I’m proud of myself that I left the house to be social, not for a horse or Master Naturalist event. I used to do that more often, but I got convinced that the whole town didn’t like me, so I stayed home except for lunch each week and when Anita and I used to have coffee. I’ve been down to just lunch, Master Naturalist, and riding lessons this year, even though I’m no longer concerned about anyone’s opinions. I’m just not feeling social.
I’d rather hang out with the plants.
But I did join the group of more social folks tonight to listen to a friend’s band play. It was nice of Pamela to invite me along! I enjoyed the music and the folks we sat with, too.
KCD Band playing “Guitar Man.”
It’s fun being in the social hub of Cameron and watching everyone greet each other and mingle. It all seems so darned friendly, especially when you’re blissfully ignorant of any local drama. Heck, I even got greeted and hugged—made me feel like part of the community! All in all, a good evening.
That’s Jadan playing his keytar.
Ooh! I almost forgot to share that right after I turned onto our county road, our local Big Cat sauntered across the road, disappearing into the woods. That was exciting to me, and gave me a good story to tell Pamela. And now Alfred has something more interesting to bark at tonight.
In the last few months, Lee and I have been watching documentaries on musicians from our formative years. We have similar musical tastes, so it’s easy to choose. We’ve seen some “biopix” as well, like Freddy Mercury and Elton John. Of course we saw the Bob Dylan movie, which I e mentioned that I enjoyed. I prefer actual documentaries, though, with historical footage, music by the performers them, and insights from other musicians/friends/scholars.
The 2025 HBO two-part documentary on Billy Joel was meaningful to me in that it confirmed why I always liked him and his music. I like musicians who are willing to grow and change and who are true to themselves. I remember saying, “See, see, he really WAS funny, talented, and energetic!” when they played footage of when I saw him in my undergrad years. I remember we were pretty flabbergasted by his talent before he was super famous.
Find someone with HBO and watch this.
His honesty about himself as well as his admission of his mistakes made me unsurprised at how kindly his ex-wives and former associates talked about him.
He’s not someone you can put in a particular musical “box,” and is a real person, which the documentary makes clear. Listening to his music as an older person also let me see more nuances. I’m glad to have re-experienced it from a new perspective, both musically and emotionally.
Today we watched the 2020 HBO documentary on The Bee Gees. I was surprised at what I did not know about the Gibbs family and how hard the brothers worked on their songwriting and musicianship. I admit to having liked their early music but not paying all that much attention to it, because it seemed too “pop” to rock-n-roll Suna.
I also confess to actually liking the Saturday Night Fever music. It was good. I was simply tired of the thumpa-thumpa disco beats emanating from our gay roommate’s headphones 24/7 (it seemed, though Bobby really liked all music).
What impressed me most about the Gibbs brothers was that they were driven to write music even more than to perform it. There were songs I didn’t realize they’d written for others! Honestly, you can just watch this film for the soundtrack.
In the end, though, Barry Gibbs said he’d trade all the hits to have his brothers back. Yes, their close family (parents, wives, etc.) were also a hint about their character.
Both Joel and the Gibbs brothers come through as flawed, talented, and smart people. They are famous due to hard work. I like that.
Now I need to go find some more good music documentaries about artists who started when I was young. Some would be sooo long, if they hit all the highs and lows (the Who?). I will go look for more. I encourage you to find documentaries on musicians you enjoy. I guess you will end up depressed or impressed, considering the subject. But at least you’ll get to hear the music from a new perspective, which I do not get when I read biographies and just play music in my head as I remember it.
Anyway, tarot card of the day was 6 of wands. Ooh, fire. It means, in the Gaian deck, that I’m contributing to communal efforts with energy.
Welp, I sure hope to do this next week when I fly to Oregon to meet with coworkers in person. I have an early flight, so I’ll type to you later!
I no longer am comfortable in large crowds. So I don’t go places to see performances anymore. And my family no longer makes music for each other after some sad things happened. Oh well. I still enjoy performances daily.
My audience at this concert.
