A Little Catching Up

 So, it has been a while since I have been here, as I have been quite busy with many things at this point. As I am writing this, I am getting ready next week to do my final exam essay in the last of what are called my Comp courses - these are comprehensive reading requirements that are divided into four courses for the doctoral program at my university, and they consist of subject areas in early America, modern America, early modern Europe (from the end of the Middle Ages to the French Revolution), and modern Europe (from Napoleon to the 21st century).  These courses are somewhat of a pain in the butt honestly, as each one requires six sets of discussion notes to be prepared over the 8 weeks of the class, and then you post those and respond to two of your classmates and their notes.  The way these are set up is that you have to discuss six sources - two books, two academic journal articles, and two primary sources.  This includes picking out the major research questions, the conclusions the source reaches, and the significance of a particular source to historical discourse.  It is very time-consuming doing those, but thankfully I just completed my last one (24 total over 4 courses!) and I am about done with the Comps then as of next week from this writing.  I then will begin the actual dissertation phase of my program starting on May 15, and for the next year it will be all about the dissertation, and at the end and after a successful defense I will then be able to preface my name with the initials "Dr."  This is a huge deal honestly, and I am so thankful that soon my almost 50+ years of education will soon be completed.  It will be nice finishing that, in all honesty, and then my next role in a classroom will be in front of it teaching.  So, in case any of you missed my pithy, insightful commentary on here, that is the reason why.  I will not be writing as frequently for a while, but I do intend to occasionally conversate with you virtually here.  

Life has been a complex mixture of challenges over the past few months too.  I have been hit with a few financial curve balls over the past few months, and it has been a bit stressful.  Thankfully, the dust has been starting to settle a little now and things are working out.  I also did have my recent six-month medical check-up last month, and that went very well - still have to watch the glucose and tri-gly counts but other than that I am fine.  I also do have a sleep study my doctor ordered coming up, as he wants to test me for sleep apnea, and I do need extensive dental work as well - my teeth, in all honesty, are a mess as I have not been to a dentist in almost 50 years.  I am thinking I will need implants for sure in my mouth, so I will be working toward that too.  I also have been offered a position with a preparatory academy in my home state of West Virginia, and if the background screening for it goes well, I will be starting that in September.  In summary, life has been extremely busy lately, and it looks like it will continue to be so for a while. 

As many of you now know, about two years ago Barbara and I divorced, and a couple of months ago we also got our annulment from the Church as well, thanks in part to our wonderful priest who helped us with the process.  However, Barbara and I are still very good friends, and we will be probably the rest of our lives.  It is a very widespread fallacy that many in society have about divorce - a divorced couple does not have to hate each other, especially if they are Christians to begin with, and if you can still be friends despite the ending of a marriage, it actually shows a high level of spiritual and emotional maturity.  I will not go into a lot of details as to why our marriage ended, but unfortunately it did, yet neither of us really blames each other - the circumstances actually show that we were both victims of the same thing, and we both understand that and are better friends because of it.  Barbara is actually like a sister I never had, and we do still care for and look out for each other as if we were siblings.  That is actually a wonderful thing, and I could not ask for a better friend than her.   While our marriage did not work out, not every aspect of that is bad either, because we do share many good memories and do still talk about them.  And, we have both also moved on with our lives in other areas - more on that at another time.  So, the lesson here is quite essential - divorce is an unfortunate fact of our fallen world, but even in the tragedy of divorce good fruit can be borne, and indeed it has with Barbara and myself. Therefore, do not be quick to judge us or any other divorced couple - like that guy Dhar Mann often says in those inspirational videos he has, you can never judge a book by its cover, as between the covers is an entire story.  I direct this especially toward some of our friends and family who claim to be "religious" - both Barbara and I have known many of the same people over the years, and many of them identify as conservative Evangelical Protestants.  This leads me to a little soapbox I want to stand on for a little bit, as some things need to be said. 

Those of us who are Christians know that our God is righteous and just, but what we tend to forget is that God - and especially incarnate in Jesus Christ - is a God of mercy and grace too.  While this would be a better discussion probably for the SPT blog, I mention it here for a more personal dimension.  Everyone on this earth, regardless of who or what you are, has screwed up on occasion.  We all sin, make bad choices, and at times our judgments are a bit clouded.  All of us with no exceptions.  The big theological term for this is concupiscence, and it is affirmed in Scripture in particular by Romans 3:23 - all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  Even after we are converted and are baptized as Christians, we still war with that, and this is the reason why God has given the gift of supernatural grace - as both Aquinas and Bonaventure teach in their writings, the role of supernatural grace is to elevate, heal, and perfect us.  It isn't the same idea of grace that many of us were wrongly taught as Protestants, that it is simply "unmerited favor" - that definition confuses grace with something else, and that is mercy. Grace helps us grow, but mercy is the supernatural intervention - which we do not often deserve - that sustains us.  So, it is mercy that is an "unmerited favor," not grace.  And how do we receive both? Through our faith in God, in particular the ultimate mercy God gave us - Himself on a cross for our sins.  So, for my Evangelical Protestant friends, that is an important difference you should understand, and at a later time I will do a full teaching on that in my SPT blog.  For now in this context though, it has to do with attitudes both Barbara and I have faced by some of our friends over the years.  That is what I want to talk about now.

