It’s a clear, cold morning. The sort of morning that makes me wish for a fire. But my fireplace doesn’t draw. A construction oversight left us with a firebox that is too small. My bad. I started to retrofit it for gas but balked at the cost. I’ve looked at electronic fireplaces to simulate a fire, and still might do that. But sometimes it’s okay to let your mistakes poke you in the eye every once in a while, just to remind you how imperfect you and the world really are.

Tuesday night, I had a nice visit with my oldest son in Houston after my annual dental checkup. He’s become quite the guitar player, and it’s fun learning from him. Yesterday, we talked about strumming patterns. It’s never too late to improve your game, and I’m trying to channel his dedication to practice, and by practice, I mean practicing with a purpose. The random noodling I do every day isn’t really practice, it’s usually just me learning a song and fitting it to my bag of tricks.

On other musical notes my daughter has taken up the standup bass in order to play with the adult orchestra in her new Virginia home, and my youngest son, the steel guitar player is back to playing with his friends on a regular basis after taking some time off. I have a feeling when the family band gets back together, we might sound pretty good, and that’s something to anticipate, which I think is how one keeps on moving down the road, looking ahead, thinking about tomorrow, with a little music in the background.