Now

Music Making

After dealing with a broken wrist in February and March, I was able to start playing guitar again by April. Good thing too, as that month was full of gigs. Amanda and I started the month off with our first duo gig of the year. Then there was a season of Rock Voices shows to play, followed immediately by a musical, and finally a local annual fundraiser I’ve played for the third year running. That was a lot of new music to learn really quickly.

I still feel residual effects from the broken wrist. It was the left wrist, my fretting hand. While the bone is in good shape, the tendons are still a bit reluctant to be as flexible as they once were, so it’s still a bit painful to play certain things, to do certain stretches. But I do them anyway. Hey, my orthopedic says it’s good physical therapy, and I’m not going to argue with that.

The album that Amanda and I are planning to record is still in the works. The recording date has slipped a number of times for various reasons, but we now have a date booked in July. We’ll get it there!

Parenting

I’ll soon be something of an empty nester. My daughter has decided to go clear across the country to start her undergraduate college experience. It’s not one of the schools she really wanted to go to—she applied to very competitive schools—so she’s already planning out her transfer applications.

A meditation about this phase of being a parent, written by Mike Monteiro, showed up in my inbox the other day, and it hit just right.

Caretaking

After the better part of two years of dealing with degenerative myelopathy, we said goodbye to Luke. It was gutting to put him down, but it is also a relief.

Being a middle aged person with elderly parents, I spend time each week helping them manage their day-to-day affairs. They live a few hundred miles away, and I can get easily frustrated dealing with them, my mom in particular. But still, I do what I can to help them make their days a little more organized.