the first long ride I’ve done with the “clip-less” pedals (oddly enough, these are the ones that clip onto your shoes – there is some logic to why they’re called clip-less but I won’t go into it here).  They were a good and not so good thing:  because I was using them I had no pain in my knees at all; however, my feet haven’t quite acclimated yet, so I did have some pain after the ride in the balls of my feet.

My time was a little slow, averaging right around 12.oo miles an hour, however, for the first long ride in a number of years, and on a new bike, I’m going to take it as a positive.

The start line, that’s me in the upper center, blue t-shirt – NOT a cycling shirt!

All in all, a good day of riding (a long day of riding!) and I’m already looking forward to next year’s ride!

The last two books I’ve read are considerably different, but share a common bond: both were written from unusual and what I found to be very interesting perspectives.

Room, by Emma Donoghue is the story of a victim of abduction and her five year old son.   They live their lives in an 11X11 foot room; never leaving the ‘prison’ that is their world.  The entire story is told from the perspective and in the voice of the five year old.  While that means the language is realitively simple and straight forward, the author effectively portrays and says a great deal about the human condition and the emotions and feelings that make us human.  The story is pretty good, the story telling very well done.  Even though the premise may seem disturbing, there is a great deal of beauty and hope, and an overwhelming determination to live.  I would recommend it with four of five stars.

I’m also going to recommend The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein with a four out of five rating, though if I had to put them in order, this one would be first.  The story of aspiring race car driver Denny Swift is completely narrated by his dog, Enzo.  Even though Enzo is frustrated by his inability to speak (I often shared his frustration and wished the characters could hear what Enzo had to say!) and not having opposable thumbs, he is a wise and loving companion to Denny and his family.  Through Enzo we learn much about the human traits of love, humility, loyalty, despair, compassion, hope and joy in the relationship between souls.  As one reviewer put it, “this old soul of a dog has much to teach us about being human.”  I found myself hoping I can be as good a companion to my family as Enzo is to his.

The other day I had occasion to call AAA –kind of a funny story that Sam or I may have to tell sometime.  I keep my AAA card in my wallet, in the same wallet sleeve as my health insurance card.  As I was pulling the AAA card out, it struck me as poetic that the two cards are right there together – and yet I have such diverse feelings about them.

I appreciate my AAA card.  I use it, not necessarily that often, but I do use it.  Enough that calling them isn’t a unique experience, I’m comfortable calling them.  My AAA coverage costs me somewhere between $100 and $150 dollars a year for the family – maybe ten or eleven dollars a month.  I’ve used them because we’ve locked keys in the car, because we’ve had flat tires, or because I needed a vehicle towed.  I appreciate my AAA coverage.

In contrast, I do not appreciate my health insurance card.  I do not like making claims with my health insurance card.  I hate trying to get health care.  My health insurance card costs me almost $700 a month, or about 70 times* as much as my AAA coverage.  I don’t like visiting doctors and typically avoid it.  I begrudge the fact that I have to have that insurance card.

But the problem with my health insurance card isn’t the insurance.  It’s the thing the insurance is covering that causes the problems.  Yes, this post is about health care in the United States.

Health care in the US is broken – broken big time.  But what’s broken about it is not that some people don’t have health insurance or that health insurance isn’t available to everyone.  What’s broken about health care is the cost of health care.  I really wish that those trying to address the problem would stop trying to treat the symptom of insurance coverage and instead work on fixing the actual problem:  the cost of health care.  The insurance is expensive because the care is expensive.  Requiring people to have insurance may actually hurt the problem in the long run as insurance companies have exhibited a lack of ability to control costs.

The cost of health care in the United States is unreasonably expensive.  Google “health care costs per capita” and you’ll get all kinds of numbers and studies that boil down to this:  in the United States our per capita health care costs are roughly double that of comparable countries.  And the country that is second highest, Luxemburg of all places, spends only about two thirds what we do in the United States.

Some would try to argue that we have better care and are healthier because we spend more.  But the argument has no basis in reality.  We are certainly not twice as healthy as Canadians, or almost three times as healthy as the Japanese.  Again, Google relative healthiness and you’ll find lots of support for the idea that in the United States we’re actually less healthy than many other countries.

