Christmas Time Is Here

"Christmas Time Is Here" is one of the Christmas songs on Vince Guaraldi's "A Charlie Brown Christmas" music album. I put on the CD last night, took my upright bass off its stand and was mildly surprised at how easily I could find the chords. I am learning bass with a multifaceted approach: memorizing and practicing scales and arpeggios, listening to great music with strong bass lines, improvizing and experiementing, studying music theory. Music is an important part of my life. I am looking into the Santa Cruz jazz scene, where a thriving jazz community exists, offering many clubs and bands that provide the music. There's even a jam session on Sundays, but I'm not ready for that yet.

Today my son, Stogie Jr., returns to his home in Washington State and will be taking Prudence, the female Bullmastiff pup, with him. I bought her for him and his wife as a Christmas present, to take the place of their Bullmastiff that died earlier this year of cancer. Now I have grown attached to the little dog, whose playful, frisky ways have charmed everyone in the house. She barks at my older dog, taunts the cats, sleeps in weird positions and carries off shoes to chew on. She should enjoy herself, as her home in Washington State will be "boot camp for dogs" when my daughter-in-law gets hold of her. She will quickly learn that peeing anywhere is not an option. On the other hand, all of her meals will be home cooked. No more kibble for Prudence.

Funny to note that three things that I love are despised and forbidden by Islam: Christmas celebrations, music and dogs. Enjoy these things and do not take them for granted. Any day now Belgium is expected to issue an edict banning them to avoid offending Muslims. That's a joke, but it isn't funny.