Jam

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A friend of Amy’s invited us to a jam session at the Oakton United Methodist Church. The group gets together third Tuesday of each month from May through October.

My left arm is still in bad shape and I had a guy up to his elbows in my ears this morning at Johns Hopkins, but I had a good time tonight. Coming together with friends and strangers to make music and praise God is such an amazing thing to be part of. A few times the group got everybody stomping their feet and belting out songs like Old Time Religion and When The Saints Come Marching In and, for just a moment, I thought I was back in Crisfield twenty years ago singing with old Jado Lewis and Dear Old Dad. This is what making music is all about. It isn’t perfect, but it’s real. It is the sound and the emotion and the fellowship we all long for when we pick up a banjo or a guitar for the first time.

The next shindigs will be held on July 16, August 20, September 17, and October 15. Spread the word and come jam with us!

Laptop Linux

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I haven’t posted much about this, but an old neck injury has given me a lot of trouble with my left arm lately.  The pain is extraordinary – and when you add that with the chronic pain in my ears it comes together in a perfect storm of misery.

Anyway, sitting at my desk is rough lately. I have used my old laptop computer to work on projects in various parts of the house. For example, this morning I am writing out on the patio with Invictus by my side and a nice mug of lapsang souchong close at hand. I’m still hurting, but I am happy.

The other day I spilled a glass of water right into the keyboard of my laptop and killed it. I tried making do without it, but sitting at my desk is so uncomfortable now.

Luckily my father in law had an old Compaq laptop in his closet. It’s an old computer, but I was able to bring it back to useful life by replacing Windows XP with Bodhi Linux.

Bodhi is a lightweight Linux distribution and it runs great on this old machine.

Once this business with my neck is worked out I will start shopping for a new laptop, but for the time being I have a nifty little workstation that I can take anywhere.