Encore Piano Performance

One last performance, Eddie plays Morning Snowfall and The Spider and the Fly for his Virginia Federation of Music Clubs recital in Winchester today.

Over The Rainbow

This has been a busy week for Eddie and his music. First, he finished composing his first piece of piano music, the Waltz of Roses. Then, last night, he performed Over the Rainbow at his school talent show, and later today, he'll be performing his two recital piano pieces for the Virginia Piano Festival. All that, and he's still practicing for the All County Chorus and performing at church in the choristers. My boy has a busier tour schedule than Britney Spears!


Last night's talent show was amazing. The format was really good. Each act, and there were 50 of them!, was introduced by the comedy of Mr. Rahn, Mr. Chandler, and Ms. Delashmutt. They were pretty hilarious through the night.

The kids were great. There were lots of kids playing the piano, a few singers, lots and lots of girls dancing, and one very cute girl singing America the Beautiful with her guitar. Very patriotic.

But the star of the show for us was Eddie. Oh, Eddie. Words fail me. He literally brought the house down. They put him on as the last act, and the crowd was starting to get restless during the three hours we'd all been sitting there, but when he started, everybody hushed.

As he sang, the ladies who sat behind me, who were chatting annoyingly during several of the previous performances, sat silent until one of them whispered, "This kid can sing."

And as Eddie reached the end of his song, there's a point in the song after the last chorus, where he comes in softly with a chorus repeat where he hits his "big money" note, well, let's just say that he didn't get to finish that. Thinking the song was ending, the crowd went so wild with applause so that he couldn't continue. See for yourself in the video here.

Eddie, your Mom and I are so proud of you! Now, you out there watching this video, go grab a box of Kleenex first.

After the show, we were swamped in the hallways with people telling us "Good job, Eddie!" And Eddie himself even noted with some surprise, "Even my enemies told me 'Good job!'"

It was a very special night.

Happy Birthday, Miguel!

Today is my brother's birthday. The Reverend Michael Harris is now thirty six years old! (Jeez, that's old!)

Happy Birthday, Mike. Hope it's a good one.

Eddie's First Musical Composition

© Copyright 2009, Edward M. Harris. All Rights Reserved.

Last Christmas, Becky and I gave Eddie a music notebook full of blank musical scores, hoping to encourage him in his musical talents. Over the past few weeks, he's been toiling away at the piano, quite literally, hammering out different chords and phrasing, over and over again. I finally cottoned on to what he was doing. He was composing!

I am so proud now to be able to show you Eddie's very first original composition. This piece is called "Waltz of Roses" and was written completely by Edward Harris, aged eleven.

Luke and Grandpa Warren

I have often remarked how much Luke is like his Grandpa Warren. I mean, physically, the two of them are very similar with similar facial shapes and small mouths. But Luke also does very well in school and excels in athletics. Both come to him without even trying. (Very Warren-like.)

Well, let the trend continue: I've noticed that when Luke sings a song he likes, he doesn't let not knowing the words deter him. Take for instance, Luke's rendition of La Bamba. Here are the proper words to that little song:

Para bailar La Bamba
Se necessita una poca de gracia
Una poca de gracia
Para mi, para ti, ay arriba, ay arriba
Ay, arriba arriba
Por ti sere

Now, it doesn't matter what those words mean, because here are Luke's words:

La La La La La Bamba
Magnifico-oh
Oh Oh Oh La Bamba...

He's perfectly in tune, but hopelessly lost on the lyrics! Just like his Grandpa!

Go See Comet Lulin Tonight!

Photo credit & Copyright: Richard Richins (NMSU)

The Astronomy Picture of the Day features Comet Lulin today. Comet Lulin is in the sky right now. If you have a clear night, you should be able to see it tonight. Here's a nice tutorial on how to find it.

The Old Testament

A little more than a year ago, I set out to read the Bible from cover to cover--front to back--all the way through. I had read various pieces and parts of the Bible in the past, especially where the readings were included in our liturgy at church, but I'd never been able to say I'd read it all.

My method for reading the Bible, from cover to cover, was somewhat an unorthodox one. Most clergy and scholars recommend reading it as a reference, skipping around to get the interconnected meaning and greater revelation. However, my goal was, again, to be able to say that I'd seen all of it, and nothing would hide from my view. I also sought justification for my own personal beliefs, and found new meaning from which to draw some new beliefs.

