The Winds Get Warmer

It’s been an insanely busy few weeks. I’ve actually had a complaint from one of my faithful readers (!) about the lack of activity on my blog. I imagine the other one will be complaining shortly… ;-)

Last weekend, I went 3 hours up the coast for a small, intimate retreat with some very close friends. It was a bit stressful due to some of the dynamics at work, but all in all a nice weekend.

I climbed my first mountain ever, Acadia Mountain on Mt. Desert Island just off the coast of Ellsworth, Maine. Though it’s a small mountain, it was very cool to go for a nice climb. My legs are, frankly, still recovering, though their weariness has been exacerbated by lots of walking and biking since I got back. It was a very surreal experience; the day we chose to go hiking was cloudy and misty. What could have been a fantastic view of Soames Sound, the inlet that nearly divides the island in two, was a glimpse into the gray abyss of nothingness. It was quite an existential moment actually; it forced us in a sort of mystical way to focus on the immediacy of the mountain itself. The hike itself was short, but somewhat strenuous. It wasn’t just follow-the-uphill-path; there was definitely some climbing involved. It started to rain as we came down, so the rocks were a bit slippery. But we all survived, and went into Bar Harbor afterwards for lunch. My daughter, who would turn 7 2 days after the hike, did very well. She beat me by 28 years, in the age-at-which-we-climb-our-first-mountain category.

Things Quitchy continue to progress. I’m getting better at programming drums, and with Matt’s help, I’m learning to put the drum fills and flourishes in the right spaces around the songs, accenting the vocal lines. I’m quite pleased with how well this is turning out. Forward momentum.

I also met a “virtual” friend for the first time last week. We have a lot in common, we’re both musicians, we’re both setting up sonar-based studios, and we both share a love for prog rock, and an appreciation for our mutual friend and cosmic adventurer Buzz Bakewell.

I’ve also been reconnecting with my wife in a wonderful way. We’re doing good work together, while still managing to find time to play. Our relationship is growing in interesting and magical ways. We’re also getting closer to other people in our community, which continues to amaze and excite me. Yes, I can say with some amount of certainty, my life rocks.

Because I took last weekend off from work, I’ve been working more this week to make up the hours. So my schedule has been insanely busy. It’s funny that in order to carve space in my reality for a vacation, I have to make the time around the vacation very busy. Ah well. So it goes.

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