Personal Solstice

Summer break has arrived. The kids are staying up and sleeping in, while mom and dad are still tired at 9pm and are ready for bed. Still, we try to keep up. We want the fun factor to be as high as possible. There’s only a handful of these summer breaks left before we’re reminiscing about them with a group of adults that look and sound a lot like us, and there’s much older looking folks staring back at us from the mirror. I don’t want to look back on these days and wish I would’ve been a better parent. Had more memorable moments with my kids. Regrets aren’t things I like to carry around. I may have a few, but none pertaining to how I’ve been as a parent.

With all that in mind, next week we are leaving for Southern Indiana and staying in a cabin in the woods located in Brown County. The town of Nashville, Indiana is surrounded by hills and deep woods. Within those woods are many, many rental homes for folks like my wife and I to take their kids to and get away for a few days. This will be the fifth time my wife and I have gone down to the southern part of the state for a getaway, while this will be the kids fourth time. The first trek for the wife and I was back in October of 2010 with my best friend and his wife. We had a great time those two days. Walking the shops, horseback riding, and treks in the woods interspersed with much beer drinking. We knew we wanted to bring the kids down. A year later we rented a cabin and took the kids along with my parents to celebrate Thanksgiving down there for three days. It was the first Thanksgiving without my grandma Ruthie, who’d succumbed to lung cancer in February of 2011. While it was nice to be away, the cabin -while big and roomy- just had a weird mojo about it. The kids loved it, but the adults were a little “meh” about it(it didn’t help that 30 minutes into our 3 1/2 hour drive home my son threw up in the back of the van.) That trip was a rough one. So in June of 2012 the wife and kids and I headed back down and stayed in the cabin we rented with my best pal and his wife. In all honesty, it was one of the best vacations I’ve ever been on. Everything about the stay was perfect. We headed to Bloomington one day and I hit the great Landlocked Music. Indianapolis provided the great Indianapolis Zoo and Luna Music. We also did a lot of walking around in downtown Nashville. But really, the best part about the trip was just being together. Just hanging out and laughing. Walking the trail and grilling out. Having a beer in the hot tub at 9 pm and sleeping in till whenever the hell I felt like it. Last summer we rented a bigger house and had a similar stay. Other than the butt-clinching hill we had to ascend and descend every time we came and went from the cabin, it was a wonderful vacation.

So I’m looking to next week with much anticipation. Not only are we heading down to my favorite vacation spot, but this time my parents are coming along. Oh, and the house is actually a lodge and it’s 6,000 square feet. Yeah, it’s a freaking mansion in the woods. The place looks immaculate. A wing for everyone. Two hot tubs, game room, a giant deck along the outside of the house, and I think there’s even a pond on the land. It’s on several acres, so we can roam as much as we want(as the B-52s once sang, “Roam if you want to”.) I love the fact that my parents are coming with us as well. I never took a vacation with my grandparents as a kid, so this will be a great memory our brood. Being able to hang out and laugh with my mom and dad away from it all will be nice. Plus, since the place is so big we can all retire to our own section when we get tired of each other.

Win-win.

I’m at a point in my life where I’m really trying not to take anything for granted. My oldest is 15, has a job, and is going to band everyday. She doesn’t have the lounging time she has had in previous summer breaks. I’m happy for her, but part of me does miss the idea that she can just hang out and enjoy being lazy for a month and a half before she goes back to high school as a sophomore. I’m totally good with where she’s at, being busy and all. It just makes next week all that much more important and poignant to me. My two youngest are getting more mature everyday(with the occasional fart joke aside.) They’re turning into well-mannered, polite, and loving young people. They’re also very adept at flipping records for me and opening a bottle of stout. My wife is slowly becoming more comfortable in her new job. She’s appreciated by the folks that she works for and is relied upon to look over a large area. 2014 was a rough year to start a new job, but she’s done the best anyone could do. Things are starting to pay off for her.

As for me, well I feel like I’m at a high point. Writing about music and the folks that make the music is something I quite love. I think it’s something I’ve always needed to do and starting this page back in December of 2011 was the best thing I could’ve ever done for myself. I’m as passionate about music as I’ve ever been(maybe even more.) I love sharing about music that gets to me. Music that gets at me. Music that makes me feel something or takes me back to somewhere deep in my youth. I want people to know about this stuff. Plus, I can jump on here and spout about nothing and everything all within one single post. Kind of like this one.

I’m also working on my own music, which I’ll share here soon. I’m taking my time with these songs. I’m not rushing like I used to. I’m letting them ferment a bit longer in the creative brine this time around. The songs that I’ve finished thus far seem all the better for my patience.

This feels like a personal solstice of sorts. I hope it doesn’t end anytime soon.