Thursday, June 30, 2011

SUNRISE - June 30, 2011

Wow - where did the first half of the year go...officially over in 1 minute PST.


June 30, 2011  Sunrise 5:45 am
gained 1 more second of darkness

"It is the Law that any difficulties that can come to you at any time, no matter what they are, must be exactly what you need most at the moment, to enable you to take the next step forward by overcoming them. The only real misfortune, the only real tragedy, comes when we suffer without learning the lesson." -- Emmet Fox

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

SUNRISE June 29, 2011

June 29, 2011 Sunrise 5:45 am
Gained one more second of darkness




"Always give without remembering and always receive without forgetting."  -Brian Tracy

"Goals in writing are dreams with deadlines." - Brian Tracy

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

SUNRISE - June 28, 2011

...for QualityPointOPM...




"This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson




June 28, 2011 Sunrise 5:44 am

"One always has time enough, if one will apply it well."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe




"Believe that time is going to help you do what you want."
William Morris Hunt






rlw

Sunday, June 26, 2011

SUNRISE - June 26, 2011

June 26, 2011 Sunrise 5:44
The day was 1 second shorter
"The question for each man to settle is not what he would do if he had means, time, influence and educational advantages; the question is what he will do with the things he has. The moment a young man ceases to dream or to bemoan his lack of opportunities and resolutely looks his conditions in the face, and resolves to change them, he lays the corner-stone of a solid and honorable success."  -  Hamilton Wright Mabie

Saturday, June 25, 2011

SUNRISE - June 25, 2011

June 25, 2011 Sunrise 5:43 am




“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."    -  Albert Einstein

Friday, June 24, 2011

SUNRISE - June 24, 2011

June 24, 2011 Sunrise 5:43 am
"Interviewer: 'So Frank, you have long hair. Does that make you a woman?' 
Frank Zappa: 'You have a wooden leg. Does that make you a table?"  
 Frank Zappa

They say that ignorance is bliss - or perhaps just a sign of an early onslaught of  Alzheimer's.

So having discovered the hedonistic pleasure of someone else brushing out your ponytail and fixing it for you every morning (a rare experience for men) ...I thought nothing of an after dinner "ponytail re-do'  - a gift from my daughter...much like a scalp massage - except better....

...until I returned home later from a hour long guitar lesson with my music teacher and a subsequent half-hour shopping excursion at the local grocery store after (long line of people behind me in the store), only to discover I had been "Barbie-ized" with a bright green band "ballet bun" on the back of my head.

Lise said she noticed it standing behind me in line at the store but didn't want to embarrass me by saying anything.  This "bun" was built to last with several Bobbie pins and a net for added stability.

Somehow the two women in my life thought this was hysterical, laughing so hard their ribs ached.  I did not see the humor so much...maybe a bit more now...

rlw

Thursday, June 23, 2011

SUNRISE June 23, 2011

June 23, 2011 Sunrise 5:43 am
"The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are.” ~ Unknown

A great day today in my very simple,but fun, short-lived music experience.  Good News - Bad News - Good News sandwich.


My teacher was asked to to open for an oldies rock band at a Summer Community Day August 16, here in Natomas.  It is a concert in the park sponsored by a local magazine.


Here is the sandwich.  


The Good News- he asked me to play 'Smoke on the Water' with him.  What a trip to play in front of hundreds of people as an opening act.  I was flabbergasted and flattered.

The Bad News - we will be on vacation in Alaska.

The Good News.  I won't be throwing up all morning, August 16.  In my mind, I played flawlessly and the crowd went crazy.....


rlw





Wednesday, June 22, 2011

SUNRISE - June 22, 2011

“What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.”  -  Albert Pike


“Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious”.  
- Brandon Gill


Photos will not load today...

