Well, I can't say much has changed in the last couple of weeks but it's been a while so I thought I'd better post or y'all'd think I'd taken a bridge or something. I haven't.
What's new?
Well, we got our tax stuff back from the accountant finally (we've been on extension). $4,300. No, we're not getting that back. It has to be paid to the IRS by 7/15. Ok, yeah, I haven't exactly got $4,300 - not quite sure where it's coming from. And the other lovely thing about that? Our quarterly estimated taxes (one of the joys of self-employment) went up by about $2,500 a quarter. And one of the quarters is due now. (Actually, it was due the 15th of June but I paid it today.) Yeah, I'm starting to think that PeppyPilotGirl ain't going to be piloting again in this lifetime at this rate. Maybe I can be a fighter jet pilot in my next life.
We're headed to my sister's for the Independence Day weekend. It's about a 4 hour ride with just adults; about 5 with Katie. I'm figuring I need to add another 1/2 hour for Evie. We'll be staying at my parents where all 4 of us will share a room. Anyone care to guess how much sleep we'll be getting those 2 nights?
Finally sewed my Stargate patches on the black messenger bag I use as a diaper bag. It's always bothered me how cutesy accessories become once you have kids. I'm just not much into cutesy - not only does it not reflect my interests, it looks ridiculous on a woman of my stature (isn't that such a nice way of saying "on a woman as fat as I am?). I think I need to start a website for parents who don't want to have their identities subsumed by their offspring. Anyone having any contributions (photos/ideas/how tos on keeping the geek in their life post children - be it music/gamer/scifi/fantasy/comic book/computer/etc geekdom - drop me an email (peppypilotgirl (at) hotmail.com).
I suppose I really ought to get back to work.
Jun 30, 2008
Jun 12, 2008
Dark Clouds Are Comin' In Like An Army
Soon the sky will open up and disarm me
You will go just like you've gone before
One sad soldier off to war, enemies that only you can see.
Dishes stacked, the table cleared
It's always like the scene of the last supper here
You speak so cryptically that's not news to me
The flood is here it will carry you
And I've got work to do.
Come on home, the team you're hitched to has a mind of its own
But it's just the forces of your past you've fought before
Come back here and shut the door
I'm stacking sandbags against the river of your troubles.
There is fire there is lust
Some will trade it all for someone they could trust
There's a bag of silver for a box of nails
It's so simple the betrayal
Though it's known to change the world and what's to come.
Just come on home, the team you're hitched to has a mind of its own
But it's just the forces of your past you've fought before
Don't you recognize them anymore
I'm stacking sandbags against the river of your troubles.
There's the given and the expected
I count my blessings while I eye what I've neglected
Is this for better is this for worse
You're all jammed up and the dam's about to burst.
I hear the owl in the night
I realize that some things never are made right
By some will we string together here
Days to months and months to years
What if everything we have adds up to nothing.
Come on home, the team you're hitched to has a mind of its own
But it's just the forces of your past you've fought before
Come back here and shut the door
I'm stacking sandbags against the river of your troubles.
Indigo Girls | Come On Home from All That We Let In
I'm both people in that song today, oddly enough. I can feel the dark clouds gathering on my horizon. A drop is falling here, a drop there. It's odd that, this time, unlike most, I can feel it coming. I, for once, recognize what is happening. I'm stacking my own sandbags though I have no idea how effective it will be. But, when the deluge comes, at least I will have tried.
You will go just like you've gone before
One sad soldier off to war, enemies that only you can see.
Dishes stacked, the table cleared
It's always like the scene of the last supper here
You speak so cryptically that's not news to me
The flood is here it will carry you
And I've got work to do.
Come on home, the team you're hitched to has a mind of its own
But it's just the forces of your past you've fought before
Come back here and shut the door
I'm stacking sandbags against the river of your troubles.
There is fire there is lust
Some will trade it all for someone they could trust
There's a bag of silver for a box of nails
It's so simple the betrayal
Though it's known to change the world and what's to come.
Just come on home, the team you're hitched to has a mind of its own
But it's just the forces of your past you've fought before
Don't you recognize them anymore
I'm stacking sandbags against the river of your troubles.
There's the given and the expected
I count my blessings while I eye what I've neglected
Is this for better is this for worse
You're all jammed up and the dam's about to burst.
I hear the owl in the night
I realize that some things never are made right
By some will we string together here
Days to months and months to years
What if everything we have adds up to nothing.
Come on home, the team you're hitched to has a mind of its own
But it's just the forces of your past you've fought before
Come back here and shut the door
I'm stacking sandbags against the river of your troubles.
