How I Spent My Christmas Vacation

a not-so-brief essay by moi.

First, we'd just gotten a Shiny New Tradition. I'd just unwrapped it and didn't even get a chance to try it out! Our Shiny New Tradition was supposed to be Staying Home And Relaxing on Christmas Day. Only it turned out that our planned traveling day was going to be Stormy Weather, so we left on Christmas for my parents' place.

Good thing we did - the weather was terrible the next day.

We had a great time at Christmas. Seth, Heather and Ray were there as well as my parents and we had a lovely visit with them. Ray and Kai got along GREAT, as usual. :) Kai even let Ray give him a hug and kiss when it was time for them to leave.

Next, we went shopping in Traverse City for mom's New Years' Party! Woohoo! It was very cool - mom and dad took us to Old Mission Peninsula Park (a lovely drive down Old Mission Peninsula) and to the lighthouse at the end. VERY cool there - there's not only a Lighthouse, but a Historic Marker and a World War 1 & 2 monument there.










The next day was New Years' Eve, and so we went to the New Years' Eve service at church. And, thanks to my dad, I got to play the organ!
It's a very old Tracker organ. It was actually installed in the church in 1901, and originally had a hand-pumped bellows. Here's the hardware:


Neat, huh?

But wait, there's more! It's less complex (for the organist) than any other organ I've seen. No endless ranks of stops, no buttons to change stop settings, no double or triple manuals (or more)...
Just eight stops (plus Pedal Coupler - and more on THAT in a minute) and a single manual. And it's got a GREAT sound.

Looky:


Here's a closeup of the Right side stops:



And of the Left side:


See that one that says "Pedal Coupler"? It means it - if you have that activated, and push down a pedal, the corresponding manual key depresses as well! That was disconcerting...


Those aren't really "stops": they're notes for the 3 foot options. "Forte" is the pedal one pushes to get pretty much all the stops to come out. "Piano" is the one to push to make 'em all go back in (except for a few quiet stops). And "Swell" is just what you think - it's the foot rocker pedal for the Swell box to open for more volume.



I found this note a bit amusing in its pointedness. They've tried polite little notes before, but to no avail - sometimes they get over-enthusiastic guest organists that really stomp on the foot pedals and...well...as you can see, it does take its toll on the poor organ hardware!
Sorry for the blur - I was right there taking the pic. Best I could do.
The text is:
Pedal repair work was done in May '08.

It doesn't matter how hard you strike the pedals. The volume doesn't change. The trackers are old and brittle so please be gentle.

Do not wear street shoes when playing this organ.

Here's the pedals:



And check out some of the gorgeous paintwork on the pipes:








My dad rocks. I'm really glad he arranged that opportunity for me. I hadn't realized how much I'd enjoy playing that organ. That was a GREAT organ to play...now I wanna do it again! :D

Then on FRIDAY when we were out getting last-minute supplies for the party, we found this license plate:


*snicker*

Weekend Revelry

Had a good time over the weekend. My parents came down, and we enjoyed having them visit. We all went to a friend's house for dinner, and we enjoyed that. Hung out most of the weekend at our house with my parents. I really liked having them visit. We had a lot of fun, even if it WAS mostly hanging around and watching NCIS. :D

Trying to arrange Christmas Schedules...whoof. Dunno what we're going to do about that yet. Last-minute schedules, yay. I swear, I'm last-minute-planophobic, but this year it's pretty much not going to work out any other way.

I hope things work out well.

Meaning in Life

Strawberry's latest post asks how to "find the meaningful" in life. It's a good question, really. How do you find things that are meaningful, and how do you get motivated to DO them?

Sometimes "The Meaningful" just whacks you between the eyes. Sometimes it's incredibly obvious, and you can't help but do whatever it may be, because you're almost compelled to do so. For me, that's things like playing the organ for church. I have to play - at least on occasion. Heck, just going to service on Sundays is The Meaningful. And I do really miss it if I don't go in a particular week. And I'm sure that, if you asked her, Strawberry would tell you that teaching Sunday School is part of The Obvious Meaningful to her.