I’m not saying anyone in the health care industry is overpaid (with the possible exception of pharmaceutical companies, they do seem out of control to me).  In fact I believe the majority are probably underpaid.  But we have got to find a way to reduce the cost of health care.  Medical litigation would be a first target.  Those drug companies that are selling product in the United States at many times the cost they’re selling it for in other countries would be another.**  We have got to shift from reactionary medicine to preventive medicine – which could be an entire debate all on its own.  In some way, the cost of the care has got to be addressed.

My suggestions:  
1.     Stop trying to treat the symptom and go after the disease.  Stop messing with the insurance and start fixing the cost of health care.  I do not believe socialized medicine will work in the United States, (the United States government is inept at actually profitably running anything except itself) but health care does need to be regulated, in the same way the government regulates utilities.  The free market system doesn’t work for utilities and it isn’t working for heath care.  Regulation is in order.  
2.    Malpractice liability has got to be addressed.  No one likes to place a value on life or quality of life, but the excessive judgments in health care litigation have got to be curtailed.  
3.    The cost of medication needs to be brought in line with costs in the rest of the world – if that means pharmaceutical companies earn less, so be it.  If it means a relaxation on FDA requirements for approval of drugs, so be it.  But in some way, get our drug costs in line with the drug costs in other countries.
4.    There must be a fundamental shift in how we view health care and our health, away from reactionary medicine and towards preventive medicine.  It’s considerably cheaper to repair a roof than it is to fix the damage resulting from a collapsed roof, yet when it comes to health care we are consistently waiting until the roof collapses before we do anything.

We have got to make some hard decisions about health care.  I wish those that are making those decisions would actually make them, make the hard decisions, instead of simply covering the whole thing with political maneuvering and rhetoric.  Sometime in the future I would like to pull those two cards out of my wallet again and have the feelings I currently have about the AAA card also apply to my health insurance card:  I’d like to feel good about its cost and its value and actually want to use it.

*Seventy times as much.  Seventy times would make a delivered pizza cost just over a thousand dollars.
**Last December I made one of my infrequent visits to the doctor.  My insurance provides coverage for doctor visits with a moderate co-pay cost.  I had some pain in my ear which I suspected was an infection so I went in.  Sure enough, the doctor diagnosed an infection and prescribed an anti-biotic.  Even with my insurance the cost of the drugs he prescribed was absurd – somewhere between twenty and forty dollars a pill.  I elected not to have the prescription filled and let my body deal with the infection on its own – which it did.  I was feeling fine within a week.

It’s time for the Superbowl Candy Pool!!!!  This will be the seventh year we’ve done the pool, last year we had 59 people participating, this year we’re expecting even more!  This year we’re adding a guess the score component so more candy is up for grabs!  In addition you can submit suggestions to name the new segment – even more candy!  See all the rules and info here:

Superbowl 2011

Get your entries in early (additional squares go to early responders!), either via email, messenger, comments on blogs, text or even phone calls, any way you can get word to us works!

Recently a friend posted this video on facebook.  The presentation is fun – in fact there are a lot of these kind of things on youtube that we spent time laughing about at our house the other day – but what touched me here was the music.  Such powerful music.  The music in this video brings tears to my eyes.

I just reread Trevanian’s The Main, one of my favorite books.  There was I time that someone asked me to address books that have had a big impact on me, and this was one I wrote about.  I said:

“At the risk of showing my age I’ll bring up Trevanian, whose most popular work is probably The Eiger Sanction.  The Main is about a policeman in Montreal whose life revolves around his beat.  I was so able to identify with the character that it was some time before I came to realize that his life was tragic and that the loneliness that surrounded him was what made him tragic.  I realized that the love of those around us is what matters in the enrichment of our lives, not just our own life.”

To that, I would like to add:  The reason this is such a great book is because it’s such a strong character study.  Trevanian really brings the characters to life, not just the people (the policeman, his friends and enemies, the rookie cop, even the victim) but also the area, The Main, that part of Montreal that is the setting for the book.  He really makes the place a character of the novel in a very compelling way.  I’m not sure how he does it, but I found myself really caring about the people, the place, the events that he writes about.  And that’s why I enjoy reading him.

Seems it gets earlier every year!  Here’s the 2010 edition of the Cottle Family Christmas Dance!  (Kris and I really rock it at the 20 second mark.)

This years special guest is one of J’Neil’s cats….not sure which one, but it’s one of them.

