Journey Inside My Mind ™

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Back of apartment building

Day 4 of power being out in our neighborhood and for much of the Greater Cincinnati area.  The Hurricane Ike-related windstorm on Sunday has caused power outages across Central and Southwestern Ohio.  Utility crews are working to restore power to all customers.  Duke Energy reported that about 90% of their customers in the Greater Cincinnati area have had power outages.

At home we’re hunkered down with flashlights and candles (shh!), ice, our propane grill, and whatever non-perishables we’ve found.  We’ve thrown out most of the items in our refrigerator, and we really need to get some laundry done.  We’re hopeful that power will be restored soon.

As I’ve entered our darkened neighborhood on my way home these past few nights, it has felt like I’m entering a scene from I Am Legend.  I keep the blinds open at night when I go to bed to be cheered when the streetlights come on.

As I mentioned in the previous post, we’re using this time as an opportunity to get to know our neighbors better and definitely count our blessings.  Those in the Gulf states are certainly worse off than we are.

For now, among my online friends, we’re affectionately calling this time Survivor: Cincinnati.

  

	CBS – Theme From Survivor
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

In this audio post I share some thoughts about the recent power outage across Cincinnati and beyond.

Listener feedback about past episodes and such. Police and ER visits, Twitter tools, AMP, the upcoming One Voice Walk. Music with a country feel. 2-year anniversary in podcasting coming up this month. Other warm, juicy goodness.

Head over to the Journey Inside My Mind Podcast to listen and read more.

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Saturday was an all-around great day for us. A single mother from church had some serious spring cleaning work that needed to be done, and several of us went to her house and helped her out.

At about 2:15 pm, we left her house and drove to Meadowlinks Golf Course, which is part of Winton Woods here in Cincinnati. We signed Keisha up for some Junior Golf lessons a few weeks ago, and Jennie and I have been taking lessons concurrently.
Last week we practiced pitching and chipping; this week we learned full swings. Next week, we’ll learn putting. After next week’s lesson, Jennie, Keisha, and I will have a golf scramble on the beginner’s course together.

I can easily see why golfing can become an obsession because it looks a lot easier than it is. I have found myself watching golf on TV – something I NEVER was interested in doing when I was younger. I think it could become a healthy obsession that our entire family could enjoy. Yeah, of course it could. If Keisha shows some serious interest and can develop some good skill, she could get a scholarship to go to college.

It’s probably just serendipity that one of my all-time favorite family podcasts, “Dancing With Elephants“, just did an episode about golfing. They mentioned a couple of books to check out, related to teaching kids golf:

Related tags: journey+inside+my+mind journeyinsidemymind jimm daniel+johnson+jr golfing spring+cleaning winton+woods meadowlinks

We’re in the middle of a second winter storm. I thought the Groundhog didn’t see his shadow, and that meant we’re supposed to have an early spring… Anyhow. Cincinnati has seen a lot of freezing rain in the past 24 hours, with temperatures hovering around the freezing mark (32 degrees F, 0 degrees C). Dangerous conditions to be sure, not only from the ice on the roadways, but also ice on tree limbs and power lines. It’s actually a bit creepy, hearing the heavy tree limbs brushing against the roof of our apartment building.

As I sit here looking out the window, I see trees encased in ice. In the courtyard behind us sit several large branches that have fallen to the ground, not able to hold the weight of the ice. Power had been flickering on and off throughout the day yesterday and actually went out around 7 PM last night, right after I’d just returned from the store. It was out for several hours and finally came back on in the middle of the night.

I worked from home yesterday, and it looks like I’ll be working from home again today. I know that many of my coworkers are not as fortunate, so my heart goes out to them.

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I just spent 3-1/2 hours driving 60 miles from north of Dayton, Ohio to my home in Cincinnati. That averages to just over 17 miles per hour. On the highway. In a snowstorm. Right now we have about 6 inches on the ground.