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

SUNRISE - June 21, 2011

“Dream what you want to dream, go where you want to go, be what you want to be. Because you only have one life and one chance to do it all.”  - Unknown




June 21, 2011 Sunrise 5:42 am

Monday, June 20, 2011

SUNRISE - June 20, 2011

June 20, 2011 Sunrise 5:42



"When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers." – Ralph Waldo Emerson


rlw

Sunday, June 19, 2011

SUNRISE June 19, 2011

June 19, 2011 Sunrise 5:41 am
Open-Mic night 6-18-11 'White Rabbit'
"That which the dream shows is the shadow of such wisdom as exists in man, even if during his waking state he may know nothing about it.... We do not know it because we are fooling away our time with outward and perishing things, and are asleep in regard to that which is real within ourself."  ~ Paracelsus


Played two songs last night at open mic-night.  Not the best of me, but I did it, got beyond my mind wandering errors and got back to where I belonged (thank you JoJo/Beatles) kept the rhythm as that was the most important part and finished well...and then I had a large beer.  So far I am on my goal to learn and present one new song a month...


 1000 years ago or was it yesterday?
Other than today, tomorrow and Tuesday being the longest days left of the year - yep, days will start getting shorter Wednesday- the best thing about today is of course Father's Day.  Got three calls and a text (son #2 at work) from my children, so a satisfied man, I am.


rlw

Saturday, June 18, 2011

SUNRISE - June 18, 2011

June 18, 2011 Sunrise 5:41 am
Inside the Venetian in Las Vegas
“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” - Epicurus

Am experiencing pre-show concerns.  Playing at open-mic night in a few hours...no more practice today will make me any better than I am...hoping it is good enough.

I think I am a tiny bit better than when I started my final practice...so, off we go.  Will post clip if passable.

I only need 1,000 more hours of practice to calm down some.  Have four songs down (mostly).  Will start working on the next new ones tomorrow if I get through tonight satisfactorily.  Love the new song.

rlw

Friday, June 17, 2011

SUNRISE - June 17, 2011

"The race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep on running." ~Author unknown, in reference to Ecclesiastes 9:11, "I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all."
June 17, 2011 Sunrise 5:41 am


Daphne, the cat that rules the house had her first birthday yesterday with brownies for the guests and treats for the birthday girl and a serenade by Sarah on her new guitar.


Lise and I started our duo of 'House of the Rising Sun' -  electric bass and violin...actually sounds pretty cool.  Went to my lessons last night and my teacher played along on rhythm guitar...very nice.  As Lise tries to 'educate and clean me up' to be presentable, music wise...I am introducing a rock flavour to the mix...


I am pushing for this version of "House of he Rising Sun' by Pink Floyd.


Open mic night tomorrow - 'White Rabbit' debuts and a slicked up version of 'Smoke on the Water'.....oh, I am now going down the road to Da Doo Ron Ron- The Crystals....so, so retro and I am loving it - can you picture Sarah on vocals (I am thinking I can almost hear violin on this one...).


rlw

Thursday, June 16, 2011

SUNRISE June 16, 2011

June 16, 2011 Sunrise 5:41 am
"The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places."  ~Author Unknown


"When the world says, "Give up,"
Hope whispers, "Try it one more time."

~Author Unknown

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

SUNRISE - June 15, 2011

June 15, 2011 Sunrise 5:41 am

The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise fo...?

The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise fo..?

 

 

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

SUNRISE June 14, 2011

“Life offers no guarantees…just choices, no certainty, but choices; no certainty, but consequences; no predictable outcomes…just the privilege of pursuit.” - Tim Conner

For Peter:

*  Half glass fruit juice
*  1/2 banana
*  1/4 apple
*  Blueberries
June 14, 2011 Sunrise 5:41 am
*  Strawberries
*  2 tbs protein powder
*  1 tbs wheat germ
*  1tbs lecithin
*  1 tbs raw organic honey
*  1 organic egg (optional - worked for me)
*  ice
* Blend

I am walking, blogging testimony that you can live on liquids for easily two months.  Good luck.

rlw





Monday, June 13, 2011

SUNRISE - June 13, 2011

June 13, 2011 Sunrise 5:41 am
Welton Garden

"Do not wait; the TIME will never be "just right." Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along."  - Napoleon Hill

A new landmark in my life of epic proportions:

Lise and I have started playing music together!

We are learning to play "House of the Rising Sun" as a duo.  I am on electric bass and Lise is on violin.  It sounds pretty darned good.  I have an Internet metronome turned up to help me stay on the beat as my part calls for just one note per measure and I jump in too soon sometimes.

Very, very cool.  Sarah is learning guitar, so when she has her chords down - we will make it a trio.

