We were just sitting there innocently in the Coffee Cottage in Newberg, OR, making use of their WiFi, when out of nowhere the building was infested by the most audacious swarm of high-schoolers you ever saw. Of course we laughed at them as they paraded around awkwardly, bundling in their instruments and microphones. What could we do but smirk at the plaid pants, safety pins and pink hair? Scoff as they warmed up for 12 hours at least? Then they started to play...and they were good. Green as hell, wet behind the ears, clumsy, foolish and passionately earnest as only teenagers can be, but really good. So we listened, smiled, sang along and picked up their CD at the end of the night. I'm not sure why, but I really enjoyed seeing them stumble through their songs and scream about things they knew absolutely nothing about. It made for a great evening. So: here they are in all their glory---

Blonde Murphy

This room is dark and the morning is slow. It is sleeting outside and I would love to write some poetry but I am supposedly at work. Then too, whenever there is time for poetry the Muse leaves me. Like when you are supposed to be doing homework and you have this great idea you want to draw, but you have to focus---and after school you forget all about the picture. Still, it is sleepy today and so am I. Hopefully there is enough to do to keep me here all day, but after two weeks work already fails to hold my interest. I've climbed under enough cars and cleaned out enough barns to tide me over for a few years at least. Yesterday was a long day, but by the end of it I had a working truck again and the Volvo was out of the ditch, so it was a good day. Now if I want a paycheck, I better go find something to do...

Anna and I have a wedding date! We will be getting married on April 21st, 2007 in St. Paul, Oregon (about 25 minutes from Portland), so please everyone send us your addresses so we can invite you!

speeedshift@hotmail.com

I have a headache today. Just though you'd like to know.

But despite this irritating fact, I have been fixing many small (and also irritating, like a headache) problems with my '72 Ford truck, and I am very pleased with the results. There are few things as satifying as taking a deteriorating mechanical object and shoring it up by unconventional and creative means. I can't wait to take this thing off road...

The sun is shining in Oregon for the first time in quite a while. It is pretty cold, but nice. I am working on the farm now---the winery let me go due to the slow winter season---but it's okay, my boss is a very good man. I have a winter and spring of good old-fashioned farm work ahead of me, and then...well who knows. I am searching diligently for a new job and may end up needing to move yet again...I will miss Oregon if that happens, but I have liked other places better, so it won't be too bad. Besides, there is always some spare enthusiasm for the next adventure. It seems I am always on the prowl for new ideas and opportunities, and what I am actually going to do for a real job!

What changes have come and gone in this last stretch of life, and what is yet to come? Are there words that can describe the thoughts that grow from hours of solitude?Around we go, blundering through the fog, striving and hoping and despairing, only to be checked by the tiniest of moments and realize we are back at the same spot, not really any different, just perhaps a bit rueful. The things we cared so much about last week are now but nice ideas, and the things we thought we forgot about that meant everything then, are once again so important. People, circumstances, sin and time drag us along, but when the night is quiet and no one is around, that same child that wondered at every blade of grass smiles at the adult it has tried to become. What a happy, embarrassing thing, this pause from the world; as we loosen our grasp, drop our load of duties for a time and admit we cannot do everything, we aren't always that strong, that life is just as beautiful whether you feel bad about yourself or not. Hope for the joy that is promised, both in the good things of this earth and those of the next, and the ability to laugh at oneself, to trust in God--- The faces you love the most become infinitely more lovely, the dreams that seem burdensome have lost their heaviness. And as spring approaches, all the world is free and there for the having, enjoying, and loving.