Category Archives: Blog posts

“Why are you doing this?”

“Why are you doing this?”

Regal Blend is my barbershop quartet. We go out singing Valentines on February 14. While we’re traveling around town, we like to visit schools and sing for the chorus classes, to give them a little demonstration of what adults do for fun. The classes enjoy the change of pace, and we can do a little tutorial on barbershop singing.

Of course, the first thing we do when we get to a school is report to the office to check in. As long as we’re there, we sing for the secretaries and administration. It always draws a crowd, and not so subtly shows that people keep on singing long after they leave school.

One of the students this year asked that question above. I mumbled and stammered about how much fun it was. But she made me think about it. There are more reasons than “fun” to sing in a quartet, a chorus, a band, even alone in the shower. Continue reading “Why are you doing this?”

Clean Temp Starter

We were at a beer festival in Fond du Lac Wisconsin serving out some of our local brewery’s samples, along with our own home made beers and meads, when a slightly intense gray haired gentleman in a beer-themed baseball cap tottered up to us and intoned “Clean. Temp. Starter.”

Then he nodded and looked as if he had delivered the secrets of the universe, waiting for us to acknowledge the blessings of his bountiful wisdom. Continue reading Clean Temp Starter

About Us

We are all one people. We are home.

We are all in this together and the more clearly we see it the better off we all will be.

The sun rises, so also do spirits. The sun is implacable in his path. Some spirits are rising faster and higher than others. It’s nothing to get all proud of. Or envious of.

Rank and privilege and riches and power are there for those who devote themselves to finding them. Peace and love and happiness likewise are all there as well for those who devote themselves to finding them.

Rising Spirit of the North
Rising Spirit of the North

What Number Cousin Were You Again?

What Number Cousin Were You Again?

Or, how to amaze your relatives with little known and mostly useless facts.

Okay, before I start, it’s true that some of today’s blended families make the idea of half-siblings and second cousins kind of moot, and maybe a little annoying or even a bit offensive. Regardless, I push on. Most of the structure for this came from reading an article in the Farmer’s Almanac some years ago, and the picture stuck in my head well enough so that I can share it around and make – hopefully – sense. Continue reading What Number Cousin Were You Again?