List of Instruments I Own

 

Music is therapy.  I love to both listen and make music.  Hitting my electric drums got me through The Covid Era.

Here is a list of the instruments I own:

1. Electric Drums: I paid 14 dollars for them.  I got an amazing deal and had a bunch of Amazon gift cards from work.  Best Christmas present ever!

2. "Wynonna" the Guitar: My mom bought that guitar for me when I took a class at Ricks College one hundred years ago. 

The picture of Wynonna on my Guitar

An inspirational quote from Wynonna on the back

3.  White Electric Bass:  My most recent purchase.  Paid a whopping $30 for it.  It is beautiful and like new.

4. Mandolin:  Gifted to me by my mother-in-law, LaVaun.  Now that she is gone, it is an even more prized possession. I hope to learn lots of folk songs!

5. Upright Bass: It is playable but doesn't produce much sound.  It has a serious problem that would probably cost a million dollars to fix.  It looks nice though.  I would love to own a playable bass in the future.

*not pictured a real snare drum I bought for my marching band Halloween costume. It is a bit loud but sometimes comes out when a loud time is needed.

Next purchase? I keep looking for good deals on banjos.  I really miss the banjo I gave away many moons ago.  Remind me not to give away my instruments!

Poetry Writing Wednesday

 Here is an oldie:

Haiku Poet by Alice Ficklin

Counting syllables

Real poems just less commitment 

The haiku poet.

Writing Haiku is something I do more and more of. It truly is less commitment. I can sit down and write one in five minutes or less. The short verse is helpful for a person who feels more and more ADHD lately and who also deals with kids all day. I am a busy person and haiku is perfect for that lifestyle.

I will now write another, a glimpse of my Monday night:

Punctured Foot: Victim of Landscaping Staple

Putting hose away

Ouch! What did I just step on?

Now to Urgent Care

I am thankful for Reuben who was brave enough to remove the buried an inch into my foot landscaping staple. Also, grateful for Tetanus shots and antibiotics.

Travel Tuesday: Left My Heart In San Francisco.

Next week we will road trip to my homeland: Wisconsin.  Every year we go we take the exact same route.  There is a comfort to repetitive travel, and my son loves that comfort.  He especially looks forward to Mt. Rushmore and we will all love it.

I too, have a favorite repetitive travel place: San Francisco.

I first traveled to The Golden Gate City for my 30th birthday. I wrote about this once in 2021 as a "Flashback Friday" post.

I also went with my school(and my Mom) for training in Oakland.

Most recently, I took my little family to The Bay Area in April for my nephew's wedding.  

It was special to see my kids experience California for the first time.  The beach was their favorite place and they could have gone every day.  

Muir Woods is one of my favorite places.  I could only visit there and would be okay with it.  It is fun to be dwarfed by these majestic coastal redwoods. I didn't know, but these trees can consume up to 500 gallons of water daily.  In fact,  these trees only exist along the coast in California because they are built to absorb water found in fog through special top branches. Miraculous!

Chinatown was also a highlight, especially for E.  He loves all things Asian and bought his hat and kimono with the money he earned.  I showed them one of my favorite stops: The Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Company.  They make the fortune cookies right in front of you.  I bought a bag to share but was sad to find none of their sesame seed cookies.  

I taught Reub the joy of riding cable cars on the outside.  Riding those cars around the city makes me feel like a kid again.  I was sad that we missed the Cable Car Museum.  The kids would have found seeing the running cables underground impressive, but we were on a time crunch.

It was an honor to witness my nephew Kris marry Nikki.  It was a gorgeous ceremony in a gorgeous place. 

It was an honor to witness my nephew Kris marry Nikki.  It was a gorgeous ceremony in a glorious place. 

Showing my sister, her husband, and her mother-in-law the beach sites and The Golden Gate Bridge was also a fun adventure.

Like Tony Bennett, I may have "left my heart in San Francisco," but I will always have the memories to entertain me.

Oh My! Pet Peeve #1

 

I am purchasing 11 tickets to a Wausau Woodchucks baseball game in mid-July.  I really wanted front row seats behind home plate.  Notice how two groups of two people have plopped themselves there.  They have left space for more people to comfortably join that row, which is totally fine.  Now, look at the fourth row.  See that little seat between two groups of tickets?  Those are my kind of people.  See, if you have the technology to buy tickets beforehand and know where you will be sitting, why the heck would you ever buy a ticket right next to somebody if you know there are many options for you to choose from?  I am always disappointed in humanity when I get to the theatre for a movie, and some moron comes in and sits right next to me in a mostly-empty theatre.  Dingleberries.  

Maybe this isn't an irritation to you, but OH MY, does it bug me!

Spiritual Snidbit

 Just a little scripture today:

Alma 14:1: "And it came to pass after he had made an end of speaking unto the people many of them did believe on his words, and began to repent and to search the scriptures."

I listened to a podcast this morning that spoke about scripture study as the fruit of repentance.  I had never thought of that before, but if sin is us turning away from God, we can turn toward God(repent) by searching the scriptures, where we will find the goodness of the Gospel.  This does not mean you are a horrible person if you aren't reading scripture.  I just know that in my life, sometimes I don't read as regularly and I can feel a difference in how close to the spirit I feel.