So, I’ll say my most recent live performance, which took place 2:00-2:20 today, featured, in order of appearance):
Painted Bunting
Tennessee Warbler
Tufted Titmouse
Northern Cardinal
Barn Swallow
Carolina Chickadee
Eastern Bluebird
Carolina Wren
Green Heron (weirdest melody)
Mourning Dove
House Sparrow
Rooster
Domestic Turkey, portrayed by Connie Gobbler
Eastern Meadowlark
Northern Mockingbird
Dickcissel
Bay-breasted Warbler
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
American Crow
Barred Owl
Purple Martin
Brown-headed Cowbird
Baltimore Oriole
Cliff Swallow
Warbling Vireo
Great Crested Flycatcher
Common Nighthawk
Red-bellied Woodpacker
Yellow-billed Cuckoo (second weirdest melody)
Accompanied by:
Flies
Gnats
Wasps
Cow (coughing)
Dogs
Cow (mooing)
Honeybees
The concert venue
I missed the rhythm section, the woodpeckers until the Red-belly appeared, and the frequent raptor soloists almost failed to show up until the Nighthawk croaked. All in all, a pretty good show.
Decorations (Christmas cholla)
Thanks to Merlin Bird ID for recording the concert and iNaturalist for plant ID.
The free refreshments were vine-ripened and delicious.
Have you ever performed on stage or given a speech?
Um. Yes. I probably should have studied acting. I enjoy performing very much, and have since I was a child. I like being someone else, whether doing music or speaking. Most of my speaking has been teaching or training. I enjoy it. Perhaps that’s why I’m a corporate trainer and spent much of my life singing in choruses and harmony groups.
My outgoing persona was out tonight.
Still, I prefer a friendly audience. Usually that’s not an issue. I mostly sang to friends or people I had things in common with, and I just make the people I’m training into a friendly audience with my relentless friendliness. Who IS that woman?
Here I’m orating at the Grand Canyon, or pretending to be
It’s been a lot harder lately for me to get out in public and “perform.” I admit that the reason I’m so “on” at parties is that it’s more like fake performance Suna is there, not real anxiety-ridden Suna.
My friend Debra and I about to launch into holiday songs. Not really. We just dressed similarly.
I succeeded tonight in doing okay at the Master Naturalist holiday party. I was probably overly outgoing, but I had fun taking pictures and being silly. I’d been really nervous beforehand. I think it’s because I haven’t ventured into a group of people who aren’t all close to me since…October I think.
I’d missed friends like Don and Cindy.
But it went well and I was pleased with the fun, good food, and gift swap (I got a cool hand-carved whale!). Whew. I did it. I’m tired now, like any introvert is after mingling, but I feel ok. People were kind to me, too.
Yummy food. The pork was amazing.
You’ve all been very kind after yesterday’s dumping of some of my issues. I do want to say we will have enough land for horse pastures; just not how I’d wanted it. I wasn’t dry clear. Thank you all for caring.
When you think of the word “successful,” who’s the first person that comes to mind and why?
A prompt I haven’t answered yet! And I have an answer! That’s great, because I’m pretty wiped out from writing and thinking about other stuff right now. It’s all good—I’m just worn out mentally.
I’ve been busy as this tiny guy getting ready for their first winter.
I thought of the best boss ever as my idea of successful. That’s Bruce Springsteen, someone whose career I’ve been watching since high school. He’s worked hard to be the best at what he does and developed the leadership skills and business savvy to go to the top of his field.
The only Bruce image in the free photo library.
I know plenty of great musicians, wonderful songwriters, and fine singers who didn’t have all those other skills needed to succeed in music. You have to be good at hiring and keeping a great team for your band, but also at hiring honest and dedicated publicists, booking agents, and logistics folks. That’s pretty rare. He’s done it.
The most moving spiritual experiences I’ve ever had were at his concerts.
Springsteen has also done what I find most important in a successful person. He’s given back to the community he came from, helped others, and worked hard to make his country and planet better. He’s shown a strong moral compass and been a great spiritual example, too. He’s the good kind of Christian.
Plus he’s learned from mistakes and grown as a person. That’s important for success. He has a great relationship with a spouse he chose for more than her beauty and great children who are able to follow their dreams.
Jessica Springsteen
I’m sure life isn’t perfect for Bruce Springsteen, because we all have our challenges and regrets, but to be able to do what you love as long as he has is a wonderful thing. It takes hard work, but what rewards!
