Pictures or New Orleans 9th Dist. Absent minded Brent and Central Park.

New Orleans, Central Park

I thank my lucky stars...

Everything was flowing like honey... smoothly. We printed out our boarding passes on Southwest Air, checked luggage and had ample time to rest, play on computer, drink coffee. Checked the gate number C-18, but we did not have the 'over 60' eye glasses on and read the gate number as C-13. Yes, we sat there writing e mails and catching up on news. Flight was called... Flight such and such leaving from gate C-13 for SEATTLE WA!!!!!!!!!!!! Nearly died. Read the boarding pass: Gate C 18 for LAX!

Ah, we missed the flight! Southwest had us on a plane to Las Vegas then into LAX within 5 minutes. Everyone on the Las Vegas flight were starring at us like we were the dumb asses that we are. Landed in Las Vegas, then flew into LAX. Once in LAX everything was great.

Air New Zealand is next door to Southwest Air Lines, so no need to walk miles to INTERNATIONAL TERMINAL. Walked down to baggage claim and realized I had left my backpack on the seat in the security section. OMFG! I could not get back into the secured Southwest area. First of all I had NO ID. My backpacks are like limbs on my torso. The backpack had my Mac Computer, my Cell Phones, ALL OF MY BLESSED MONEY, ALL OF MY IDENTIFICATION: PASSPORTS, DRIVER LICENSE, CREDIT CARDS, BANK NUMBERS AND ALL OF MY CONTACT INFORMATION AS WELL AS MY CHECK BOOK. My heart turned to stone and dropped like a missile to the bottom of my feet. I ran hysterically into the check in area for Air New Zealand.

A gorgeous black woman was helping people through the lines... nudging them gently along. She immediately picked up on my angst.
"Can I help you sir, you seemed distressed" "Lady you have NOT a CLUE about HOW DISTRESSED I AM!" I proceeded to explain my predicament. She told me to stay where I was and she would go up to the gate and see IF she could retrieve my backpack.

The minutes went by like hours. I thought she would NEVER, EVER, RETURN TO WHERE I WAS STANDING wringing my hand and looking out the sliding glass doors that open onto a busy street. I thought to myself: "This is it! Simply walk out that door and wait for a roaring bus, step in front of it and end this entire drama."

My 'Black Princess' arrived by my side. She asked IF, possibly there was something in the side pocket of my backpack. I blurted out a hyper YES! a banana. With the word banana she handed my by backpack with everything still inside it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I know why some people pee their pants when they are happy beyond words.)

This is the second time in my life a black woman has saved me from killing myself!

Once in NYC when I was about 21 I took a train up into the Cloisters for a rehearsal. I got on the subway and after what seemed hours I was the ONLY WHITE MAN ON THE TRAIN. I was in in Harlem. Back then the subways were VERY SEEDY and many bad things happened to people that were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Looking out the window of the train I read "HARLEM". I got off the train and to an extremely naive Mormon boy all I could see was an ocean of eyes and teeth! My body began to shake. A black woman was on my right side dressed in a red wool coat and hat. She clutched my hand, leaned into my ear and said: "Boy, you be LOST???!!!) I nodded a feeble yes as visions of my standing naked in a boiling cauldron drifted through my brain. She gripped my hand harder and said for me to follow her.
Then, I really thought it was over. I wanted to cry, I could not stop shaking and it was time in my short life that I honestly experienced the meaning of being "helpless." (I have a marvelous painting in my bedroom by a wonderful artist titled
that very word: HELPLESS!)

She walked me under the tracks to the other side of the rails and said: "You gotta go back into Manhattan boy! You get on the first train going this way." I said "thank you Mame, but please, oh please don't leave me until that train arrives..." She held onto my hand and within minutes the train arrived.

To this day I bless that woman. She knew how frightened I was and I am sure she had been frightened the same way somewhere sometime in her lifetime.

I so wish I had asked her name and address. I would have sent her roses for as long as I had enough money... The same situation applies with the beautiful black woman in LAX. I did not get her name or a contact number! She saved me from a terrible mess.

I did not sleep on the flight from LAX to Auckland NZ. I even took sleeping pills, two glasses of wine, tried to listen to music and meditated. Simply too tired from all the DRAMA.

I know there are "drama Kings and Queens" but I can usually hold my own amid any situation, however... this time my mind kept playing scenes from years and years ago regarding how many times a person has helped me sail through a predicament beyond my control! Our lives are watched over by many many forces.
I do thank my lucky stars for my guardian angels!

