Free car wash

Another lousy day in paradise. It's a dreary day here in Gloversville. It takes me about 20 minutes to get to the theatre from our house, give or take an hour. The problem is I get sidetracked in a major way. Sometimes I decide to take a detour, either a different route or stopping at one of the many stores along the way. Sometimes I meet someone I know, but mostly I meet no one, which is how I get side tracked. Me, myself and I are a dangerous group when it comes to "sidetracked". I am a firm believer in taking the road less traveled, which has led me down some pretty tricky roads. On the other hand, I have found some amazing things in my travels, and I am never really sorry that I was diverted. Today's diversion came in the form of a CD that I burned for myself last night. I call it the "Irish Cry" CD, because on it are 15 songs that reduce you (if you have a human bone in your body) to tears by the end of the first selection. Starting out with a bagpipe version of Amazing Grace and ending with "The River is Wide", I've also included a few selections from Dixie Chicks (Godspeed) and even a waltz (Frances Black's "After the ball"). These are all melancholy songs that are perfect for a rainy day in the mountains. Sometimes, when I allow myself, I schedule in some "grieving" time for my loved ones passed. This is either a very healthy outlet for sad feelings, or a maudelin exercise in feeling bad. I'm not sure yet. This could go either way. I like to think it is healthy, unless of course it runs on for weeks on end. So far, I can pull myself together after an extended trip in the car. My commute time has always been filled with music, and here is no different. Sometimes I use the time to choreograph a number or learn the words to a song, others, I just listen to a beautiful song over and over until I can feel it in my heart. Music moves me. More than anything else, ever. Unless of course we're discussing a well crafted sentence. That moves me too. There is nothing like reading a well written, definitive statement that makes you stop and think, or just reflect for a moment on the quality of thought and its presentation. Wow. Sometimes poetry can do that too. How about you? What moves you? What makes you tick? On rainy days like today, I think it is a good time to stop a moment and ascess what is going on in your life and how you are handling it/changing it/stopping it. We are the driver. God is the navigator, and hopefully the passengers are a group that you want to make a long trip with. Sometimes its a good idea to make a rest stop and lose those passengers who are making the trip damn near impossible. Not as easy as one might think. (Sometimes we carry passengers much farther than they deserve to go.) That is what I did this morning with Jerry. We took some time to talk about our past, our future and our passions. We are on the same page, as usual. I love that. It makes me so optimistic about the future, because we both want the same things or agree on our differences. So I look out my window here at the theatre, refreshed and ready to take on another day. Some extra time in the car with good music was the way to go. Sometimes rainy days are perfectly placed in my life. As my father used to say, "Free car wash".