Fresh Ideas
Been way too
long. Often, I feel anxious and worried
about whatever (no shortage of topics and fears), but lately I’ve been more at
ease and curiosity seems to have taken the place of anxiety. That’s a very good thing. So, in this post I’ll ramble, and hopefully
you’ll be curious and read on. I’ll keep
it short. Previous posts from me have
generally had a “theme”, this time it is what it becomes.
In honor of his passing, a friend
posted on Facebook today a YouTube
of Ahmad Jamal playing in 1959. Inspired,
I read that shortly after his 92nd birthday, Mr. Jamal told a New
York Times interviewer that “whenever I sit down at the piano, I always come up
with fresh ideas”. Twenty-one years hence may I
say the same! Trying to stay fresh, here
we go.
My wife
Carol and I have “downsized” to a 983 sq. ft. house, but it’s got a large
garage (400 sq. ft.). Recently we had hanging shelves
installed in the garage, and now the space is waiting to find out how it will
be used. In part it will be to more easily accommodate
8 bicycles, with a threat to actually drive a car into it. I’ve hung onto my CD’s, have you? Originally, I planned to unload those 7 book-sized moving boxes of discs onto shelving in the garage but now the plan is to put the CD shelves in
the guest bedroom. Don’t guests love to
peruse your book and music collection, as well as the contents of your medicine
cabinet? We paid less for this house than we would have for something larger, but we used that money to landscape
and hang shelves and install new lighting. As I sit here gazing out the “office”
window (otherwise known as the “guest bedroom” window), I am admiring the work
of “the kids” (our landscape maintenance team, who also are Horticultural
Gardeners and Vegetative System Specialists).
They have just started their business Sow Happy Gardens, and they are wonderful young
people who we feel great pleasure in supporting as we watch our new gardens
emerge.
Speaking of emerging, we’ve got front row seats for a new person making her appearance on earth, Alice Ramm-Gramenz. She lives with her parents (our son Tyler and his wife Heather) just outside of town in the hills south of McMinnville, in recent decades made famous by the Pinot Noir grape clones that grow nicely whenever the temperature and drainage are just right (here!). Alice and her brothers Miles and Cooper are central joys of Salem life as we feel our roots spreading out into the fabric of this Oregonian adventure. She's only 5 months old and yet it's starting to feel strange that we've lived long in a world without her in it.
Oh, we spent
a month in Australia! There hangs a
tale. Next time.
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| Alice looking very, very cool. |
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| I love lag bolts |
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| Brother Miles recovers from surgery, Jan. 2022 (note ice pack), while brother Cooper wears a shirt in "solidarity". |
Rob, your blog is fun to read and interesting no matter what the subject matter. Sounds like you are having a great life in Oregon. Lyle
ReplyDeleteRob, thanks for the post! Good to hear ease and curiosity have stepped to the forefront -- I was sorry to hear about Ahmad Jamal also, it was interesting to watch his style evolve over so many years. Saw him once in Oakland maybe 20 years ago, great experience. (And --I only did this once --- but when I heard his Rossiter Road album playing on the radio while buzzing down the freeway, I drove directly to a record store and purchased it.)
ReplyDeleteYour open-minded method, and that of Mr. Jamal, of allowing fresh ideas to creep in reminds me of Steinbeck’s comments on Cannery Row: “"When you collect marine animals, there are certain flat worms so delicate that they are almost impossible to capture whole, for they break and tatter under the touch. You must let them ooze and crawl of their will onto a knife blade and then lift them gently into your bottle of sea water. And perhaps that might be the way to write this book—to open the page and let the stories crawl in by themselves."
(I recite this with a pang of jealousy, since not infrequently, nothing crawls across my blank screen except the occasional insect.)
I admire downsizing. For a long time, life seemed like a struggle to accumulate things – tools, possessions of all sorts – then at some point in middle age, it became a struggle to get rid of clutter. Your photos look wonderfully uncluttered (though is that really a good place to take a nap?!) Oh yes, for me CDs are part of that clutter, though I don’t think of them as clutter.
How great with the gardens there! And fun to have new family, and tales of Australia to look forward to. Randy
Always enjoy your reflections on your adventures! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteMimi
What a treat to have you back! Hope to hang soon and blast some of those CDs.
ReplyDelete