Good Morning my faithful readers! Glad to drop in on occasion as always, although obviously not as much as I used to. With completing a doctorate and some other stuff going on, it is more challenging these days to just stop and smell the lilacs so to speak. But, I wanted to just give a few impromptu observations just to let people know I still do exist - my time has not come yet, and hopefully will not for a while! I am not sure where this is going to go, but we will see.
For one thing, let's talk about changing seasons. As I sit here watching this, the leaves outside are turning more gold, more red, and more orange with each passing minute. This is western Maryland after all, and unlike Florida some years back, the seasons actually do change here. Fall is a good time, and while I am sure that most people hear ad nauseum about the beauties of Fall, and the ability to indulge in Starbuck's Pumpkin Spice Lattes as well as practically anything else that has "Pumpkin Spice" flavor (even Pringles! I love pumpkin spice, but when it comes to my potato chips, there are limits). I like Fall for several reasons myself. For one, no more mowing the lawn until Spring! I give a big "praise be to God!" on that. My lawn is relatively small, and it takes me all of 30 minutes to mow it, but it is still not a job I particularly enjoy. I do, however, love how the lawn looks when I finish. About 3 years ago, I got a new mower from Fingerhut (yes, I love Fingerhut!) and while it overall does the job, I keep losing the bolts out of the handle assembly, and have to jerry-rig it almost every time I mow. That tends to get a little tedious. I am debating possibly ordering a new mower in the Spring, depending on several things, and should that happen hopefully the jerry-rig ritual every time I mow the yard will end. Bottom line, like most people, I hate the actual duty of mowing the lawn, but love the results. However, it does tend to go a little easier when one is not losing hardware off the machine. The down side to this is that in a short time there will be snow, and shoveling snow is also a chore. So, that means rotating things around in the shed to get my rock salt and snow shovel out, although I also do have a new snow blower I want to give a try to also. In all, God allows changing seasons I believe to make sure we don't get bored with one temperature all year round, like they unfortunately have to in Florida, the Philippines, and Hawaii. And, for the leftist hacks who yell "climate change" whenever they scald their hand on a hot door handle in the summers, let me say this - climate change is real, and it happens four times a year in most parts of the world unless you live near the polar regions or the tropics. So, that should settle that debate then, although some "fact checker" (meaning a fat 25-year-old college dropout living in his mama's basement) may try to get me lynched for saying it.
I wanted to do a bit of a memorial here too. We have lost some pretty amazing people in the past several months, and one who comes to mind is Joe Bussard (pronounced Boo-sard, not "buzzard").As a kid, I recalled Joe's radio program on the local station every weekend, when he would play some ultra-rare recordings from his vast collection, and although that program was geared toward the country/western audience, Joe collected records from a wide variety of musical genres, and he is looked upon as a legend among other collectors. Although he had a run for his money with Greg Drust, who also has an impressive collection in Wisconsin, Joe was perhaps one of the premiere music archivists in the US.
I think with perhaps the passing of my role model Chuck Cecil a few years back, I feel a sense of loss at Joe's passing. Joe lived relatively close by in his hometown of Frederick, and I had a very high admiration for him honestly because he was the envy of other collectors for sure. While I have just under 3200 total items in my own collection, Joe had tens of thousands! He would scour every possible obscure place to find some of the rarest recordings ever issued, and in all honesty, I wish that someone who is managing his estate would digitize his collection to make it available, as it is very historically significant. I also said the same thing about Chuck Cecil's hundreds of hours of vintage radio programs - my, how I would love to get a CD collection of those! But, his daughter Sherry, out of respect for his wishes, does not circulate those. However, I think they have been donated to an archive somewhere so maybe in the near future hope will produce reality. Guys like Joe Bussard, Chuck Cecil, and Greg Drust have done a tremendous service, and thankfully there are some of us carrying on the same work. My old dream years ago was to host my own vintage big band radio show, and with the popularity of podcasts, I might still look into that after I finish my doctorate and other pursuits currently. I talked about the 40th anniversary of my own collection which I just commemorated on October 1st, but the one thing I want to do with my music collection is make it productive in some way, but the question is how to do that? Perhaps when I have more time to ponder it, I can come up with something. Having collected this stuff for 40 years, and being a historian myself, perhaps I can make something educational from it. I will explore that at some point.
Onto other issues, I am on the cusp of some major decisions. In all honesty, the house I live in now is becoming too cramped for me, and I need a new place soon. I was contemplating buying this place, which I lease now, but other factors have come into play. For one thing, the management company that actually owns the community I live in frankly is bad - while the onsite leasing manager is OK, the overall company is made up of greedy individuals who expect a lot and give little, so that is a sign to move on. Many of our residents in our community here feel the same way, and our Residents Association is often at odds with the property management for many valid concerns. Lately, I have been looking to move back to my home state of West Virginia, and so far the most viable option is Charles Town, so I have begun a search over there for a nice house. My parish church, after all, is there now too and also Maryland is just becoming too unreasonably unaffordable (thanks in part to bad Democrat politicians both at the state and national level). I was planning on sticking it out here until I finished my doctoral program, but for some other reasons it is looking more feasible to move soon. As with a lot of things this year, there is much uncertainty about things now, so we will see how it plays out. For my readers of faith, your prayers are greatly appreciated.
That is just a few things I wanted to share today as I continue to enjoy my Fall break this week between courses, and I do not know if or when I will have more opportunities to talk. Therefore, everyone, enjoy your Fall season, and will be back to talk soon.
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