Three Beautiful Things 02/16/16: Winter Slide Show, Taxes, Listening to Bill Davie Reflect and Sing

1. Students used to tell me they could do a much better job writing an essay if they just had more time. I did my best to discourage them and told them I'd rather have the assignment finished than really good. For about a week, I've been trying to figure out how to complete Sibling Assignment #177 and today I decided it was more important that I finish it than be too concerned about whether it's good. You can read about the assignment, here, or, if you'd just like to watch the slide show, here it is:





2.  I used to always do taxes after April 15th for no good reason other than I didn't want to face them. Several years ago, I resolved to change this lousy habit and I've been successful.  Today I went to a few sites to print off tax documents and  I determined that I have all our documents gathered and, on Wednesday, I'll call our tax preparer and make an appointment and get this done.

3. As the evening wound down, I poured myself a brandy and boiling water, spiced it with cloves and cinnamon, and listened to two of Bill Davie's recent oddyoblogs. Bill has begun a series of podcasts/oddyoblogs looking back at songs he's written over the years. First, he goes back to his first album and reflects upon "Old Town" and "Sacred Ground" You can listen to his thoughts and the songs, here. His second piece, here, begins with his reflections upon having lived with MS for a year now and then shifts into his discussion of "The Man in the Dead Machine" and "King of the Art".

Bill's songs send me into a private bliss. They take me back to times I loved working at Whitworth, to fun times in Eugene when Bill performed several times, including a couple of house concerts at my house back in the mid-90s, and back to more recent times when I've spent time with Bill and Diane and Bridgit and Susan-Louise at Bridgit's parents' place and later in La Push with Bill and Diane and Bridgit and Dan.

Bill talks in his oddyoblogs about his role as an archivist and I realized that Bill is, for me, a living archive of many of the best times I've had in my life in Spokane, Seattle, Eugene, the Kalama River, and La Push -- and the many sounds and stories and images tucked away in the folders of this archive came to life for me tonight as I listened to Bill ruminate and perform.