Fortunately, I had some great podcasts to listen to along the way! Such as

• Canadian Podcast Buffet
• FeedBurner Podcast
• That Tickles!
• CatFish Show
• School of Podcasting’s Morning Announcements

I also opted to call the following podcaster’s comment lines and leave messages:

• Dancing with Elephants (three separate times, maybe? lol)
• Accident Hash
• The Zedcast
• The Daddycast
• Daily Source Code
• Ed’s Mixed Bag
• That Tickles
• Kids Wife Work Life
• High Orbit
• Coverville
• PodShow Music Rewind
• Find Your Ideal Career Podcast

Driving distance: 60 miles
Driving time: 3-1/2 hours
Having you podcasters to keep me company during a snowstorm: Priceless

Thank you all for keeping me company. I didn’t need a radio.

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crossposted to Journey Inside My Mind on MySpace

Daughter, dog, and dude doing a podcast:

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First snow of the season happened today:

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crossposted to MySpace blog

Brrr to the bone:

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Mood: upbeat
Listening to: DSC 507 – 12/1/2006
Reading: The Magic of Thinking Big
Eating: Taco Bell
Watching: wind blowing everything all over the place outside

A little video message from yours truly to kick off the last month of the year:

I’ll be recording the next episode of Journey Inside My Mind and posting it within the next day or so.

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A preview of something I’m working on for the Journey Inside My Mind podcast, a true story:

Rainy Day Blues – written by Dan Johnson, Jr.

Well I woke up this morning, and the sky was looking gray (repeat)
Cuz the clouds they done opened, and it was a rainy day

Chorus:
Got the rainy day blues going on inside my head (repeat)
When you’ve got the rainy day blues, sometimes you wish that you were dead

Tried to take the dog, but it wanted to stay in bed (repeat)
Tried to give her a treat, but she up and bit me instead

Repeat Chorus

I put on the dog on the leash to take her out so that I could pray (repeat)
She wriggled out of her collar, up and ran away

Repeat Chorus

It actually happened last Wednesday, and I wrote the song on two paper napkins in 15 minutes before I got up in front of a restaurant to sing it with the Burnin’ Dr. Feelgood and the Feelgood Posse.

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Mood: Fine
Listening to: Weekly Radio Address for 10/21/2006 and Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd
Eating: breakfast bar, chocolate milk, cranberry juice, and coffee
Watching: multi-colored leaves falling from trees outside the window

I was hardly on the computer at all this past weekend, maybe just to check email. We were just so busy with other stuff, which I’ll share after the jump:

Friday night we went with some friend from our family group at church to Parky’s Farm at Winton Woods. They have “Halloween Nights” right now, with a hay maze, puppet show, magic show, hay rides, rock climbing, and more. It got cold and it had rained the day before, so the ground was a little muddy.

Saturday morning we woke up and watched “Last Holiday” with Queen Latifah. Great movie.

Saturday afternoon, Keisha and I went to a Halloween gathering for some kids in the local schools who are deaf and hard of hearing. We made caramel apples, iced cupcakes, and made ghost lollipops.

Saturday evening we went to the home of a woman from church. She has two adopted kids from China, and she’s getting ready to go on a mission trip back to China to help kids who have been born with cleft palates. We went to their home because we’re going to be taking care of the kids while she’s on her 10-day mission trip.

Sunday morning we went to church, and after that, Keisha and I went to the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park production of “ACE”. It was the first time for both of us, and we had a great time.

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Right Now: Overcast, 63 degrees F
Later: Cooler with heavy Thunderstorms, 64 degrees F
Tonight: Thunderstorm this evening, 38 degrees F

Tomorrow: Partly sunny and colder, High 49 degrees F
Tomorrow night: Partly cloudy and cold, 32 degrees F

… the apartment complex doesn’t turn it on until the season has really changed. The reason they do this is because once the boiler heat gets turned on, it stays on for the entire season.

During winter this is nice. Tonight the temperature is supposed to dip to 37 degrees, and tomorrow it will go back up to 72. Our apartment will have no heat until sometime in November, if everything follows the pattern of last year.