Divorce is an unfortunate effect of the Fall that even affects Christians, as we all are in the process of letting supernatural grace do its work to elevate, heal, and perfect us.  However, there is a nasty stigma that surrounds divorce for Christians, and it involves these three faulty ideas:

1. A divorced person is destined for hell

2. A divorced person who remarries commits adultery.

3. A divorced person is apparently not good enough for God.

All three of these ideas are wrong, cruel, and ultimately can harm someone, and Christians in particular need to throw them out.  In all honesty, I used to hold to at least two of these ideas too, but after experiencing a divorce myself, I had to grow up fast.  The fact is, a divorced person who is a Christian does not forfeit God's favor, and there are even times when the divorce is not even the intention of one or either party, but it unfortunately happens.  Now, there is a procedure however to follow in the event of a divorce, and it is basically just common sense and simple.  If you are a Catholic who has divorced, you will also need the marriage annulled.  This can be a scary process, but a caring priest will walk each former spouse through it.  During the annulment process, no remarriage is possible.  Also, a civil divorce is also legal, and is recognized as such by most Christian traditions.  So, before even thinking of moving on, that would have to be in order.  It is not a sin at all for a properly divorced (and in the Catholic context, annulled) person to remarry.  As a matter of fact, if such a person finds one to love like that, it is actually a beautiful thing because we as human beings are made to need the companionship of a soulmate - there is a certain incompleteness one has if they are alone, unless they do have a calling to be celibate.  That is just how we are hard-wired.  If the proper steps are taken, then remarriage is NOT adultery at all, and if the chemistry and true love is there, it is actually a beautiful new beginning for such a person. And, in saying that a divorced person is "not good enough for God," let's also enlighten that too - remember, no one can be good enough for God anyway on their own merits - ain't gonna happen!  But, because of Christ, we are made good as a mercy through his Blood shed for all of our sins.  And, that includes divorced people - if a divorced person still serves God, then they are in a good place and God does not hate them nor does he expect them to be "good enough" for him - he chose them and his love is unconditional. All we have to do is accept that mercy and let God love us as we are.  Then, supernatural grace will be given to us to do the rest.  So, if someone says that a divorced person (or any other sinner for that matter) is "not good enough for God," they are in effect committing heresy, because that is not what God's own words say in his Bible.  So, if you are one of those people who finds it necessary to condemn a divorced person in your church, you better look in the mirror first, because you have in essence become a "church Karen" and probably have issues of your own you are avoiding.  A Christian comedian, Taylor Ransom, portrays such "church Karens" vividly as one of the characters he portrays, and it is worth watching (plus, it is extremely hilarious!).  Any rate, if you are a divorced person who has experienced these attitudes from people, there is encouragement for you - God still loves you, so find your refuge in him, and let him take care of those who attack you. 

I really did not mean to get off on a Bible study here, but I think it needs to be said and some people do need to hear it.  And, I am writing from the heart too, as it is my own experience as well.  After our divorce, I noted already that Barbara and I are still close, and people who we encounter at Mass and elsewhere actually find us to be a true witness of God's grace at work - I am not saying that to brag, but I do love the witness Barbara and I still have with people we come across.  Other couples in a divorced Catholics group I am part of on social media have also been encouraged by my story too, and on occasion I find other spiritually mature people who also have moved past the divorce and are still close friends with their former spouses. Some have remarried other people obviously, but it has also created a beautiful community among them.  That is really something we should take to heart and think about, because it is integral to our spiritual and emotional growth too. 

I am also saddened this past month as well, as I lost one of my oldest and dearest childhood friends.  Sim Taylor and I have known each other since we were in 3rd grade over 44 years ago, and to be honest he was like a brother.  I last talked to him on March 7, and at the time he was going through a lot too - he had issues at his workplace, and a couple of years ago he lost his wife.  Little did I know that would be the last conversation I had with Sim, as the next day while he was at work he had an aneurysm that ruptured in his brain, and it took his life on March 9.  It was really a blow to learn about that, because on average we would talk back and forth at least once a week, and I started noticing a couple of weeks back that I hadn't heard anything out of him for a while.  So, I checked his social media, and his sister had posted that he passed away - that stunned me, as he is the same age as me.  I want to now just share a few memories of Sim with you now, as we go back a long way. 

                                                            Sim and I back in 2016

Sim Taylor was a neighbor of my dad's back in the day.  He and his family - his mom, stepdad, and two sisters - lived in a house a block over on Union Street from Dad's house on Ellis Street in Brunswick, GA.  We met actually in third grade at Burroughs Mollette School in Brunswick, and given we were close neighbors, we later became good friends.  One of the things we both enjoyed was watching a cartoon then called Space Giants.  This was a Japanese science-fiction series that was produced originally in the mid-1960s, and it could be described as something that would happen if Power Rangers were merged with Lost in Space, and it featured as its prime protagonist a huge giant gold robot named Goldar. Although it looks somewhat corny now, back then the local TV station in Jacksonville aired it on weekday afternoons, and for some reason Sim got me watching that.  There were times he would come over and watch it at Dad's house with me, and we would have cookies and chocolate milk as we watched the program.  Recently, I actually found that whole series on DVD and bought it, and it was kind of fun to watch again.  We also attended each other's youth group meetings at churches - Sim's folks went to the Nazarene church near their house, and they had a program for elementary-aged boys called the Caravans, and I went to those meetings with Sim.  I was actually part of another church, Beverly Shores Baptist Church, and also part of that boys' group there called the Royal Ambassadors.  I would on occasion take Sim to those too.  And, of course, like most kids, we formed our own club which we called the "Secret Agents" on Sim's recommendation - neither one of us knew why the hell we called it that, but it sounded cool to two nine-year-old boys.  After leaving and going back to Mom in the summer of that year (1979), I had lost touch with Sim for many years, although my dad would say occasionally that he ran into him and would tell me how he was.  Thanks to social media though, about 10 years ago we were able to get back in touch, and since then we have been close again.  He was an amazing friend.  In the years in between, Sim and I lived our respective lives - I went to college, and Sim got a job at 19 at the local seafood processing plant on St. Simons (the old Sea Pak Foods, now Rich Foods I believe), and he married an older lady while I married at 22 to Barbara, and life went on for both of us.  But, once we got back in touch, it was as if we never stopped talking since 3rd grade together.  He was an amazing guy, and one of my best friends, and I am sure going to miss him.  Rest eternal Bro and will see you again one day. 

