Well, it’s been far too long since I updated this. What happened?
It all starts long ago in the middle of March. I’m doing pretty well in my NCAA bracket and the basketball tournament is in full swing. I LOVE college basketball. Syracuse is in it and seems to be playing well and as a lifelong fan, I’m watching with great interest. I just wrote two new songs that I think are pretty good. They will take the final two places on the CD and all I have to do now is finish some lyrics, mix and were off to the mastering/duplication phase and the finished album will be out by the beginning of April. World domination is sure to follow.
Jump to March 24th. I’m going out of my mind and need a change of scenery. I do all my recording at home, and live there. Eat there. Sleep there. The record has now been in the works for over a year. It’s winter. It’s cold. It’s grey. My Dad and two brothers live in Florida. Maybe I’ll go down. I luck out and find a last minute ticketon the 25th to leave the next day. I go to Florida and Syracuse promptly loses to Oklahoma. A sign of things to come.
I hang out with my brother Marc, get to see my other brother play some baseball for his team which is ranked #1 in division 2 (his first at bat after an injury). My second to last day there, we decide to go to Clearwater to watch the sunset on the beach. We end up 45 minutes north of there and by the time we arrive it’s 10pm. So we end up walking on the beach in 50 degree weather with a stiff wind blowing in. Not exactly what you think of when you escape to Florida from an upstate NY winter. I leave the next day which is 87 degrees. Get off the plane in Albany to 28 degrees. Nice switch.
I take a day to rest and unpack. Now it’s Saturday. I go carpet shopping since my rugs are light, I have 3 dogs, and have lived here for 5 years. Take the dogs out and they swim in bog water. Very stinky. Take them for baths at Pet Smart where they are having dog adoption day. I’m home 2 hours later with a new puppy. Shortly after that I get a call that my Grandmother has passed away.
As if that’s not a big enough day for ya, my oldest dog Morgan, stops eating. Sunday comes and I’m waiting to hear about funeral arrangements. Didn’t sleep too much since the puppy is up every couple hours whining and needing to go out. Morgan still isn’t eating and now he’s not even getting up off the floor when I call him. Not even to go out.
Monday. My Dad calls to say his flight has been diverted and he’s landing in Albany. Can I pick them up? I run around doing last minute errands since I thought I was leaving on Tuesday. Morgan still not eating or moving. Dad calls back. Now they’re flying into Syracuse. But their bags are still on the Albany plane. I arrive at the airport to pick them up at 8 30 (the flight was due at 8). Plane is delayed until 10:15. I get home at 11:30. Pack. Take the dogs out. Morgan just lays next to the house next door and doesn’t move for 20 minutes. (Now, I had just rented Marley and Me the night before, and they talk about how animals try to go far away to die. Not a good thought for me at that moment).
Leave for Michigan Tuesday morning. Wed funeral. Morgan goes to vet and they cant’ find anything. ”He’s jealous of the new puppy” they say. Wed still no improvement. Leave Michigan at 5. Get home to Saratoga at 5am. Follow up vet visit at 9am Thursday. Still no answers. Appointment Friday to ultrasound his abdomin. No sleep since the Friday before. Whew.
Feels like there has been no time to process my grandma, new dog, or Morgan being sick cause I’m in the kind of hazy stupor you can only get from not sleeping. He starts taking 3 different anti biotics and get some special food. He starts eating and perking up.
I spend the next 4 days trying to catch up on sleep, which is hard when you’re so tired all you want to do is sleep and you can’t sleep cause you’re too tired to.
I finally feel rested. Take the dogs out to the trail we walk everyday. Shilo, my husky, disappears. I get back to the car, still no sign. I go back out and start the loop backwards. After about 15 minutes she shows up with a face and mouth full of porcupine quills. Back to the vet.
So now I’m celebrating a week and 2 days of uneventful life. I finally got back to work on finishing the songs Thursday. I can’t believe that a whole month just went by in these paragraphs. It was exhausting. And it went incredibly fast.
Time is such a weird thing. When we were at the funeral, my father said that now he was the oldest person left on that side of the family. (all of my great aunts and uncles have passed as well as my grandfather. Also my mothers parents died when I was younger and she passed away as well 5 years ago) That hit me in a weird way. Things you never think about, like where you are in the order of the continuum of your family life. And it’s true, my Dad is now the oldest living relative. That gets me closer to the top. Strange strange strange.
So I’m rededicating myself once again to NOT wasting time and living life. Whatever that really means.
On that note, there are 2 new demos up on the webpage. Check em out and enjoy!
more soon (no really. no more 2 month lapses)
peace
Mike