So we may be using that extra blanket and the thicker pajamas tonight.

Rainy day today. It’s seemed like time has gone by both fast and slow today. Gray skies, nonstop rain. Ick. Our driver’s side window is stuck part of the way down, and the rain has come in.

We’ve got some plastic up to try to hinder the rain from getting in, but it’s been an uphill battle. Jennie and Keisha have been congested – just the kind of day one would want to be inside.

Anyhow, gonna eat a late lunch/early dinner.

Time to reset the clocks again. Last night we had some weather – I didn’t think it was that severe, and the power went out. I woke up close to midnight and noticed it. Using my cell phone as a flashlight, I came out to the living room and looked up the number for the power company. After I called to report the outage, I finally entered the number into my cell phone’s memory. Then I called Jennie at work to let her know.

The power came back on about a half hour later, and I texted Jennie to let her know. Glad to have a cell phone for times like this.

So now I get to go reset all the clocks again. I’m wondering why our home has been so prone to these outages this summer. This is the sixth time in 4 months.

Exactly how the heat feels: BorgBlog: Brutal

Here’s something to discuss. Which situation would you rather be in, the brutal heat we’ve had this summer, or the bitter below-zero windchill we’ve had in winters past?

Mood: really good
Listening to: JIMM 49 – Kill My Pain
Eating: LaRosa’s Pizza
Weather: Clear, 66 degrees F

We got a videophone for Keisha Friday. This is a useful substitute for a TTY machine. We can call other deaf and hard-of-hearing people and sign back and forth to them. In addition, we can use the Video Relay System (VRS) to call hearing people. With the relay system, we sign to an interpreter, who relays what’s being said between the two parties.

One challenge for us is that our sign language is at best rudimentary, while these interpreters are really good. Keisha and I made a practice call to Jennie’s cell phone, but it was weird because we weren’t sure if the interpreter was talking to us or if it was Jennie. Then we realized that the interpreter was just doing her job, relaying what’s being signed and said.

Our hope is for Keisha to be able to call other deaf and hard of hearing children she meets over the summer. It also serves as an alternative to talking on the phone, or Keisha trying to understand what’s being said on the phone.

Speaking of the regular phone, we got an amplified receiver, and we’ve used it a little so far with some success. Well, if you count a 25-30 minute conversation Keisha had with her Nana – I guess it was very successful.

Mood: ugh
Listening to: Dave’s Lounge
Watching: Grey’s Anatomy Season Finale (last night)

Not feeling good today. Came home last night with a sore throat, and this morning I got a stuffy head, too. Cold springtime weather and not getting enough vitamin C are probable causes – and not getting enough rest, too, I reckon.

So, to celebrate my condition, how about some blues, which I came up with just a few minutes ago:

Woke up yestahday mornin’
Was cold inside my home
Woke up yestahday mornin’
And I began to moan

Cuz it’s cold outside
And this sore throat ain’t no fun

Springtime sore throat blues
Got me feeling really down
Springtime sore throat, stuffy head blues
Don’t feel like goin into town

Supposed to be much warmer,
This cold givin me a frown

Springtime sore throat blues
O why’d this happen to me
Got the springtime sore throat blues
I need some vitamin C
Gimme some juice and some rest and some warm clothes
And please just let me be.

Tax forms have been filled out. We’re going to the library to make some copies. We’ve also filled out updated voter registration cards, since we didn’t do that last year when we moved.

It’s such a nice day outside – swimming weather, actually – high of 82 F.

Jennie and I are going on a date tonight, probably to get some fish from Alabama’s and spend time in downtown perhaps.

More to come later, perhaps. Mulling over what to record for the podcast, which will probably get recorded tomorrow afternoon or evening.

Take care and make it a great day!

P.S. If you have an audio comment you’d like to submit, head over to the podcast site and click the “Send Me a Voice Message” button, or call (206) 666 5466 and leave a message that way.

CHEERS!