So, that concludes our insights for today, and hope to visit again soon.  It has been really busy with my doctoral work and other responsibilities, so I won't be here as frequently, but do plan to check in.  Have a good week everyone and catch you next time. 

Year-End Perspectives

 Today as I write this - December 20 - we are approaching the end of 2022.  There is a lot about this year to talk about, and therefore this is my year-end post.   First, I wish everyone here a joyous holiday season, whether you observe Christmas, Hannukah, or you are just waiting to ring in 2023.  I do not count Kwanzaa in that, because it is a fake holiday - no offense to people of color, but most Blacks I know already celebrate Christmas anyway, and a few are even Jewish, so Kwanzaa makes no sense to me.  That is my politically incorrect observation to really spark interest in what I say.  For those who may take issue with that, lighten up - people are allowed to have different opinions, so I advise the detractors of my statement to grow a pair.  Thank you, and that is a fun way to kick off the conversation!

This, in all honesty, has been perhaps one of the weirdest years I have had in a long time.  It wasn't totally bad, but a lot of things have happened over the course of the year that have cast an air of uncertainty over it.  The biggest factor was the loss of my mother back in March, when she succumbed to a lingering medical issue she was fighting since December of last year.  Given Mom had no actual estate, and her status as a veteran, taking care of her arrangements was not a big challenge.  She was interred in a beautiful veteran's cemetery just outside of Cumberland, MD, called Rocky Gap, and the gravesite is actually very beautiful too, with a panoramic mountain view overlooking the site.  Burying Mom was not the biggest challenge, and it never is - the real burden was in missing her after she was gone.  I imagine that anyone who has experienced the loss of a parent could relate to this - you have them with you all your life, and then they are gone.  And, as the reality of that sets in (as it did for me in May) it can be overwhelming.  Mom's loss means that both parents are now gone onto their eternal reward, and that is an equally weird feeling too.  

Also, my doctoral studies at Liberty University, which thankfully I can do fully online from home, are in a good place.  I was accepted into an honor society, the Omega Nu Lamda Online Honor Society, earlier this year, and I also was able to be rewarded my Executive Certificate in History, which is a post-graduate credential that is achieved once one meets the mid-point of the doctoral program.  My courseload this year has been a little different, as the majority of the Spring and Summer terms were seminar courses that help prepare one for the dissertation phase of the program, and at the end of the Fall semester I have completed about 50% of the Comp Reading phase - I will finish that up in the Spring with two courses on Early Modern and Modern Europe.  Then after taking what is essentially a dissertation intro course called Doctoral Historical Research in the Summer term, I officially start the last year of the program in the dissertation phase, which will (if all goes well) be a nine-month stretch.  Once that is done and the dissertation is written, I will be scheduled for a defense of it and upon successful completion of that I will then officially be a Ph.D.  I really have wanted my doctorate since my undergrad years, and it is so good to be so far along with it now and seeing the end is in sight.  In all honesty, I wish I would have had this done 20 years ago, but the circumstances of life did not allow it then.  But I am able to do it now.  I have faced much opposition over the years from even family members, but I have some advice for people who have encountered this type of opposition - most of the real detractors really have opinions that mean little or nothing.  They are not encouraging you; they are not investing anything into your endeavors, they do not know your heart or spirit, and they just don't matter. Even if it is family, I offer some very practical advice - when they come against you, just tell them to go screw themselves.  They do not have a right to say anything to you, and you don't have an obligation to listen to them - they are useless, and they will only drag you down and distract you if you give them any leeway.  Just continue to do what you do, and in my case, I have done well, and if any of my "critics" have anything to say, I say to them - "Merry Christmas, and screw you!"  A little coarse I know, but they deserve it. Toxic relatives are one of the greatest causes of disappointment in people's lives, and to be honest, they forfeit the title of "family" when they come against you.  They are parasites, viruses, and their opinion is not worth what I scrape out of the cat's litterboxes when I clean them.  I used to have more resentment towards such people, but in all reality, that is not worth it either.  They really do not matter, and your focus should be on what you are driven to do, and they do not have any place in your life if they don't know how to be encouraging and supportive.  So, again, screw them.  

Besides losing my mom and continuing my doctoral work, this year has had a number of other challenges too, but we have come through them. That is the other lesson of the year too - trusting in God.  I have come to a place where I have no choice but to trust God, as at times things can be somewhat beyond our control.  The challenges make one stronger, and they are the building blocks of true character too.  It is also important to remember as well that if God brought you this far, then he is going to take care of everything else.  That is the big lesson of the year. 

Not all news was uncertain and challenging this year though, as there have been many good things happening too.  For one, although I lost my little bunny Trixie in July, I did get two of the most adorable bunnies to replace her, one a white female with gray spots we named Zoe and the other a black lionhead/Lop mix I named Buzzy.  A few weeks ago, they blessed us with four little babies, and they are about to get new homes soon - they are adorable, and if you are local and reading this, consider a bunny as a Christmas present for someone and please get in touch.  I also have another piece of news I will share at another time, as presently I am not able to do so, but it has been a very wonderful thing that has happened for me going back to July.  Maybe at the end of next year I will share more on that too. 

It has also been a good year for travel too, as during the summer I was able to go to Ocean City, and to Hershey, PA.  That was actually quite nice and fun, and it is good to get out a little and enjoy life.  And, although Barbara and I are now divorced, we still get along very well and are very close, and to be honest she has been a Godsend with many things this year, especially in dealing with Mom's passing.  I am very thankful she was around then.  One day, I will tell more of Barbara's and my story, but essentially it goes back 33 years, and we started off as close friends, and we are back there again.  At some point I will share more details, as it will be obvious that people will have questions.  Therefore, that is a preview for next year.  

