Coyotes

After midnight, and I'm sitting up late listening to the coyotes howling in the field next door. I've been hating Michigan, and the cold, and all, but hearing them I realize what a strange and beautiful place I live in. It's an eerie, wonderful thing...ah, these creatures of the night...what music they make...

Birthdays

Just sitting with another cup of coffee, prying my eyes open after a festive evening last night celebrating my Birthday...my 56th! How the hell did that happen? I was 12 last week, 15 or 16 just a little while ago. You blink, turn around a couple of times and Wham! Suddenly there's all this grey hair and stuff. Weird.

Having a Birthday around Halloween (I was actually born an hour after, on All Saint's Day, but I usually celebrate on Halloween) makes for lots of opportunities for festivity, and we certainly took advantage of them last night! There was a musical extravaganza out at the Arbor Brewing Company, a local micro brew club, with our friends the Six Foot Poles (hey, they're from Hamtramick). Cyn and I donned our costumes...we went as the Corporate Clowns Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. She did some amazing and very disturbing makeup on us...as you can see. We had a gas at the party, the band was great and it was a lot of fun for all! Today, however, for some reason I feel a bit...subdued. Perhaps a side effect of the excellent ABC brews. But you know, it's worth it really.

It's certainly been a year to make me more reflective and maybe a little morbid, with all that's been going on. But if I look back on my life these last 56 years, I realize that I've been pretty fortunate, and I haven't done that badly. I've had the chance to play in wonderful bands, hang out with wonderful people, to do wild and crazy things that lots of other people just dream about. There are a lot of people who love me, I have a wonderful fiance, and a great family. I suppose I have some regrets...I've wasted a lot of time and braincells with drugs and alcohol, especially early on, and I wish often I'd been kinder sometimes to people. But overall, I think I've been pretty OK, and I've had lots of fantastic experiences. This next year I think I just want to try and improve on as many levels as I can...I want to get my recording studio and promotional service together, and try to help other struggling musicians. I want to start working on soundtracks, and to expand my compositional abilities. I want to play music a lot more and with more great musicians, and to grow there as well. And I really want to have more and more fun with Cyn, my family and friends! Life is good, gotta enjoy it as much as possible.