A few random thoughts that are on my mind:

1. Every February for Aria’s birthday, I make a two-minute video slide show using the pictures we’ve taken over the last year. Two things stood out to me about the latest edition. First, most of the photos were shot around the house. We didn’t journey far during COVID-19. Second, a lot of the pictures were taken in my studio-office where she hung out quite a bit. She still visits frequently, and I love it.

2. There haven’t been any new ukulele videos since Christmas, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been practicing. Videos will appear soon of new but difficult material. I’m working on a well-known classical piece, which has a complicated arrangement with a lot of movement. I’m also working up a major hit from a popular duo in 1970. The song itself is simple, but I added an intro, outro, and solo that aren’t in the sheet music, so it’s taking me time to nail it all down.

3. Lately, I’ve revisited the music of Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship. From psychedelic rock to slick pop, they covered the gamut of popular music through the decades. Throw in a heap of drama and egos and there are crazy stories to consume about life in those bands. I recently added former lead vocalist Grace Slick’s memoir, Somebody to Love?, to my reading list. I actually found a used copy online that shipped from San Francisco, which seems appropriate. Slick was, and still is at 81, a fascinating person, measuring up to the idiom, “crazy like a fox.” It’s remarkable she lived to tell about her life, but Slick is whip-smart even after all those years of chasing white rabbits…

4. I realized that today is the one-year anniversary of my cat Stormy’s passing. Her kidneys were failing badly, and it was an awful day of awful decisions. She was a beautiful Himalayan seal point mix, born in a barn (yes, really!) on September 8, 2001. Tom Brady was still the backup quarterback in New England, LeBron James was in high school, the Twin Towers in New York still existed, and Windows XP was a few weeks away from being released. She had a difficult personality with feral tendencies, but we made it through multiple moves, jobs, and vomit mishaps. She is missed.