As for my music collection and other things, after celebrating 40 years of collecting my vintage big band records, I am in a new place with that.  I am not anticipating a whole lot of new stuff this coming year, and don't have many plans to get a lot either save a couple of rarer finds I want to acquire. With an uncertainty regarding my income and such at this point, I am not planning a lot of groundbreaking purchases in the coming months.  This is a transitory period for me and I am not really sure of what direction things will take, so it is all a "wait and see" state right now.  I already have pretty much everything else I need though, so a lot of extensive purchases will really not be necessary.  God has been good despite challenges. 

At any rate, that is where we are at approaching the end of 2022.  I hope and pray that everyone reading this has a blessed and good New Year, and I will see you next time.  

Casual Observation

 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.  

                               Joe Bussard (1936-2022), the legendary vintage record collector 

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.  

Random Thoughts

 As you may have noticed, I have not been writing as much lately - with my doctoral program and so many other things going on over the past couple of years, there has not been much time to write about anything.  However, in a couple of weeks, I am going to be having my 53rd birthday, and naturally that at times sparks introspection.  This sort of inspires me to give just a few observations about some things that have been on my mind lately.

Did you ever notice that the older you get the more you start perusing obituaries either online or in the newspaper to look for people you know?  I now go through that ritual at least once a week, and peruse the websites of about five funeral homes in places I have lived from the time I was a small child until I graduated high school.  Many of the people you know the best will pop up in your formative years like that, although obviously we all make friends and acquaintances throughout the course of our lives.  Thinking about how I check the obituaries now every week religiously, I started thinking, "my goodness, this is morbid!"  What makes it even more morbid is that now people I grew up around who are actually younger than me are popping up in the obituaries these days.  One in particular was a neighbor boy I knew in Kirby, WV, as a young kid whose name was Tim.  I had known Tim for about close to 45 years honestly, and he was actually about 2-3 years younger than me.  Yet, a couple of weeks ago, I saw he had passed away.  Now, seeing that, and then also losing my parents over the course of two years, it really forces one to think about the future.  Over the past couple of years, a lot of things have gotten much more uncertain now than they once were, and that is quite a reality check when you think about it.  So, it got me thinking as well about what legacy do I want to leave behind, and who will be the steward of it?  Unless I get married in the next couple of years to a younger lady who can produce a son or daughter for me, it does not look promising.  And, I really do not want the cabinet full of memories I have - pictures, documents, and other stuff - to end up in a garbage dump somewhere.  Luckily, God has answered a few prayers in regard to that, but I will talk about that more at another time.   However, an important word to keep in mind as one gets older is legacy, and it relates to another word, destiny.  The legacy of those who have gone before us does play a very important and significant role in shaping our destiny, and destiny cannot exist unless it builds upon legacy, and that makes me want to soapbox a little. 

We all know about "cancel culture," and those who are most guilty of perpetrating it are some of both the most evil and the stupidest individuals who ever walked the earth.  These are the Antifa types who tear down statues, desecrate artwork, and even are screwing around with classic movies to remake them in their own image.  These are well-funded individuals too, and as iconoclastic as they are, they unfortunately are now the establishment despite how they try to paint themselves as "revolutionaries."  In recent history - the past 130 or so years at least - often what is called "revolutionary" is actually systematically dystopian.  Many of its proponents are failures in various areas of life, but instead of using their personal shortcomings as a lesson to do better, they take on a "victim mentality" and instead seek to destroy that which they failed at.  It is, as one person put it, "revenge of the herd."  When I watched one of Dinesh D'Souza's documentaries once, he was interviewing this actor who basically said what should be obvious - those who are the biggest proponents of "cancel culture" were themselves rejects of the culture they are fighting to cancel. However, there is a serious problem with this deeply-flawed logic - they have no sense of purpose, legacy, or destiny, nor do they care.  While they try to reinvent society by destroying many things, they are forgetting something - what if, a couple of generations down the road, their grandkids rediscover what was destroyed and then move against "cancel culture" by cancelling it??  It could happen.  I was part of one of those generations myself.  My mother's generation, the Baby Boomers, were very iconoclastic - this was the beatnik and hippie group of the 1960s and early 1970s.  Then, they gave birth to my generation, Generation X.  The defining legacy of my generation was the fall of another "cancel culture," the Soviet Union.  Many more radical Boomers were ardent Marxists (Bernie Sanders comes to mind) and idolized the Soviet system and also thought Mao Zedong was their hero.  But, my generation had a President that thought differently - Ronald Reagan.  And, thank God he did.  So, while the Millennials burn down cities as part of Antifa, they are so stupid that they know nothing about Tianmen Square or the fall of the Berlin Wall.  Many do not even know about the horrors of the Cristero Wars in Mexico, the Holodomor famines in Ukraine, or the atrocities of the Nazis - as a matter of fact, they often look more like the barbarians that initiated those atrocities rather than being "inclusive" as they often try to be, using their fake pronouns and other junk.  Even as I write this, the server that was created by some of these techno-geeks in Silicon Valley spell-checks Tianmen Square!  It was forgotten.  Legacy is vital and it is important for the survival of our human race, and when we start to neglect that, we tend to, as the philosopher Santayana wrote, fall into the predictable trap of repeating those atrocities - his exact words were something like "those who forget the lessons of the past are condemned to repeat them."  It works kind of like school - if you fail the 6th grade, you have to do it over again.  We have a society of ideological failures - they occupy the boards of corporations, the offices of government, and they control the media, the universities, and entertainment.  Despite how "counter-cultural" they claim to be, they are the ones controlling the culture.  And, they risk destroying some important and valuable legacies we should preserve as a nation.  Although this is reaching epidemic proportions now, we who appreciate and preserve history still have options, so we need to take advantage of that while we still can.

