Busyness, Spring, and Other Things

I’ve been absent from the blog for a while now. I won’t apologize because I just felt I had nothing to say or write about and I didn’t want to waste your time or mine coming up with something arbitrary and pointless. I now, however, do feel like I have something to say. Here goes:

I’ve been busy. Very busy. I keep telling myself that. It’s true. I’m not telling a falsehood when I say it. Between my full time job (46 hrs/wk right now), multiple church activities (deacon duties, Sunday school teacher, youth group teacher, etc), and the responsibilities of home ownership along with my own little side projects, I don’t have much free time. Or rather, I don’t take full advantage of the time I have. I admit, when I have time, instead of doing things I’m often paralyzed by having to pick something to work on over another thing so I get little to nothing done on anything. I’m busy, yes, but it shouldn’t keep me from doing what I want/love/enjoy to do. Instead, I find I need to make time to do the things that are for me. It doesn’t always work out, but I’m getting better at it.

It’s spring time in central Mississippi. Seeing as how I work I the plant industry, it’s arguably the busiest time of the year (hence the long work weeks). I tend to be worn out and beat down by the time I get home every day. So much so I don’t even want to do the things I enjoy. I just waste my evenings in front of the TV, stuffing my face. Yet, when I make myself do something for me, like play guitar or work on a project, it makes me feel better. It’s like I feel I’ve accomplished something. Spring is busy, but I still need to do things to relax and rejuvenate me. What good is any overtime if I’m too exhausted to enjoy the fruits of the labor?

Now, I do need to apologize. When I first started this blog about a year and a half ago, I mentioned that I was working on making an album of my own music. This has not happened, obviously. I let life , busyness, get in the way. I got frustrated and gave up. I walked away from writing any music or lyrics for a while. I’m sorry. I apologize to myself and to my readers. I let us all down. I’m getting back up and I’m going to finish writing and recording my music. It may not be perfect or professional, but it will be mine and one going to finish it.

Thanks for letting me ramble and flesh out some things going through my head. I hope my attempt at encouraging myself is helpful and encouraging to you. I’m going to try and do better about regularly posting here again. Thank you.

Feeling Rough

What do you write when you feel there’s nothing more to say?
What do you do when there’s nothing leading the way?
Write a little poem about how you feel
But the feelings are gone, they’re no longer real

Keep pushing through, make it to some rest
Trust in God, he knows what’s best
Easy to say, but very hard to do
Can’t someone help, just give me a clue

What’s it all about, what does it really mean
When I just feel hollow; broken; never clean
How do you keep going when you’ve lost your way?
Why should you keep speaking when you’ve nothing to say?

It’s been a crazy day!

Sorry this is so late. I’ve had a busy day. I forgot to set an alarm last night so I was running late this morning. I did get off from work a bit early, but I went out to my old college to see what was going on. I saw a couple of my old professors and the guy who helps me lead worship on Sunday nights. It was a really good visit and it brought back a fair number of memories. Many things have changed out there, but some things are the same. Overall it’s been a fairly good day despite the fact I spent the later part of it feeling bad. I know this is short and extremely self-centered, but my wife encouraged me to write something before bed. I hope your Wednesday was good and you have a pleasant end of the week.

The Week in Review

So this past week has been crazy. Sunday I fell out of a hammock for the first time ever. I was folding it over to make a seat, but had it strung too tight and with not enough angle, so it wasn’t balanced and I got thrown. I didn’t have it super high, but it shocked me. Monday I found out I was going to have my first full day off since my vacation because of the weather front coming in Tuesday. I also got a migraine in the afternoon. Tuesday, the weather didn’t come as forecasted and I had to go in for a couple hours in the morning. When I got off I crushed cans and cleaned some in my office until my migraine came back full force and made me want to rip the back of my neck off and poke my eyes out to pull the pain out of me. You already know I stated Wednesday thinking it was Thursday. It seemed the end of the day would never come. My migraine came back a bit that afternoon too, but not as bad. Thursday I just wanted to stay in bed. I didn’t sleep well at all. The end of the day on Thursday I got a call saying one of the crews had flipped the smaller tractor and I needed to get the big tractor out there. So I had to get on the slow behemoth and make the twenty minute tractor drive out to the job site. On a small bridge a school bus passed me and made the bridge shake and the wind from the bus shook my tractor. It was not fun. Now it’s Friday. I hope it goes well. I have work, then my wife’s high school reunion is kicking off at a football game tonight. Then tomorrow I have work and another reunion thing. Another busy weekend. Sorry this wasn’t exciting, but I just needed to get my week out there. How was your week?

Wednesday Blues

So I woke up this morning thinking it was Thursday. Yeah, I tried to skip Wednesday. This week has just drug on already to the extent that I feel like it should be a day later then it actually is. I feel like there should be some sort of term or phrase that describes this, yet I don’t know what it is. Does anyone else ever feel this way? You wake up and think it’s closer to the weekend than it really is then you realize your mistake and just want to curl up and cry? Part of it may be the fact I was sick last night and didn’t get enough sleep. I think part of it is simply what I call the Wednesday blues. Yeah, all you optimists out there are like, “The week is half over! It’s hump-day,” but us realists/pessimists are all thinking, “We’ve barely made it halfway through. How are we supposed to make through the rest of this week?” Also, not to bring you down, but just for purely logical reasons, I must point out that you’re not halfway until after lunch on Wednesday. Oh, and Wednesday means nothing to those of us who work Monday -Saturday. So, what are the cures for the Wednesday blues? The only thing I know to do is keep pushing through and prove to yourself and to the week that you are stronger then it is. Keep fighting and struggle on. Find joy in whatever you can and make the little things count.

