As you have no doubt figured out, I’m not the most prolific contributor to the blogosphere. Seeing as how it’s been months since my last post, I think this fact should be fairly obvious. The guitar modifications I talked about last time have long since been completed (with great results, by the way), but so what. That’s just “stuff”. Who really cares?

No, this time I want to share with you this wonderful picture drawn by a young artist named Cora. She and her sister Hattie happened to be on one of the many (unintentional) air flights we took while trying to get back home from Cleveland after Christmas. In the midst of what became a long, drawn-out, holiday travel debacle, we found ourselves on the tarmac for an extended period of time, waiting to take off. So, what else could I do but pull out my guitar to help pass the time? I tried to be as unobtrusive as possible so as not to be a nuisance, but at times the volume would increase and occasionally Carol and Brant would join in for some soul-satisfying three-part harmony.

Along the way we met Cora, Hattie, and her parents. All of us stuck in the same boat, trying to get out of Cleveland and back to the “real” world – in this case via Jackson (Mississippi) and Houston. They, on their way to Phoenix; and us, on our way back to Dallas. It was only later, after I played a few rounds of peek-a-boo with Hattie (the younger), that Cora slipped Brant this picture.

As I looked at the drawing, I was so touched I could hardly speak. It was as if God himself thumped me on the head and said, “Hey stupid! Don’t you see? THIS is what it’s all about!” I was reminded that every moment, whether we are in the comfortable surroundings of home or whether we are feeling the frustration of trying to “get” from one place to another, is a chance to touch and be touched by real people who aren’t simply part of the scenery, but whose lives MATTER. People who are precious in God’s sight and whose dreams are every bit as important (if not MORE so) than our own.

As I write this, I am reminded of Philippians 2:3, which says, “do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves”.

Perhaps, to Cora, this is just one of many such creations she has produced out of the simple joy she gets from the act of drawing. But, to me, this was one of those defining moments where I was jolted out of my cynical, self-absorbed world and, like a computer, rebooted. Maybe we will never cross paths again (or perhaps we may), but either way I will never forget Cora and her family.

Well, here she is. My trusty Mexican Strat that is about to become my “project guitar”. After thinking about this for quite some time, I’ve decided to try my hand at some much-needed modifications.

The first changes will deal with what I hope will be some solid tuning improvements. This includes a set of locking tuners, a graphite nut, and removal of the string tree. At the same time, I will be departing from the stock fender bridge by installing an L. R. Baggs X-Bridge, to add some variation to the tonal palette.

Phase II, Lord willing, will involve replacing the bridge pickup with a dual humbucker. I haven’t decided for sure what it’s going to be, so at this point I’m open to suggestions!

Returning visitors have undoubtedly noticed a major overhaul to the site. I think the old one was just a bit too cluttered, so I’ve tried to remove the fluff and go for a more minimalist approach. Take a look around and let me know what you think…

I’ve finally been able to rid my site of all traces of FrontPage! Whoo Hoo! What’s the big deal, you may ask? Well, here’s the thing. WordPress has proven to be a powerful - and flexible platform for my websites in a way that simply blows FP out of the water. And it’s so much easier to manage as well. No more extra directories being put all over the place to keep things in sync and clutter up my domain. No more worrying about hosing up the FP web if I FTP something that it doesn’t like. And with it’s use of Cascading Style Sheets and PHP scripting, I can customize to my heart’s content.

Okay, that’s all I’m going to say about that. I’m trying to keep nerdy topics to a minimum!

Yes, I’ve joined the ranks of those who have left Blogger (a.k.a. blogspot.com) behind in favor of WordPress. Why? Perhaps I’m a bit of a control freak, or maybe I just can’t be hemmed in by someone else’s idea of what my blog should look like. Suffice it to say that I’m pretty impressed by this free blog tool and weblog platform and was pleasantly surprised to find that my web host supports the application.

So, don’t be surprised if the look and feel goes through a whole slew of changes as I try to settle in on a style and theme that I like.