Despite the fact that major tech platforms are controlled by iconoclastic ideologues, the good thing is that they cannot control everything.  On Facebook for instance, family members can still share treasured family photos, and that is something we can take advantage of.  We need to know our family "story," and the availability of social networking makes that more accessible than ever.  So, I would encourage you to save and print copies of those pictures and compile albums of them - also save videos and other family documents too, as they are your treasure.  Starting on that level, it is also worth noting that although Amazon and EBay are now controlled by iconoclastic leftist ideologues, they are still good marketplaces where many things can be found, and on a societal level this means we need to take an interest in other media that the Left wants to "cancel," and buy it up to preserve it. If we do this, we insure the survival of Western Civilization.  We have to take small steps in order to make massive change, and it starts with efforts such as buying a rare book off of EBay which otherwise would not be available.  Legacy is vital to our survival, so let's preserve as much of it as possible. 

I know that I bordered on political with this today, but it has been something close to my heart for a long time.  We need to safeguard the next generation from the disasters of previous generations, and it takes each of us doing small things.  Saving a precious family photo, for instance, could have a great impact on your great-grandchildren. Therefore, as you think about these things today, please take this into consideration.  Also, writing down your memories is a good practice too - I do this in two different ways.  First, I keep a regular journal, and secondly I also am writing my life story down and update that every year.  I also hang onto all my old calendars, church bulletins, check registers, tax and medical records, academic records, and other things.  I want to have as complete of a life history as I can once my time on this earth ends, and this is my way of insuring that happens.  And, I just need someone to leave it to, and that too will come to pass as well.

Thank you for enduring my rambles today, and I will hope you visit again soon.  

40 Years Record Collecting

 This year I have reached a huge milestone - this is the 40th year I have collected my vintage big band recordings.  It is significant because at this point, I believe I have almost everything I was looking for, and it's a big collection.  So much so that at this point I don't even have any plans for new purchases yet for the coming year.  Since the 40th anniversary is October 1st, I wanted to begin by telling a little story, and then I will get to the stats for the year.

The date is Friday, October 1, 1982.  I am 12 years old, and just a little over a month from my 13th birthday.  It was only a year previous that I really got into listening to the music I fell in love with listening on WBT-AM radio.  I knew that records had to exist, although at this point the only records I knew about were my mother's small depressing country music collection.  Mom's music was something I tolerated but hated, and I was at the age that I was looking for my own musical identity, and I found it the previous year.  Now it was time to start moving to the next level - music that I didn't have to wait a whole week to hear on the radio but could play myself any time.  Mom was supportive in that too, and fortunately for us there was a junk shop in the nearby town of Rio, WV, that had a good stock of old records that they sold at the time for a quarter apiece.  I was not aware of that at the time, but fate would change that quickly. 

It was on a Friday afternoon, and I was still in the 6th grade and my elementary school I attended was next door - it took about 5 minutes to walk from the front door of my house to Grassy Lick School.  After a relatively normal and good school day, I walked home in the crisp autumn weather that afternoon and when I got home Mom had just came back from shopping - back then, my dad sent us about $100 each month in child support, and I got a little allowance from it.  Mom used a little of that allowance to get me something at the Rio Mall (our local name for that junk shop)that would prove revolutionary in my own life.  She knew I was into this music I heard on the radio, and she discovered the record pile at Rio and found me a Harry Belafonte LP due to the fact I actually liked Harry Belafonte's "Banana Boat Song" that was played often on my favorite radio show on Sundays.  It was a very thoughtful gesture, although that was not really the type of music I was looking for - it scratched the surface, but it was not quite the sound.  That would come the following month when I actually got to Rio to shop for myself and would discover a gold mine.  

Any rate, I get home that night, and Mom said she got me something at the store, and it was this record.  I didn't hate the record honestly - as a matter of fact, some of the tracks on it were good.  However, getting that record was extremely significant, as it opened up a whole new door to the music I love.  That night I got to listen to it, and it was an experience.  From that point, I became a record collector. 

That was 40 years ago, and 40 years later, I have achieved levels of what I found I only dreamed of back then.  So, where are we now?   As of today, my collection stands at 1838 CD recordings, 1141 LP records, and 204 DVDs of vintage big band concerts, "soundies," movies, documentaries, and TV shows.  That comes to 3183 total items in my collection.  Of course, with the 78s, 45s, and cylinder recordings I also have but don't count, it would be over 3200.  I also do not count that first Harry Belafonte record either - I have that, but it is in a frame on my wall next to my CD shelf as a sort of token of where this all started.  That being said, let's talk about what we added this year.

As I have generally pretty much found every vintage big band recording I could desire on either LP or CD, the focus this year was on some other stuff that I wanted to add to the collection.  There were certain legendary singers and vocal groups from the 1950s in particular I wanted to get collections of, and so we did.  Some of these were large ensembles - I got the early Ray Conniff collection, for instance, as his earlier LPs were quite good honestly - and others were individual singers such as Perry Como, Billy Daniels, Pat Boone, and others.  I also came across a few rarities too - my good friends the Sprunks in Arizona just remastered all of those Ernie Heckscher LPs I have been wanting to get on CD, so they are part of my collection now.  I also got good collections of Larry Clinton, Jan Garber, and other vintage big bands that did not have comprehensive sets until now, so they are part of the collection too.  At the beginning of the year, I also boosted numbers a bit as I finally integrated my classic post-1950 jazz collection - about 35 recordings - into the main collection.  It is time those were integrated in, and so they are now.  I also have decreased buying LPs this year - I picked up a few but there are not really that many to find anymore.  In short, it was a productive but different year. I also focused some on DVDs of some vintage movies and TV programs, and now have both Ray Anthony TV shows - the one he had in the mid-1950s with his big band, and the other in the early 1960s with the smaller Louis Prima-style group (both are good at any rate).  Any rate, it all looks good. 