Today, then, is a milestone for me. I have completed the Old Testament. Whoa. What a weighty accomplishment that is! In my Oxford Bible, it represents 1375 pages of text. This is a huge volume of literature by any measure, and with my snail's pace reading skills, it took me quite some time.

The first five books, the Pentateuch, are familiar to almost all of us Jews and Christians as the creation story of Genesis through Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and the rules for living in Deuteronomy. Then, we move into the Historical books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. After these, the Poetical books form some of the prettiest writing in the Bible, as much of it served as the ancient hymnal for the Jews: Job, Psalms Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon.

The final books are the major and minor prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations (of Jeremiah), Ezekiel, and Daniel being the major ones, and Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi being the minor ones.

If I could summarize my reading of this massive and sacred tome, I would say it follows like this:

The Jews are given the kingdom of God. Then, they lose their way, and the prophets scold them to "make right your ways." Time and time and time again, from Genesis to Moses to the descendants of David, the people endure this cycle of being "right" with God, and then falling out of favor through their own sinfulness. There is a LOT of repetition here, and we see the Jews inherit the land of Judah, then that land split into the two kingdoms (Judah and Israel), then that land invaded by Assyria, and then invaded again by Babylonia, and then once more by Persia. All of these invasions are interpreted by the prophets as the hand of God on his sinful people. Finally, under Persian authority, we see the triumphant return of the Jews to Jerusalem and the new temple rebuilt. In the Christian doctrine, all of this is with an eye to the coming Messiah, who will permanently "put things right" with God's peoples.

Of course, it is hugely inadequate to try to summarize almost 1400 pages of sacred text into a single paragraph, but there you go. If you want more, you'll have to read it for yourself!

As for me, I've been steeping in the "BC" aspect of my religion so long now, I'm actually quite anxious to get into a little "AD"! Onward!

Scouting Banquet

Thanks again to everybody who made tonight's Blue and Gold such a fun and friendly banquet. We really had a great time, and all the boys advanced their rank for the year. I'm quite sure the kids enjoyed the Magic of George Bradley too. It was another great year of Cub Scouting!

LTC North getting some chow, just like back in the ol' USMC.


The Magic of George Bradley!


Tom and Tait, enjoying the show.



Den 2 -- Shark Patrol

Den 6 -- My bears!



Kyle rocks the Cub Scout Promise

Surprise Photos in the Mail

Uncle Bobby must be cleaning out his old photo albums, because he sent us a couple old photos in the mail. As best as we can figure, these photos must have been taken in the airport somewhere near Tulsa. I believe we were on our way either to or from visiting with Grandpa G. for his eightieth birthday party. Eddie would have been about one year old, and Becky was pre-Lasik. Only Mike looks the same.

My fondest memory from this trip was when we took Grandma Harris out to dinner to the restaurant that used to be Furr's out on 14th Street (it was a different "southwestern" restaurant by this time). Grandma was pretty sick and depressed by then. If I remember right, I think she was already diagnosed with lung cancer, and she had been living without Grandpa Harris for over a year.

Almost the whole Harris family was at dinner: Aunt Nena, Aunt Pam, Mom, Dad, the whole bunch of us. This dinner would be the last time we saw Grandma Harris, and we kind of knew it at the time. So when it was time for us to leave, I asked Eddie if he'd give Grandma a kiss. I was really worried he wouldn't kiss her, because he was really shy, and he really didn't know her very well. But Eddie did kiss her; he puckered up his sweet little one-year-old pucker, and kissed her right on the lips. It was very nice, and I think Grandma really enjoyed that smooch.

Lemons and Rats

Luke and his rat were bonding today. Fred very much likes it when Luke wears his hoodie. She gets in behind his neck and nuzzles in where it's tight, and Luke likes it too because she's so toasty! Fred crawls all over him during these cuddling times.







I still have about a half dozen lemons on my Meyer lemon tree. The whole tree is covered in spider mites right now. This is not unusual; we almost always pick up some kind of pest during the winter months. I'm just glad it's spider mites and not whiteflies or scale. The latter two are really difficult to get rid of. Spider mites are easy; we just spray it down with isopropyl alcohol, which is relatively benign (i.e. organic) stuff. No poison necessary.

