DEJA VU FOR TWO

Debra and I were married ten years ago today. After our wedding, we spent the night at the highest room in the Rogue Valley, on the ninth floor of the historic Ashland Springs Hotel. Tonight, we revisited the same hotel, went out to a movie and ate out at an Italian restaurant.

I also presented Debra with a new wedding ring. She has been unable to wear her original wedding ring because of a skin reaction to the gold in the band. She is now able to wear a ring that is compatible with her sensitive skin.

Debra's new ring is more sparkly than this photo indicates.

Looking up from the sidewalk, our room is behind the top left three windows.

Our view from the south window of our room. The building at the end of the street on the left side is the Oregon Cabaret Theatre.





The movie we attended was showing at the Varsity Theater, located on the same block as the hotel, and seen here from another window on the ninth floor.






Sharing a chair in Room 910.

Sharing the same chair ten years ago.

Sitting on a corner of the bed in Room 910.

Sitting on the same corner ten years ago.

SISTERS ON STAGE

When Debra and I visited Josh and Belinda and the kids last month, we were able to watch both Daisy and Ally audition for parts in the play, Pinocchio. They both ended up getting parts and today we took Rylie with us for a trip to Brookings to watch the play.

After the play, Josh's mom invited about a dozen of us who attended the play to her house to eat food, to visit and to watch some football. Then we drove back home.

Daisy and Ally were outstanding on stage and the day trip to Brookings could not have been more fun.

The program cover.

Along the way, Debra and Rylie and I stopped at a rest area next to the Highway 199 tunnel.

Daisy was cast as Lorenza the Magnifica and Ally was cast as Carlotta the Puppeteer.

As the audience waits for the play to begin, Neo looks toward the stage while Rylie and Debra read the program.

Neo shows me the program.





Lorenza the Magnifica speaks to Pinocchio.

Carlotta works her puppet.

Both Daisy and Ally had their bios printed in the program.

Debra read the program before I did and said, "Bruce, you need to see what Daisy's bio says." I took the program, read the bio, and immediately got a lump in my throat.

LEARNING TAYLOR SWIFT SONGS

Very few men in their seventh decade of life are into the music of Taylor Swift. I am no exception. I am more into the music of the Beatles, or Simon and Garfunkel, or Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Mostly, I am into the music of singers who are either old or dead.

But I am also very much into our grandchildren. And one of our grandchildren, Baylee, has been playing guitar for a little over a year now and she is into the music of Taylor Swift. In fact, a couple of months ago she gave me a song sheet of a Taylor Swift Christmas song and asked me if I’d perform it with her in front of the family on Christmas day. But before we performed it, I prepared a sing-along video so that Baylee and I could each practice it individually from our own homes on YouTube before playing it for the family.
.
Then I thought it might be fun to put together one more Taylor Swift song, along with lyrics and guitar chords, and post that one on YouTube, too. Now Baylee can learn one more song in this particular genre. And this may very well be the last Taylor Swift song I’ll ever be learning, goo goo g’joob.

To learn this song:
(1) Pick up a guitar
(2) Place a capo on the first fret
(3) Click here

DEATH OF A TREE

This is how our tree looked during the summer of 2005, when I was building a mowing strip around the lawn and a hedge along the sidewalk...



This is how our tree looks today...

This is how our tree looked in the spring of 2009, just after Rich painted our house...

This is how our tree looked in the fall of 2009, just before I raked some of its leaves...

This is what our former tree location looks like today...

This is why I cut down the tree...

The dark spots are disease.

A few years ago, I had noticed what appeared to be a mushroom growing from the side of the tree. I went to the local grange to see if I could repair the tree by cutting out the diseased section and somehow sealing it. They told me that the disease could not be repaired and that the tree would eventually die.

I feared that the tree might someday meet its ultimate demise by falling, fully loaded with leaves, directly into our house. To avoid such a potential disaster, I cut it down.