Iced Tea Forever

So it was not to be, at least not for long. A few days after I mentioned that fish-on-a-stick was back, it was gone.

Looks like it fell off, you can see it laying on the ground at the base of the reflector.

Sometimes I just don’t understand the things that happen in life.

Tonight I suggested to my wife that we go out to eat. We both like restaurants, but due to the alarming state of our budget we try not to go out very often. However, we have a gift certificate to use at the Blue Gate! So I figured it was ok this time.

She thought that was a good idea, so off we went to Shipshewana. We were almost there and she said, “Did you bring the gift certificate?”

Oops.

I hate turning around and backtracking, so we kept going anyway. I figured, well, we get to go again before the end of the year!

I had the Amish Country Platter I think it was called. Excellent! Chicken, ham, beef, mashed potaters and gravy, chicken stuffing, corn, garden salad, raspberry iced tea, and pecan pie for dessert. Just wonderful.

Of particular interest was the ham. But it’s kinda late and I think I may pontificate for a while about the ham. So I’ll be back.

A few days ago at the Den of Iniquity I worked with my buddy Juan. We usually don’t work together, but that day he was helping up in cabinet set so we were in the same vicinity. Unlike many of my Mexican co-workers, Juan speaks excellent English.

We were discussing our quota for the day, and he asked me how many more units we had left to do. I replied that I didn’t know, but there were enough left that we’d be at work till the cows came home.

“Till the cows come home! What does that mean?!!” He laughed.

Never thought about that before. I said, I don’t know, a long time!

I don’t know what that means. I guess the farmer turns the cows out and they don’t come home until the end of the day maybe.

The cows eventually did come home, but it seems they’ve been staying out longer every day.

At 6:22 a.m. on October 5, 2005, Benson Glenn Krabill made his first appearance!

And this little guy weighed in at. . .

10 lbs. 6 oz.!

Wow! He doesn’t have far to catch up to his Dad!

With big sister Annika.

Benson and his mother are doing well. Dad says, “The Family Quartet is now complete, though I’ve still a lot of work to do on his tenor warbles!”

So I’m a singer. Kinda. It’s one of those things that I like to do so I simply decide that I’ll be one. Just like being a writer, editor, publisher, webmaster, entrepreneur, music critic, lecturer, poet, artist, master electrician, CSS guru, track star, baseball star (I played in college), basketball star, golf pro, recording engineer, producer, arranger, composer, lyricist, tunesmith, network systems administrator, marketer, cook, inventor, graphic designer, innovator, RC pilot, and future official endorser of Campbell’s Chunky Soup. That’s just a very brief short list of all the things I consider myself to be.

Anyway, I like to sing, but not in the morning. My voice just does not work in the morning. In fact my whole body doesn’t work in the morning!

Sometimes it’s worse than others of course, but often there’s massive congestion and a great lowering of complete and entire vocal registers. Which is kinda cool, actually, unless you have to sing something besides bass.

So Sunday morning a few weeks ago was one of those mornings. And I had to lead singing in church. I suppose I sounded like somebody had slowed down the playback speed, and it felt like my voice weighed a ton. Those high notes seemed like lifting a 100 pound bag up over your head, higher, higher, forget it, there’s no way! Give up before you die!! And next time don’t even try to sing in the morning!!!

I managed to get through it somehow. I’ll tell you what I do, though, to try to get some good out of the situation. Since my voice is in the cellar anyway, when I announce the song number and whatnot I growl as low as I can (albeit pleasantly).

“Turn to song number 315,” I rumble with satisfaction.

And during Sunday school when it’s my turn to read a verse! I start low and use nice inflection but try to end each line scraping the bottom with a growly rasp.

It’s my method of extracting some small measure of pleasure out of an unfortunate circumstance.

And guess who’s leading singing this Sunday?! Hopefully it’s not another one of those mornings.

I have a buddy named Mark who serves time with me in the Den of Iniquity. He likes music too, but he’s more inclined along the lines of stringed and various instruments. My tastes of course run the more reasonable route of vocal music. So we haven’t yet found a huge amount of common musical ground, but we do enjoy discussing musical things.

Mark: Jerry Garcia! The Grateful Dead!

Me: Gag! Urp!

One thing we do agree on though is that classic rock stations play “We Will Rock You“/”We are the Champions of the World” WAY too much. Sometimes we’d hear that miserable “anthem” several times in one day, yea, in one morning!

So one time a while ago I was working away from a radio. Mark comes over and says Tom your favorite song was on the radio! Meaning “We are the Champions.” In mock enthusiasm I said I don’t need the radio, I’ll just sing it myself! Then proceeded to launch into the second line, something like this (32KB, 0:07).

“Tom!” he said. “You really shouldn’t use that falsetto any more, you’d better stick to bass.”

Boy I tell you what. I’ve certainly been getting the comeuppance I deserved for my cheeky remarks about the expenses I incurred last weekend!

First of all, I received several donations through the paypal idea I brashly suggested. Then today I received a totally unexpected check from SMBI! An extremely generous one too.

I am properly contrite and humbled!

Fish-on-a-stick is gracing the hoosierville roadside once again!!

My wife and I were driving home late last night. We came upon the fateful intersection and my wife said “What’s that?”

I peered through the rain and my spirit leaped with joy! “Fish-on-a-stick is back!!” I shouted.

Hopefully I’ll get a picture for you soon.

For some reason I thought of this the other night and decided I should post it. It goes back a couple of years, but the real reason it is a rarity lies in the fact that I am singing with instrumental backup. I’m an a cappella freak, remember.

It’s fun singing with instruments once in a while, but I wouldn’t make a habit of it.

When I went to BMA several years ago, the place was infested with guitars so we threw together a band. I did the recording and some of the singing. I didn’t do any of the playing, although in the past I’ve been known to be an astonishing guitar player.

At any rate, I think the first song we recorded was “Jesus Signed My Pardon” to the tune of “Folsom Prison Blues.” It wasn’t premeditated, but somehow during mixdown I started playing around with the original Johnny Cash track and ended up with this: Listen to it here.