Indigo Girls | Come On Home from All That We Let In
I'm both people in that song today, oddly enough. I can feel the dark clouds gathering on my horizon. A drop is falling here, a drop there. It's odd that, this time, unlike most, I can feel it coming. I, for once, recognize what is happening. I'm stacking my own sandbags though I have no idea how effective it will be. But, when the deluge comes, at least I will have tried.
Jun 9, 2008
Jun 3, 2008
Denn Wir Haben Hier Keine Bleibende Stadt
Then we have here (on Earth) no resting place. Or, secularly paraphrased, there's no rest for the weary.
I've been on a Brahms Requiem kick lately. For some reason, it just fits my mood - and not just because I definitely had no resting place recently. (Quick aside for those who aren't classical music geeks... a requiem is, essentially, music for a funeral. Not that I've been feeling funereal, particularly, but it's comforting music.) On top of that, it relies heavily on the chorus rather than predominantly focusing on soloists. It's also got some great really loud bits that I get a kick out of blasting from my open-windowed car - sort of a classical rebellion, I suppose. ("Heh, don't you give me all that bass, you teenage whippersnapper, or I'll Brahms you!")
I sang the Brahms Requiem (or, more accurately, "Ein Deutsches Requiem" by Johannes Brahms), oh, probably about 10-ish years ago as part of the Springfield Symphony Chorus. I'd never been much of a Brahms fan - a bit thickly layered for me - and this piece was no exception. Until the second run through at the final dress rehearsal. All of a sudden, the piece fell together for me and is, now, probably my all time favorite choral work. 10 years later, I can still sing a goodly portion of the alto part from memory.
So, how, you ask, can a requiem, for God's sake, be comforting? Well, it's kind of funny - but this requiem is far more about addressing the needs of the living than ushering the dead into the next realm. The music is sweepingly complicated and beautiful, simultaneously warm and forceful, filled with wistful longing and gentle reassurance. The text speaks of the beauty of that next realm (Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen, Herr Zebaot - how lovely is thy dwelling place, Oh God.), it assures us that we will meet again with those who have gone before (Ich will euch wiedersehen - I will see you again).
Even as it admonishes us to remember that our lives are limited in duration (Herr, lehre doch mich das ein Ende mit mir haben muss, und mein Leben ein Ziel hat, und ich davon muss - Lord, teach me that there will be an end to me, that my life will draw to a close, and I must leave here), it reminds us that God does not forget God's own (Die Erloeseten des Herrn werden wieder kommen und gehn Zion - the beloved of the Lord will come again unto Heaven).
And, you know, there's something really comforting about that. Just my 2 cents, of course.
I've been on a Brahms Requiem kick lately. For some reason, it just fits my mood - and not just because I definitely had no resting place recently. (Quick aside for those who aren't classical music geeks... a requiem is, essentially, music for a funeral. Not that I've been feeling funereal, particularly, but it's comforting music.) On top of that, it relies heavily on the chorus rather than predominantly focusing on soloists. It's also got some great really loud bits that I get a kick out of blasting from my open-windowed car - sort of a classical rebellion, I suppose. ("Heh, don't you give me all that bass, you teenage whippersnapper, or I'll Brahms you!")
I sang the Brahms Requiem (or, more accurately, "Ein Deutsches Requiem" by Johannes Brahms), oh, probably about 10-ish years ago as part of the Springfield Symphony Chorus. I'd never been much of a Brahms fan - a bit thickly layered for me - and this piece was no exception. Until the second run through at the final dress rehearsal. All of a sudden, the piece fell together for me and is, now, probably my all time favorite choral work. 10 years later, I can still sing a goodly portion of the alto part from memory.
So, how, you ask, can a requiem, for God's sake, be comforting? Well, it's kind of funny - but this requiem is far more about addressing the needs of the living than ushering the dead into the next realm. The music is sweepingly complicated and beautiful, simultaneously warm and forceful, filled with wistful longing and gentle reassurance. The text speaks of the beauty of that next realm (Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen, Herr Zebaot - how lovely is thy dwelling place, Oh God.), it assures us that we will meet again with those who have gone before (Ich will euch wiedersehen - I will see you again).
Even as it admonishes us to remember that our lives are limited in duration (Herr, lehre doch mich das ein Ende mit mir haben muss, und mein Leben ein Ziel hat, und ich davon muss - Lord, teach me that there will be an end to me, that my life will draw to a close, and I must leave here), it reminds us that God does not forget God's own (Die Erloeseten des Herrn werden wieder kommen und gehn Zion - the beloved of the Lord will come again unto Heaven).
And, you know, there's something really comforting about that. Just my 2 cents, of course.
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