A lot has changed since I first started collecting 40 years ago.  Back then, the primary musical format as vinyl records, although cassettes were around then too and when I first started collecting I did amass several cassettes as well although I never really liked cassettes - they were too unpredictable to preserve good music on honestly.  That is why it was actually a good thing when those finally started phasing out about 20 years ago.  Then came CDs - the first of those came out in the late 1980s when I was still in high school, but I didn't get the first CDs in my collection until the beginning of 1995.  The first ones I still have and still recall, as they were a $5 big band set I got from Walmart which surprisingly had some quality stuff on them - Glenn Miller AAF orchestra, Duke Ellington, the Benny Goodman "Camel Caravan" broadcasts of the 1930s, Earl "Fatha" Hines, and the early Les Brown Duke Blue Devils.  Those were issued on a small label called LaserLight, and I am not sure if that label is even still in existence as I haven't seen their stuff in over 20 years.  I also got my first CD player at the same time - it was a portable "boombox" type player I also picked up at Walmart the same night.  I got the first CDs after a bit of a hiatus for a few years when I was focused on other things - school, getting married, church ministry, Assyrians, etc. - but I always had one or two vintage LPs on hand and never gave up liking my music.  I had also lost my whole original LP collection in storage after getting married and moving to start college in 1992, but in coming years I would find practically all of them again and would recover my collection fast.  Also, over the years, my buying options have changed drastically - I started out at junk shops and thrift stores in my early collection days, and then as I came into the CD era I began to become more specialized.  My first options were music stores - Spec's, Borders, Best Buy, etc.  As I began to find out really how much stuff was released on CD, one of my earliest and most consistent vendors was World's Records, which was based in Novato, CA.  Beginning in 1997, I began a purchasing relationship with them and their owner, Ren Brown, that lasted until they finally closed shop in 2012. Other vendors I would work with later include Ian Dodds and his wife in Australia, who operate still a company called Crystal Stream Audio that I still purchase from today.  Then there was Bob Stone and Bermuda House, based out of southern California - Stone specialized in reissuing good recordings of society/hotel bands like Ernie Heckscher and Jack Malick on CD from the LP era, as well as also specializing in Orrin Tucker's catalog.  They have since disappeared, and it is unfortunate too as I would like to replace a couple of CDs I got from them that have a lot of static on them - if anyone reading this knows how to either fix an audio CD with static or if they know where some of Stone's material can still be purchased, feel free to get in touch.  Another individual I dealt with over the years was a gentleman named Mark Caputo, who has an extensive collection of vintage big band radio broadcasts.  Mark has sort of retired from making those available on CD, but I managed to get several important items from him before he did so.  I have also made good friends and purchases from a number of exclusively polka music vendors for rare material, notable Cy Pfannenstein from out of Minnesota and Jimmy K Polkas from Cincinnati.  In recent years, my more consistent vendors I have gotten a lot of good remastered CDs from are Gary and Joan Sprunk, who operate Arazol Music in Arizona.  Many of the LP reissues on CD I have waited a long time for are available from the Sprunks, and I still deal with them even now.   However, with many vendors going offline or out of business due to changing times, I mostly these days rely on Amazon and Ebay for many of my new purchases - practically everything you can imagine is available on those.  As time passes, and I don't buy as many, I have a feeling that Amazon and Ebay may be more useful for the things I am still looking for.

As I mentioned, with only 17 items (LPs, CDs, and DVDs in this case) short of the 3200 mark, it essentially means that I am at a place where I can begin to acquire less and find ways to make the collection work for me.  So far this year, I have done that in my doctoral program at Liberty, where I wrote a class paper on the business aspects of the big bands for an American Entrepreneurship class.  I have also began to explore the opportunity of writing a more in-depth scholarly book on the big bands based on what I have learned over the years as an individual collector, and I have an extensive library now of both big bandleader biographies and general books on the era.  Many of that generation that created that great music are now no longer with us - the notable exception is Ray Anthony, who just had his 100th birthday in January, and he looks on track to see his 101st too as he is still in relatively good health.  I am not looking to obtain many more CDs this year, and have no goals set for the collection - at 40 years now we are in a good place.  So, we will revisit this next year and see where we are at.

Thank you for allowing me to share this significant milestone, and come back again to visit on my virtual "front porch."  

Catching Up

 It has been quite a while since I got to chat much, and feel the need to catch up a few things.  A lot has been happening so my life has been busier recently.  But I need to definitely sit out on the proverbial front porch, have a cup of coffee, and enjoy the birds singing and the sunrise once in a while, and that is what I wanted to do today. 

I suppose the first thing in order is to talk a little about what has been happening.  As some already may know, on March 28 I lost my mother - she had a fatal heart attack after a long convalescence due to a fall back in December, and it finally did her in.  It has been a rough few months in many respects too - after COVID, a divorce, the loss of both parents, and so much else happening, I am still trying to adjust to it all.  But, it will come together, and this is a new chapter.  And, that being said, I want to talk about a little something today that has been on my mind. 

I am not much into science fiction, but apparently there is a book series called Heroes of Olympus that has gained tremendous following in recent years, so much so that fans themselves have started creating their own artwork, and some of it is quite good.  Recently, due to something else I will share later when the time is appropriate to do so, I came across a piece of this fan art that really got my attention, and to be honest I absolutely fell in love with the picture.  It is of two characters in this series - one a White boy and the other an American Indian girl - and whoever drew it really poured some feeling into it.  We are taught as Catholics to see truth, beauty, and goodness in creation, and sometimes that takes a unique form.  This picture is one of those things.  Anyway, let me share it if I could.

