This is Thursday?

I just saved this and once again, the Chromebook is misbehaving, not saving my manuscript. It appears to be frozen on auto save, and never completes the task. Not sure what the solution is, I just know it seems the days I struggle a little to write (or accomplish anything), those are the days tech issues happen.

We had Green Chef for lunch today, and will have another meal this evening. I want to get all the previous meals used up before starting this week’s. There are already some subtle differences between GC and Hello Fresh, although they’re owned by the same companies. It’s interesting to see the differences. One difference is before roasting vegetables, you cut, place in a bowl, add oil and seasoning, then mix. Hello Fresh has you cut veggies, place on sheet pan, drizzle oil, mix with seasonings. This method, in my opinion, burns the pan and food. Mixing in a bowl is such an improvement.

Saw today marks two years since Eddie Van Halen died. What a talented man. I’m shocked, he was much older than I thought – only three years younger than me. I learned a lot about the depth of his addictions, and always find those so terribly sad. The talented usually seem to help with their own tragic demise. The people we often look up to have all the same insecurities and hangups we do. And we usually don’t believe that.

Hoping you have a pleasant rest of the evening, and a great Friday. See you then.

Hump Day!

What a crazy day yesterday was. We went to the Post for a very productive meeting, you almost never hear meetings being productive, and had a couple adult beverages with the folks that were present. It was a nice early evening.

Eddie Van Halen, the guitar god of the universe, died yesterday. My son Frankie was a huge fan of his. I became one too. That was one group he played I didn’t holler at him to “turn it down!” We had a bet one time, who was better, Eric Clapton, or Eddie Van Halen. Clapton is a master, but Eddie may have single handedly influenced more young musicians than anyone else on the planet – including Clapton. And on top of that – he was married to Valerie Bertinelli. That alone would make him a hero.

I love the videos of him playing incredible riffs, and looking up with the boy-like look he always had, and smiling with pure joy. That’s how we’ll remember Eddie. Bless Wolfgang, his son, and his wives. Sad days for them. After all is said and done, I think it’s always, always, simply about the music.

I saw a Tweet that stated, “There are guitars gently weeping all over the world.”

And we’re almost to the next Zoom meeting with Sam Tyler, my book coach. We have a few things to discuss tomorrow, and then I think there will be more writing going on. I do look forward to it, and now it’s been three weeks, not just two. More about my new adjusted plan tomorrow.

Gratitude – even about difficult things.

Yes, this is how it is. When people speak of gratitude, it’s easy to have gratitude for the easy things, the things you want. It’s hard to have gratitude for hard times, missing your commuter train, getting fired from your job. We must learn gratitude for even the hard things. It’s only then, can we truly appreciate the gift we receive after the hard one. It’s hard to remember.

And people who you must love from afar. Difficult parents, former spouses, siblings who are hard to deal with. We all have them, somewhere. It’s ok to love them from afar. You don’t have to spend time with them. More people would keep their sanity if they would embrace this. It takes a long time to do that, when you feel as if you’re alone in a crowd. But you really aren’t. The rest of us are there, too.

So as I go to the deck and enjoy the fresh air, I hope you all have a wonderful day. Listen to some music. Read a good book, or at least decide on something relaxing to do. We owe it to ourselves to be nice to ourselves once in awhile. Pick today. Pick tomorrow. Just make sure you do it. And it’s even better with a beautiful puppy to pet. See you tomorrow!