herbiehancock

Last night we went to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra in concert at the Palace in Auburn Hills, Michigan.  The tickets for the concert were a Christmas gift from my sons.  I love the music of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and really enjoyed the concert. The Palace is a large venue for a concert in my opinion.  There were so many people there that it was a bit overwhelming for me at first.  It is the same stadium where the Detroit Pistons play basketball, and it was filled to the rafters with people last night.  We really enjoyed the concert.  Traveling there, however, was another matter.  The drive there reminded me of something that I already know.  I am NOT a city girl.  Give me small town life in the midst of farm country any day over life in a big city. There was a lot of traffic.  We got snarled up in it and inched along for quite a while.  We didn't know why the cars were backed up at first, but eventually we came upon the rea...

ANOTHER CHRISTMAS COMES AND GOES After all the hoopla and hurry-scurry, all the planning, all the worry, so much build-up, so much to do, and just so quick, it's done and through. Presents bought and wrapped and given. Visiting family---the miles driven! So much food---what a feast! Much more than we needed,  (to say the least). Fudge was boiled up.  Eggnog was poured. Carols proclaimed the birth of the Lord. There were parties and concerts,  celebrations galore, lights were hung, wreaths were placed on the door, but now the tree is empty of boxes and bows, and outside it gently snows, and another Christmas comes and goes. Another Christmas comes and goes. Will they remember why Christmas came and say a prayer of thanks in His name? We can hope...but only Heaven knows, as another Christmas comes and goes.

For many, this is the season of gifts, both the giving and the receiving.  I was thinking today of the Christmases of my childhood and of the gifts we gave and received back then.  It's interesting to me the things that stayed with me, the things I most remember when I look back at those times. We used to give my Dad the worst gifts--at least, they seemed pretty awful to me, but they were things he wanted and asked for.  One gift he requested every single Christmas was a can of heavy duty mechanic's hand soap.  I thought the name of it was D&L hand cleaner or hand soap, or something of that nature.  I tried to find a picture of it, but was unsuccessful, so maybe I'm remembering it wrong, or maybe they don't make it anymore. It came in a round blue and white can with a plastic lid.  The soap in it looked like lard and seemed to be of that same sort of consistency.  My Dad had two antique cars, a 1927 Chevy and a 1931 Chevy that he bought and worked ...

Some of you may remember that my son's string quintet was scheduled to perform at the Christmas Open House at the library where I work.  Last night was the open house, and it went very well.  In the children's department, there were crafts, and cookies and punch, and visits with Santa, of course.  In the adult department there was Christmas music performed by the quintet.  The kids did a wonderful job and were well received.  My son is the one standing in the back to the left playing the upright bass. I recorded a couple of the songs if you'd like to listen.  They are both fairly short.

It snowed today.  Since the day after Thanksgiving, our local Chamber of Commerce has been piping Christmas music out over our downtown square during daytime shopping hours.  The Christmas decorations are up at the library.  It's cold outside.  Yes, the air definitely has the feel of Christmas to it. I haven't played any music for you for  a while.  This seemed like a good one to play for you today.  There are a few different versions of this going around.  This particular one calls this event a Random Act of Culture.  I like that.  It appeals to me.   I love this song. Two things happen to me when I hear this song.  I get chills, and I well up with tears.  I'm not sure why this song moves me in this way, but it does.  It always has.  I wish I could have been there when this video was made.

On Tuesday this week, I went with four of my co-workers on a three hour drive (No, not a three hour tour .  That's something else entirely.) to Dublin, Ohio.  We went there for a one day conference for work at OCLC, the Online Computer Library Center.   OCLC is  "a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing information costs".  This from Wikipedia, " OCLC provides bibliographic, abstract, and full-text information to anyone.   OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat—the OCLC Online Union Catalog, the largest online public access catalog (OPAC) in the world."  Basically, OCLC provides the cataloging for our books and for just about every  other library book worldwide. I took a picture of their main headquarters building. Our meetings were held in a nearby building in their...

My brother and his family came up to see us yesterday from their home in Dayton, Ohio.  We got together for a belated Christmas celebration.  It was nice to see them all.  Although it was very cold and still is today, the roads were clear and no new snow was coming down, so they had no troubles with the drive here. We picked up my mom from the nursing home and all went out to eat at a local restaurant.  We sat and ate and talked there for quite a while. My brother and my sister-in-law After we left the restaurant, we took my mom back to the care center, and then went back to the house to visit some more.  My older son had been given the movie " Up " on DVD for Christmas, so we thought it seemed like a good time to all watch it together.   If you haven't seen it, I recommend it to you.  It is both moving and amusing.  Parts of it are so touching that tears will spring to your eyes and other parts are laugh out loud funny.  It is also app...

Well, another week has passed with not a creature stirring on the ol' blogaroo here. Real life and some annoying internet issues kept me from watching and reviewing more wrasslin films during the week of Xmas - i'm gonna back date a couple entries though to cheat. Shhhh... it'll be our little secret. Not wanting to miss the holiday, I am veering slightly off the path to review a fantastic little film in the spirit of the holiday... It's not really a wrestling film, but I really could not pass this up: Original Title : Santa with Muscles Year : 1996 Director : John Murlowski Writer : Jonathan Bond , Fred Mata , Dorrie Krum Raymond IMDb : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117550/ Genre : Comedy synopsis: An evil millionaire (Hulk Hogan) gets amnesia and then belives that he is Santa Claus. How can you not automatically be into a movie after reading that synopsis? After losing valuable minutes of life thanks to one single Romantic Comedy shitburger, it's so good to know tha...