I don't know what it is, but there is just something about this picture that really speaks to my soul.  It represents true love, and it also represents something else that our society really needs to hear today - love knows no color.  I have always been a very big supporter of interracial dating and marriage for a number of reasons.  But, there are three things I think are necessary for a beautiful relationship, and here they are:

1.  They must be a monogamous couple - one man and one woman

2.  They must really love each other - they need to have the right chemistry as any romantic relationship should

3. The romance must be allowed to cultivate and grow, and the intimate physical part - sex - is for marriage only. 

If those three things are in place, then the relationship that blossoms from them will be one of the most beautiful and meaningful things.  But, having been in a marriage myself with another person of my own race, there are things you learn about any relationship.  I am going to now address some of that quickly here.

For one, it is important that when a couple have met and are beginning to get serious about one another, that they do not allow outside pressure to force them into something they are not ready for.  Let me tell a little of my and my former wife's story.  We started out as the best of friends, and to be honest looking back on that we should have stayed that way for a while.  But, at the time we were involved with this rather cultish-like Pentecostal church in Alabama that was hung up on demons and marrying off every single person in their congregation to people of their choosing.  Through a supposed "word of prophecy" one night in December 1990 from a church member we were having coffee with at a local eatery, we were told that "God put us together" and that we were destined to be.  It was quite a shock for both of us, and only being 21 at the time, I was just excited to have a girlfriend.  But, both my now ex-wife and I were younger and not as wise, and we fell into a trap - less than a year and a half later, we would be forced into a circumstance that made us marry before we were ready, and that created issues on the honeymoon and everything else.  Then, some of my new in-laws more or less were determined to hate me before they even knew anything about me, and they caused problems. So, on one hand we had a bunch of Pentecostal nuts pushing us into a marriage, and on the other a bunch of judgmental in-laws trying to pull us apart.  That created trust issues for us, and it would eventually lead to a divorce.  My ex-wife and I do not blame each other for any of this - we were both victims of circumstance.  However, I believe that we were robbed of so much and that to this day chafes me a little, and I feel that for both of us.  My ex-wife and I are actually still good friends - she is a wonderful person honestly, and I love her still like a big sister and we are fairly close.  But, we will never be a couple again romantically because it more than likely either was not supposed to happen in the first place or we went about it wrong.  What was perhaps more galling about it though was that one of those crazy church people - the pastor's daughter of all individuals - decided to stick her nose in where it didn't belong after the divorce.  I want to address that a moment now. 

This woman, mind you, has not talked to us in many years.  Yes, we are "friends" on social media and all, but she never really says two words about anything, not even a "howdy."  But, somehow she learned that Barbara and I were divorced, and then I get these messages from her with the 500 questions which I refused to answer because it is none of her damned business frankly.  And, it wasn't out of legitimate concern either - this woman is a notorious gossip, and often like so many she uses "prayer chains" as gossip networks, and this is a serious issue in many types of congregations that identify as part of the Pentecostal tradition.  I have frankly moved beyond that nonsense, as I am no longer part of that denomination and I have no accountability to this woman or anyone else - as a matter of fact, she can honestly take a short dive into a shallow puddle as far as I am concerned.  Negative people like that have no place in my life.  Nor should they in yours.  Anyway, just wanted to share that. 

A second issue involves my own family.  My step-grandmother is in her 90s now, and she is a different sort of Pentecostal than the crazy nuts in the former church in Alabama.  While generally pretty normal in basic beliefs, it is attitude in this case that is her problem.  Being about as judgmental and gossipy as the pastor's daughter from Alabama, my step-grandmother has other issues - she is self-righteous, somewhat bigoted, and she also tends to have an inflated sense of her own self-importance.  On many occasions she actually said that the Bible condemns interracial relationships.  She is VERY wrong of course, but you can't tell her that because she is very stubborn and set in her ways.  The Bible itself does not even address the issue, and if you really want to believe what it actually says, you look at Genesis and when God created the first man and woman - every human being on the earth is descended from Adam and Eve.  They are not descended from monkeys as racist evolutionists have proposed, nor are there some who are "cursed" by their skin color like some misguided and stupid religious people have said.  No - every human being on the planet comes from the same two parents, and so it means we are the same as a people regardless of color of skin or language differences.  That means then any man and any woman can freely fall in love and be married to each other, and race is not a factor.  As long as it is actually a man and a woman, the love is natural and it is beautiful.  So, it is not the interracial couples who need to repent of anything - rather, it is ignorant people like my step-grandmother; and at her age I would be starting to think about that and maybe do some soul searching. And that leads to another issue to address

In our society today, racism is a hot topic, but honestly it loses relevance in the way it is appropriated and politicized.  For instance, if you eat a peanut butter sandwich and drink a glass of milk, you are "racist" for being to ethnocentric.  But, if you enjoy a taco from a food truck or a plate of chicken chow mein from the local Chinese buffet, then you are "racist" for exploiting other cultures.  So, I ask the idiots who came up with this one question - if anything we eat is "racist," then are we supposed to starve?   Like that "brilliant" Congresswoman AOC says in all her great universal wisdom, maybe we should throw out cauliflower then and all eat yucca, but the flaw there is if all White people eat yucca, it is cultural appropriation.  The insanity never stops with these people, seriously.  In reality, most accusations of "racism" today are so baseless that they lose their meaning and are rightfully mocked.  I mean, to some of these people, if you fart crossways you are "racist" (maybe eating too much beef - AOC may be onto something!).  So, when you hear such terms as "White privilege" or "the patriarchy," laugh them off because they are nothing more than stupid buzzwords of radicals who want to destroy civilization.

Whether in food or in love, there is a constant we need to remember - you love who you are destined to be with, and you eat whatever it is you enjoy.  So, if you are a White guy and you fall in love with a Black girl, then may you have the greatest blessings on your relationship.  Likewise, if you happen to like tacos, go enjoy them then - it's OK.  For those who have issues with these things, you people need a real life because you have too much time on your hands - that goes for meddling relatives, gossipy Pentecostal nuts, or off-the-wall radical politicians.  The majority of us  - all races, ethnicities, etc. - just want to live our lives productively and in peace without other people intruding into them.  That being said, I now want to add a couple of closing thoughts to this.