But sometimes The Meaningful doesn't present itself with a 2x4. Sometimes, making yourself go out and doing something becomes meaningful in retrospect. I don't mean just things that are "hafta do" things, like laundry and cleaning - I mean things like "go for a walk in the park" or "sit outside with a coffee (or tea) and just listen to the birds" becomes meaningful. Those are ways that Captain Spaulding and I use to "center" ourselves, and take a couple minutes out to remind ourselves that life isn't just about doing the things we MUST do every day. Life isn't just sleep-eat-work-sleep; it's the little stuff.

Likewise, Meaningful isn't always the Big Important Feelings and motivations. Many times I've had to force myself out of my chair, out of the house, to go do something that I really don't feel like doing. I don't feel motivated, I don't feel ambitious, and I sure as heck don't want to do anything except go back to bed. But I get up and do it, because either I've promised someone else I'll be there, or go do "it" (whatever it is), or because I'm just tired of being in my rut of sleep-eat-work-sleep. I certainly don't feel like whatever I'm going to do is meaningful. But later on, maybe while I'm doing whatever it is, or afterward, I look and see that yes, it was meaningful, and I feel better about myself for having done it. Even if it's just walking the dog around the block, or hiking in the woods, or...hey, even hanging laundry to dry.

The Meaningful is all around us. Sometimes it's obvious. Sometimes it's very, very hard to see. When it becomes nigh unto impossible to find, it's up to each of us to MAKE The Meaningful happen, rather than wait for it to find us. And, like many other things, the more Meaningful we "do", the easier it is to find it next time.

Wedding Pictures! Round 2!

More wedding pictures!!!



Hugs after the ceremony.



Bridal party in the church



The whole party inside the church




Awwwwwwww...aren't they adorable?


WildStrawberry and her new husband. Ain't they sweet?

Wedding Pictures!

Got lots of pictures from WildStrawberry of her wedding!


The Bridal Party



The Groomal Party



The Blushing Bride. Ain't she pretty?



Bride & Matron of Honor



Groom and Best Man Proxy

A Good Time was had by all

Well, we missed out on the family party over the weekend. My brother, sister-in-law and their kids came out from Wyoming to visit, and our family had a get-together on Saturday so everyone could visit with them. And, of course, we had to Stay Home. (I would've been in too much pain to do it anyway - and riding sideways in the car for that long? Yikes. I'm gonna have to take a BUNCH of Ginger Root the days we go to & from Indy.)
So...anyway, they were kind enough to take a few hours out of their travel today to stop off for lunch in Auburn and visit with us. :)
We had a great time. I'm all wore out from hopping to the table and stuff, so I'm really glad that my parents are letting me borrow their wheelchair, and now my leg is kinda achy, but it was totally worth it.

Going Home

Y'know, it's tough to realize how much of a luxury "going home" is until you can't do it. I have Stuff To Do at home - and I can't do it till Thursday, at the earliest. That's frustrating, and annoying.

Kev's fighting with a new program I put on the computer, that he doesn't understand (because he's never seen it before) that I should be dealing with, not him - but he's the one stuck with it. He's frustrated because it's just One More Thing To Do That He Shouldn't Have To Deal With (and that isn't self-explanatory, isn't intuitive, and isn't fast. And that he really doesn't have the time or the inclination to deal with.) I'm frustrated because I forgot to deal with it over the weekend, and I can't just say "eh, well, don't worry about it, I'll do it tonight".
I also can't say "I'll do it Thursday", because it's something Kev needs to be able to get ready for a gaming session on Friday.

I just want to be able to say "don't worry about it; I'll do it when I get home tonight", any night of the week. Is that too much to ask?

I want to swear. A lot. Loudly, extensively, and with great fervor.

