Sitting at home tonight on Christmas Eve listening to the broadcast of King’s College Choir Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols and thinking back to doing this same service nearly 10 years in a row with the Grand Rapids Choir of Men and Boys.  That service is so burned into my head, I can even recite each of the lessons nearly word for word.  Honestly I think it’s the only religious service that ever had any impact on me in-so-far as spirituality is concerned.  This is a hard time of the year for me, not really because of any mental stress but because I don’t really have much of an opportunity for singing this time of year, in particular singing the music I love and in the style that I love.  There are a few choral ensembles up here in the northwoods but with a retail schedule, I simply don’t have time outside of work to make commitments.  That’s the one thing I hate about my job.  I’m so tied to it that I have no time for anything outside of work.  I suppose that’s just like any number of other people on the planet but it just bugs me.  I always made room in my life for music in the past, sometimes to the exclusion of just about everything else.  That was back though when having a job and a career wasn’t necessarily a huge priority, nor was it an expectation.  I have no doubts that in my retirement, if that ever happens, I’ll be involved once again doing this sort of thing.  My worry is though that even now, my voice is so out of shape that it can be exhausting.  I should find a vocal coach up here to keep me in shape should I ever have another opportunity.

I managed to finish wrapping all the Christmas gifts tonight.  I hate wrapping gifts.  I did take my time at it this year though so they look a lot better than in years past.  Tomorrow I head out to the parents house for a nice Christmas dinner and some time out at the lake.  We are getting freezing rain tonight, hopefully that will not cause too many problems on the roads tomorrow.  I know the plows won’t be out at any point tomorrow.  They don’t work unless they absolutely have to up here.  That can be a disadvantage of living up here, you pay all kinds of money for services that are lackluster at best.

I hope everyone has had a good holiday season, the decade is nearly over and it has flown by.  There have been lots of changes in my life over the past decade, in particular the last half of the decade.  It’s hard to believe sometimes where I’ve ended up.  I’ve learned though in life not to have have any regrets.  We all have to make choices about the path we want to follow in life.  If we fail to take risks and make changes every now and then, life can become pretty boring.  Who knows where I’ll be in another 1o years, or 20 years.  Planning that far ahead simply doesn’t allow for opportunities.

As we prepare to close out the year, thanks to all of you who continue to read my blog.  This past year this blog has had about 1500 unique visitors.  Of those, 300 of you have been back here more than 5 times  and 30 of you have been here 20 or more times (amazing what analytical software will tell you).  I don’t know who you all are but the things I write about must be interesting enough to keep you coming back.  I appreciate the fact that you are interested.  I hope everyone has a great “Festivus” and I look forward to continuing this blog and writing about lots of random things for years to come.