Red Shoe's Chronicles: 2011

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Merry Christmas...

We have a saying in our family...

... that it's not Christmas until someone cries...

Well...

Merry Christmas...

*sighs*

~shoes~

Friday, December 9, 2011

I have been goofing off some when I should be working on exams, and grading of projects and assignments... but I needed a break.

I was reading over at Kimber's blog, 'Drifting Through'... and she posted a Dan Fogelberg song... and I kind of got side tracked with Dan and his music.

I've always had such a great weakness for his music... he was a story teller to me... not like Jim Croce or Harry Chapin, but a story teller none the less. I always seem to have been able to find messages for me in his songs.

I have these moments

All steady and strong

I’m feeling so holy and humble

The next thing I know

I’m all worried and weak

And I feel myself

Starting to crumble.

The meanings get lost

And the teachings get tossed

And you don’t know what you’re

Going to do next.

You wait for the sun

But it never quite comes

Some kind of message comes

Through to you.

Some kind of message comes through.

And it says to you...

Chorus

Love when you can

Cry when you have to...

Be who you must

That’s a part of the plan

Await your arrival

With simple survival

And one day we’ll all understand...

I had a woman

Who gave me her soul

But I wasn’t ready to

Take it.

Her heart was so fragile

And heavy to hold

And I was afraid I might

Break it.

Your conscience awakes

And you see your mistakes

And you wish someone

Would buy your confessions.

The days miss their mark

And the night gets so dark

And some kind of message

Comes through to you

Some kind of message

Shoots through --

Chorus

There is no eden or

Heavenly gates

That you’re gonna make it to

One day

But all of the answers you seek

Can be found

In the dreams that you dream

On the way.

What a great place in which to lose oneself...

Here's another one...

possibly my mostest favoritest...

He didn't write this one, but it's great all the same...

These songs all have meaning to me.

And then this one... *sighs* what a great great song...

Hard to believe he has been gone four years this month...

~shoes~

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Funerals

So It Goes...

I’ve been to way too many of these lately...

Yesterday, I attended yet another funeral...

Connie had been ill for quite a few years. Connie is the wife of one of my best friends ever. Over the years, Keith and I would plan trips out West, or to the Smoky Mountains for hiking, camping, exploring... the one standing caveat ever was that our trips could be cancelled at the last moment... after all, Connie's health and well being and his need to be with her was more important than anything...

My dear friend, Annie , has even pointed out to me in a comment to a post that I seem to have become obsessed with death and dying. I don't think I've become obsessed with it... it just seems to be around me.

One of the great Christmas stories has to do with the visit of the Magi... and the gifts they brought to the Baby Jesus...

Do you remember what the gifts of the Magi were?

Gold: This carries obvious significance. It’s precious and worthy across all cultures and t imes. It’s a gift for royalty… it says to the Christ Child that you will be a King…

Frankincense: It has been touted for its medicinal and soothing properties… Herbalists say it is calming, restorative, and meditative… Ancient people burned frankincense, believing it to carry their prayers to heaven… It’s use as incense illustrates His role as that of a Priest.

Myrrh: This is perhaps the most mysterious of the gifts… It is considered a wound healer because of its strong antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties. It’s most notable use to Egyptians was that of an embalming material… and was used in the mummification process… As an embalming ointment it signified that He was born to die for the world. In fact, myrrh was one of the burial spices used for the burial of Jesus.

So it seems that even at the announcement of the Birth of Jesus, there was an foreboding of His pending Death...

Funerals are really for the Living... not the deceased... The deceased have already moved on... they are already on their journey, to wherever it may lead...

Maybe funerals allow us the grieve the passing of a loved one... remember those good times...

Maybe they allow us the opportunity to realize that our loved one is really gone on... and is no longer with us...

Funerals need to be more upbeat... as much as possible...

For some reason, I think a clown funeral would be... well... funny...

I recall 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show'... about the announcement of the death of 'Chuckles The Clown'... and then the funeral service for Chuckles...

More funerals need to be like that... I trust mine will be...

I think a New Orleans Jazz funeral complete with a Second Line would be fun...

Maybe I will feel better once I get on the other side of the holidays... maybe I will feel better when I get my Christmas tree up and decorated...

~shoes~

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Extra Credit...

Hey Mr. Shoes...

What can I do to pass this class??

This was asked of me this morning by one of my students... who has done very little this semester to learn any of the material... hasn't completed the extra work that I gave them the option of doing... hasn't come to class... and now with one week left in the semester, she is curious as to how she can pass...

I did have a student one semester tell me that if he didn't make at least a 'B' in his classes, that his Grand Father would have him deleted from his will...

Poor guy... I guess it sucked to be him... no?

