Song: Huey Lewis & The News – Back In Time

Well, we got dumped on again. The last time it snowed like this we got a little under 2 feet of snow. This time we got a little over 2 feet. I’m telling you, shoveling that driveway is getting pretty old. It takes me 2 hours each time and it’s back-breaking work.

The snow started falling around noonish on friday, but didn’t start sticking until around 4, when I got out of work. The main roads were alright, but when I stopped by Elise’s, I could tell the residential ones were pretty slushy. And unluckily I live on a hill, so I had to cut and run knowing I had a small margin of time before I wouldn’t make it up that hill. I slid around but eventually made it up to the beginning of my driveway.

The next morning when I looked outside to see the tons of snow it was like a flashback to 2 months ago. I did a little bit of shoveling, mostly just the top of the driveway and the stairs leading up to it. I settled in for a day of Dexter: Season 2 from Netflix instant play when all of a sudden the power shut down. I’d heard some friends were without power but I wasn’t expecting it to happen to me. When I figured it was here to stay for awhile, I went outside and shoveled until the sunshine was gone.

When I came back inside, it was pitch black. I found a flashlight and set up a candle in the bathroom to take a shower by. The candlelight was nice but wasn’t enough even to read so I was worried I had nothing to do. So I set up 2 candles in the family room and started playing drums. I decided to record a drum track (using batteries in my recorder, of course) and I swear the second I was finished, the power came back on!

Today was pretty much the same. Lots of Dexter, lots of shoveling. After I finished the driveway I decided to give myself a treat, so I walked down to 7-11 and bought a Slurpee. It was real slick, so on the way up I made a conscious effort to not spill, even when I slipped and fell on some slick snow. I was so happy. Unfortunately that didn’t last long. While on the phone with Elise, AS I WAS TELLING HER ABOUT NOT DROPPING MY SLURPEE, I laid it on the trunk of my car, only for it to fall and break open, losing about a third of the precious Coca-Cola syrup/ice mix!!! ARGH!

Anyways, classes are cancelled for tomorrow – which means I get an extra week to study for my test. I’m thinking that’s a good thing!

Updates:

Added Bob Dylan Discography to Current Interests
Added Kurt Cobain Theme
Updated to Wordpress version 2.9.1

Song: The Beatles – In My Life

This week my grandfather, S Lua Syckes passed away. It is the first death in my family and hit me pretty hard. I spoke to my Grandmother yesterday, and she was more consoling me than I was her (she’s so wonderful!)

Pop Pop (or Uncle Lu, or Dad, or Lu) had just celebrated his 91st birthday on January 20. There are not many people who get to be that old, and even less who get to experience his age the way he did: He played tennis, golf and the trumpet into his 80s!

Pop Pop has some cool stories to his life, and here are a few. He was the older of two brothers born to much older parents (I believe his father, Silas, was in his 40s!) Good ol’ Silas, he’s the one that started all this family name fun. Born Silas Lewis Syckes (a corruption of Sykes and Sycks), Silas went to dental school where, according to legend, changed his middle name to Lua based on a teacher’s handwriting. Apparently, he wanted a cool sign to stand out for his future dental office, and thought Lua would be neat. Silas was a dentist in wartime during World War I, and was away when Pop Pop was born. Pop Pop’s mother knew they wanted to name him with another S name, and keep the Lua, but decided to not name him until Silas returned. Well for whatever reason, they never got around to naming him and thus Pop Pop’s real first name is the letter S!

Pop Pop joined the Air Force and was trained to be a navigator in planes, and was so good he was asked to stay back and help teach. This was lucky for him, and thus me, as most of his classmates who did not stay back went to fight and died. With his college degree he started teaching at a high school.

…Where one of his students was my Grandmother. That’s right, Pop Pop married his student! Well, technically, ex-student. They settled in Cumberland, Maryland in what’s “affectionately” known as “the Dingle.” Two girls were born, Bobbie and Betsy, and then my Dad, Shelby followed in 1955. Pop Pop worked as the band director at the High School (my whole family has always been musical) where all three of his kids were students. Pop Pop and Mom Mom eventually moved to Phoenix, Arizona where I watched as a small, desert old folks community blossomed into a huge city. I always loved visiting out there, and if it weren’t for my pale skin, I’d seriously consider moving out there.

