The Dreams of An Everyday Housewife

I got Glen Campbell's "Everyday Housewife"  stuck in my head whilst vacuuming today. Of course, that simple chore lead to others....I'd been putting it off as long as possible, but frazzled by a couple of hours of setting up a new Internet Router, I needed busywork.

Ironic, isn't it? (In my best cartoon voice). I don't think Glen was thinking of a housewife doing much more than food, laundry, cleaning, childcare, and staying pretty for her man! I guess that's why my rendition of the song kept slipping into Waylon Jenning's Luckenbach, Texas. I'm no musician - maybe there are some of the same chords? Or perhaps it's just that they're both country songs - not my go-to genre. 

So I was in a singing/vacuum frenzy. I had wanted to use my new slick chordless model - easy to zip around and pick up those obvious chunks on the oak/tile floor. But NO, the one I purchased online (after shopping locally with no luck) arrived Tuesday. We started unboxing it to discover it had been used - scratched and dirty! WTH! So it was quickly boxed up and returned. I had to pull out 'ol faithful and corded. 

Don't you hate it when, while doing one simple chore, you make the mistake of getting down to floor level and discover all those cupboard drips you can't/try not to see when standing up? I don't know what you do when that happens - but I pull out the Irish accent and pretend to be the scullery maid. I tell off those slobby lads and lasses who live in the "big house" all high and mighty, leavin' the dirty jobs for we "red knuckled hard workin' gals". 

That and cleaning wore me out! Now I'm relaxing, enjoying the WiFi hookup - staring at the one item that refuses to comply by joining. Waylon's "simple life" sounds appealing. 

On to Texas

Statue of MLK on the day honoring him - University of Texas campus

When traveling, we try to visit people we know in the area. And no, it's not (just - haha) about free lodging. Visiting friends and family allows us a chance to have real conversations with them - beyond the usual "how are you?".

The rule is 2 days at the most. More than that can be overstaying one's welcome. Note - in some cases it can be 0 or 1 day - depending on if they are even comfortable hosting visitors. Know your host - don't put them or you in a bad spot. Consider their setup for visitors. Some people enjoy hosting guests - others prefer their guests sleep elsewhere. We have two spare bedrooms and enjoy having guests. But when the kids were still home it wasn't as easy as there was no real guest room. 

Paula's backyard - so lovely compared Iowa's snow

We arrived in Austin, Tex on Saturday afternoon (1/18). It's always fun staying with Paula in Austin. It's my third time. She insisted we stay for three nights - so she was probably ready to wave to us as we drove off armed with better than Google directions (provided by PJB) on getting out of town. 

If you are a longtime blog reader, you know that Paula is one of my Atlantic besties - from age 4 or so. We lost touch in our middlin' years but reconnected in our mature years. When we reconnected we discovered again how much we like each other! Now Paul too has gotten to know her too. She's lived in Austin for many years and has traveled quite a bit, so helpful advising us about the rest of our trip and other future trips.

When we arrived in Austin on Saturday, the three of us went out to an area restaurant. I told her I was up for some music so we then headed to hear some music! For live music, many think of Nashville, New Orleans, and Memphis - but Austin is a huge music city in its own right. The musicians are everywhere as we found out. Paula took us to Central Market - a grocery store that features live music. Picture HyVee with a dancefloor and band. People were shaking a leg to swing. Others like us Groups of people and families sat in the dining area outside the dance floor to listen - a great way for youngsters to experience live tunes!

Wild Basin was so pretty! Austin is hilly. 

Sunday
We hiked the Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve - right in the city. Austin has waterfalls! It was a great workout and a beautiful hike.

Then we enjoyed the NFL games - except the Packers had no answer for the Giants. Paula cooked up some great game food - and even dessert! How about those Chiefs? They were my first ever fave football team - Len Dawson, Otis Taylor, Emmit Thomas, Willie Lanier, Bobbie Bell, Jan Stenerud - and later, our Atlantic hometown boy Ed Podolak! Even as a youngster, I always loved watching football. Mom and I watched Monday Night Football together with a bowl of popcorn.

Monday
Paula volunteers at the airport, staffing the Information Booth most weeks, so she knows her way around the joint. I had an appointment at the Austin Airport on 1/20 to interview for Global Entry - a US Customs and Border protection clearance program for low-risk (that's me!) travelers for expedited clearance when traveling, using kiosks. You have to book those appointments months in advance - and Iowa doesn't have the program! I was so fortunate to book that date in Austin on MLK day. Now I'm set for the Bullock sisters May France River cruise. More about that later. The appointment only took 10 minutes once my name was called.

Fountain and tower UT Campus

Later we visited the Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) Library located near the University of Texas campus. It was my first presidential library - very interesting! I was a child during his presidency and only remember him peripherally - on black and white TV, during Viet Nam war clips. What an unsettling time in the US. I had no idea how much he influenced civil rights after the southern-born man spent years as a "separate but equal" believer. Later he changed his views to understand that integration was necessary. The library gave me a glimpse into the era and the man.

Paula and I are posing with Motown costumes - karaoke here we come! 

As a bonus, the LBJ Library was hosting a Motown Exhibit - featuring fabulous costumes and music from "back in the day". Were people really that little? I'm so glad activities guide Paula suggested the museum. From there we walked through the University of Texas (UT) campus and the surrounding area in search of good barbecue! Paul's fave brisket was yummy! We walked over 5 miles that day - good thing with all the food we had taken in by then. Another bad thing about vacation - overeating!

I had chicken - so delish! 

If you've never been to Austin, you should check it out. You can do the trip - Oklahoma City to Fort Worth to Waco to Austin. You can even continue to San Antonio! This great country has so many fab places to visit. Just check out the web before going to plan your visit. So much to do and see.

