Taking a Break

     I'm taking a little time off before I start the next guitar.  Maybe a week or so.  I had Michael's guitar in for a set up Friday.  I adjusted the truss rod, filed a few frets, and made a knob for his volume control.  I had to cut the stem off the volume pot to make a low profile knob.  I think it turned out nicely.
      I've seen two movies worth noting in the last couple weeks.  They are both movies that speak of life as we get older.  The first is out on video.  It is Robot and Frank.  A story set in the near future that deals with what it's like to begin to lose memory.  It asks the question, "What is family and what are real friendships?"  The other movie Donna and I went to see yesterday.  We are celebrating our 30th anniversary this year, so we went to Asheville to eat and see this movie.  It is Amour.   It's a French language film that is up for best picture at the Academy Awards.  It is a devastatingly beautiful picture.  It is one of the most heart wrenching, horrible things I have ever sat through, and will go into my top ten list of best movies.  It is a very slow, quiet film.  You can hear the bombs going off in the theatre next door and the people in the rows in front and back quietly weeping.  It is a story of two retired music teachers and the gradual deterioration of one of them.  There is almost no music in it, except for the occasional, beautiful, solo piano piece, which is always cut short, almost immediately.   I don't recommend the picture for everyone, but for those of us who've been together for decades, I think you should see it.  And for those of you that wonder what love is all about, this is it.  It's as close as I've seen to being a physical demonstration of I Corinthians 13.
       The prayer for the day comes from one of my favorite books.  I read it every year at Christmas time.  Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol."

"I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.  I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future.  The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me.  I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.  Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on the stone!"