Doing what you love leads to success so often!
PS: I’m doing things I love, have good friends and family, and I’m having fun. That’s success to me. Let’s hope things stay this way.
I guess my experience with being in a vocal trio with a Kerrville Folk Festival devotee, volunteering at a monthly folk coffeehouse for years, and living with a rock/country guitarist for three years or so doomed me. I became pretty fond of Americana music. What’s that?
I’m lucky to have lived in Austin, Texas (or thereabouts) for 30 years or more. There is a lot of Americana music to watch. I watched and listened to a lot of it with my music friends. I loved this part of my life.
Americana! Featuring my friend Jeff.
Oddly, I don’t listen much anymore. I think it has to do with the loss of my older son, who is a wonderful mandolin player (he’s not dead, just refuses to speak). And some unpleasantness happened to my other son in the music scene. Plus, my vocal cords are now damaged and I can’t sing certain notes now. It has taken away the pleasure of music.
My kid at left.
That took a dark turn. Of course there were wonderful musical moments in my life. And music moves me when I do listen. And not just Americana! I love classic rock, classical, and Celtic especially. and the music of nature, naturally. Heh heh.
Suna sings to me sometimes.
Eh. I’ll stop before I go on and on about favorite artists. Enjoy looking at Fiona and Drew.
You get some great, amazingly fantastic news. What’s the first thing you do?
If I got great news, I’d tell the people in my household, then call Anita and Mike, because they are the people I tell stuff to. Then I’d tell my local friends email chain, my old LLL friend Facebook group, my horse friends, and my other Facebook friend group who I’ve been friends with before there was anything other than email. I guess I’d then go out with the horses and think about things. I might do the horse part first.
What news do I have for you blog readers today? There isn’t too much, since we got lots and lots of rain. All good. Not like mudslide rain, just standing water that’s not conducive to outdoor activities.
February showers bring happy wildflowers.
But everybody at our house did go look at paint colors for the renovation project house. Mmm, two shades of white. But, it had to be whites that complement pink and tan, the colors of the retro tile we are keeping.
Great paint names.
I got paint samples to take over to the house to see how they go with the brick (peach) and roof (gray/green/brown). I want a grayish green for the trim and a dark apricot for the doors. We will see if any of them look okay or if we have to be more conservative.
We also went all the way to Temple to look at tile and floors for the house. No final decision was made, but it was fun looking. We also had a good lunch (especially the squash casserole thing) and ran into our next-door neighbors/relatives. It’s rare that all five of us are in the same place. We are a happy, yet hermit-like family.
Floor candidate. Goes with creamy colors. Main bath idea Kitchen with tools pretendí to be an island My offspring did this drywall.
I’m glad Apache is better about his medication now, or I’d have gotten extra wet trying to get it to him. The other horses will get their rations whenever it isn’t raining tomorrow. It was slippery out there!
No bird news from here. I saw sparrows and a hawk. Oh, and doves in Temple.
I saw this tiny arachnid on the new drywall.
Newshounds, I’m sure you wished for more, but I doubt you want to read the Jackson Browne lyrics I got all misty over and posted on Facebook. You can go listen to the version I watched tonight. Perfect for a reflective old imperfect human, even if he did write These Days at 16.
If you could meet a historical figure, who would it be and why?
Yow. This is hard! I came up with the Buddha, because I’d like to have learned from him. I’d also have enjoyed talking to Eleanor Roosevelt. I’d love her perspective on the choices she made in life and to experience her intelligence in person.
Unretouched sunset
Really, though, regular people can be just as interesting as famous people. It would be interesting to talk to some of my ancestors in the Middle Ages in England, just to see what life was really like for women then.
Did they listen to birds or were they too busy trying to survive?
Okay, so it was US Thanksgiving, two years since my sister walked out and never spoke to me again. I have so many weird memories of this holiday, but I still love it. I miss cooking with someone.
You can see birds better now that leaves are off.
Today most of our usual dinner companions were dealing with pressing matters elsewhere, so it was just me, Lee, Anita, and my son. But it was pleasant, fairly relaxed (other than not being able to find a blender or even a potato masher to puree corn).
Table set with random things.
