01 May 2016
Mountain Tops
06/05/16 14:51
Recently went off-roading with my brother Larry, his wife Jenny, and a few of their friends. The picture above is one of the many beautiful vistas in Wind Rock Park - Oliver Tennessee. We have been there once before and will hopefully visit again. The week was filled with great trekking, great food, great friends, and (at the end of the day AFTER the ride) great booze. Perhaps most importantly - there was an abundance of good hearty belly laughs. Exactly what the doctor ordered. If you ever get a chance I highly recommend this park They have a great campground and everything you need is either on site or a short ride away.
Comments
Loss
06/05/16 14:10
Been working on updating the site, and filling in some of the gaps since I was more active here. Not that long ago I lost a good friend. Its been just about a year since the memorial service of Stratton lake in Wisconsin. This is what I wrote on my Facebook page at that time:
" I received a call today letting me know that a good friend, Steve Stratton, had died yesterday. Steve and I had been friends since the 70’s. While in recent years we didn’t see each other frequently, we usually got together once every year or so to catch each other up, and swap music adventures. This last year we got together in April, and Steve was very pleased that he had finally gotten around to releasing a cd, titled “Endlessly”. What I didn’t know at the time was that same week he had been diagnosed with cancer.
Steve was a gentle soul, with a big heart full of love for those that were a part of his life. My heart is sad - He will be greatly missed."
I wanted to share one of his songs – the link to “Wake me” is here: https://soundcloud.com/dennis-graf-7/wake-me
While you are at soundcloud here is the link to a song Steve started but never finished. His sister sherri asked me to finish it. I got together with my writing partner David VanDelinder and together we finished "This song's for Dancing'". Just click on the song title to give it a listen.
Both songs Copyright Steve Stratton 2014 – used with permission of the Stratton Family
Overdue
06/05/16 13:33
Just realized how long it has been since I had a blog entry - over two years! Well, better late than never. A lot has happened in those two years. Lost Job, wife lost job (long story), opened new business - you get the picture. The stress level at the old job had been unbelievable for several years, and definitely detrimental to both my health and my spirit. So I decided to take a break for a while to try and get things back on track. Easier said than done. The source of the old stress is gone,but there are, of course, new stressors. Like worrying about money. Or trying to figure out just what it was that I wanted to do. Fortunately, one of my co-workers and I had long been talking about opening up our own business. So we sat down with a handy dandy spreadsheet, put together a business model, and then tried to figure out if we could really pull it off. Turns out that at least on paper it looked feasible. So, with the help of a few good friend and relatives we did just that.
The new business is "Phoenix Family Center, LLC". We are a community counseling center providing services to families and individuals in the Fox River valley area of Illinois. You can check us out at: www.phoenixfamilycenter.com.