2013 Bring it on!

2012 can kiss my ass as far as I'm concerned. I made it through and it wasn't cheap. Having a kid in jail with jail being big business and all really put a damper on my cash flow. Fifty dollars a week for commissary. Money spent on New York Times and magazines and the envelopes to mail them and postage...Not to mention the lawyer and gas for the forty minute drive to Wampsville and back. Nick is home. He payed his due and is all the better for it. I honestly think jail was the best thing for him. Bill and I drove through a white out arriving shortly after midnight on December 24th and broke him out. What a Christmas...what an exhausting Christmas. The days were spent in an all out cook-a-thon! The ten year kitchen wafting with smells from Thanksgiving to Mexican to Italian. So one day at a time here with the kid home. He looks great and is positive and hopeful for the future. 2012, I hated you but you made me strong and you didn't defeat me...you beat me up pretty good but you didn't win. 2013, I look forward to you and am eager to accept what may come. And I'm so thankful for all I have.

The Last Seven Days Of The Last Seven Months

Like I have probably have said before...if I can make it through seven months of having a kid in jail I can make it through anything. And then the massacre in New Town. Friday I was in good spirits getting the house ready for Christmas and Nick's return home when I decided to turn the TV on for a weather update as I am praying for a good foot of snow for the holidays and thats when the tragedy was all unfolding in New Town. It made me sick. I'm not even gonna go into all the emotions I have been through as the rest of the world are going through them too. Its all to sad, and to mad. Something needs to change with the mental health issues and gun control in this country. Killing children to go out in the glory of media hype is just sick and wrong. I'm still overwhelmed and need to pray for the families, the community, the whole freaking planet for that matter and with the TV off. Snow seems pretty trivial in comparison. It's Monday night as I blog this and I'm seven days away from picking up the kid in the orange jumpsuit for his re-birthing. Like Aurora, I too am nesting and fluffing the house up for his arrival. It's been a long rocky road for my son and me,for the whole family near and far for that matter. But in my heart of hearts after the shock and realization that my kid is in jail. I knew it was the best thing for him. He messed up. He payed his due. And when I talked with him tonight...our last phone call from Wampsville, he muttered about how he was still in shock and depressed about the children senselessly murdered so close to Christmas. He said more than anything he wants to be with all his sisters and eat all my good food. I cried a tear of joy knowing my son is a wonderful man with a big heart and I'm blessed to have him in my life no matter how many hard balls I'm thrown. I love him. Thats what mother's do. Nothing will ever change this.

Aurora In Idaho With Chobani! Nothing But GREAT!

My lovely girl Aurora was hired to the mobile team of Chobani and she is now traveling the country side promoting greek yogurt and she couldn't be happier! She is now in Idaho at the opening ceremony of Chobani's new plant. I'm just so thrilled for her in her new endeavor and so thankful to Hamdi for taking the chance in our community to start his business. It's been a god send for many, many people in our area. Cheers Chobani! Aurora and two roomies have also rented a charming farm house just down the hill from me in the quaint town of Poolville. She's in her glory, playing house wife and has named her new rental abode,"Das Poolhaus" as there is an in ground fenced in pool out back. I'm tickled she's only 2 miles down the road and I can bring her food as I haven't quite learned how to cook for two yet. When a dutch oven comes out, it's gotta be filled with something delectable. It's gonna be a very memorable Christmas to say the least. I can't wait to cook for my family and just be with them. That is all I need.

All That Whirls Around Me

So. It's gonna be a very unconventional Thanksgiving for me this year. Bill and I are packing up and headed north and from the looks of the up coming weather, we'll be towing our kayaks behind us. Time to get away from work, and everything that is whirling around me. So many good things to look forward to! Kathy Yassas, and Rosemary Tenney, two pillars of the Sherburne community and bless their ever loving hearts, have been working tirelessly to save the Sherburne Inn by organizing a board of directors, developing a website and also looking into historical grants. It's just a beautiful thing to see the community come together to save the heart of downtown Sherburne. After a two year hiatus from Skyway days, I'm back in the saddle, helping a good friend of my daughter organize a show to benefit the Earlville Opera House and the food cupboard of Earlville. Sean Nevison is the brain behind this event which is in its third year called Treasures In The Heart of New York. Local musicians donate their mp3's and all CD's sold go to the local food cupboards. He has raised over 4 grand…which is commendable I think, in this rough economy. A good cause. So the show is tentatively planned for May 4th. I'll be performing a half hour slot with Rabbit In The Rye and a few other bands I'm not quite sure of yet. Looking forward. It's been many years since I played on the old historic stage of the Earlville Opera House. All summer and every Wednesday I've been recording with my dear friend Steven Skollar in the studio of Rich Grant another great friend. These two have been so near and dear to my heart helping me deal with the fact I have a kid dressed in an orange jumpsuit at the Madison County jail. Steve has graciously allowed me to use the painting he has been working on all summer of a toy cowboy which is totally amazing! Just last night I emailed him about writing a song about a cowboy to kind of tie the CD together and he did just that! I woke this morning to find a rough draft of a song called Toy Cowboy and I was floored by the raw emotion the song made me feel. Wow! So my 7th CD, "Wednesday's Riches" will be ready when it will! Hopefully I can get Steve back from New York's clutch back to record before spring…but if not, then the CD will be released in the spring. And lastly…Nick will be busted out on December 23rd to begin his new life. Nick for Christmas. This will be the best Christmas ever.