There is a study that suggests that the longer one has been teaching, the more that teacher 'dumbs' down his/her classes... I guess the idea is that we become more jaded the longer we teach.

I went back and reviewed my final grades that I have turned in over the past three years (6 semesters) and compared them to a three- year period from earlier in my career... my grades are lower.

I would think that has to imply that I haven't 'dumbed' down my material, but instead, I've possibly have become more strict about my grading policies and what I am willing to accept from students.

I had a colleague some years ago that probably subscribed to this theory presented above. One could always tell when he had an exam pending... some of the coeds would come to his office for 'study sessions'... they would all wear their tightest t-shirts and shorts... He thought he was being sly... but they knew it would work. The male students were greatly resentful of this 'competitive advantage' the female students had over them...

Some of my students do not like it when I count off points for misspellings when they submit assignments. I assure them that their employers will grade them on a much stricter basis than I do...

Nothing wrong with aiming high!!

And then there is always the question of 'extra credit'...

~shoes~

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Ten Years Gone...

George Harrison...

02/25/43 - 11/29/2001

You were the best of them all...

Namaste...

~shoes~

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Words...

"It's only words...

and words are all I have...

to take your heart away..."

These are lyrics from the song, "Words," written and performed by the Gibbs Brothers... we knew them as the BeeGees... I read the other day that Robin Gibbs has been diagnosed with liver cancer... what a shame...

I like words... I wish that I were better with them than I am...

Ethereal...
I like that word. It means:

'almost light as air'
'celestial or spiritual'
'extremely delicate or refined; exquisite.

I also like the word, Ephemeral... It means:

'short-lived'
'lasting one day'

When I was a kid, I LOVED Jimi Hendrix... I remember buying one of his albums and going home, putting it on the turntable, putting on my headphones and listening to 'All Along The Watchtower'...

I was thinking about this song the other day, and I started to think... this song sounds ethereal... light... airy... I can remember wearing the headphones, and listening to what a fantastic job the engineer had done in mixing and arranging the tracks... the guitar work would flow from on ear to the other and back... and I would sit and follow the sound with my eyes.

Another Hendrix song that sounds ethereal to me is "The Wind Cries Mary..."

It's the same kind of thing... especially during his instrumentals... so fluid like... everything just flows... back and forth through my head...

I've read that Hendrix is deemed to be responsible for having saved the Fender Stratocaster... that guitar had been created for a small market, and just wasn't selling in large enough numbers to continue to justify the manufacture of it... Fender had decided to cease the manufacture of it... then Hendrix hits it big... and everyone wanted a Strat... go figure.

Jimi and one of his Strats

Here is one of Jimi's more obscure songs... unless you are really a big fan of his, you probably haven't heard this one.

To really enjoy it, I think you need a great sound card in your computer, great speakers, and a volume knob that goes to 'eleven.'

"it's louder... it goes to 11..."

'Spinal Tap'

So, I guess it's easy to say then that Jimi's life was ephemeral... short-lived. He was only 27 when he died.

But, when compared to Time itself, maybe we are ephemeral... we are here only a short time.

_____________

The past week has been so bizarre... last Sunday night, my vehicle broke down when the alternator decided to stop working. I was so fortunate as to where it decided to die... I was a good distance from home, but I happened to coast to a stop underneath the awning of a service station that was closed for the night, but had left it's lights on. I was able to contact a towing company to come and take me and the vehicle home.

Anyway, I playing everything over and over and over in my head, I realized how fortunate I was... I could have been broken down out in the dark along the highway somewhere... with no form of protection... I hadn't carried a pistol with me... I would have been an easy target.

The chaos from that event carried forward into the Thanksgiving holiday (family, you understand...), and to make a very long story short, I don't feel well.

I feel emotionally drained... I feel physically drained... I feel 'lost...' I feel as if I am without a direction or a path... and at my age, that's not good.

I am hoping that a counselor that really made a difference in my Life a few years ago is still around... I need her.

When I feel like this, I tend to shrink my world... if that makes any sense to you... I bring everything close in to me, and I tend to not venture outside of that enclosure. Maybe that is why I haven't written a post in almost two weeks.

I don't like feeling like this...

I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving Holiday...

~shoes~

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Not quite Shoes...

But Almost...

Good afternoon...

Well, I think I am beyond that birthday I ~~experienced~~ survived last week...

I've had quite a few of em, but this one has really taken the wind out of my sails... I'm sure I will eventually regain my composure, but...

Anyhooo...

I found this Engineering Flowchart earlier and thought,

'damn, isn't THAT the truth?!'

I can't think of much of anything that is 'stoved up,' other than myself, that WD-40 isn't the cure-all/fix-all for... When I used to do quite a bit of target shooting, my rifles all would receive a WD-40 bath afterwards... I think I became addicted to the smell of that stuff...