The "Knack"

Some time ago, the Dilbert animated program featured a very young Dilbert being taken to the doctor by his mother. He was diagnosed with "The Knack" - a condition involving an intuition about electronics and how they worked.

I don't have The Knack, but fortunately I do have some Knack-ish tendencies. Over the weekend, Kev's C-PAP machine quit working. Actually, it was just the switch. This of course meant that it wouldn't turn on. Fortunately, the switch on it is a "toggle" arrangement, so even if it's unplugged while it's ON, it'll go right back on again when you plug it in.

We wound up disassembling the thing at 11:00 Saturday night. Took the 3 screws out of the bottom of the unit to take it apart, only to discover that
1) the circuit board was held to the top of the unit with 4 more screws, and
2) the switch was between the circuit board and the top of the unit.

Of course.

4 more screws were removed, and we fiddled with the switch. No dice.
Well...hey, it looks like the switch is just these two little metal dots that finish a connection between these two power points. Wonder what happens if you have the unit plugged in (while disassembled...yeah, that's a great idea...) and then put a piece of foil over those two contacts?

It turns on, is what happens. Yay!
So, Kev's C-PAP is once again working, he will hopefully remember to put in a service call to the C-PAP place, and all is well.

Hey dad, guess what, I learned something other than "how to bug your father in 2 easy steps" by hanging out with you and asking you a bazillion questions every time you tried to fix something.

Thanks for your patience. I love my dad. :)

Happy Fangsgiving!

OK, note for the future: Combining Thanksgiving, Christmas, and birthdays all in a 3.5-day visit is just too much. Seriously. I'm exhausted, and I didn't even do anything!

Mom got to surprise dad with his Christmas gift - a new Camcorder and tripod. She and my dad really are grateful to all my online friends that helped out and gave advice about what to look for - and what NOT to buy!

Nephew Raymond luuuuurvvvveeesss opening presents. Anyone surprised? No, I didn't think so. He LOVED his books he got from Gramma & Papa and from Aunt Kim & Uncle Kev. He wanted mommy & daddy to read "what I see in church" and "Martin Luther" and "The Creation" and "My First Catechism" and... :D

He also luuuuuurrrrrrvvvvveeeesss Kai. I was a little concerned about that one, to be honest - most 2-year-olds just aren't crazy about being around a dog that's the same size as them. And even the ones that are used to big dogs like that really aren't "good" with them - they're always sticking their fingers in his nose / eyes / ears / mouth and constantly need watching to make sure they're not torturing the poor dog. But not Ray. Nope, he knows exactly how to behave around dogs, and he was always very careful to be nice to Kai. He LOVED giving him treats and pets and hugs! Of course, that meant he also wanted to pretty much feed the entire Thanksgiving turkey to Kai, who was right there encouraging him! Kai even let Gramma know that she was not to play too rough with Ray. When he squealed because she was tickling him, Kai was right there and grred-barked at her, as if to say, "thus far. No more." Then when she stopped, he backed off and sat down and watched to make sure that Gramma and mommy were going to treat HIS human puppy well! Goodness. I really didn't expect that.

Kev really likes his new FM Transmitter he got for Christmas from my parents, and I'm really happy about my Shiny New Mythbusters DVD collection! :D
Mom was happy with her new crocheted bags for shopping (so she doesn't have to use paper OR plastic anymore!) and with her 6 bags of Vanilla Creme Drops we managed to find - and the new Carhartt gloves we got her.
Heather & Seth liked their Crocheted bags and homemade cookies! YUM.
Dad liked his Carhartt gloves and we completely surprised him with a scraper that attaches to a reciprocating saw. :D

Overall, the visit was a good one. Tempers and patience were starting to go on Sunday, since we were all tired from the visit (and we think Ray's teething again, so he did not have a good night, which of course means mommy & daddy didn't either) and we were all kinda bummed we had to go Back To Reality Land, but in general, I think a Good Time Was Had By All.