In a few minutes I will be off to a 2 hour seat in the front row at the dentist office - oh joy.  The only person in the universe that probably won't help me bemoan my fate is my brother-n-law Peter who is enduring ten times that with his own dental issues.

Note to self: send salt-water Taffy (they live on a boat in S.F. Bay half the time) to him as a get-well gift.  If his jaw isn't wired shut - he just may crack a little smile.

rlw

Sunday, June 12, 2011

SUNRISE - June 12, 2011

June 12, 2011 Sunrise 5:41 am
Welton Backyard

"Self Discipline: You don't have to change that much for it to make a great deal of difference. A few simple disciplines can have a major impact on how your life works out in the next 90 days, let alone in the next 12 months or the next 3 years".  - Jim Rohn


Have been reading "Eat That Frog" 21 Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less TIME".  I figure it was definitely written for me.  Probably designed for those leaping up the corporate ladder, but works equally well for those that are divesting the accumulations of a life filled with fervent acquisition while now enthusiastically moving, unhampered by 'things', towards the light at the end of the Zen rainbow.

The book is designed after the observation by Mark Twain, that if the first thing you had to do each morning was eat a live frog, you could go through the rest of your day with the satisfaction of knowing that it probably was the worst things that was going to happen to you all day long.  Encourages do the most important task first.

Day one worked well for me - very satisfying ending to the day yesterday.

rlw

Saturday, June 11, 2011

SUNRISE - June 11, 2011

June 11, 2011 Sunrise 5:41 am



"Discipline yourself to do the things you need to do, when you need to do them, and the day will come when you will be able to do the things you want to do when you want to do them." - Zig Ziglar

Friday, June 10, 2011

SUNRISE - June 10, 2011

June 10, 2011 Sunrise 5:42 am





"We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons." -  Jim Rohn

Thursday, June 9, 2011

SUNRISE - June 9, 2011

June 9, 2011  Sunrise 5:41 am
“Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure ". – wolfdyke  

White Rabbit / Jefferson Airplane officially in the books and ready for debut next Saturday at open mike night - Working on One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer/George Thorogood now and Maria-Maria/Carlos Santana is coming up next.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

SUNRISE - June 8, 2011

June 8, 2011 Sunrise 5:41 am
So, just when you think you have put enough TIME (see, I got the 'T' word in early) in on earth and "been there - done that" (sometimes twice) and you think you have heard and seen everything, NPR (National Public Radio) comes along with an interesting bit of trivia that is now and forever, near and dear to my heart.

I have been a Classic Rock fan from the beginning - when it was new and not yet classic - and what budding bass player can not feel the beat in any AC/DC song (some naysayers have been overheard committing Rock Blasphemy - saying that all AC/DC and ZZ Top songs sound alike).  


And then you endure the years filled with semi-guilt, all the while, building up your record collection of all the great AC/DC songs, but half believing the claim that listening to them at full volume (my speakers only had a 10  on the volume dial, as 1-9 were mysteriously missing) would turn your brain to mush and make you go deaf (WHAT??  DID YOU SAY SOMETHING?)

So, getting back to NPR - on the radio today, they shared that when you play an AC/DC song through underwater speakers in the ocean (doesn't apparently matter which song, as they all sound alike) IT ATTRACTS SHARKS!.  Now that fact in itself, is totally understandable, as sharks obviously are attracted to good old rock-n-roll more than, say, jellyfish.

Here is the cool part of the new discovery (I can just see underwater scientists playing Mozart under water to attract whales and dolphins, attempting to communicate) and then they leave the set-up unattended and the hippie grad-student intern slips an AC/DC MP3 player into the system and cranks his iPod up to +30 (I am sure their investment includes much higher levels better than my +10 max speakers) to see what would happen.  In addition to scattering all of God's gentle ocean gentle creatures for miles, lo and behold, hundreds of sharks appeared for the impromptu concert at the reef. Here was their discovery:

AC/DC songs calmed the sharks down and reduced their aggressive hunt mentality:

"It shouldn't come as a surprise that great white sharks like heavy metal. But when Matt Waller, a charter boat operator in South Australia's Port Lincoln, played "Back in Black" and "You Shook Me All Night Long" by AC/DC underwater, he says the sharks become less aggressive. Some even rub their snouts against the caged speakers, which is adorable in a terrifying way."

