This Pilgrim's Progress

Bear Family Records

I've been doing a little research lately into old recordings and re-issues of old recordings for bluegrass, country,  folk, gospel, etc. (generally "Americana").  I've heard about the Bear Family Records from articles in "Bluegrass Unlimited". Usually to someone's request for information on an old recording, they usually end up saying "and of course you can find it in the Bear Family Records catalog".   This publisher re-issues classic recordings in a variety of genres, usually from the original masters, and cleans them up and publishes the cd with fully annotated book of notes.

I looked through their catalog, and there is quite a bit there that I would really like to own. Their complete collections of Jimmie Rodgers and the Sons of the Pioneers are two items I've been lusting after lately.

Anyways, if you are looking for an old recording of a childhood or teenage favorite, be sure to check these guys out:  http://www.bear-family.de/indexframes/index_english.htm.

Life is good, God is Great!

We had a great weekend!  My son did very well in his swim meet cutting a bunch of time off most of his events. Daughter spent the weekend at Joshua Tree with her Biola Rock Climbing class. From the pictures it looks like she had a great time!! I mucked about doing yard work and planted some grass seed after reconnecting the sprinkler timer. Sunday I had a massive sinus headache (from mowing the lawn), but I largely recovered by the afternoon. We are looking forward to the Thanksgiving week. I'm taking some vacation time, and hopefully we can do some hiking in the mountains. Life seems to be especially sweet to me lately, I guess I am just appreciating what and how the Lord has blessed our family! 

Politics is getting crazier, and after being ignored by Bush and the Republican party as a traditional-values-conservative, I'm going to ignore current politics for awhile. I'll show THEM!!

Actually there is so much more important stuff in my life it just shoves politics aside for awhile. Like getting our beloved Lab, Toby, obedience trained!! He is a dominant male Lab, and so he tolerates our attempts at training with good humor. He is a sweet personality, but we really need to get him under our control or used to our control!?? Food motivates him pretty thoroughly, but it you don't have a treat in your hand, you might as well forget it!!

Finding a new job. I've got to get a resume together, the last one I have is 10 years old.

Finish designing my son's history and literature curriculum for this year. As usual, I'm behind on doing the research on this, but I need to buckle down and get it finalized.

I'm looking forward to roasting a big turkey in our brand new Viking range!! And I'm looking forward to the potatoes and gravy, and to the fellowship of friends and family.

See, there's a lot more importance stuff going on in the world besides how our politicians are busy committing political mal-practice (that's where the nation dies instead of a patient)!!!

We have much to be thankful for.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Democracy At Work

Well the Republican party suffered a pretty resounding defeat in yesterday's elections.  I guess the Dem's will try to claim some sort of mandate from that, but that's to be expected.

Some observations:

The Republican party lost the election rather than the Democrats winning it.  The party failed to pay attention to its base, Conservatives with Traditional Values. They also failed to rule when they had the chance. The democrats won't be as shy about advancing their agenda!!

The northeastern liberal republican candidates took a heavy hit. Democrat candidates who won ran as conservatives!!

When Republicans lose an election they blame themselves. When Democrats lose they blame everybody else.  At least we will be somewhat spared the machinations of the 500 some lawyers the DNC had lined up to fight close races!!

It will be interesting to see if the Democrats will be united, or if the gulf between Lieberman conservatives and Dean leftists will finally split them irretrievably.

Rumsfeld just stepped down as Secretary of Defense.  Why is Bush firing him now?? Doesn't make any sense to me at all!!

God is sovereign, and the destiny of nations is in His hands. Pray for our nation! Pray that God will suspend his judgement, and that the Holy Spirit will move in our country to restore us to righteousness.

"Jon Carry"

I've refrained from commenting on politics lately because frankly it is quite a circus these days. If the outcome wasn't so deadly serious, some of this stuff would be funny.

Well, it's good to see that our service-people in Iraq have a great sense of humor in spite of immediate circumstances. The picture is from Little Green Footballs via Hugh Hewitt.

Squirrel bites Mail Carrier!!

News on the squirrel front has been very quiet lately. Possibly they've been too busy stocking up for the winter to be up to much. But Monday, one squirrel attacked a postal carrier in Pennsylvania.

Article: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,226760,00.html . The squirrel is being tested for rabies and the postal carrier received the first in a series of rabies vaccinations as a precaution.

Watch out for those mean little critters!!