Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Storms of March

March has hit SE Michigan like a lion with 7-8 inches of snow and winds forecasted. Kindof like my worklife right now. Peter and I have been home-bodies for the last month or so. Both of us working hard and STILL not playing hard. What happened to those lessons I learned in Pasadena? I must say that overcoming winter takes a huge amount of effort ... but no complaints about snow or work. I am content.

The small research project I am doing got off the ground this week in spite of numerous technological issues including 3 computer crashes (who'd-a thought)! I am checking to see if the parents of special-needs children (mostly autism) can get a little bit of stress reduction through the use of the Interactive Metronome (IM). These parents are constantly challenged by day-to-day events. IM is a pretty amazing product - a one-time small miracle for anyone who does it. I could have just as easily chosen other techniques such as meditation, therapeutic music, exercise, etc. as the de-stresser - and maybe I will as time goes on - but IM has caught my imagination for the moment.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Ice Carving

My small town of Plymouth is in the midst of an outdoor ice carving festival. There were perhaps 100 carvings including several large scale installations. Team Japan, as in past years, had several large well-executed entries including a large dragon. My favorites were carvings by individuals - there was a glorious cat seemingly in motion, a fish with wonderful scales and outside my favorite restaurant, a carving of a waiter carrying a tray of martinis.

We walked up and back in the new snow. (Lots of snow this year!) On the way back, I overheard a woman say, "Plymouth is such a quaint and cool town". Well, I hadn't thought about it in a while, but I guess it is.

We had planned to stop for coffee, but the lines were long, so we made our own mocha latte concoction at home along with a big bowl of popcorn. There is nothing like a long walk in the cold to make one enjoy the coziness of home on a snowy afternoon!

Monday, January 21, 2008

Music, Detroit Style

Detroit can add me (newly relocated here after 5 years) to the many fans who long for and miss the excellent music of WDET (public radio which is now 95% news). It was a shock to move back to my home town and discover such an essential part of my life gone.

I found a CD created in the studios of DET during live performances of Los Lobos, Patty Larkin, Janis Ian, Bruce Cockburn, Shawn Colvin, etc. It's my one link to the past. I've lost hundreds of CDs during my many moves during the past 10 years. My music library is incredible lean and out of date. Which are actually 2 separate problems. I think I've been on another planet for several years. But somehow my lost music didn't seem like much of a problem until I moved back home. The gray, gray skies in S.E. MI requires a dose of music every day in the winter.

A trip to Border's tonight got me thinking again about CDs, MP3s, jukeboxes, I-pods, downloads, and radio. I bought a Richard Thompson CD (Live from Austin) to keep me company while I figure out whether to subsribe to radio, invest in downloads, etc. --- and which ones. Lots of choices out there.

Friday, January 11, 2008

Recovery

I didn't post an entry about the holidays ... it was good... I am tired.

I am staring at a pile of papers on autism that I hope to have time to read. I am embarking on a small but time-consuming research project. And I have just taken on a few more clients.

The motto at my last job was 'work hard, party hard'. Somehow that actually works. I guess that I need more parties to make it through all the work I've taken on!