Antelope Island... Tabernacle... New Zealand

Arrived in Auckland November 30th. Loving each and every breath I take in this wonderful place. Still getting the house set up with groceries, digging belongings out of storage that need to be placed in drawers, on walls, in cupboards... gardens look great.
Our Land Lady set up a veggie garden for me! Russian Red Tomatoes, Blood Beets, herbs, all kinds of lettuces. Roses are in bloom and the pansies are grinning from ear to ear. My studio is up and running so lots of music, practicing, reading and messing around on my computer. I do love my MacBook Pro. The ONLY way to GO!

I grew up near the shores of the Great Salt Lake which is the largest natural lake west of the Mississippi River. The lake is a remnant of pre-historic Lake Bonneville, which covered more than 20,000 square miles during the Ice Age. Four distint shorelines from the lake may be seen from Antelope Island and include Bonneville, Provo, Stnsbury and Gilbert. Great Salt Lake is currently 75 miles long by 28 miles wide covering 1,700 square miles. At this level, maximum depth is about 33 feet. Size and depth vary greatly with seasonal evaporation and precipitation. Salinity level ranges between four and 28 percent compared to the ocean at three percent.

When I was a little kid in grade school we were taught to observe the LINES the lake had made upon the Wasatch Range. There were actual horizontal lines along the face of the mountains east of the lake. Recorded depths of the lake on the mountains as it evaporated, altered it's levels beginning in the ice age.

One of my favorite natural events of every day life are SUNSETS. They haunt me like mountains. As a child and later young man I never missed a sunset over the Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island. Antelope Island is in the middle of the lake. I've seen lightening strike the island and set it into flames! The Island comprises 28,022 acres, and is 15 miles long and 4.5 miles across at it's widest point. Frary Peak is the highest point on the island at, (get this) 6,596 feet above sea level. Get high up there without the help of drugs!

The oldest rocks on Antelope Isaland are some of the oldest found anywhere on earth! The Farmington Canyon comples, at 2.7 billion years old, is older than rocks found at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. These rocks, which are banded and controrted, comprise the sounthern two-thirds of the island. Antelope Isaland has 40 major freshwater springs found primarily on the east side of the island. These springs produce 36 million gallons ofr water each year that support the wildlife and vegetation on the island. Birds, Bison, Coyotes, Pronghorn fawns and bighorn sheep and yes, Antelope call this island HOME!

When the state of Utah built the first road from Syracuse Ut to the Island it was a gravel road. Often washed out. When the water erupts into white caps, the water is so heavy it can CRUSH, SMASH AND DESTROY anything in it's path! There were times I slept on the island and spent days alone hiking from end to end. Oolitic sand is unique to the island. These are round grains of sand that are formed when mineral grains of brine shrimp fecal pellets are coated by concentric layers of aragonite, a form of calcium carbonate. This is similar to how perals are formed. In the yearly 70's I hiked to the west side of the island. I was stunned at the sugar white beaches... glistening white diamonds of light. It was Oolitic sand!

My afternoon on the island was very emotional. Seeing how it has evolved into a State Park and yet the austire, aloof beauty and peace this island emmits is awesome! There are 8 magor islands in the lake, but Antelope is the diamond of islands.

Moving along, I and a friend drove to SLC to hear and see the Tabernacle Organ on Temple Square. I studied with Dr. Alexander Schriner when I was 11-12 years old. He taught in the Asembly Hall early on Saturday mornings I took a Lake Shore Bus from Sunset Utah into SLC. Walked over to Temple Square and had a hour lesson with the Greatest Tabernacle Organist ever to touch a keyboard!

The Tabernacle is an acoustic wonder of the world. It was also built with leather tongs holding many things in place and of course it was not built to withstand earth quakes. Thus, the Mormon Church has restored it and made it beautiful. I remember sitting inside this musical wonder of a building listening to the USO, daily recitals, and other events such as when President JFK came to UTAH!!!!!!! I used to place my feet on the floor, sqweeze my butt to the bench and revel in the vibrations the organ made, most of all when the organist would place his feet on the Bombard Pedals. OMG, my entire soul soared to heaven and I promised myself that I would one day be a Tabernacle Organist! They are doing the daily organ recitals again!