Next - on to western Texas and New Mexico.

My Tunes, My Friends

How attached are you to your music? I seem to be quite fond of mine. I can't leave it behind on the hard drive of my old laptop...so I'm slowly loading into my new one. Tedious, when I'm resorting to putting songs on CDs and then loading them into the new laptop. And, before you say it, yes I know about the Cloud. I'm not quite ready to have someone else hold my music for ransom while they jack up the price. So I continue my old time ways.

Some of my songs and I go way back. Doobie Brothers, Steeley Dan, Eagles - those guys have been singing to me a long time! Some take me right back to when I used to listen to the song. "Black Water" by the Doobies. When I hear that one, I always think of when Joanie Troll used to pick me up for school in the mornings. That song would play on the radio and Candice, Joan and ? who else was in the car...Pam? Chris? would sing along. And smoke cigarettes. (Not me)

We always picked out good music for our Big 4 college parties

Several songs remind me of my Sunnyside lifeguarding days - listening to WOW radio out of Omaha. I was really into rock and roll back then - groups like Kansas that weren't really radio material, thanks to the Deardorff connection. My friend Chris Deardorff's brother Scott had a huge music collection. Face it - the 70's rule when it comes to music. From Elton John to the bands I've already mentioned. Fleetwood Mac, AC/DC, Queen, Al Green, Aerosmith, Al Green, Hall & Oates, Gordon Lightfoot - there are too many to name. My college roomie made listen to "gasp" Barry Manilow. We would borrow Moose and Steve's Stereo for our parties at 230 Campus Avenue during our Junior and Senior years - good tunes!

The 80's weren't all that memorable when it comes to music, yet I came away with a few faves - Springsteen, I've got a great duet by Dolly and Kenny - "Islands in the Stream" love that one, Tina Turner, and more Foreigner. Hey, I got busy getting married and having kids. That era did produce the best dancing song of all time - "Love Shack". I will always remember dancing to that song at the First National Bank Christmas party - it must have been 1987 or so.

Then came the 90's - by now I had joined Columbia House and was getting a cassette a month - yippy! I went through a gospel stage Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant - though I don't have any of those songs on my hard drive now I'm sorry to say. Good stuff. My kids grew up hearing that music and Fleetwood Mac. By the end of the 90's Amy was into music and I kinda liked what she was listening to - Backstreet Boys etc.

I admit it, I like Hip Hop. I am a freak for "Uptown Funk" and other songs like that. Give me Rihanna. My niece Jordan asked Amy if I knew what the lyrics to one of her songs were. Um yes. I just sing along anyway.

Sure, it's taking a while to get my friends, I mean my songs the way I want them in my music library. It's still a work in progress. It's worth it!

Flailing into the future

I moved into a new era of music and reading in 2015. Bluetooth. It's not the same as blue hair - though I'm getting closer to being a bluehair. My pal Sarah Darby at Sahar is helping me hold off the gray.

I was thinking about my music progression from my first little record player until now - a hip (in my own mind - let me pretend) empty nester a little late in adopting Bluetooth technology. Once you cross the line into the new technology, you don't want to go back!

After my little Motorola record player (I think I only had a couple albums including the first Jackson Five), I received a cassette player for Christmas one year. I must have been in sixth or seventh grade. My first cassette was the Grass Roots.

When I graduated from high school, I received my highly prized stereo with cassette and turntable - able to play multiple LP disks. That thing earned its keep during my college years. Man there was some good music put out during the 1970's! Though my college roomie used to force me to listen to Barry Manilow as we drifted off to sleep. I still have nightmares about that.

Later, Paul and I purchased a better stereo with a turntable, receiver and speakers. It played cassettes too and we invested in buying all our former LPs in cassettes - so we could listen to them in car. How modern!

Next thing we knew, Compact Discs were the thing and I joined some club to replace all my cassettes with that format. "Best Of" all of my favorites plus a few new bands I liked on CD. After that, folks were sharing free MP3 songs on the Internet. I have to admit I snared a few. I figured I'd purchased many of those songs 3 times already!

Then I downloaded iTunes. Legit! For the last few years I've managed my music that way. I also checked out CDs from a couple libraries too - for my listening pleasure. Some of that music is now on my hard drive. My music library is a mish-mash of tunes purchased from Wal-Mart, the music club, downloaded from iTunes and from library CDs and who knows where else.

Now, I'm pleased to report some of it is on my iPhone organized in Playlists. It was painful figuring out how to upload the music onto my phone. Because I'm not a whiz kid when it comes to this stuff I flail away. It comes to me in fits and starts and stops. I give up and then try again. I used US Cellular points for wireless earbuds. They're linked to my phone. And I have now linked my phone to my car. The magical technology linking the buds and car to my phone is Bluetooth.

I even download most of my reading material to my iPhone. I listen to Audiobooks downloaded via OverDrive Software from the West Des Moines Library. I can listen to books through the car speakers of our newer Subaru while I commute to work and around town (like the two times I drove to PetCo today when I forgot my wallet in my backpack from yesterday's road work trip and they held Odie for ransom until I paid for her toenail trimming).

Once one adopts new technology it's hard to go back. Like flat screen HD televisions. The old ones make my eyeballs hurt. Sometimes I get disappointed with my trusty old Subaru when I realize it doesn't "have the stuff" to emit my books via Bluetooth. I'm spoiled already.

I'm excited to see what technology I flail into next.

Happy Birthday to my dad, Davey B. He would have been 87 today!

One of those pics where I am happy to realize that I moved on from that look...

Proud pappa