Lately I’ve come across some things that have me a little perplexed.  The first was this sign during one of my bike rides:

I’m not sure what to think about touring cemeteries.  At first I thought “eweuuu, that’s a bunch of dead people in there, why would I want to tour dead people, or worse, the place the dead people have settled into.”  But the more I thought about it I began to wonder if I was off – it could be very historically entertaining, I’m an antique fan and generally like old things, perhaps old burial plots could prove interesting…I don’t know, having a hard time coming down on one or the other side of this one, cool or creepy.
So it was in that mindset that I came across this picture:

Someone must think this is a cool picture, either the photographer or the folks in the picture.  To me, it’s just creepy.  I don’t know why it’s creepy, but it’s creepy.  However, I’m trying to have sympathy for the faction that votes cool on this one.
Then on another bike ride, an organized one where I rode with lots of other riders, many of whom were men; I saw lots of men wearing bicycle shorts.  And once again, I found myself a little befuddled.   I know how I feel about this guy in the blue ones, but some guys probably look pretty good in bicycle shorts, like guys in football uniforms – I’ve been told by my female friends that those tight pants football players wear has some kind of appeal.  However, unlike football pants, when the guy in bicycle shorts turns around and faces me I’m always a little uncomfortable.  I’m not sure what the deal is, but bicycle shorts seem to ‘present’ a little more than I want to deal with.  So, I don’t know: bicycle shorts, cool or creepy?

The most recent one was an image I came across while watching tv.  It was Lady Gaga and Cher at the VMAs.   Lady Gaga’s meat dress has me a little flummoxed (is that a flank steak on her head?) but what has me confused is Cher.  In that outfit.  Do I need to remind you that she’s 64?  Yes, 64.  In that outfit.  I just can’t decide –  is that cool, or is that creepy.

For a few years now I’ve wanted to like the television show Last Comic Standing.  I’ve been interested in the entertainment form (comedy) and follow some of the nationally known comedians, primarily through radio and television appearances.  However, Last Comic Standing just never was able to hook me, struggling through several years of format changes and weak participants.  Never the less, I thought this season might be the one I could get into, primarily because instead of going with a more amateur type approach they used veteran comedians.  In fact, of the ten finalists, I knew of and was quite familiar with four of them, Tommy Johnagin, Rachel Feinstein, Roy Wood Jr, and Laurie Kilmartin.  I actually thought this year the show would rock.  
So I tried to watch a few times.  It was difficult; the segments were so short it was hard to feel like any of the performances were strong.  For the most part the judges were good, with the exception of the one judge that no one has ever heard of.  The public voted each week on who got to stay, which I initially thought would be a good idea.  However….
I’m not going to mess with Last Comic Standing anymore.  Last week on their morning radio program Bob and Tom interviewed the final two comics, runner up Tommy Johnagin and the winner, Felipe Esparza.  While it is true that Bob and Tom didn’t know Felipe as well as they know Tommy, I believe the contrast of the two illustrate very well why I’m giving up on Last Comic Standing.  Remember while you’re listening to these clips, Tommy Johnagin lost to Felipe Esparza.

(Editor’s note:  each of these clips is about 3 1/2  minutes.  If you’d like to hear the entire Tommy Johnagin clip – about 21 minutes – let me know and I’ll get it to you.)

Bob and Tom – Felipe Esparza segment
Bob and Tom – Tommy Johnagin segment

If it makes you feel any better, you can vote for your favorite here:  Click here to take survey

There’s not much to say here….I met this guy during my bike ride today (you can see the top of my Bike E back there behind him), it’s called a Rhoades Car, a 4 wheel bicycle.  This particularly one is the four seat model, with reinforced tires and cool fenders.   And I want one.

Dateline – WASHINGTON (the state) – It’s that time of year – time to start thinking about FOOTBALL, and that means it’s time for the second season of the Greyhavens Fantasy Football League. After a successful first season, the league is once again poised to provide fun and excitement for everyone that wants to participate.

Oddly enough, the original founding teams are all that currently have registered for the 2010 season: Dunedain, The Hand of David and Snowmen.  The league is still hoping to hear from some of last years’ teams, particularly the Bruisers, the Bulldogs, The Burning Legion and last years’ regular season leader the Wurstens6, as well as some new managers that have expressed interest in joining the league.

There continues to be an emphasis on simplicity in the league, which will continue with the simplified draft which requires managers simply to rate players in order of preference – or even do nothing and rely on Yahoo Sports preference rankings.  Scoring will remain basic with some additional offensive ways to score points (points for receptions and completions, additional points for longer field goals) and some additional defensive points (increased points for interceptions, blocked kicks and fumble recoveries; points for defensive return yards and defensive return touchdowns).