This is an issue that has really impacted me personally recently due to a good thing that has happened in my life in the past couple of months.  I am not at liberty to say what that is, but it is something that I really wanted for a long time and it has really been a boost to me.  So, in closing, the bottom line to everything is that there is actually only one race - it is the human race.  We come in two different sexes and a variety of shades, but we are still human beings regardless.  So yes, the well-worn cliche that "Black Lives Matter" is true - but so do all other lives as well.  So, I unashamedly say that "All Lives Matter" and that "True Love Knows No Colors."  Have a good day, and thank you for letting me share. 

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Year-End Perspectives

 It is almost the end of another year.  2021 has been a ride to be simple about it.  With the wider issues of the nation - a combination of an ineffective senile old codger and his bad polices leading the nation, and this whole pandemic mess (which I believe has been taken way out of both context and control) have made things more challenging for everyone) - I have had a number of specific things that I have experienced that marked this past year.  So, I wanted to share and retrospect a bit on that, and thus give my end-of-year analysis.

First, the constants - my doctoral studies wrapped up their first year, and I am currently ending the fourth semester of those.  Also, a lot of transformation has been happening around the house - new furniture, a lot of readjusting, and several other new developments.  On the more specific aspects, as you know Barbara and I separated last year, and our divorce was finalized in June.  It was something neither of us would have expected to happen, but things do happen.  We still remain close as friends though, and actually have a better relationship as friends than we did as spouses.  And, Barbara has also proven to be a great support for a couple of other things that have happened this year which will be discussed momentarily.  Although the legal/civil divorce has happened, I am currently in the process of being granted an annulment by the Church, which would allow both of us to eventually remarry if that should be something God allows for either of us.  That whole process has definitely opened up a whole new chapter, and the subsequent adjustments are still something I am acclimating to.  

Due to COVID and all the hoo-hah associated with that, church has become a challenge.  For a significant number of Sundays this year, many Sunday Masses have been participated via television, and I am very thankful for both St. Elias Maronite Church in Birmingham, AL, as well as Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life, for making available televised Masses.  I also have switched parishes this year as well, as now I am attending St. Mary Church in downtown Hagerstown rather than St. Joseph, although the latter is closer to home.  The problem with St. Joseph is that despite having a very compassionate priest, Fr. John Jicha, there are theological/political liberals in parish leadership there who unfortunately exert more influence than they should (not to mention the Mass music, which has been supplied by a wannabe rock musician who utilizes secular tunes as Communion hymns, a BIG no-no).  St. Mary's on the other hand is an older (it is almost 250 years old) and is more solidly conservative and in line with Magisterial teaching of the Church as traditionally understood. They also offer the Extraordinary Form (Traditional Latin Mass) as well as a much more reverent Ordinary Form Mass.  I do miss teaching the kids though, and look forward to eventually getting back into that at St. Mary's, something both my new parish priest, Fr. Cibelli, as well as the Faith Formation Director there are on-board with.  The big challenge at this point is transportation, which I will address at this point.

Although I definitely can drive a car obviously, I don't have one - an extended period of unemployment aside from some contract paralegal work has made finances a bit challenging but workable, yet I still need to invest in a vehicle once I am able to do so.  I am praying this year we can make that happen, as it is a real handicap not to have one's own transportation. 

The other issue I have faced has been over the past couple of weeks.  My elderly mother, who is hitting her 75th birthday at the end of the month, had a nasty fall on December 3rd that resulted in a dislocated shoulder.  After being hospitalized for a time, it was also discovered that she had a fractured bone in her right knee, and as a result she has been having difficulty getting around.  Even as I am writing this today, she has physical and occupational therapists in her room assisting with her.  However, the big issue is the Veterans Administration (VA).  My mother, as those who know me are aware, is a Vietnam veteran - she and my dad actually met while they were in the Army together on Okinawa.  That being said, she gets most of her care from the VA, but due to the governmental aspect of it, the VA is a confusing mess of apathetic bureaucrats who are all talk and no action, and I have had my share of run-ins over the past week with both nurses and social workers who lack empathy and understanding, and their attitudes have left a lot to be desired.  To be honest, at this point my mother needs to be in a rehab facility where she can get more comprehensive care, but she is having issues with that - although a very dedicated patient advocate at the VA has been working her tail off trying to get Mom into one of those facilities, this whole pandemic BS is causing issues as many facilities won't take in patients unless they have had the six dozen "Fauci Ouchies," which are no guarantee anyway.  This is why the words "COVID" and "Fauci" are both cusswords to me at this point, as those two factors - in addition to the current President and his ineptitude - are really having an adverse effect on so many.  It is my hope that we are almost at the end of this madness and that life can begin to be normal again.

On a lighter note, I have given my music update a couple of months back, and my developments continue there.  At the present, I am approaching around 3000 total recordings - LPs, CDs, and DVDs - and there are still new acquisitions on the way in the mail.  I was able to incorporate that interest into a class project for an American Entrepreneurship course I had which wrapped up this week.  Some of the previous blog articles also reflected that study as well.  In addition, I have also purchased both a pocket trumpet and a curved soprano saxophone, the latter I already know how to play and the former I want to learn once my doctoral work is finished.  Additionally, I have also gotten back into collecting miniatures too, and managed to find some pretty unique stuff.  Having these side hobbies and interests have been therapeutic as there is much going on and a diversion becomes a necessity.

At any rate, that is my year thus far, and as I close out, I hope everyone has a blessed and joyful holiday season - for Christmas, may we always remember the reason we celebrate also - and it is my hope we all have a much better 2022.  As this will also be my last blog post for the year, I will be back to visit again in 2022 as well.