Edgy Mama

For your reading pleasure: an article I wrote about a cool new recording studio here in Ashvegas. The studio is located in a renovated church, is home to a large furry beastie named Angus (the owner’s dog), AND is the site where my beloved Avett Brothers recorded their soon-to-be-released CD.

Here’s a photo I took of the church that houses Echo Mountain Recording. This photo ran in the newspaper, but not in the on-line version of the article. I could have written three or four articles about these dudes. Okay, one would have been just about the renovation. Lots of great stuff going on in this sanctuary!

1. Decent health insurance. Mine sucks. You don’t even want to know how much time I’ve spent on the phone this week with CIGNA customer service, who PROMISE me that the glitch in their system that erroneously says I’m ineligible for prescription coverage has been fixed. But I’ve spent much more time at my pharmacy while the pharmacist talks to the SAME dumb insurance company, who says I’m still ineligible and I have to go back home and call customer service AGAIN! Because, you know, the bigger and more sprawling an organization is, the LESS efficient it is. And the left foot has no clue where the right is. Or if it even has five toes.

2. Global Warming. At the current rate of climate change, I reckon Banff is going to be semi-tropical beach front property in less than 20 years.

3. War. If we move to Canada, my kids will not have any reason to die senselessly far, far away because of some dumb white man’s meglomania.

4. UPDATED FEB. 2: Because, in Canada, they don’t cancel school because it “might” snow.

We had about 1/4 of an inch of snow yesterday, which meant that school was cancelled. My kids wanted to sled, but I said, “There’s not enough snow.” E said, “There’s not enough snow.” But, what do you know, some of the hood kids started sledding, so I guess there was enough snow.

Since I grew up in Georgia, you’d think I’d know that 1/4 inch is plenty, but I’ve been jaded by years living in the Colorado Rockies and Boston.

E grew up in Cleveland, so he finds Southerners’ snow reactions laughable. Rightly so. Our mailman had CHAINS on his tires yesterday. Good god. That’s one way to tear up the asphalt.

And my girl had no school again today because the fricking water pipes froze at her school. Je-zus.

to new Blogger, which is kind of exciting. But difficult too. Original Blogger and I have two years of commitment, joy, fights, frustration, and passion together. Two years counts as a long-term relationship for me. I’ve only lasted that long with one other. I knew the change was coming, but that doesn’t make it less painful.

Wish me luck. Any words of wisdom from those of you who’ve been living with him for a while?

1. Single parenting. A lot. How do you single parents do it ALL the time?

2. Amandaitis, named for my younger sister, who inadvertantly spewed viral particles in our breathing air when we stayed at her house in Hotlanta. Seems to be a low-level G.I. thang that got E-spouse for a couple days and now is making me tired and unable to drink java. Which, in turn, is giving me a headache.

3. My new Nikon. My “hobby” time has been consumed with shooting and uploading photos (I’ll post some later today).

4. “Cloud Atlas,” one of the greatest books ever written!

5. Ptaak’s new hot tub, which captured me in its steamy, bubbly depths for an hour on Friday night, turned my muscles to butter, and convinced my hard-working brain cells that a life of leisure is preferable to slitting my wrists daily over a laptop. Mmmmmmmmm…

Here’s the scare article I wrote recently about radon gas. The story was my first published story on the front-front page of a newspaper since college. Woo-hoo!

Actually, radon IS scary. The story I wrote is three times as long as what was published, with lots more stats. This article was linked, interestingly, by a Yahoo discussion group called Know Nukes.

If you have any questions about radon, ask away. I’m feeling like quite the expert now.

Well, at least if you’re in Asheville and into taking photos, this is a mega cool fun idea.

The amazing Ash threw this out to some of us Flickrites a few days ago:

“There are so many wonderful photogs out and about in Asheville that i thought it might be fun to see if we could get as many flickr maniacs together as possible and do one of those “Day in the Life of” projects.

We pick a day - 24 hours - and shoot it. Maybe we have a theme. ‘Interpret Ashvegas.’ Maybe not. We should try for spring or early summer.

Then we load all the photos to a flickr group. Maybe we print some of the ones we like the most and do a little show at one of the umpteen galleries around town.

What do you think? What are your ideas? Anybody interested?”

Yes, yes, I am! As are 15 other people so far. So if you’re in Ashvegas or even in Buncombe County and want to join the party, here’s the Flickr discussion linkee.

We’ve already gotten a note from a librarian who wants copies of the photos for the library’s North Carolina collection!

We’re having an initial meet and greet and drink and shoot (each other, I guess) on Saturday, February 17, at 4:00 p.m. at Asheville Brewing Company on Coxe Avenue. Spread the word!

Here’s a teaser from my files. This is talented musician Kevin Scanlon performing an original song at last Thursday’s “True Home” Open Mic night at The Courtyard Gallery. Podcast here. Check out more of my shots from this event in tomorrow’s Take5 street edition!

So what’s the deal with MySpace? I thought it was just a bunch of gossipy teenyboppers and singles searching for love without having to pay Match.com. But now it seems that people I know and respect have MySpace pages. Even old people and very married people and businesses have MySpace pages now. My ex-boss and mentor who is like 76 is on MySpace. Joshilyn Jackson is on MS. Eddo is on MS.

I joined some group called MyBlogLog because Jay Allen told me too. But I don’t really understand what it does. Does it drive more traffic to my blog? Perhaps. But I am a bit creeped out now when I go on a blog and my photo and name pop up in the sidebar because the blog I’m reading has some kind of MyBlogLog gizmo. I know I never really had any anonymity, but I don’t ALWAYS want my photo to greet me when I’m lurking.

The truth is that I can barely keep up with one blog (that would be this one–no laughing, please). I hardly ever contribute to BlogAsheville, although I often intend to. Flasheville is a dead turtle whose shell I keep pounding in hopes that will restart its dusty heart. I’ve recently opened a Flickr account, but I’m fearful that that will take over my life and leave my kids and cats neglected. I don’t have time to read all the bloggies that I’d like to read.

So I don’t have time for MySpace. Right?

What about you? Do you MySpace or no space?