Team owners will need to register their teams soon in order to have time enough to reorder their draft preferences.  Registration is simple and requires only a yahoo id.  If interested in registering your team, simply send an email to craigthegrey@yahoo.com requesting registration information.  You’ll receive complete, easy to follow directions to register your team.  Any questions can be directed to Commissioner Cottle at craigthegrey@yahoo.com or via any of his web presences (Live, From Wherever I Am, All Cottles Great and Small, or Facebook.

The GFFL draft will be conducted on or around September 5th.  All managers must be registered before 11:59 pm on September 4th.  Good luck!

Last weekend we went to see Despicable Me, the latest animation project from Universal.  I’ve spent the week since then trying to come up with something to say besides “this is a great movie.”  I haven’t been too successful.

This movie manages to capture strong emotions in completely absurd situations (the plan is to steal the moon!).  The characters are very, very compelling – we expect to fall in love with the orphan girls, however the level of adoration we have for the minions is off the charts.  Remember Pixar’s desk lamp and how you felt connected to it?  Take that times about ten and you have the effect the minions will have on you.

Perhaps one of the reasons the movie comes across so well is that although there are many voices in the movie you should recognize, (Steve Carell, Julie Andrews, Kristen Wiig, Will Arnett, Jason Segel) they’re done in such a way as to not at all distract from the movie.  I can’t watch any of the Shrek movies without an image of Eddie Murphy in my head.  And Fiona’s voice is Cameron Diaz’s voice, not Fiona’s.  I can’t see Alan Rickman in anything – including as Snape in Harry Potter movies – without hearing the Voice of God from Dogma.  Not so with Despicable Me.  The characters all have their own identity, there is no distraction from a voice clearly from outside the project.  Not once did I think of Maxwell Smart or Michael Scott, or any of those annoying characters Kristen Wiig does on SNL.

Go see Despicable Me.  You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll want to have your own minion.  It is a great movie.

Remember Valerie Bertinelli?  Unless you were comatose, you had to have had at least some level of crush on her in your youth.  She was one of the stars of “One Day at a Time.”  She was the cute, non-addicted one.  Of course, that she married Eddie Van Halen only made her more appealing.  For some time she’s been selling us on the virtues of the Jenny Craig diet plan.
So, my latest sign of the apocalypse:  This month Valerie Bertinelli is on the cover of the AARP magazine.

(I’m still not going to join the AARP….until I’m actually old….which I’m not….despite their regular offers….which have been coming to me for several years now.)

I quite enjoy the NCAA tournament every year, but it’s been a long, long time since I paid any attention to the NBA.  If I do happen to catch a game I’m generally disappointed in the level and quality of play.  (Although, as I write this I have the third quarter of the NBA finals game 5 on, and I am somewhat impressed with the Celtics play; not so much the Lakers, their play can only be described as the “all Kobe, all the time, show”)  But this morning I saw something that did catch my attention.  At the turn around point of my bike ride (Marine Park this morning) there were six folks – I can’t be absolutely sure, but I believe it was co-ed – out on kayaks playing “basketball.”  You can’t see it too well (all I had was my phone camera) but the buoys in the picture actually have basketball type rims with a net at the top of them.  The ball they were using was a little smaller than a soccer ball,  easily palmed though they spent just as much time scooping it up and passing it with their oars.  None of them could shoot very well, I saw lots of missed shots, but they were obviously working hard.  Myself and a small crowd of about a dozen heartily cheered every score – at both ends.  I thoroughly enjoyed the fifteen or twenty minutes I spent watching them.

By the way, in this NBA game that’s on we’re now in the fourth quarter and sure enough, the Celtics are looking as bad as the Lakers do…

This morning on my bike ride I rode down to a park I hadn’t been to before, Marine Park.  I decided to check it out because I hadn’t been there before and it marks the finish line for the annual Ski to Sea race which was being run today (much more on that later).  Of course, since it’s a big day for the park there were lots of vendors there, one of which was Pemco insurance.   As I rode by, I noticed that the guy from the Pemco booth took my picture.   I’m not sure how regional Pemco is, but if you’re in the Northwest, you may have heard some of their recent ads, the theme of which is “We’re a lot like you.  A little different.”  (You can check some of them out HERE.) So, his having taken my picture and me remembering the commercials, I had to go back and ask if I might be seeing myself as “little different” on an upcoming commercial.  He was non-committal.  However, he did take another picture of me and gave me a lanyard to wear home.  I just may not be “different” enough for TV…