Do you suffer from the Wednesday blues? How do you handle them?

Culinary experiments

We’ve been doing some new recipes and trying out new ideas in the kitchen lately. I got a book of waffle recipes and I’ve made a couple of them. The first one was the gingerbread waffle and last night I made the cornbread waffle. They where both very good. The gingerbread filled the house with a delicious scent and tasted super moist both the evening of making them and the next morning. The cornbread was almost like eating a skillet of fresh cornbread, but in waffle form. We also have been making up some marinades for meats because we’ve been low on wine or didn’t want to open a good bottle just for marinating. We marinated some chicken in lemon juice and Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey and it was delicious. If anything we could’ve used more of the JD Tennessee Honey. This morning we prepped some steaks for tonight in some Jack Daniels Mr. Jack’s 160th Birthday and Coke. It should be pretty good. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

What have you been doing in the kitchen lately?

Alternate Tuning Questions

I’ve recently, as in yesterday, started messing around with some alternate tunings on my guitar and I’m curious if anyone out there has any pointers, tips, tricks, recommendations, etc. I’d like a good iPhone/iPad app for tuning to these different tunings and a good website explaining basic chord shapes in the different tunings. If anyone has any recommendations, please leave a comment. Sorry this is so short and kind of selfish of a post. It’s been a crazy, busy week. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

5 Signs You’re Suffering from Allergies (or drug abuse)

[writer’s note: drug abuse is serious and you need to seek help if it is something you are dealing with. I know this and don’t intend to offend anyone.]

I, along with many others, am an allergy sufferer. It stinks! I’ve had deal with allergies my whole life and with many different allergy medicines, all with their own side effects. This is my top five list of signs you may be suffering from allergies and in coming up with it I realized, somewhat humorously, these things can mark drug abuse too.

Number 5: Red, constantly watery eyes

Number 4: Aching muscles and joints for no apparent reason

Number 3: Restless nights and waking up still exhausted even though you slept plenty of time

Number 2: Inability to stay focused because of a “fluffy” feeling in your brain

And the Number 1 sign you’re suffering from allergies (or drug abuse): Super sensitivity to light and sound

I hope this list helps you figure out if your suffering from allergies and I hope if you’re a sufferer like me that you find the right medication to help you live a somewhat normal life during this allergy season.

Sharing the Road

My wife and I have started biking together. I’ve also started biking to work a few times a week to save gas. I used to bike a lot and I’ve even done a couple of century rides so it has been tons a fun getting back into it. I’ve noticed a few things being done that are not right, decent, or even legal, so I thought I’d share some basics of sharing the road.

1. The road doesn’t belong to you or any individual
Don’t get the entitlement syndrome and believe the road is yours and yours alone, it belongs to everyone.

2. If you are using wheels, you go on the right side of the road
This drives me crazy! Bikes, cars, unicycles, skates, tricycles, and anything else with wheels is supposed to be driven/ridden on the right side of the road. That’s the law! Do it!

3. Highways and interstates are for motor vehicles in most states
Check your local laws before going on a highway or interstate in anything but a motor vehicle.

If we all remember these things and to simply be kind and courteous, sharing the road with everyone will be a piece of cake.

Here’s a picture of our bikes! (Sorry it’s in a dark garage, it’s super rainy here this morning)

Do you have any rules or courtesies that would make sharing the road easier? Let me know them!

Pruning

This time of year I get a lot of questions about pruning/cutting back trees and shrubs, so I thought I’d write a brief post with my basic rules of thumb for pruning.
1. If the plant drops its leaves and/or dies back then you can go on and cut it back once it dies back. Be sure to wait for it to die back first, otherwise you may be pruning too soon and it could get more new growth before the first couple of hard freezes and that’s bad for the plant. It stresses it out.
2. If its an evergreen and just needs some shaping up, you ca do that anytime. If it needs some serious cutting back though you want to wait till its not actively growing (after the first few hard freezes) or right at the beginning of spring. Right when you start to see new growth on it, cut it back. These are the best bets for having it fill back out by summer time.
3. For blueberries, I like to wait until the very first bit of new growth shows up then prune it. You want three or four main stalks (leave them alone other than tiny stuff close to the ground) and you want to open up the center a bit for airflow.
4. For azaleas, if you want blooms the next year you must cut them back right after they bloom and be sure to cover them whenever it freezes, because the next years blooms come off of this years growth. Encore azaleas are a bit tricky because they bloom so much, but I’ve had luck pruning them right after their first or second bloom. I wouldn’t recommend cutting back after their fall blooms though because that’s getting a bit too close to the end of the year.
I hope you enjoyed this little informational on pruning. If you have any questions just leave a comment.