Since I have has a somewhat wild and exciting ride in life filled with rock & roll, it is somewhat comforting to know in the sunset of my life that there is finally an acknowledged, albeit, heretofore under-appreciated, but understandably meditative quality to rock-n-roll that will soothe the savage beast - or at least the shark within us.

rlw

AC/DC - Therapy for Sharks,

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

SUNRISE - June 7, 2011

June 7, 2011 Sunrise 5:41 am

    
     Happy is the man who finds wisdom and understanding for the gain from it is better than gain from silver and profit better than
    gold.
      
                                                          - Proverbs 3:13,14

Monday, June 6, 2011

SUNRISE - June 6, 2011

June 6, 2011 Sunrise 5:42 am


"Let us not get so busy or live so fast that we can't listen to the music of the meadow or the symphony that glorifies the forest. Some things in the world are far more important than wealth; one of them is the ability to enjoy simple things."   ~ Dale Carnegie

Sunday, June 5, 2011

SUNRISE - June 5, 2011

June 5, 2011 Sunrise 5:43 am

“If only the people who worry about their liabilities would think about the riches they do possess, they would stop worrying. Would you sell both your eyes for a million dollars ... or your two legs ... or your hands ... or your hearing? Add up what you do have, and you'll find that you won't sell them for all the gold in the world. The best things in life are yours, if you can appreciate yourself.”
~ Dale Carnegie

Saturday, June 4, 2011

SUNRISE - June 4, 2011

June 4, 2011 Sunrise  5:43 am
When considering selling your time for anticipated success, it would be good to remember:

 “After the game, the king and pawn go into the same box.”  -  Italian proverb


Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music.”  Angela Monet 

Friday, June 3, 2011

SUNRISE - June 3, 2011


Jun 3, 2011 - Sunrise 5:42 am
“God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now I am so far behind that I will never die.”  Bill Watterson



“There are whole years for which I hope I'll never be cross-examined, for I could not give an alibi.”  ~Mignon McLaughlin

Thursday, June 2, 2011

SUNRISE - June 2, 2011

June 2, 2011 Sunrise 5:43 am

As a vaguely interesting side-note, I am required by well-intentioned doctors to take a lot of pills.  Every day. To keep them straight, I have these little pill boxes marked Sunday through Saturday.  Two of them.  There is a large blue rectangular box that holds my obligatory night meds for cholesterol, heart, and blood thinner meds, etc.  Next to it is a smaller white rectangular box that holds my required morning meds that includes a pill to settle my stomach down from taking all the other pills.

Note: these pill boxes conveniently stack on one another next to the two types of eye drops I take every morning and every night for Glaucoma.  I supposed if the Glaucoma issues deteriorate enough, I won’t be able to clearly see the pills I have to take – ha.  Just inches away, is the tube of chloride paste I have to squirt in my custom teeth molds and wear nightly to protect my teeth from the ravages of the radiation and chemo treatment for the Cancer treatments that precipitated my growing fascination with the extra gift of TIME and what to do with it in the first place.  

Every Friday, the boxes are empty.  A week has passed. TIME to refill the pill boxes.  A week of my life has passed. What did I do with it?  I find myself measuring the passage of my TIME in the weekly required pill - box refills – a glaring and unavoidable marker of precious moments in the rear view mirror.

rlw

SUNRISE - June 1, 2011

June 1, 2011 Sunrise 5:43 am

An interesting measurement of TIME.

Today we are Half-Way done with 2011 and a bit like Benjamin Franklin; I am somewhat reluctant to try to add up all the worthy accomplishments I've garnered in the first half of this gift of yet another year.  ‘Half-Way’ is a significant marker, as I am half-way satisfied with a slew of things I accomplished that I didn't think possible and then I am also half-reminded of my own pre-epitaph: "The best things in life aren't things".

 Half-Way down the road of 2011, in the midst of gathering my figurative heirloom roses, I did stop a few times for a sniff or two, the rocky path of my life strewn with interesting diversions, a few dead end cul-de-sac turn arounds, some promised scenic turnouts with a view (and some with none), as well as the human requisite seconds, minutes, hours and days that just somehow disappeared like a fine mist in the wind.

rlw