The blog photo captures two pretty awesome photos. The first is from one of either Dad or his sister’s yearbooks as Pop Pop was the school band director. His profile picture is him holding the three instruments he played: Tuba (sousaphone), percussion (snare drum) and, of course, trumpet. I believe these were the instruments he learned while going through college. It is my favorite photo of him, even though it’s decades before I was born. And what a great segue into photo #2: the first photo of Pop Pop and me (and Stan) together. I’m not sure who is who, but we both look pretty zonked. But Pop Pop is beaming!

Things I’ll take away from Pop Pop:
• The tradition his father started, is now onto me. In some ways I’m S Lua Syckes the 5th
• He loved music, and I mean LOVED music. So does Mom Mom, but Pop Pop lived and breathed it as a band director. I do to, and I always found it fun to talk to him about guitars (which he couldn’t really grasp as they’re technically sharp (#) instruments, and he was so used to flat (b) ones like trumpets. I have the same problem only reversed)
• He loved sports, especially golf and tennis. And while I am not a sports guy by any means, and I’m horrible at golf, I like playing and am decent at tennis. I’ve always associated watching a tennis match on TV with Pop Pop.
• His drink of choice, Vodka Tonic, which he drank just about every day is now my drink of choice.

Things I remember about Pop Pop:
• He had this hilarious noise he’d make, somewhere between an exclamation and a laugh that sound like a high pitched “ho!”
• He would always start a speech with “Well, I’m the oldest one here…”
• I loved hanging out with Pop Pop when he’d visit his younger brother Wilton. The relationship between Pop Pop and Wilton seemed so much fun, almost like a comedy act from the old days with Wilton as the funny one and Pop Pop as the straight man. On a side note, Wilton is possibly even more into music than Pop Pop, being a virtuoso violinist and trombonist, as well as a piano salesman.
• Pop Pop came to watch my middle and high school band rehearse once or twice. At the time it was a little nerve-wracking but all my teachers came to me afterwards and said they really enjoyed speaking to him, just as being their version of themselves from the earlier days. I think it was pretty sweet he showed up!
• In 2005 I drove Mom Mom and Pop Pop to Cumberland, Maryland – just the three of us. Along the ride I got to hear many stories I had never heard and ask them questions I never had the chance to ask while younger. It was a marvelous experience I will always treasure.
• He and Mom Mom were married for 63 years. That’s pretty impossible nowadays. They had so much fun together, I loved visiting their place, and they had so much love for each other. It’s a blueprint I’d like to come close to.

There’s a lot more to say, but I think this is enough for my blog.

Goodbye Pop Pop. I’m going to miss you.

Updates:

Added Full House: The Complete Series to Current Interests
Added JD to the Howard Stern page
Removed Elementary theme

Song: The Click Five – I Quit I Quit! I Quit!

No I did not watch the Grammys last night. I can’t tell you the last time I did, if ever. I think they’re silly. And like all award shows now, they’re more “show” than awards. Just one example of why I don’t put any stock into the Grammys: Led Zeppelin NEVER won a Grammy while they were a band. LED ZEPPELIN.

PS I know they won a “lifetime achievement Grammy” a few years ago, but that was just the Grammys acknowledging their (constant) mistake(s).

Song: Justin King – Knock On Wood

A few months ago I was having lunch with Dad and hitting one of our favorite topics (computers/gadgets.) I was saying how I wasn’t that excited about owning an iPhone (both he and Stan own one) but would be interested in something like an iPhone only larger.

Well, someone read my mind because a few weeks later Apple has announced the iPad, which is exactly what i was talking about. Okay, obviously they have been working on it for longer than a few weeks, but the timing is still cool to me. It’s just under the size of a normal sheet of paper, which is maybe a little larger than I would have preferred, but then it’s only half an inch thick, so maybe that’ll make up for it. It uses flash memory and has three sizes: 18, 32 and 64 (of course I want this one.) The screen takes up most of the front, and is all touch sensitive. The web browsing capabilities have been rated “spectacular” as you can scroll and zoom with your fingers on the screen. There docks for the iPad, one charges, and the other charges and has an external keyboard. Although, if you’re using it with a keyboard, why not just get a laptop?

You can watch video, play games, type on the virtual keyboard, and just about anything else on a regular laptop. It also has the ability to be an eReader like Amazon’s Kindle but I’m not sure if it’s going to beat the as-easy-on-the-eyes-as-regualr-paper e-ink that the Kindle uses.

I’m always complaining to myself about how I have to lug so much stuff around (guitars, books for school, sirius radio, etc.) but I think I could get used to carrying something so cool around a lot.

Updates:

Added Long And Winding Roads to What I’m Reading