I messed up my own cranberry sauce recipe by adding lime oil (bad idea), but everything else was tasty, even the turkey I just stuck in the oven and cooked. Desserts were great, too. Anita made a lovely cranberry bread with fresh pecans from her neighborhood trees.
Food.
The best part of the evening was just sitting around and talking after dinner and a little concertina concert from my son, who found the instrument under some stairs in a building he’s renovating. Anyway, we all just went from humor to serious conversation, and I think we all had a good time. I’m very grateful for the chance to have relaxed conversations with people I love.
Rainbow after we ate.
So all is well, even though our minds were on family and friends who are struggling.
Daily Bird
I’ll say today’s bird is the loggerhead shrike. I enjoy them bellowing from the electric wires and leaving insects stuck on the fences. They’re such fierce little guys. I enjoyed watching this one today.
It rained and rained and I worked and worked today, so I didn’t have any “adventures” to write about. I was glad to see the blog prompt for today, since it fit in with my day’s activities.
Still rainy
Have you guessed my favorite subject in school? It’s pretty obvious, though after sixth grade there were really two.
Since I have the condition where I’m just driven to write (hypergraphia, self diagnosed), it’s no surprise that I loved English grammar and composition. I still do, though I’ve cut out all the convoluted sentences and polysyllabic vocabulary of my youth, at least in public.
I don’t have any photos from today, so consider these old collages as writing prompts.
There’s nothing I liked better than to be assigned to diagram me some sentences or write a nice, juicy composition. Term papers with lots o’ footnotes were also my idea of fun. In high school the only way I got a boyfriend was to find the guy who liked fancy sentences as much as I did (he’s an English/film studies professor now).
How do you see yourself as a writer?
But I did have another passion, which, probably not coincidentally, involved arranging words in certain ways. It was my second love, choral music. I loved how chords worked, harmonies intertwined, and crescendos followed decrescendos. While writing was a solo activity, chorus involved working with others, blending and matching in tone.
I’m the red dress in the tenor section.
I learned a lot about discipline, learning rules so you can later break them, cooperation, and vulnerability through these activities. Sharing your writing and performing in public are not easy until you get a lot of practice and learn to take feedback constructively. (My high school chorus teacher and grad school advisor are still alive and could tell you how much I had to learn in that area.) (Note that there’s still work to be done.)
I feel like the kid in this one.
Thanks for being an audience for my blog. It’s a nice break from job aids and meeting minutes, which I wrote all day today. I’m lucky to have a place to be a “real,” person, not an influencer or manufactured celebrity.
These SoulCollage cards can make you think.
Go out and read some other great blogs by real people! I love learning what I have in common with others, as well as our differences. I learn a lot, and you can, too.
We learn more if we look. Right now looking can be hard.
How could a music lover pick only one album as a favorite? But I have a couple. They are all kind of old. But so am I.
Quadrophenia by the Who. Pete Townshend’s finest work. I could listen to it on repeat, though I’ve practically memorized it, so I don’t have to. There’s more than one Who/Townshend album in my top ten! 1973
The River by Bruce Springsteen. I love every song on this gorgeous work of art. If you’ve never heard the song, “Drive All Night,” you should. 1980
Trio, by Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt. If you read my music blog a couple of days ago, you know how much I like harmonies. These three women blend perfectly and the arrangements are haunting. 1987
The Wind, by Warren Zevon. It’s just a gorgeous farewell to life by one of the greatest songwriters ever. “Keep Me in Your Heart,” oh my gosh. I miss this man. His biography by his wife was great, by the way. 2003
Hey, I had a “me” day today and took a watercolor class. I’d never painted with watercolors before. The technique we learned was a bit scary at first, but by gosh I ended up creating some things that looked like roses, which was the goal.
I tried to do a different flower, so I worked on a buffalo bur. The flowers look cool, but not the leaves. I should have used a different technique. If I ever buy paints, I’ll try again.
Look, I am not trained in art. Or not since childhood anyway.
It was worth a drive to College Station on a game day. Luckily we were on the far outskirts of town.
There was a pond!
Please think of our family. It’s a challenging time.
I also found a new-to-me plant along the pond where the class was. Blue waterleaf Hydrolea ovata
The Hermits' Rest 