Unity Hall, Barneveld NY

Erie day here in Sunny South Hamilton...reminds me of the book I read years ago. The Mists Of Avalon. I guess I'm sitting in the preliminary fog of Hurricane Sandy. We're ready. Bill rigged up the electrical work to be able to plug the generator in to our hot water heater, furnace, refrigerator and what not which kinda takes the fun out of being with out electricity! I think I'd rather rough it than to listen to loud obnoxious motor of our gassy generator. Irene left us for 6 days with out power but I fared well with a wood stove and Reverend Ross's old hand pump up the road for water. We've got lamp oil and wood shed full of wood and plenty of food. Bring on Sandy! September 20th I opened for the Jeremy Wallace Trio at Unity Hall in Barneveld. What a gem of a place! With updates of electricity and kitchen appliances down stairs, the place is pretty much the same as it was when it was built back in the 1800's. A small rounded stage with the old foot lights in the floor, kerosene chandelier hanging down from an arched ceiling that warmly lit the wooded walls from trees I'm sure that were cut from the forest of the Adirondack Park right up the road. It was a long day, working the breakfast shift at the Bipolar Hotel aka The Colgate Inn then hanging around home not really being able to get into anything waiting to load up and head to the gig. I played a fine set which was very well received and met some pretty interesting folks!

Hamilton's Great Chocolate Train Wreck Festival

Though a little chilly, the heavy gray clouds held back the rain and gifted us with hints of blue skies over some beautiful, autumn turned, golden trees of the village green. All in all, I'd say The Great Chocolate Train Wreck Festival in Hamilton was a smashing success! I had a great day performing with Steve Skollar, and enjoyed listening to the music of Dove Creek, Bill Staines, Tracy Grammer and Bill Harley. To see the park filled with booths selling just about everything under the central New York sun and happy faces young and old is the most wonderful thing about this close knit community. And, I got to finally meet a pen pal relative from my mother's side along with his wonderful family who traveled down from the Syracuse area and dined us at Nichols And Beal. Here are some shots.

Some Crazy Dutch Woman Stories

I've had some really nice quality time at home as summer winds down. I've turned the ten year kitchen upside down in a clean-a-thon and painted it gypsy gold yellow. Its amazing what a coat of paint can do for your spirits. Nick is trudging through his most humbling time and will come home December 24th at midnight. I can't wait to get him out. One high light of late are a few emails I received from a long lost relative on my mother's side of the family. Sweet little glimpses into my dutch Oma's past I vaguely remember but somehow completely know. Hi Pamme, "Ha Tee Wa" I too recall your Grandmother, Bertha, often boiling water for tea. Related to her tea brewing, my maternal grandmother, Adrianna, was a compulsive tea brewer. After Grandmother's tea kettle, which never contained tea -- only water -- reached the interior temperature of the Sun, a towel would be wrapped around the teapot handle to enable pouring of the super-heated water into tea cups. After long steeping and extended tea bag bobbing and stirring and adding of milk and stirring and sugar and stirring, Grandmother would lift the tea cup off the saucer to sort of spill the tea from the cup into the saucer. The tea-filled saucer was then lifted to her lips, and the tea sipped from the edge of the saucer. This part of the tea ritual involved much noisy slurping. My Mother, Wilma, did the same, but only when in Grandma's company. I recall asking my Mother about the why of that seemingly strange tea ritual. Her very practical answer was that the tea cooled to a drinkable temperature sooner when spilled off to the saucer. Hi Pamme, Another Crazy Dutch Woman story: A friend received a very expensive meerschaum smoking pipe as a gift. The pipe was manufactured in Holland and was accompanied by a several page document printed in Dutch. I stupidly volunteered to have the document translated by an aunt. My Mother could speak and understand spoken Dutch, but she could not read or write in that language. The older aunts could, of course, read and write in Dutch. So, on a later trip to Honesdale, we collected my Aunt Jane and took her to my Mother’s home. We set-up Aunt Jane at the kitchen table with tea (what else?) and goodies and gave her the several page pipe document. I sat with pen and pad awaiting the spoken translation, poised to write down Aunt Jane's every word. Aunt Jane silently read the document for several minutes, while my Mother, my wife and I watched in reverent, you-could-hear-a-pin-drop silence. Aunt Jane then pronounced that the several page document said that, “this is a very good pipe.” That was it. “This is a very good pipe.” Aunt Jane then put the document down, and proceeded to drink her tea. My wife, of course, thought this was very funny. Trust me! Ann will N-E-V-E-R let me forget the incident! Thank you long almost lost relative I so look forward to meeting you!