On my bike ride the other day I stopped for a brief rest at Boulevard Park  (one of Kristin and J’Neil’s favorite places to walk and to have hot chocolate), and found myself looking over this mural prominently displayed there at the park.  I was thinking “that’s not a bad piece of art – probably a local artist or artists….”  But then I realized “that’s a clothed bear sitting there.”  Then, “is that a naked guy walking in the background?”  Now I started looking closely and found the guy with a fish on his head.  And then the car in the sky.  The leaves morphing into birds is very MC Esher, but it’s the strange things all over that had me scratching my head.  I spent several minutes on a veritable “where’s waldo” examination of this mural. There’s a hiker with the head of an alligator, what looks a little like a bird wearing a native american head band, a mermaid type thing floating through the sky, lots of strange animals in strange places and lots more.  I just had to share.

The other night I was flipping channels and came across an episode of Unwrapped on the Food Network (it’s funny how often I end up on the Food Network when I’m “flipping channels”).  I caught a segment on Five Guys Burgers and Fries.  They looked pretty good – reminded me of the Big H at Hires in SLC, which I’ve always considered as having about the best burgers and fries I’ve had.  So I thought I’d check out locations for Five Guys in Washington – on the off chance there was one I could stop into when I’m out and about.  I was surprised to see that “coming soon” there will be one in Bellingham, about 2 miles from our home.  The closest one that is already opened is in Marysville, just off the freeway.  This evening, I happened to be driving by there so I stopped in for a burger and fries.

My oh my, what a wonderful burger place.  I still rank the Big H as a better burger – primarily because of the bun they use – however, the Five Guys burger is a very, very close second.   The regular burger is two patties of obviously hand crafted hamburger and can be dressed any way you’d like it – including my favorite burger compliment:  grilled onions.  They also have a smaller burger, which is just the one patty.  The fries, again obviously hand cut, were also very good, and very, very plentiful.  The girl at the register explained to me, the “regular cup of fries is enough for 1-3 people,” and indeed, I had had enough fries before I even got the cup – after putting the burger and cup in the bag, he dumped an incredible amount of fries in the bag over the top of everything.

I was a little surprised to find that there are no “combo” offerings:  you pick your burger, you pick your fries and the drinks are self serve.  The décor was interesting, with bags of potatoes, and boxes of peanut oil prominently featured throughout.  I couldn’t help but be reminded of my father when I saw the bulk peanuts available for guests to open and consume while waiting for their burger and fries.

I know that many of you out there have already had the Five Guys experience – for those that haven’t let me add my recommendation and encouragement to try them out.  I’m sure I’ll be going back often to that one opening in Bellingham – as it turns out it’ll be open this Monday!

Time for me to brag some….

About a week ago we had the privilege of going to see J’Neil perform as part of the Southridge High School Symphony and Band.  She played flute and piccolo and I thoroughly enjoyed the evening.  They have a tradition for their concerts of having students come out and perform individually during the time they switch up from the Orchestra to the Symphony or to the Band.  For this concert, J’Neil came out and played guitar and sang.

I was very proud.

She did very well, though she said she was nervous, she appeared quite comfortable, evening joking with the audience a little before she started playing (“can you hear me?”).  She performed “Little Wonders” and was just great.  Several people were compelled to tell me how good she sounded.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any audio or video of her performance, but several months ago I did record her singing Little Wonders.  It’s not great, not as well as she did at the concert, (she’ll probably point out right off that in this recording she’s not playing her twelve string) but you can get an idea of how she sounds here:

jneil little wonders

I had errands to run the other day that included a trip to the post office; a new post office, one that I hadn’t been to before.  There was  a short line, which I had to wait in for a few minutes, and while waiting I noticed this:

Yes, that is exactly what it looks like it is:  a rack of cards – birthday cards, anniversary cards, get well cards, friendship cards, thinking of you cards – all kinds of cards.  Right there.  At the post office.  Cards to mail to people right there at the post office.

I’ve tried about six different sentences to end the post with, none have felt adequate.  So, the concluding statement to this post is all yours.  Post suggestions in the comments, we’ll have a vote for a favorite.