After a day of so many exciting and hauting events I crawled into bed and thanked God for my past life! Then to think I am so blest as to be able to come NZ. This is my 21st year!

Will write more later...

November 6,2009

November 5th marked exactly one year since I was operated on for cancer and other problems. A year ago I did not really care if I lived or died. I was that ill. I weighted 139 pounds. I looked like hell and felt worse than hell.

Yesterday I walked back into my "Green Cathedral" where I could tune into nature and thank the universe for all of my blessings.

Something caught my eye, in over 20 years of walking through these woods I have never noticed this amazing old apple tree. All it's leaves had fallen to the ground along with some very ripe apples. It was honestly a sight to behold. This tree which looks liked a broken umbrella all decorated in ornaments of different hues in reds, yellows, pinks and greens.

I reached up into the boughs and picked an apple. Polished it's skin to a brilliant sheen, then carefully took a bite out of this forbidden fruit!
It was delicious. I sat on the ground and leaned my back up against the trunk of the apple tree... then it happened, the most beautiful sound in the world... a symphony of birds. All the cedar and pine trees were full of choirs singing individual melodies yet all in symphony with each other's personal composition! The sky was pale blue and low rain clouds scudded by as the wind picked up tempo. I simply could not move. I sat there beside the tree eating it's gifts, rain drops kissing my head, neck and shoulders as I watched the wind and birds all fly away toward the west.

I had a marshal arts teacher that claimed eating a fresh peach could clear one's mind and body of all kinds of negative vibrations.
Well, I have found that a true organic apple, rain drops and bird song can fill one with unexplainable peace and joy.

September Song

"Oh, it's a long long time from May till September..."

The words and melody to this classic song will never die. Like the song, The Autumn Leaves... I love that melody.
When I sit alone at the keyboard and allow my musical muses to play my fingers I invariably play "The Autumn Leaves fall by my window, the autumn leaves of red and gold..."
I have written about the Autumn Season many times within this blog and some that follow the blog know of my mysterious love for this time of the year.

Yes, I survived my summer of waking between 6 or 6:30 AM and going to sleep around midnight 24/7. Each morning the alarm jolts me out of slumber. I stagger to my sacred place, hit the green button on my Mr. Coffee Maker and turn my chair toward the eastern sky. After the first sips of java, I take in the morning star, the last traces of moonlight and watch first light blanket the earth... Then don my chef's cooking jacket, plop my battered ball cap on my sleep encrusted hair. Splash cold water on the face, brush teeth and open my journal. Write what memories remain from my dreams, plans for the day or random thoughts that float around inside mind...

The morning walk to the business is always refreshing. The symphony of the birds filling the fresh morning air is the most thrilling music one can ever hear.

Closed the business Oct. 4, 2009. Since then lots of cleaning, organizing and falling in love with my piano all over again!
I have played piano for at least an hour every day or evening since we closed.

I will fly to New Orleans on November 10. Spend three nights with my sister Teresa. Then fly into NYC. Visit my piano teachers. Seymour Bernstein and Carol Montparker. Walk the streets of a city that doesn't sleep taking in everything from Central Park, concerts and some unexpedted adventures. Will also start writing my blogs again! I know, I should be on Face Book and whats that other new thing? Well, blogger.com will still be my home for a few more years!

I walked up the Snake River Canyon yesterday afternoon. My legs keep reminding me! When I got out of bed this morning they were screaming at me! They are used to standing up to 14 hours and walking within my kitchen space, but not balancing on rocks and uneven terrain! The leaves were gorgeous and of course sunlight on the water!

It's good to be back with my computer. I tunes, E mails and learning so much about everything possible. More to follow in a few days.

Summer Time

Finally SUNSHINE... The moon is 8% full. A precious crest hanging in the western sky. We have had nothing but rain and more rain even more rain...

Today was one of the first times we have filled the patio for lunch. Beautiful weather. The Iris are in full bloom. The perfume from Iris is divine. Peonies are bending to the ground with their huge buds. We just finished the last of the lilacs but the wild flowers have been breath taking. Lark Spur and lots of Red Rockets. The sage brush are in blossom as well as the wild geraniums. Thus summer has finally spread it's wide smile across the rocky mountains. The Lupin we planted years ago are beginning regally show their majestic towers. Honey bees love their petals. These lupin are at least 19 years old!

