Music is a part of life

I can’t remember a time when music wasn’t a part of my life. Some of my earliest memories are of riding in a VW Van with an assortment of young people that my parents were in a gospel group with. Others are of music playing on the record player or the radio in the house. Mom sang often while I was growing up. Her soft airy soprano voice wove harmony to the alto and soprano voices of we children as we sang in the car on the way to church.

I sang in the choir in middle school and high school. My voice has changed since then but I still love remembering the music. The joy of being in the high school music room during lunch hour and listening to the piano or the radio with other students was incomparable.  It was a time of freedom and laughter and acceptance.

When my daughter was first born, I sang to her from the start. Her first lullaby was actually Silent Night. She still gets sleepy when she hears it. (smile) Many miles were walked up and down the hallway in our little home as I sang her songs to sooth her. She was not a difficult baby but hearing music made her that much easier.

My radio plays in my car all the time. I have eclectic taste when it comes to music. Often I prefer country music and would love to hear the older country more often… things with Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings, Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn. Fortunately for me, the station I listen to the most plays a lot of these artists on Saturday nights.

Family gatherings often include music. When all 4 sisters and Mom are together it is guaranteed to have music going on. We love to do the karaoke thing, but will sing just about anything that we can. To hear us do some of the old gospel rounds is amazing. I have video of my next sister after me singing with me and Mama as we were entertaining the toddlers while we got dinner together. Erinne had a lower voice than I did for a while so she tended to do the lower while I did higher and Mom wove around us.  I wish I had more recordings of these times.

I often play jazz on the radio at work for a soft background noise. It is soothing to the ear and helps to make the day go faster. I seem to get a lot more work done with the music playing than when I don’t have it on.

I can’t imagine my life without music. I am thankful for the memories I have of it and smile at them.

The right stuff

I came home Monday evening to be told that the metal pipes under my kitchen sink had disintegrated and needed to be replaced. I was very upset as I hate having to repair things in the house. My eighteen year old son and I gathered up the parts and headed to Walmart to try to find what was needed for the repairs. We purchased a few items that we thought would work and headed home again. My son worked under the sink for several hours trying to get things fitted up properly and it didn't happen. My husband called on his way home from work and said he would pick up parts for it and we could get it fixed when he got home. Again my son worked under the cabinet with the 2nd set of new pipes and tried to get them to align properly. The plastic nuts just weren't connecting to the metal drain in the sink. Son was completely frustrated and decided to go take a shower and go to bed. I attempted to get the nut to align properly and also had issues. My husband managed to get one of the nuts on but it cross threaded and of course that wasn't going to work.
Tuesday night when I came home I crawled into the cabinet to try to get these pipes to fit. I fussed and fumed and grunted away as I was trying to get that stupid plastic nut to screw onto the metal drain. I pulled the metal nuts off the old pipes and tried to get them over the plastic pipe to fit to the metal drain. The metal nut wouldn't go over the bend of the plastic pipe. It just wasn't working and I gave up before I threw the pieces across the room.
Wednesday night my husband stopped and bought a third set of pipes with an additional piece to them, a little plastic piece that was straight for the plastic bend pipe to fit onto. The metal nut fit around that little plastic piece and then the bend pipe fit onto that piece as well. The job was complete in ten minutes and I had a working sink again.
It never fails to amaze me how quick and easy a job can be when the parts are correct and line up properly.