Month: May 2025

Music…

Feels So Good

Feels So Good

Chuck Mangione

and Words

[Instrumental]

We arrive at St. John’s Resort in Plymouth, Michigan, early on a Friday morning after a red-eye.  The hotel desk won’t check us in for a few more hours, but they’ll happily hold our luggage.  We wander to Five Steakhouse, the restaurant a few dozen feet from the front desk, to get breakfast.  We made our order:  a couple of lattes and our respective dishes.

As you might expect, we were exhausted.  After a full day of work, we ran home to finish packing to get on a plane.  We got little sleep during our flight, but sleeping on a plane is never restful.  This quiet meal with coffee and corned beef hash, at least for me, would need to sustain me for a bit.  This day would run long, and we didn’t know precisely what to expect.

Continue reading “Our homebase in a distant city” →

Music…

Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)

Pieces of Eight

Styx

and Words

Give me a job, give me security
Give me a chance to survive
I′m just a poor soul in the unemployment line
My God, I’m hardly alive

My mother and father, my wife and my friends
You see them laugh in my face
But I′ve got the power, and I’ve got the will
I’m not a charity case

I′ll take those long nights, impossible odds
Keeping my eye in the keyhole
If it takes all that to be just what I am
Well, I′m gonna be a blue collar man

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

In March 2020, we received an unconventional message at work.  I attended to some work tasks as the message came in.  Microsoft instructed us to work from home for the foreseeable future due to COVID-19, the pandemic.  They anticipated that this situation might last for about three weeks.  I finished my work day as usual, but I packed up my laptop.  My desktop had considerably more storage (and processing power), but moving it home would be considerably more work.  I could accomplish most tasks by connecting to it remotely.

As the weeks turned into months, I broke down and invested in equipment to streamline working from home.  First came the standing desk that allowed me to work while walking.  Naturally, this also included a desk treadmill.  Next, I invested in some ultra-adjustable monitor mounts to outfit that desk.  With their blessing, I brought home a couple of the 4k monitors from my office desk.  My desk resembled the one from Swordfish.

On an otherwise ordinary day of remote work, they scheduled me for a cryptic late morning meeting.  I click on the link to open the meeting in Teams.  I see a familiar face, the director of my division, and an unfamiliar face, who ends up being human resources.  However, they deliver the news swiftly.  They eliminated my position.

Continue reading “Unemployment” →

Music…

No Green Eyes

Something Up My Sleeve

Suzy Bogguss

and Words

In my heart there always crept
a jealousy that never′slept
It lived on calls that never came
and whispers of another’s name
But your love is a light that shines so honestly
And now because of your true colors I can see.

No green eyes, no blue nights
No jealous heart, no little white lies
You showed me what love looks like
I had the colors all wrong but now they′re right
No green eyes, no blue nights.

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

I rarely listen to country music; only a handful of artists adorn my collection.  A dear friend introduced me to Suzy Bogguss, and I subsequently picked up ‘Something Up My Sleeve’.  I genuinely enjoyed the album, and even today, when reading the song titles, I can hear most of the tunes in my head.  When we found that Bogguss had an upcoming concert in the Seattle area, we decided that we’d go together.

While I enjoy her music, I wouldn’t rank Bogguss among the top 50% of my favorite musicians; my musical tastes are far too diverse.  However, I will honestly list this particular concert among my favorites.  First, her live performance of each song didn’t deviate far from the studio version.  I understand this may be my baggage, but I’d like to hear a performance that closely resembles what I’ve committed to memory.  Second, Bogguss genuinely seems to enjoy herself as she performs; she frequently smiles as she sings or introduces a song.  Lastly, the venue and performance felt intimate.  At times, with her eye contact, it felt as if she was singing just to us.

Continue reading “An intimate concert with a cherished friend” →