Eddie's Piano Recital

You guys have heard these before, but Eddie performed his two pieces, Morning Snowfall and The Dance of the Spider and the Fly, at our church yesterday evening. Becky was the videographer here, so please pardon the clipping at the start and end of each video.

Riding the Chair Lift at Ski Liberty

This video is further evidence that Jim did not push me off the chair lift on Valentine's day.

Fun St. Valentine's Day at Ski Liberty

Nothing says "I Love You Sweetheart" like taking your beloveds to Ski Liberty! (Jim included.)

Steady Groove

I've done so much highlighting of Eddie's music, it's only fair that I show you some of Luke's too. Luke has been practicing for about a year now, and he's just learning some of the "power chords" that make up some awesome rock.

The Spider and the Fly

Here's another performance piece for Eddie, The Spider and the Fly, or The Cat and the Mouse, as he prefers to call it.

Morning Snowfall

Eddie has been practicing one of his performance pieces for the upcoming Piano Festival at the end of this month. He's learned the music now by heart, and can play it even when distracted by the goings on at church (as you can see in the following video).

Notice that YouTube now has an option to view these videos in "High Quality", which I highly recommend. The videos are all in low quality by default, so AFTER you hit start on the video, be sure to hit the "HQ" button in the lower right hand corner of the video box below. (Why can't YouTube just make it high quality by default?)

He Came Singing Love at Good Shepherd

This Sunday, the Choristers of St. Peter's were invited to sing at Good Shepherd Church up the mountain in Pine Grove. The last time they sang this, the kids were not firing on all their cylinders, and the performance sounded really thin.

This week, they did such a good job. This was so much better! Again, Eddie is on the descant, and Luke is hiding behind Eddie's folder.

The Great Gray Monster

The great gray monster lies like a heavy ooze.
Its vastness stretches from horizon to horizon, homogeneous and massive and infinite.
Beneath its depths, millions upon millions of fishes swim.
They toil below the viscous leaden weight.
Their radiant scales are dulled by the ooze.
Silvery, crimson, azure, and golden, they all dull to gray.

Invariably, a single fish, alone among the multitude, will break the surface of this monster,
Jumping clear of the glutinous slime.
But Gravity asserts her selfish desires,
Or a strange wind blows its surprising gusts,
And the fish loses itself and falls back into the sea,
Flopping awkwardly onto its side,
Dulled and defeated once more.

Another may increase its speed,
Tip its head toward the sun,
Its fins thrashing, its powerful white flesh pushing against the colloidal ooze.
It jumps and breaks the surface and soars, soars!
The sun catches its eye, and its scales glisten like diamonds and emeralds.
But from the ooze, an appendage forms,
A long and thin gray arm reaches up,
And knocks the fish back into the depths.
The fish sinks down, down, down,
Exhausted for its efforts, to lie deep
Alongside the eternal City in the Sea.

One day, one singular fish inhales deeply the salty brine into his gills.
He sinks deep down below the depths.
He girds himself and screws up his courage,
And begins to thrust.
Mechanically, from side to side, pushing stronger against this Newtonian force,
He pushes and pushes, rising, rising, rising,
Until he breaks!
And throwing his fins wide,
Stretching them tight,
He soars and rises and lifts,
Out of reach of the great gray monster,
And he is free.

Line Art of Bushmills

Playing around a little with Gimp, I created the above line-art from a photo of our trip to Bushmills. I used this excellent Photoshop tutorial and adapted it for Gimp. I rather like the technique.

Hooray for Luke!

Congratulations to Luke for coming in Third Place in his school Spelling Bee!! And, how about a shout out to Andrew W. for his winning the entire competition!! Good ol' Andrew! Nice job!!

He Came Singing Love

That's Eddie on the right, and Luke is second from the left. Eddie sings the descant part.

Frank's Doggy Fashion Show

Eddie and I took Frank over to Heritage Hall Nursing Home in Leesburg. Frank pranced down the "dogwalk" for the residents of the home. This was all part of our outreach service in St. Pete's Pets.

Frank dressed in his finest Men In Black suit, and the residents just loved him. He's quickly becoming famous at the home; people are asking for Frank by name. Because this event was more like a party in the main cafeteria, and not the normal room-to-room visits we usually do, I felt more comfortable taking some photos. You can really see the joy we bring to these residents by visiting them.