I am well. Monday I endured another surgical procedure! But, the bladder is clean, the prostate is now fixed and no cancer any where to be found. Just possibly I will be back on the road again. LOVING and ENJOYING every moment of life. I am working morning, afternoon and evenings. I LOVE IT. I even play my piano every day. Reading lots of books before I fall into dreams.

Will write soon and hopefully the summer will prove to be one of the best ever even with the economic problems.
Must go out and gaze at the moon.

Last night the rain spoke to me...

I have used the title of this blog before... Last night the rain did speak to me!

Rain is a very sacred sound created by playing upon the instrument called earth. Every raindrop is like a note of music.
Last night the rain was sporadic. Heavy with sound, then suddenly it would stop leaving bars of long rests and resonating echos of it's drumming symphony. Then ever so gently it would begin tapping and sighing against the glass, the roof, dancing on the cement and rocks or quietly cascading into the grass and gardens.

I was busy helping close the house, packing bags, cleaning... all the last 25 items that MUST be done before leaving the country.
Most important: pass ports, credit cards, flight numbers, cell phones. (I have two phones. A Vodafone when I am out of the USA and a Verizon when I am in the States.) Chargers for I Pod, remember all the cables to computers, phones and KEYS.
Keys are very
important as they open the doors in New Zealand and they open the doors in WY.

Now that I am in my early 60's I have this array of drugs and supplements to pack into my kit of toilet items, the hassle of putting the one oz. bottles of gels and liquids in the plastic bag for inspection.

Closing a house is a big
job. Everything from shutting off power and water to making sure there are no food items, trash, or windows and doors left ajar!

Early in the evening I enjoyed a delicious dinner at the Boardwalk. One of my favorite restaurants. The food is perfect, but the chairs! Ah, I could sit in the chairs all night! Finally around midnight I fell into a fitful sleep. Up at 6 AM flying around the house in order to finish the final tasks. Taxi was on time for the ride to the air port. We arrived at Qantas, checked in the luggage and it was NOT over the limit.

I was feeling strung out... very tired. Then the intercom announced that the flight to Auckland had been cancelled due to heavy cloud cover and rain! I grabbed my Vodafone. Called the 0800 number, re-scheduling for tomorrow. Finally retrieved the luggage, made the new flight arrangements and back to the house! THANK
GOD FOR THIS HOUSE AND YES, I HAD THE KEYS TO THE DOOR! Broad band was still in service, the telephones were still on.
I threatened my two companions with their lives: "DO NOT SO MUCH AS FART because I have made myself sick getting this place in tip top shape!"
It was surreal to be driving up to a house which only a few hours ago you had "CLOSED".

We usually depart from NZ on April 28th, this year we were leaving on the 27th because of flight situations. Well, the pattern has not been broken! Sunshine is forecast for tomorrow the 28th of April. (Mind you, when I am in NZ I am in the future. Even though I fly out of NZ on the 28th of April I am going back in time and will arrive in LAX on the 28th of April. When ever I call the USA I have to realize the fact: I am a day and 4 to 6 hours ahead of where I calling!

The rain was singing all kinds of ancient earthen chants last night. Some where listened to very deep within my heart as I sensed we would not board the flight from Queenstown to Auckland.
My dreams were everywhere. From 2 AM until 4 AM I was awake... I laid listening to the rain and finally I lifted myself out of bed, walked outside and inhaled the scent of rain. I once read about a child that claimed rain was the odor of heaven. She may have been spot on.

In the early 70's I used to drive my VW Bug from Ogden Ut. to Denver Colorado to stay with a friend for up to a week. Driving across the WY desert can be a celestial experience or long hours of fighting off sleep. Often I would see rain clouds charging across the sky and drive directly into a cloud burst of glorious percussion from the mallets of rain drops. I'd stop the car, jump out and run through the sage brush and wild flowers.
Most clouds were so intimidating and yet so full of blessings I sensed no fear, only dampness and clean air and water!

There were times I simply drove into the desert and stripped naked... (I could do it without a thought when I was in my 20's)
and lay on the ground as the rain baptized my flesh, blood and spirit. I do believe in four sacred things: Water, Air, Fire and Earth. They all are my 4 in 1, they express peace and harmony to my life.

I will not be blogging for a few weeks. Enjoy the winter rains in the Pacific Islands, or the Spring rains in the USA and Canada.
(Scandinavia, Europe, Russia, China the list goes on and on...)

Spring is a reminder of our own birth... Remember: it is not 3 in 1, it is 4 in 1.